What Are We Doing to Our Food?

Making Balanced Personal Choices

In some lands as much as 80 percent of the food eaten is processed. Often additives are used to intensify or standardize flavor and color, as well as to lengthen shelf life. In fact, one reference work notes that "many modern products such as low-calorie, snack, and ready-to-eat convenience foods, would not be possible without food additives."  Such foods are also more likely to contain genetically modified ingredients.

For years agriculture worldwide has depended upon practices that many people view as harmful.  The use of toxic pesticides is just one example. Moreover, the food industry has for some time been using additives that may have caused allergic reactions in some consumers. Are new food technologies significantly more hazardous than these practices?  Even experts cannot agree. In fact, weighty scientific reports support opposite sides of the argument and seem to help polarize opinion. 

Because they view high tech foods as hard to avoid or because they view other concerns as more pressing, many people today decide not to worry about the matter. Others, though, are quite concerned.  What can you do if you and your family feel uncertain about eating processed foods that seem overly complicated by modern technology?  There are practical steps you may choose to take, some of which are discussed in the following article. First, though, if may be wise to make sure that we have  a balanced outlook on the issue. 

Food safety is like health. There is no current way to achieve perfection. According to the German magazine natur& kosmos, even among people who are known to take the utmost care in the selection and preparation  of food, nutrition is always a compromise. What is beneficial to one can harm another. Is it  not wise, then, to cultivate a balanced attitude and avoid extremes?

Of course, the Bible does not tell us what decision to make regarding today's high-tech foods.  But it does teach us about a quality to cultivate that will help us in this matter.  Philippians 4:5 says:  "Let your reasonableness become known to all men."  Reasonableness can help us to make balanced decisions and avoid extremes. It can hold us back from dictating to others what they should or should not do in the matter. And it can help us out of pointless, division debates with those whose thinking  on the subject may differ from our own. 

It must be admitted, though, that many of the hazards connected with food are not so controversial. What are some of these, and what safety precautions can you take? 

Next time: What Are We Doing to Our Food? - How to Make Food Safer

From the AWAKE! magazine, 2001