If you have ever eaten at a large fast food chain you have consumed pseudo food disguised and dressed as real food. This fake food is filled with chemicals, additives and industrial byproducts designed to make food cheap that fools your taste buds.  That 99-cent value meal may seem like a great deal at the time but consider the thousands of dollars spent in health care cost that come about as a direct result of consumption of trans fats and fake food. A more appropriate price for that 99-cent value meal would be $50,000 (the cost of triple bypass surgery). Not such a great deal anymore.

In a November 2011 in a CBS Chicago news feature entitle “Behind the Taste” reporter Vince Gerasole pulled apart the favorite McRib:

“More than 70 ingredients make up the McRib and, yes, one of them is pork. But as CBS 2’s Vince Gerasole reports, there’s also an ingredient that can be found in shoes… [Registered dietician Cassie] Vanderwall gave the McRib a closer look and found the McRib has azodicarbonamide, which is used to bleach the flour in bread. It has other uses. ‘It could be on your yoga mat, in your gym shoes, in your anything that’s rubbery,’ Vanderwall said…

Then there’s the pork – which is really restructured meat product. In other words, it’s made from all the less expensive innards and castoffs from the pig… Vanderwall said the McRib ingredient list ‘reminds me of a chemistry lab.’”

The fact that this can be labeled “food” is horrifying. Welcome to the age of science and pseudo food.  There are things to be done; we do not have to be a slave to the food industries antics.  As consumers our money is our voice.  We can send a strong message to the food industry by refusing to buy pseudo food and instead choose healthy, nutritious real food. In a book written by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough entitled Real Food Has Curves a 7-step plan is outlined to help you transition from this phony food to real, nutritious food.

1. Seek true satisfaction. Enjoy genuine flavors, rather than fat, sugar, and salt added to mask the metallic taste of chemical additives.
2. Read labels wisely. You can find food with “real” ingredients in the supermarket if you read labels carefully.
3. Relish what’s on your plate. Devote time solely to enjoying the pleasures of eating.
4. Wean yourself off excess salt, fat, and sugar. You can also cook with smaller amounts of these ingredients by using natural substitutes like strong spices.
5. Give your palate time to change. You’ll gradually lose your taste for excessively sweet and salty foods.
6. Go for high-quality foods. Look for products that contain the least amount of processed ingredients.
7. Treat yourself well by not skipping meals. Try eating three meals a day at    fairly regular times, plus a mid-afternoon snack.