Part of the overwhelming allure of processed foods beyond the colorful, creative packaging shouting at you from the shelf is the orderly, symmetrical and very consistent shapes of each cracker, chip, cookie, puff and flake.
The freakish uniformity of each Oreo cookie to all others that ever existed lulls the consumer into a complacent and dazed shopping routine that requires neither thought nor examination to execute.
Contrast the mindless grab and go mentality of supermarket shopping with the thoughtful and slow progression of a consumer through a farmer’s market as vegetables, fruits, and artisanal foods are picked up, touched and examined closely to determine which are ripest, most nutritious, and of highest quality.
When processed foods like pop tarts are examined under a scanning electron microscope (SEM), however, this uniformity fades away and a very different picture emerges.
Misshapen chaos and a horrifying lack of uniform chemical structure is revealed at 30,000 times the actual size.
In fact, artist/photographer Caren Alpert declares that pop tarts at electron microscope magnification strikingly resembles a pink calcium deposit.
Yuck!
Contrast the scary disharmony of a pop tart’s magnified chemical structure with the precision and conformity of a pineapple leaf. Â Do all pineapple leaves look the same? Â Definitely not. Â But under an electron microscope, the true beauty and order is revealed.
How about a fortune cookie? Â Does this look like something our digestive system would welcome and know exactly what to do with?
Compare this chemical chaos with that of a simple almond below. Â Doesn’t it seem that the orderly perfection of our digestive enzymes would work a lot more effectively with this precise molecular structure?
The next time you are tempted to pick up that colorful package from the store shelf, remember that the comforting uniformity you see with your naked eye is a complete illusion. The true molecular nature of that enticing processed food is one of chaos and disharmony that will correspondingly bring decay and decline to the person that eats it.
It is ironically the visual irregularity of whole foods that is the clue to their true nature of orderly symmetry under intense magnification.
If these pictures astound you as they did me, you can view the entire collection of Ms. Alpert’s amazing photo series online here, or at New York’s Citigroup Building (153 E. 53rd St.) through January 31, 2013.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
That sure is an eye opener (no pn intended)!!! YUCK..so glad I don’t eat junk like that!
Oh, I’m disappointed! I thought Sarah was going to give us a homemade recipe for “poptarts!” I love them, but don’t eat them anymore. =(
Anita,
I was thinking the same thing. We watched how fig cookies were made (Paul Neuman kind) and the kids were grossed out by it. Me too. I was amazed at how much HFS was added to the organic cookies.
Check out the Heavenly Homemaker blog. Whe has a pretty good homemade pop tart recipe.
The whole thing just makes so much sense! Processed foods are full of lies! Looks and taste can be deceiving!
Very nice post and definitely some additional food for thought (all puns intended). But I did look at the rest of pictures in Caren Alpert’s gallery and while I thought the natural foods had a beauty to them that the processed did not, not all of the natural foods showed the same kind of uniformity that the pineapple leaf & almond did. The cauliflower looks like a crevasse in a glacier…lol.
Awesome! My 7 year-old only went gaga only over the sprinkles :). All of the other fake food was clearly inferior.
“The freakish uniformity of each Oreo cookie to all others that ever existed lulls the consumer into a complacent and dazed shopping routine that requires neither thought nor examination to execute.” – Love that!!
A picture IS worth a thousand words! Thanks for sharing those beautiful images.
Disturbing. I can’t believe people still eat those things.
For those of us who believe God is our creator, this just demonstrates one of His attributes–orderliness. Thanks for sharing this info!
Yes 🙂
Yes Rebecca, I totally agree. That is what I was logging on to say myself. God is not chaotic, but rather highly organized. Everything He does is well planned and thoughtful.
As a chemical engineer I can look at nature VS what we make as engineers and can agree that God is our creator.
Pop Tarts under magnification look YUCK. Hurrah for whole foods. Thanks for sharing.
Wouldn’t a home made pop tart require some nutritious flour, high quality butter, and pureed fruit all baked together?
Exactly, Rebecca…nature tends toward entropy, but an Intelligent Mind has engineered incredibly precise and beautiful molecular designs…no accident for sure!
YES! Thank you!
Hey Rebecca!
After reading this article, I immediately had the same thought as you, and posted as such. How funny to now look through the comments and see someone with the same name and the same thought!!
I had this exact thought!! Glory be to God!
Amen! Glory to God who provides in abundance in His creation all that we need to sustain good health.
Amen!
I love the writing too. It is what I feel but have trouble expressing.
Yes! Me too. This is what I want to say but can’t find the words! Love this! Thanks once again Sarah!