The Dangers of “Health Food”: Part 2

6 “Healthy Snack” Ingredients that Aren’t so Healthy

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - “health foods” are a complete scam.

For the unsuspecting but well-intentioned shopper, it’s very easy to grab a bag of “grain free” tortilla chips and think you’re doing your body a favor. “Dairy-free”, “grain-free”, “paleo”, “vegan”, and “made with avocado oil”, surely these “heritage-inspired products made with better-for-you ingredients” are healthy, right?

Not so fast.

In Tan Land, we know better than to believe that “health foods” that aren’t made with real food are inherently good for us. In today’s post, we’re going to continue our investigation and uncover 6 more of the Health Food industry’s dirty, duplicitous secrets.

Reaching for the “healthy” chips, right? The answer is not so obvious…

1. Avocado oil

Let’s start some low hanging fruit - avocado oil.

For many Health Food companies, avocado oil is the oil of choice for any deep fried food. It’s not a seed oil, but rather a fruit oil which is theoretically low in PUFAs; it has avocado in the name; and the best part? It’s vegan! Perfect millennial marketing mash-up.

However, long time readers of Tan Land know that I’m not a fan of avocado oil. Why?

Firstly, avocado oil is not great for frying. Second, even if it were, the majority of commercially available avocado oil is laced with seed oils. Third, when it’s not adulterated with egregious engine lubricants, avocado oil is frequently mislabelled or, worse still, rancid before it even hits the shelves.

In a recent study of avocado oil sold in the US, it was found that 82% of avocado oils were extremely high in free fatty acids and had huge peroxide values - both indicative of oxidative deterioration. In other words, these oils were totally rancid, just like the seed oils unsuspecting consumers are attempting to escape from.

100% pure-ly contaminated with seed oils and smoke point is literally a scam btw

If this wasn’t enough to put even the most ardent avocado oil appreciator off, then maybe the fact that most avocados in the US are sourced from drug-cartel-owned farms in Mexico will. And they don’t care very much about supply chain integrity.

Basically, avocado oil is best avoided.

Besides, as I’ve said before, it’s generally best to prioritize foods your ancestors would’ve had access to. For myself and probably most of my readers, our ancestors definitely didn’t eat avocados in appreciable quantities.

2. Cassava

Funny enough, the same goes for cassava, which is often paired with avocado oil.

In fact, it’s pretty unlikely that our ancestors would’ve known what this starchy root vegetable from Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America even looked like. Yet, cassava flour appears in the ingredients lists of many “healthy snacks” on the shelves today.

I’ve previously spoken about my problems with cassava. Personally, I’ve never felt good after eating any ungodly cassava abomination. It has always made my digestion worse, probably because it contains pretty high levels of amylose, a polysaccharide that is known for causing GI issues.

Additionally, as a root vegetable, cassava is easily contaminated with various heavy metals including lead, copper, and arsenic that, in high quantities, pose a significant risk to human health.

There’s also the small fact that cassava contains linamarin and lotaustralin. Both of these are natural forms of cyanide (yes you read that right) which means cassava is highly toxic if eaten raw or improperly cooked.

If you ask me, that’s a plant that does not want to be eaten.

To top it all off, cassava is often cited as the most calorie dense starch source out there. Ironic, when so many people are eating it because they want to lose weight.

But what about when it’s cooked?

Some studies have pointed out the carcinogenic potential of cassava when traditional processing methods such as sun-drying are used. When cassava is processed following harvest, the moisture content is significantly reduced leaving the plant susceptible to yeast, mold, and aflatoxin contamination.

Aflatoxin is a mycotoxic carcinogen - in other words, a cancer-causing mold.

Interestingly, aflatoxin is most commonly produced by strains of the Aspergillus mold. And cassava is not the only “healthy” ingredient with an attachment to this mold…

3. Citric acid

Honestly this one surprised me when I first learned about it.

Citric acid is just an acid, a pure naturally occurring chemical compound, so what’s the harm in that? Isn’t it just lemon and lime juice?

Yes and no. While citric acid in its natural form is perfectly healthy, the citric acid you find added as a flavoring, acidulant, and preservative in many products today is artificially manufactured.

So what is this Manufactured Citric Acid (MCA) made of? As fate would have it, approximately 99% of the world’s supply of MCA is produced using Aspergillus niger— **aka black mold (yes that black mold)—**a fungus and severe allergen.

Now, you don’t need to be a nutrition expert to know that you shouldn’t eat black mold, especially if the black mold has not been adequately safety-tested for human consumption.

While relatively little is formally known about the effects of long-term exposure to Aspergillus niger, there is enough research out there that tells us we should not be putting this stuff anywhere near our bodies.

