20 food facts that will change how you eat

By now you’re probably familiar with antibiotics in your meat, pesticides on your produce, and the E. coli contaminating your lettuce. But even supposedly healthy foods can pack some surprises. We rounded up some food facts you won’t find on any nutrition label, and the results may forever change what, how, and where you eat.

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Fresh is best – most of the time. Research shows that frozen fruits are generally equal in nutrition to – and can even offer more benefits than – their fresh counterparts, says Amy Gorin, MS, RDN. One study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that freezing fruit helped retain nutrients such as vitamin E and minerals such as calcium and iron. Frozen fruit makes nutritious food available to us all year long.

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Titanium dioxide is a key ingredient in sunscreen and paint, and the one responsible for their white colour. But it’s also found in many brands of store-bought salad dressings, as well as coffee creamers and icing, says Brigitte Zeitlin, RD. Fortunately, if you want to avoid it, cutting your consumption isn’t difficult. If you’re not up for reading labels on the bottled stuff, DIY salad dressing can be as simple as splashing a little olive oil and lemon juice on your greens, and you can use regular milk or cream in your coffee.

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File this under the category of inconvenient food facts: Who would ever guess that your vino might not be vegan-friendly? It’s true, says Ginger Hultin, RD, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “In order to make wine clear, fining agents are used – commonly casein (a milk protein), albumin (egg white), gelatin (animal protein) and isinglass (fish bladder protein).” Although there is generally no residue from these products left in wine after processing, anyone who opposes using animal proteins in their food should seek out wine specifically labelled “vegan.”

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Anyone who’s ever had a California roll is familiar with that little green ball of sinus-clearing spiciness. But it’s probably not authentic wasabi, which comes from the roots of the wasabi plant and is naturally green in colour, says Gorin. Most of what we eat is actually horseradish mixed with a few other ingredients, such as oil, water, and either natural or artificial colouring. Both horseradish and true wasabi come from the same Brassica family of plants that also includes broccoli and cabbage, but wasabi is difficult to grow outside of Japan, which is why you’ll only find it in a few rare places such as high-end restaurants – a considerable cost. Wasabi has a more complex flavour than horseradish, with some floral notes and some sweetness.

Need another reason to put down the soft drink and pick up the H20? One of the more unpleasant food facts ought to motivate you: A common ingredient in fizzy drinks is brominated vegetable oil (BVO), which has been banned as a food additive in Europe. The reason? Excessive intake of bromine, one of the main chemicals in BVO, is thought to lead to memory loss and nerve damage, says Zeitlin. It’s also commonly used in flame-retardant materials.

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The majority of salt in the Western diet doesn’t come from a shaker. It comes from processed foods like soups and sauces and one other culprit that tends to fly under the radar: pizza. One slice can have upwards of 600 milligrams, says Hultin – that’s nearly half the sodium you need in a day.

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An Australian study published in 2015 in BMC Medicine found that people in their 60s who ate a lot of processed junk food had a smaller hippocampus – part of the brain crucial to learning and memory – than those who ate mostly fresh, whole foods. And in 2019, research published in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke revealed a link between diet drinks and heart disease, stroke and death from all causes. Specifically, women who drank two or more diet drinks a day had a 29 percent higher chance of heart disease, a 31 percent higher chance of stroke, and 16 percent increased risk of dying earlier than women who drank the stuff less than once a week. This builds on earlier research tying diet soft drinks to Alzheimer’s disease: People who drank one or more artificially sweetened drinks per day were nearly three times more likely to develop dementia than those who drank less than one a week. Keep in mind that these types of studies can show an association between two factors but don’t prove that one caused the other.

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“I’m always baffled by people who want to avoid processed food yet drink almond milk,” says Angela Lemond, RDN and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “Commercial almond milk is four to five almonds, water, added vitamins, and additives to make it look like milk. It’s very man-made.” She recommends that people snack on whole almonds and drink regular cow’s milk to maximise their nutrients in the most natural way possible.

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You know that shiny, long-lasting shellac manicure you’re obsessed with? That same substance is used to give jelly beans, candy corn and other glazed lollies their shine, says Zeitlin. And that’s not even all. Shellac is actually a secretion from an insect. For a better way to satisfy your sweet tooth, join team dark chocolate – it has antioxidants and comes from the cacao plant, not a bug.

