Look at it, sniff it, touch it, sniff it again. Is it food?

GoAnimal.com recently featured an article comparing real food to processed food.

"Look at it, sniff it, touch it, sniff it again. What is it? Is it edible? Will it be tasty? Will it make my body happy or will it make me sick? Animals ask these questions every day; the answer is fundamental to their health and survival."

Do you know how to tell the difference?

Food:

• Grown
• Messy
• Variable quality
• Goes bad fast
• Requires preparation
• Vibrant colors, rich textures
• Authentically flavorful
• Strong connection to land and culture

Food product:

• produced, manufactured
• neat, convenient
• always the same
• keeps forever
• instant results
• dull, bland
• artificially flavorful
• no connection to land or culture

The article continues: "The single most important thing we need to know about nutrition in the modern world is how to recognize the difference between food and food products. Once we’ve learned to make this distinction, our nutritional decision-making process will rest on a solid foundation. Simply follow this basic rule for healthy shopping and eating:

"Choose food over food products. Eat all the food you want, but avoid food products whenever possible.

"That’s it, the first rule for intelligent eating in the modern world. If we can manage this distinction with consistency, our health will improve and our anxieties about nutrition will diminish considerably. This may very well be the only rule for nutrition that we’ll ever need."

It's sound advice. Too bad so few of us heed it.

The article continues: "If in doubt, follow the money. Food may be expensive, but it rarely brings outrageous profits to those who produce it. Food products, on the other hand, bring enormous, occasionally obscene profit to manufacturers.

"Quite naturally, food product manufacturers put their marketing dollars where they will bring the most financial return. That’s why most of their advertising efforts go into food products, not food. We occasionally see an industry trade group that sponsors an ad campaign for say, California grapes, but in general, food is pretty much left to fend for itself in the marketplace. This gives us a another general rule: if it’s advertised, it’s probably a food product.

"In turn, this leads us to adopt a new strategy of paradoxical consumption. That is, if we’re intent on eating food and avoiding food products, we’ll go against the flow of marketplace persuasion: the more intense the marketing, the less we purchase. Simply avoid anything that's advertised. Instead, buy and consume the invisible stuff –the vegetables, fruits and nuts that you find in the produce section of your market. If someone is promoting it, avoid it. If it's all sexed up, it's probably poisonous. If no one’s yelling at you to buy it, it’s probably safe to eat."