Demystifying five long-standing food rumors

Non-fried foods are not necessarily healthy

Today, in major supermarkets, non-fried foods that are nominally “non-fried and healthier” have appeared. So is non-fried food healthier than fried foods?

Taking an instant noodles as an example, the fried instant noodles need to be fried and dried in boiling oil, while the non-fried instant noodles are directly dried with hot air. Professor Hu Xiaosong, vice president of the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering at the China Agricultural University, emphasized that non-fried food is just a selling point and is far less healthy than expected.

First of all, both fried and non-fried starchy foods contain the carcinogen acrylamide, regardless of the manufacturing process. Wu Yongning, an expert at the Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, pointed out that no fried instant noodles have been found to have higher acrylamide content than non-fried instant noodles.

Second, whether or not fried, puffed foods will add a lot of flavoring agents, including sweeteners, sodium glutamate, salt and so on. Of which only one salt, long-term excessive intake will increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

In addition, such foods added aluminum potassium sulfate or ammonium aluminum sulfate and other bulking agents, long-term intake will cause the body to exceed the aluminum, induced Alzheimer's disease, osteomalacia and so on.

The main ingredient of chicken essence is MSG

Many people have heard that MSG is not eating well, so they have changed to chicken and mushroom essence. But is it really true that chicken really is more natural than MSG?

In fact, the main ingredient of chicken is still MSG, but MSG is only a single sodium glutamate, while chicken is a complex seasoning, in which the content of sodium glutamate is about 40%. In addition to monosodium glutamate, chicken essence contains starch (used to form granules), taste-enhancing nucleotides (increases the taste of monosodium glutamate), sugar, and other spices. Strictly speaking, chicken essence should also have some ingredients from chicken, such as chicken powder, chicken oil, etc., to produce chicken flavor. However, because ingredients from chickens are expensive, manufacturers may not use chicken ingredients at all to reduce costs. Therefore, whether or not the chicken essence you buy contains ingredients from chicken depends entirely on the manufacturer, and it is basically impossible for consumers to judge from the product. From this point of view, chicken essence is not healthier than monosodium glutamate, and the key is to apply it rationally.

Natural foods will also fade

Nowadays, people are worried about food safety issues, especially for some foods that are easily discolored. How do you understand what kind of discoloration is normal and what kind of discoloration is abnormal?

Some people think that bright red strawberries, cherry tomatoes, and peanut beans wash out red water, and black sesame seeds turn black because they are stained with pigments. How to wash red apples does not fade, so natural foods will not fade.

In fact, plant pigments are very complex chemical substances. Before artificial pigments were developed, they could decorate our lives colorfully and colorfully, so natural foods would also be lost. However, each food contains different pigments and thus has different characteristics. Experiments have shown that natural black sesame seeds, purple rice, and peanut beans all stain the washed water, and damaged strawberries also stain red water. This does not indicate the result of staining with artificial colors. But the complete strawberry and cherry fruit will not be dyed with red water. If you encounter a strange discoloration at this time, I am afraid that you can buy foods that use the pigment “beauty”.

The cherry tomatoes are not genetically modified foods

The cherry tomatoes (commonly known as small tomatoes) have become a kind of fruits and vegetables that people like very much because of their rich nutrition, good taste and convenience. However, there are rumors on the Internet that the cherry tomatoes are genetically modified foods that may have an impact on human health. In this regard, Zhang Guisheng, deputy director of the Bureau of Agriculture of Xi’an City, made it clear that the cherry tomatoes are not GM foods, and people can rest assured that they eat.

Liu Jianhui, an associate professor at Northwestern A&F University's College of Horticulture, said that the cherry tomatoes belongs to the genus Tomato, formerly known as “cherry tomato”. They were introduced from Taiwan, but the first introduced variety name was “Saint”, so people later put all the small ones. Tomatoes are known as "cherries", in fact there are many varieties of small tomatoes.

Moreover, when the wild tomatoes were collected by the Central and South Americans at the time of their own vegetable garden in 500 BC, the tomatoes had a small body size that matched the cherries. Subsequently, through continuous cross-breeding, the heads of tomatoes became larger and larger.

Sugar-free foods are not necessarily healthy

For the definition of sugar-free foods, the internationally accepted concept is that sugar-free foods cannot include sucrose and sugars derived from starch hydrolysates, including glucose, maltose, and fructose. However, it must contain substitutes corresponding to sugars, and sugar substitutes such as sugar alcohols or oligosaccharides that do not increase blood sugar can be used instead of sucrose.

However, if sugar alcohols and oligosaccharides are added, the cost will obviously be higher. As a result, most of our products have turned to high-intensity sweeteners such as Anzamide, cyclamate, and saccharin. The sweetness of these things is hundreds of times that of sucrose. For example, in the original formula, 40 grams of product would have to add 40 grams of sucrose. Now only a few grams of sweetener is enough. What is the size of the volume? In general, it is not starch that is used for filling, or starch hydrolysate, such as dextrins and the like. These things, like sugar, can quickly increase blood sugar and are as easy to fat as sugar. It is equally troublesome for diabetics and dieters.