In the beginning of the previous century with the Industrial Revolution well underway, we Americans were becoming complacent and needed some way to relax from our daily workload. The industry was ripe to make changes to our need and demands to be pampered with convenience foods. Industry obliged. Convenience, or prepared foods emerged. It was quickly made aware to the various manufacturers that the more they could lower their cost producing each of these "TV dinners", not necessarily passing on this savings to the consumer, the more bottom line profit they could make. Through their ongoing research it was found that additives could be combined with many preparations to increase their shelflife. This meant less waste on any givin food package. Less loss meant more profit. The consumer was happy and the manufacturers were even happier.

Today, virtually all of the freezer section of our food markets are filled with various manufacturers of convenience food preperations from A to Z. Fewer and fewer of these consumer meals contain original products. Many that are labeled as "Blueberry xxx" do not contain "real" blueberries, but instead have been replaced with artificial equivalents which have a semblance and taste of the real fruit. Along with imitation content there's usually an excess addition of refined sugar concentrate, a no-no for proper nutrition, especially in the growing years. What is so outrageous is that the consumer pays good money for food that has very poor "nutritional" value. Are we getting our money's worth? In some cases the prepaired food is found to contain ingredients that have been found to pose actual toxicity levels that could pose a possible danger to those who have a weak immune system or weak liver. These foods are the one's loosely labeled "lower sugar content" or "sugar-free", which have replace some of the sugar ingredients with aspartame, or other sugar substitutes, which have also been found to have very high toxicity in the human body.

A guide for every consumer at this point would probably be...read the ingredients of any food package you buy. The question to ask...Is this possible or even practicle ? It would take up most of our day just to go through a small shopping list. With this noted, this says to us that the manufacturors of the food products in our supermarkets make it too complex for the consumer, but more profit oriented for the originator of the product. Since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is supposed to regulate and set guidelines as to how our foods are produced for us consumers, there seems to be a missing link of involvement, at least as far as what can be seen.

Maybe it's time to recall a one-time recuring quote that was aired a few years ago by one fast-food chain for its commercial importance and the quote had the finale, "where's the beef" ?

Author: Lucien Beauley

Writes articles of general human interest, science articles and Renewable Energy content.

Please visit www.ledlightingdesigns.com

Keywords:

prepared foods, frozen foods, TV dinners, artificial ingredients