Where We Came From

The world we live in today is largely a product of the actions and events that have taken place by our ancestors, which in many cases, has had a positive impact on the lives of many. The massive improvements over even just the past 100 years have dramatically affected the lives we all now live, with achievements such as the development of vaccines and surgical practices, electronic equipment such as televisions, radios, telephones, and computers, and the globalization of many world economies, just to name a few.

There is no doubt that the list of positive achievements and inventions is miles long, and we would live in a much different world without the actions of the past. In the context of nutrition and health, one of the great achievements in the past has been the ability to make foodstuffs more readily available in a prepared and convenient form. In 1900, when the first factories in Europe were able to can food in tins by vacuum-sealing perishables to increase shelf live, the immense and ever-evolving project of creating food and beverages that were safe, affordable, long-lasting, and most importantly - convenient was started (Wikipedia, Canning).

Canning led to improved and more advanced developments in "prepared meals", with another large revolution occurring with the advent of frozen meals and the refrigerator/freezer, which allowed people to freeze prepared, packaged foods to be heated at their convenience. This readily available food source helped to decrease the time required by many people, especially women, that was spent at the grocery store as well as countless hours that would otherwise be spent preparing each individual meal (and with the surge in women leaving home as housekeepers and joining the workforce at an international level, cooking became even more time-consuming for families with single working parents or two working parents).

Finally, the most recent improvements in prepared meals have come in just the past few years, such as health and fitness foods(MRPs, or Meal Replacement Packets, and RTDs, or Ready to Drink meal replacements and supplements) and frozen American classics like pizzas and lasagnas to freeze-dried products such as noodles-in-a-cup and microwaveable meals that just require hydration. With so many people throughout the world leading lives that require more than just 40 hours a week and tax filing for their jobs, the time spent on cooking, especially in America, is considered wasted and unproductive by many.

So These Advancements are All Positive...Right?

While productivity and global interactions have increased exponentially in recent years (and will continue to do so), this has also unfortunately led to large problems that are becoming more evident in today's society, specifically in the area of public health policy and personal nutrition. Innovations in packaged food have allowed for people to spend less on everything: time spent preparing meals, buying food, time spent thinking about what to eat, and the money spent on food overall. However, they have come at great expense in many respects to the average consumer, whether they are aware of it. While convenience of packaged foods is attractive to many people, they often overlook the negative aspects of these "great" inventions - many prepared foods are loaded with additives and preservatives to ensure "freshness" and shelf-life, as well as exceedingly unnecessary amounts of sodium and sometimes, MSG.

The quality of the raw foodstuffs used to make most frozen food, especially frozen meat products, is less than superior, and the multi-step process of freezing and heating foods destroys the nutritional value of its contents, especially with green vegetables and fruits. A relatively new concern with prepared meals, specifically frozen meals, is that of contamination and poisoning. According to an article published by ABC News last year, more than 325,000 people in the United States become sick from contamination due to microwaving frozen food that they expect to be thoroughly cooked (Funk, 1).

In addition to this statistic, many people are ignorant of the proper method for heating raw foodstuffs, which leads to problems when they believe their food is fully cooked. As the marketing campaigns of large appliance companies and prepared food companies hit home with more people, consumers' knowledge about what it is that they are actually ingesting and how it is being cooked or "prepared" when they want it continues to dwindle. This notion is well-illustrated in Funk's article:

"'And if most people don't know the wattage of their home microwaves, forget the ones they might use to nuke their lunch at work.”Who's got a thermometer in their desk drawer?" Davidson said.

College student Jordan Sullivan said he regularly eats frozen pizza and pizza rolls, but never has given much thought to the safety of it.

"I just toss them in and wait till they look good," Sullivan said of the rolls, which do include raw ingredients'" (Funk, 3).

A Remedy Made From Scratch

Lastly, the importance of cooking food from scratch is another topic that needs to be addressed. Before the concept of "prepared meals", the only food that people were able to eat was either raw food that could be eaten fresh like produce and dairy, food that was cooked at home, or food that was prepared in a restaurant or similar establishment. As such, the food that was cooked was more often than not prepared from scratch using quality ingredients and methods, especially if it was in people's homes. As such, people knew what they were putting into the food that they would eat as they often went shopping for it, prepped it, and cooked it themselves.

The same is true in today's society, amidst the milieu of conventional methods of getting food as quickly and as conveniently as possible. Yes, people do in fact still cook their foods from scratch, despite the popularity of "prepared food". And for good reason, too. Fresh prepared foods are almost always healthier than the "prepared" equivalent, if one wants it to be. Trans fat, extra sodium, MSG, preservatives, additional coloring and artificial flavors that can be potentially harmful are not required for most meals prepared fresh, as they don't need to be consumed years down the road. When cooking one's own food, other essential, healthy practices can be incorporated in the process, like sanitary preparation and portion control - things that are not always available with "prepared" foods (think Pinnacle Foods' Hungry Man Classic Fried Chicken, a 960 calorie monstrosity of a meal with little regard for nutritional requirement limits) (thedailyplate.com).

In addition to the health benefits of cooking your own food, it also can be used as a natural form of relieving stress, it provides one with a skill that can be used in a variety of situations, such as impressing in-laws or wooing an attractive date, and it can land you a temporary job that has the potential to inspire creativity and innovation, leading to culinary school or restaurant management.

The overall benefits of "prepared foods" match up well with those of cooking one's own food. Sometimes there is just NO time to cook, but at other times laziness or lack of inspiration is no excuse. Thus, a compromise must be struck if you use both methods of getting your meals. However, given recent improvements in the continuously-evolving "prepared" foods industry as well as the surge in organic and natural raw foods, the prospects for both the "prepared" food industry and the culinary arts of meal preparation are looking all the more brighter.

Sources:

Wikipedia, Canning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canning

Funk, Josh. Latest Warning Highlights Dangers of Microwaving ABC News, US. 2008 abcnews.go.com/US/WireStory?id=5968141&page=1

Hungry ManClassic Fried Chicken thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/hungry-man/classic-fried-chicken

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