As promised in an earlier article, we’ve taken a few of your Real Food questions, done some further reading, and tried to provide you with some interesting answers. Some of the questions are combined from multiple questions we’ve received. Read on!
1. Is corn really bad for us to eat? I like corn chips — what’s the problem?
Ramona asked this question here, and it’s a good one. Corn is actually a great, nutritious food. One of the most striking parts of the Omnivore’s Dilemma is that Michael Pollan talks — at length — about corn, and how it’s a near-miraculous food in many ways.
So no — when you’re eating corn on the cob or other foods made from actual corn, there’s no need to worry about getting ‘too much corn’. If you are eating simple, low-ingredient, corn chips (that are not made from processed additives and designed to taste like corn, which many are), then it’s not the end of the world.
The excessive corn products that we’re talking about are everything else that is made from corn, and the fact that a common chicken mcnugget, if you break down all its ingredients, has something like 46% corn product in it (this number jumps around). When you combine that with the amount of corn that the chickens eat as feed, and all the other ways that a diet heavy in processed food contains corn (and soy), it becomes a really imbalanced amount for one food.
This isn’t just “I eat a lot of corn because it’s delicious.” This is finding one particular food in practically everything we consume — corn syrup, MSG, guar gum, xantham gum —the products that can be made with corn (practically any complicated ingredient you can find) are endless.
And one of the most startling facts is that of all the corn that gets sent to be refined and processed into all the different additives, binders, preservatives, and compounds — pretty much none of it is edible. This isn’t peaches & cream corn on the cob you can do up on the BBQ and enjoy with some salt and butter. This is special-variety corn, genetically designed to be processed into just about everything under the sun, and we’re eating huge amounts of it, re-worked and decontexualized beyond all recognition.
2. Do frozen, steamed, boiled, or baked vegetables contain different amounts of nutrients?
Tabby and several other people asked variations on this question. According to most accounts online, yes. Certain nutrients come out when you boil a vegetable, and as such, steaming a vegetable is often considered a better option, as you’re not leaving much in the water.
However, if you take a look at any standard cookbook, there are plenty of recipes in which boiling, baking, or even microwaving vegetables is necessary, and in the end, just the fact that you’re eating vegetables on a regular basis is much better than not eating them at all, just because a steamer isn’t available.
As for frozen vegetables, again, most studies that show any difference in nutrients is so negligible as to be hardly worthwhile. There are plenty of people, online and off, who will tell you differently (and fresh vegetables, in season, grown well, do very, very often taste better), and most frozen vegetables in packages are industrially grown, so if you’re looking to buy well-grown, local produce, frozen is not going to be the first place to look. But nutritionally, the differences in fresh/frozen are negligible when placed next to how fundamentally important it is to just eat these foods in the first place.
If your choice comes down to some frozen asparagus, microwaved, and drizzled with a bit of salt, lemon, and olive oil (something pretty easy to prepare in pretty much any lunch room), vs. a pre-fab meal full of sodium, preservatives, and unnecessary ingredients — by all means, stick with the frozen vegetables.
3. Is organic better than non-organic?
Tabby also asked this one, and we’ve seen it often. This is a very tough question, and one that Michael Pollan even struggles to answer. In the end, his solution seems to be a compromise — organic is often better for us, but not always by virtue of the fact that it adheres to organic guidelines, especially in the USA, where you can buy an organic TV dinner with organic high-fructose corn syrup. Just because something is labelled ‘organic’ doesn’t necessarily make it ‘real food’, and most of the big organic industries are just part of the large, industrialized food system anyway.
Take a look at this great Time magazine article that talks a bit about ‘beyond organic’ — in general, the widespread use of the organic name and the huge-scale implementation of organic farming on an industrial level has shifted the terms of the debate away from this question, which doesn’t really have a yes/no answer.
Many of the real food thinkers suggest that reducing meat consumption, planting a garden, and cooking for yourself, using real ingredients, as much as humanly possible, are things you should be prioritizing above the organic label these days.
More to Come!
You’ve given us more questions than we can answer, but we’ve also seen a great amount of information being exchanged in the comments. We want to encourage this — we’re not food experts either, but we are putting a lot of work into our own diets and healthy lifestyles, and sharing all these developments with you is what we love doing the most, and when others come online and share their expertise with us, we’re thrilled.
Great article! And cute picture!