Various studies have shown that even breathing it in can be very harmful to people with impaired immune systems or sensitivity to fungi. In addition, Aspergillus niger contains ochratoxin A (OTA) - a mycotoxin that is known to literally cause cancer.

On top of all this, it’s worth pointing out that the majority of MCA is produced using highly processed glucose from corn syrup, which we already know is terrible for your health, and full of pesticides and God knows what else.

4. Stevia

Speaking of sweeteners, Stevia is another common ingredient found in health foods of the sugar-free virtue signaling variety.

Stevia is a sugar substitute that’s extracted from the leaves of the plant Stevia rebaudiana, which is native to South America. Stevia has a long and illustrious history of consumption among the various tribes across the continent, including and primarily as a natural form of birth control and anti-fertility herb.

Although modern science has not yet confirmed what ancient South American tribes have known for years, we do know that the majority of other non-caloric sweeteners reduce male fertility so it makes sense to err on the side of caution with Stevia too.

And people wonder why no one can get pregnant.

Yes, the “unhealthy people” unwittingly eat poison on a daily basis. But even the “healthy” people fall victim to the evils of the food industry as they are distracted from real food by these ahistorical and untraditional hack fad concepts like “sugar free”.

This is exactly why health foods are not only not good for you — they are dangerous. So few people care about their health, and yet these foods confound their efforts and prevent most of them from ever attaining true health.

5. Maltodextrin

This is one of those ingredients where if you can’t pronounce it or your grandmother wouldn’t have it in her kitchen cupboards, then you shouldn’t be eating it.

Maltodextrin is an artificially manufactured white powder that is derived from starch, most often GMO corn. These days, it’s used in all sorts of processed foods as a thickener or preservative.

It’s often used specifically to allow liquids to be used as seasonings for dry snacks like chips. They spray the powder with the juice, dry it out, and then there you have it.

Despite its prevalence, maltodextrin has an extremely high glycemic index and has been shown to cause chronic inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s disease due to its ability to disrupt the gut microbiome.

And yet, it is the method of choice for flavoring most of the lime tortilla chips you can buy, even the healthy ones.

This is of course why you should buy MASA Lime chips instead, which are made with 100% whole real limes, no maltodextrin needed. They taste good on their own, as nature intended.

6. Yeast extract

As for making “healthy” snacks taste good, Big Food has one last trick up its sleeve.

Yeast extract, otherwise known as nutritional yeast or autolyzed yeast, is a common additive in many ultra-processed pantry items, particularly ones that claim to be vegan.

Why?

(Whenever you see the word vegan advertised, your internal warning signs should light up.)

Essentially, yeast extract is a flavor enhancer that is derived from waste sources of yeast. More often than not, the waste yeast source of choice is brewer’s yeast, that is, yeast from beer breweries. In other words, the yeast extract in your chips is just beer production run-off.

But that is not the problem. The problem is that when broken down into its constituent parts, yeast extract naturally contains free glutamic acid.

Now if this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Free glutamic acid is just another word for monosodium glutamate, or MSG.

Basically, yeast extract is just MSG in disguise, but don’t just take my word for it, the FDA itself says that that foods containing yeast extract or autolyzed yeast cannot claim to be MSG-free.

As Tan Landians, we are well-aware that MSG is not fit for human consumption.

Not only is MSG proven to be obesity-inducing, but it is also an excitotoxin. This means that it can cross the blood-brain barrier and overexcite your cells, potentially causing brain damage and even triggering diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Lou Gehrig’s (which is likely why it’s so addicting too).

As you can see, Brewer’s Yeast, citric acid, and maltodextrin are all culprits of being MSG in disguise.

And for what? So you can feel self righteous about not having eaten something naturally delicious like cheese (which this ingredient so often supplants)?

The real problem with Health Food

And this, dear reader, is why “health foods” are so insidious.

Not only are they not healthy.

Not only are they more expensive.

They also taste worse!

Why even bother then?

Intuitively, I think most people actually understand this. And that’s why most people never become interested in improving their health.

They are skeptical about the entire food industry, and rightly so, thus in doomerist defeat they just eat whatever their MSG-addicted tongue desires, and the world plunges ever further into obesity, sickness, and ugliness.

However, we are not doomers here. The sun is on our side! There is a way out of this downward spiral.

If we simply made real food, with real ingredients, we’d have our health, and our taste.

Or, said another way,

Basically you should eat MASA chips.

They are the perfect example of the correct philosophy of food, packaged in a pretty little bag.

• Not a health food (no cardboard taste)

• Not a junk food (no fake ingredients)

Just pure culinary perfection. One day, every food will be like MASA. And that will be a good day for us all.