wellness tips

Fortifying junk food – a good idea?

July 4, 2009 at 4:33 pm · Filed under Eat

Health Canada is considering allowing food companies to fortify junk food with vitamins and minerals. Is this idea going to improve or worsen the health of Canadians?

When I first heard about this concept a couple of months ago, I thought it was a joke. How can anyone at Health Canada seriously think that fortifying junk food with vitamins is going to improve anyone’s health? Or under the premise of health promotion, is the Canadian government actually bowing to the demands of the food industry? Certainly companies that are suddenly given permission to put health claims on their potato chips, cookies or chocolate bars will be laughing all the way to the bank.

I think this is a ridiculous idea, and I have yet to find a physician, dietician or nutritionist that has written on this topic that thinks it is a good one. Just like there is nothing healthy about an organic oreo cookie, there will be nothing healthy about an oreo cookie fortified with vitamin C, yet potentially consumers will choose the cookie over the orange because they will believe it to be just as healthy. I think such a policy will lead to people increasing their intake of junk food, which will worsen the obesity epidemic, rates of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Health Canada’s argument is that in the focus group study they did, the participants stated they would pick the fortified junk food, as long as the price point and taste were the same, but they would not buy more junk food. I’m not sure that in reality that is what would happen. Hopefully Health Canada will change their minds on this one and scrap it.

If Health Canada were really serious about improving the health of Canadians as opposed to keeping the food processing companies happy, they would ban the use of trans fats in the form of hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, as well as high fructose corn syrup (labelled fructose-glucose in Canada). Forcing the food companies to stop using those ingredients would make far more of a difference to chronic disease rates and the ongoing health crisis than spraying some cheap vitamins on junk food. We have known for at least 30 years now (Ancel Keys first brought up the issue in 1958) about how deadly hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are, and yet they are still everywhere in the food supply. Why?? There is absolutely no dispute about the dangers of trans fats. Shouldn’t Health Canada and the FDA be all over this? And how much more research does the government need to be convinced of the dangers of high fructose corn syrup? My impression is that Health Canada (and also the FDA) moves much more quickly on initiatives that will help the mega food producers and will improve trade, and much more slowly on initiatives that will actually improve the health of its citizens, but may in the process hurt the food producers and trade. Unfortunately when it comes to the politics of food, governments frequently find themselves beholden to industry at the expense of their citizenry.

Thankfully as individuals we have the ability to choose what we eat, and powered with some knowledge we don’t need the government to protect us from ourselves. Choosing healthy food is easy – only eat fresh food that also existed 10,000 years ago – food you can pick, pull out of the ground, food you need to chase after to obtain, or food that comes from the ocean. If it comes from a factory, (like CoffeeMate, Equal, Coco Puffs or Coca Cola) don’t eat it. Other than grains and legumes that nature has packed to last, if it can sit in your garage or pantry for months on end (tetrapac juices, soda pop, crackers, cookies etc.) it is probably more harmful than good for you. And if you see hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (soy, canola, sunflower, cottonseed etc.) or high fructose corn syrup or fructose-glucose on the label, avoid it like the plague, because foods that contain that stuff really will harm your health, particularly if you have heart disease or are prone to TIAs or clots in the blood vessels.

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