Food adulteration, whether intentional or not, has been my biggest concern since I returned here. My strategy has been: a) don't eat too much of the same thing; b) avoid large fish and c) eat fresh fruits/veggies and avoid processed food as much as possible. One particular nasty news was when Rokon Ud Dowla got a formaldehyde detection kit and discovered a large amount of tainted fish in the fishmarkets. A few days ago, I read about mangoes being ripened using Carbide. (But then, don't they ripen bananas using sulfur dioxide while transporting them North to the US?)
Imagine my surprise, then, at reading this
article, complaining about food adulteration and contamination all over Asia. So we are not alone (but does my kidney care?)
Although the article implies a certain purity in food in Western countries, I don't think things are all that different. I am reading Michael Pollan's
The Omnivore's Dilemma which discusses American food habits, and raises some serious concerns. An example: Chicken McNugget is made from 38 ingredients, many of which are completely synthetic chemicals.
Pollan also discusses how the discussion went from "What
foods are good for me?" to "What
nutrients are good for me?" The two are quite different.
His advice: don't eat anything that your grandmother would not recognize as food!
So next time you open a wrapper and start munching, think whether it passes the grandmother test.
(btw, my grandmothers would recognize chocolate, so I am safe heh heh )