People have a knee-jerk reaction to the term “processed foods,” but they’re not all bad. It just depends on the level and kind of processing, says Gorin. Take 100 percent grape juice, for example. Because it is made by pressing whole Concord grapes (including the skin, seeds, and pulp), it makes the heart-healthy and immune-boosting nutrients in those fruits – which are fairly short-lived in terms of their growing season – much more accessible, she explains. Similarly, cooking tomatoes actually increases the bioavailability of lycopene, the cancer-fighting compound in them, making some packaged products a great option. There’s even research suggesting that steaming broccoli can lift levels of health-promoting antioxidant compounds.

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Manufacturers can use the blanket term “natural flavourings” on food labels. This could include castoreum, aka secretions from the anal gland of beavers, says Zeitlin. Yup, that’s natural. Castoreum, which is still sometimes found in small amounts in some products containing alcohol, has been used in chewing gum, ice cream (usually vanilla and strawberry), puddings, brownie mixes and some hard sweets. It’s earned the FDA’s “generally recognised as safe” (or GRAS) status, but vegans and people with a high ick factor may want to beware or stick to sweets with other ingredients.

Coffee may be the number one source of antioxidants in the American diet, according to a study on coffee published in the journal Molecules. Antioxidants, as you may have heard while learning about other food facts, help fight off ageing, heart disease and cancer. But before you go for that second cup, remember this: Coffee isn’t a super-rich source of the free-radical-slaying substance; it just comes out on top because so many people drink so much of it. Load up on leafy greens, berries and nuts to get your fill.

Some food facts just make you smile: Yes, tossing back a brew or two – specifically Guinness – may help keep your teeth sparkling, according to a study published in the Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology. Researchers discovered that beer helped prevent the growth of bacteria that leads to tooth decay and gum disease. Previous research found that the silicon in beer may promote strong bones, so it looks like milk’s got some competition – no, not really. And you still need to brush your teeth, by the way.

And you thought cricket protein bars were bad. In 2017, researchers at the University of Southern Denmark developed a method for drying the tentacled sea creatures out to a crispy, paper-thin consistency, not unlike a chip. No word on how soon they’ll show up in your local convenience store or in what flavours, but you can always hope.

This may be one of the grossest food facts that is sadly true. The slimy little creatures are totally alive as they slide down your throat because dead oysters are not safe to eat. Once an oyster is plucked from the deep blue sea, their life span is extremely short, which means that restaurants need to get them on your plate ASAP. Live oysters are the only safe ones to eat because dead oysters harbour large amounts of bacteria that will make you sick, according to Safe Oysters.

As if you needed another reason to save leftovers, the Institute of Food Technologists found that chemical reactions within food may continue to take place well after you cook and store it away. This means that your food may taste even better the second time around. Food proteins may continue to break down and release amino acids like glutamate, which gives food its savoury taste. You may also notice that your leftovers start to brown in the microwave. The browning effect happens when the amino acids react with sugar to produce new flavour molecules.

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Sea salt is often hailed as the healthier, low-sodium alternative to table salt. You may think you’re eating smarter by sprinkling sea salt on your roasted vegetables instead of table salt. But the truth is that table salt and most sea salts contain about 40 percent sodium by weight. In other words, no real health difference – sorry, sea salt advocates.

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People who eat spicy food almost every day tend to live longer than people who only eat spicy foods once a week, according to a study published in the British journal TheBMJ. The researchers looked at the health and diets of nearly 500,000 people in China for four years and followed up a few years later. But keep in mind that the study doesn’t say that eating spicy foods gives you a few extra years of life; it just shows that people who ate spicy foods during the study period were less likely to die than those who ate spicy foods less frequently. The study was conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Harvard Health Letter points out that other investigators have found that ingredients in spicy foods such as capsaicin may help lower unhealthy fats in the blood (LDL cholesterol and triglycerides) and ease inflammation.

Before you start to freak out, the effect usually lasts only for a few hours or the remainder of the day. Plus, some people experience a burning, prickly sensation eating a pineapple, while others do not. The culprit behind that prickly feeling on your tongue is bromelain, an enzyme that breaks down proteins. Cooking pineapple or cutting it up and letting it sit overnight will lessen the attack of bromelain because the enzyme does break down with time or heat. Make sure you also avoid eating the core – that’s where most of the bromelain hides.

It takes 6,965 litres of water to produce under half a kilogram of beef, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That number includes irrigation for the grains and grasses that the cattle feed on, plus water for drinking and processing. A good step toward being more environmentally friendly may be swapping out that juicy hamburger for a veggie alternative.

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Source: RD.com