It’s not easy to be a food purist

The term “processed food” has negative connotations. We’re told it’s bad for us. But, as Adam Gopnik notes in a New Yorker article (“Sickening”), what makes something processed rather than preserved is not easy to define. Food has a natural tendency to spoil. Humans have always tried to delay that outcome through cooking, pickling, curing, salting, smoking, and soaking it in brine.

As Gopnik notes, “… it is not always easy to separate prudence from puritanism.” Sauerkraut, which is now a fashionable food, is processed. For that matter, much of our fresh produce is processed by way of breeding. Where do you draw the line? Some purists are scornful of added flavorings. Does that include curried rice, a centuries-old staple of India? And now we have “molecular gastronomy,” which is cuisine, such as transparent noodles, created from the perspective of chemistry. You can get this food at high end restaurants. One wit called it “ultra-processed food for rich people.”

Michael Pollan tells us that “Great-Grandmother never cooked with guar gum, carrageenan, mono- and diglycerides, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, modified food starch, soy lecithin….” But, as Gopnik notes, why is guar gum, extracted from one seed, any more artificial than cornstarch, extracted from another? Carrageenan comes from seaweed, lecithin comes from egg yolks, vegetable protein gets hydrolyzed when proteins are exposed to acids—a regular product of fermentation and pickling. Technical names make the familiar seem alien. Yet luteolin, hydroxytyrosol, apigenin, oleic acid, and oleocanthal are natural components of extra-virgin olive oil.

OK. I think most of us are not food purists. Like me, you probably have plenty of processed food in your kitchen, but most likely not Cocoa Puffs.  

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