While you’re right that there’s no nutritional value to food coloring, not everything needs to be nutritionally optimal. “Looks appealing” is desirable in its own right.
We should justify food ingredients based on functional necessity and harmlessness, not on a strict criteria of nutritional necessity.
I worry about the unintended consequences to eating hyper palatable , processed foods. Yes, it looks great & taste great but oof, now I gotta go take a 2-hour nap, and jeesh, now that I’m 70 I’ve got dementia, which is sometimes called 'type 3 diabetes ’ in medical circles.
Oh, I’m not arguing in favor of processed foods. We know that at the very least the processing usually entails adding a lot more sodium than people need, and that many of the more stable oils that get added tend to be much more slanted towards the unhealthy variety.
It’s more that we shouldn’t be demanding that our food be strictly natural and nutritive. We should be demanding that it’s safe, that every ingredient have a justifiable reason for being there, and that the most conservative ingredients were used.
Without a coloring or flavoring, a perfectly healthy breakfast cereal consisting of ground oats, a processed food, is grey and exceptionally bland. Adding a small portion of beet juice concentrate and a dehydrated strawberry puree turns it into something pleasent to see and eat, even though there’s no nutritional reason for them to be in the food.
At the end of the day, a significant portion of our lives will be spent around the act of eating. It should be pleasurable, and that can be done without being unhealthy, but not without allowing nutritionally unnecessary ingredients.
While you’re right that there’s no nutritional value to food coloring, not everything needs to be nutritionally optimal. “Looks appealing” is desirable in its own right.
We should justify food ingredients based on functional necessity and harmlessness, not on a strict criteria of nutritional necessity.
I worry about the unintended consequences to eating hyper palatable , processed foods. Yes, it looks great & taste great but oof, now I gotta go take a 2-hour nap, and jeesh, now that I’m 70 I’ve got dementia, which is sometimes called 'type 3 diabetes ’ in medical circles.
Oh, I’m not arguing in favor of processed foods. We know that at the very least the processing usually entails adding a lot more sodium than people need, and that many of the more stable oils that get added tend to be much more slanted towards the unhealthy variety.
It’s more that we shouldn’t be demanding that our food be strictly natural and nutritive. We should be demanding that it’s safe, that every ingredient have a justifiable reason for being there, and that the most conservative ingredients were used.
Without a coloring or flavoring, a perfectly healthy breakfast cereal consisting of ground oats, a processed food, is grey and exceptionally bland. Adding a small portion of beet juice concentrate and a dehydrated strawberry puree turns it into something pleasent to see and eat, even though there’s no nutritional reason for them to be in the food.
At the end of the day, a significant portion of our lives will be spent around the act of eating. It should be pleasurable, and that can be done without being unhealthy, but not without allowing nutritionally unnecessary ingredients.