One of the things I found when I tweaked my diet years ago, was that the freezer is the best invention ever. Yes, things in season taste better. However, they cost.
I don’t see why I should eat badly because I am poor. Like Freddy and Zuzana, from my research, frozen food doesn’t lose that much nutrients. Nor does it lose that much through cooking – as long as you don’t boil the hell out of it.
Some foods have to be cooked before they give out their nutrients – cooked carrots give out more beta-carotene than raw ones.
My freezer allows me to buy in bulk and freeze ingredients so I always have nutricious (sp?) foods that won’t take me long to prepare into healthy, delicious meals, meaning I never have to grab takeaway or other convience foods. In the time taken to heat the ready meal or wait on the Indian, I’ve made it.
I’m getting off my soapbox now! But I’m annoyed when people attack frozen food (i know you weren’t)
Considering that poor people bear the brunt of serious illness caused by poor diet, no exercise and addictions, seeming to beleive that’s their lot in life, I take any opportunity to challenge that viewpoint. Frozen food means that dietry health is within the grasp of every one.
Hi Frederick and Zuzana,
Thank you for all your research and work, that was terrific information!
I would also add that some produce should be eaten organic as much as possible, due to pesticides, because of their thin skins: peaches and strawberries, for example. Thicker skinned produce, like avocados and pineapples, will have less pesticides in their edible portions. For tons of websites listing the worst offenders for pesticides google: “dirty dozen fruits and vegetables”.
Best to everyone!
Ruth
Planting a garden is something I’d really love to do! I had one in my old home but the climate is nearly opposite where I live now. I used to live in practically a forest in northeast USA, now I live in the desert climate of southwest USA. My backyard is sand and rocks, I have no idea how to get a garden going :(
I’m planning on trying some window-sill herbs soon, if that goes well I could expand! I would welcome any ideas on how to grow my own things without a decent yard!
Thank You for all the great advise. Adorable picture, although Cali looks afraid of the vegetables :)
I was surprised to hear Martha Stewart identify the fruits and vegetables that do and don’t absorb pesticides. Some that don’t are avocados, corn, pineapples, mangoes, asparagus, kiwi fruits, cabbages and eggplants. Some that do absorb pesticides are carrots, celery, lettuce, cherries, strawberries, pears, apples and grapes. It is best to eat only organically grown fruits and vegetables if they are the type that absorbs pesticides.
Hi Zuzana and Frederick,
I have been following the site for a couple months now and love it. I had a question about putting on muscle while keeping your body fat low. I’m in my early twenties, around six foot and 175lbs right now. I have done some weight lifting and I usually take protein supplements like Syntha-6, but have moved to eating Real Food 6-8 times a day and doing your Daily Workouts instead of hitting the weight room. Along with that and a bad case of the flu, I dropped from about 190lbs to my current weight.
My first question has to do with the protein supplements. How do they fit into the Real Food lifestyle if they have a place at all? Are they essentially good or bad?
The other is what foods should I be eating if my goal is to gradually get back up to 190-195lbs while keeping my body fat low? I am currently reading Michael Pollans In Defense of Food and love it, but I can see that it doesn’t really mention how to reach specific goals while eating Real Food(though I’m only through Part One of Three in the book). I really love what you guys do on this site and really appreciate all the work you put into this it. You give me inspiration and have changed the way I view health and exercise. Thank You
-Maurice
P.S. – Did the Perverted Punisher Workout today in 27:11 not crazy good like a lot of the people on the site, but one day I hope to be on their level.
Ahojky Zuzko, chtěla jsem se zeptat, jestli nebudeš dělat videa a vůbec celé tyto stránky i v češtině…já totiž moc neumím anglicky…hihi…a ráda bych si vše přečetla, vyzkoušela atd…děkuji J.S.
Ahoj Jitko,
zatim ceskou verzi neplanujeme.
Hi Zuzana
I have seen your exercises and are very cool indeed,
lately I’m studying human anatomy and I’m studying the abdominal area and its characteristics, but are not certain things about it and the person I know who knows more of the abdomen and its characters are you that you have Zuzana planoy abdomen strong and that level that you have exercised much to you, .. but …. my question is this: out right after so many times, ¿why your belly is marked squares?
Hi Zuzana,
Yes, Google: MON 863, for info. on Corn.
oh, and Merry Christmas, Miss BodyRock.
Sxean