Brenda’s Blog

Science or Nature?

In a recent trip to Japan revealed, food is NOT a lost art, and definitely NOT a science as in the U.S. They still value fresh foods (fish, vegetables and rice), cook every meal and served in striking stoneware, in an attractive setting.This feast for your eyes is where most of the beauty comes from seeing the foodstuffs before you order. Where Western people read the menu and talk to waiters to get information about what’s on offer at a restaurant, Japanese people can see the sample of dishes before they even enter. You order from a menu of plastic “fake” food. Fake food samples appear prevalent in the windows and display cases of food-serving establishments throughout Japan.
Fake food dates back to the time of the Pharaohs of Egypt and perhaps before. When a King or Pharaoh died, they were often buried with everything they needed for their journey to the next world. Foods were preserved and laid to rest with them in their tomb.
Modern times saw increased use of plastic food. Following Japan’s surrender ending World War II, Americans and Europeans traveled to Japan to help with the rebuilding efforts. Foreign travelers had difficulties reading Japanese menus, so Japanese artisans and candle makers quickly developed plates of wax foods for restaurants that made it easy for foreigners to order something that looked good. Paraffin was used to create fake food until the mid-1980s; because its colors faded when exposed to heat or sunlight, manufacturers later switched to vinyl chloride, which is “nearly eternal”.
The plastic models are still 95% handmade from polyvinyl chloride and carefully sculpted to look like the actual dishes. The models are custom-tailored to the restaurants and even common items such as ramen will be modified to match each establishment’s offerings. The craftsmanship has been raised to an art form. The craftsmen get samples of real food from the clients then produce the unique plastic copy. The food displays are called sampuru (サンプル?), derived from the English word “sample”.
The plastic food manufacturers fiercely guard their trade secrets as it is a very profitable business. A single restaurant may order a complete menu of plastic items costs over a million yen. Although accurate figures are not available for the plastic food market, industry sources say, annual sales are estimated to reach about 8.5 billion yen.
Interestingly, the creators of “fake” food ban many “fake” foods in their foods they consume…
There are chemicals and additives allowed in U.S. snacks, drinks and packaged foods that other countries have considered so unhealthy, they have banned them.

What are we talking about?

Here’s just one example: Fake coloring that gives those eerie bright hues to boxed mac and cheese, breakfast cereal, candy and soft drinks. Linked to behavioral changes in children, allergies, migraines and possibly cancer, those dyes are banned in several countries. Just as an example: In March Kraft was petitioned to use more natural coloring in their mac and cheese products, as the company does in other countries where the dyes are illegal. Kraft said no.
The full list of foods with questionable chemicals banned elsewhere comes from a new book by nutritionists Jayson Calton, Ph.D., and Mira Carlton called Rich Food, Poor Food.

It was also reported by BuzzFeed.com. Here are eight banned foods available in the U.S.

1. Artificially colored food made with dyes derived from petroleum and coal tar. Yellow 5, Red 40 and six others dyes — used to enhance products from Froot-Loops to Nutri-Grain cereal bars — are called the “rainbow of risk” by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
2. Chicken with arsenic. Arsenic in chicken feed cuts down on parasites, makes chickens grow faster and gives their meat more color. It also gives the chicken we eat higher levels of arsenic, known to cause lung, bladder and skin cancers, a study last month by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore found. Arsenic-laced feed is banned in most other countries.
3. Drinks with brominated vegetable oil (BVO). Bromine is a chemical used as a flame-retardant and has been linked to neurological problems and interferes with thyroid hormones, among other things, so why is it in our food? Brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, is added to citrus-flavored soda (like Mountain Dew) and soft drinks to make the artificial colors stick to the liquid. BVO has been banned in 100 countries, as well as India and Japan, yet it’s in U.S. products. In January, PepsiCo announced it would no longer use the additive in Gatorade but only after numerous consumers complained, but would leave it in Mountain Dew.
4. Breads with potassium bromate, used in bromated flour to make bread products raise higher and faster. Found in rolls, bagel chips, bread crumbs and flatbreads, potassium bromate has been linked to thyroid and kidney cancers in lab animals. It has been banned in Europe, Japan, Canada and China. However, California declared it a carcinogen in 1991.
5. Frozen dinners with azodicarbonamide. This is used to bleach and stabilize flour and also to make foamed plastic products like yoga mats and sneakers. Found in frozen TV dinners, packaged baked goods and some breads, it has been associated with inducing asthma. It is banned in Japan, Australia, the U.K. and most European countries.
6. Food preserved with BHA and BHT. These preservatives are added to cereal, nut mixes, gum, butter, meat and dehydrated potatoes to keep them from turning rancid. The debate over their safety has been going on in the U.S. for years. Meanwhile, they’re banned in the U.K., Japan and many European countries.
7. Milk with rBGH and rBST, also known as bovine growth hormones. Synthetic hormones, these are given to cows and therefore found in milk and other dairy products (unless the label specifically says otherwise). They have been linked to cancer and infertility and are banned in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan and the European Union.
8. Chips with Olestra or Olean, a fat substitute used in fat-free chips, like Ruffles Wow. Olestra and Olean can produce cramps and leaky bowels and are banned in the U.K, Japan, and Canada.

In conclusion: Fake food in Japan is for display, in the US, fake food is what we eat! It is interesting to note that the U.S. keeps food as a SCIENCE and not an ART as nature intended. With over 5,000 additives going into our food and more on the way every year, are we living better through fake food/science? Do you want to eat according to SCIENCE or NATURE? Look around you and see all the dis-ease – you decide.