The Real Problem With Eating Junk Food

The Overlooked Cost of Making Poor Food Choices

The real problem with junk food isn't the junk.

Sure...additives, preservatives, and a lack of real live nutrients are problematic. In fact, that's what most people point to when they recommend you eat natural whole foods as a way to be healthier and avoid common health issues.

But there's something more fundamental that we should remember.

It isn't just the food that we're eating that we need to look at. What's more important is what we aren't eating when we load up on nutritionally deficient foods.

Nutrient Displacing Foods

Nutrients are "displaced" when we eat unhealthy foods. In other words, when we eat something to satisfy a craving or hunger...it's always at the expense of something else.

So when we choose something that's good for us—say, fruit instead of a candy bar—we get the nutrients our bodies and brains need to thrive.

When the reverse happens—we choose the candy bar over the fruit—then we don't get those nutrients. They're displaced to make room for the stuff in the candy bar (corn syrup, flavorings, colorings, etc.).

With the growth of food manufacturing came the introduction of processed and nutrient-deficient foods. When these foods are consumed on a regular basis, other nutrient-rich foods are kicked to the curb.

I Can't Believe It's Not Food

Case in point: Low-cost alternatives to butter were introduced to the marketplace in an effort to take advantage of growing fears around cholesterol and saturated fats.

Butter and it's health-promoting nutrients (you read that right) were displaced by margarine-based products that introduced a new threat to public health: Trans-fatty acids.

"Trans fats became part of the American food system due to a complex interplay among activism, industrial technology, and nutritional science. Some manufacturers began using partially hydrogenated oils, which contain trans fats, in the early twentieth century. Medical authorities began framing saturated fats as unhealthy in the 1950s. In the 1980s, activist organizations, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, condemned food corporations’ use of saturated fats and endorsed trans fats as an acceptable alternative. Nearly all targeted corporations responded by replacing saturated fats with trans fats, which fit easily into their existing products. Trans fats thus became the perfect solution to the political problem of saturated fats and to the technical problem of what to use in their place. Activists helped precipitate technological change, but by 1994, trans fats were no longer regarded as a solution. Instead, they became regarded as a new nutritional problem."
—David Schleifer, The Perfect Solution: How Trans Fats Became the Healthy Replacement for Saturated Fats [Abstract]

This is a large-scale example of how nutrient displacement plays a major role in the health of our diet.

On a smaller scale, the choices we make each and every day must consider those foods that we ultimately don't eat when we choose one thing over another.

The concept of nutrient displacement might help us better make the shift from unhealthy food choices to eating a diet that's rich in the nutrients we need to fuel our daily activities and prevent long-term health problems.

Don't' just focus on what you're eating...think about what you could be eating instead.

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References:

• "Nutrient Displacement & Processed Foods." Oxford Vitality. Accessed June 03, 2018. https://www.oxfordvitality.co.uk/nutrient-displacement
• Schleifer, David. "The Perfect Solution: How Trans Fats Became the Healthy Replacement for Saturated Fats." African Studies Review. February 18, 2012. Accessed June 03, 2018. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/466777