Trust People Not Brands

Last week I posted a funny story about how I discovered a selection of Bob’s Red Mill products at the local Big Lots store.

I received a couple of emails and comments from folks about this post mentioning that they were happy to hear that Bob’s Red Mill is a brand I trust.

After chewing on this for a few days, I’ve realized that clarification of my unintentional plug for Bob’s Red Mill products was necessary!

The fact is, Bob’s Red Mill is most decidedly not a brand I trust.  While I do indeed use a few of their products and find them to be high quality, there are a number of products in the Bob’s Red Mill line that are extremely unhealthy and ones that I would never consider buying.

Note the picture to the right.   Bob’s Red Mill carries a product called “TVP”.   TVP stands for Textured Vegetable Protein, better known to those of us in the Traditional Food World as MSG loaded, thyroid weakening, backside expanding, hair falling out of your head producing, can’t get off the couch fatigue-inducing soy protein.

In short, TVP should be avoided like the plague.

The product next to the TVP is Hemp Protein Powder.   Hemp protein powder is also another product I would take great pains to avoid eating at all costs.   All protein powders contain MSG and are nothing but highly processed denatured ingestibles (I can’t even bring myself to call it food) no matter who markets them.  I wrote a post about this a while back called Ditch That Protein Powder if you want to know more.

Whey protein, in particular, is extremely fragile and cannot ever be powdered or dried.

“Trust in a brand”  implies that the use of any of the products in the brand’s product line would bring no harm to the consumer and contain acceptable ingredients.  Bob’s Red Mill does not come close to qualifying based on that definition.

People Gain Our Trust, Not Brands

I put my trust in people, never brands.  The people I trust who produce my food may have a brand of products that I use, but I don’t trust their products, I trust them.  Because I trust them and understand and agree with their food philosophy, I buy their products.

It’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing.

The reason I don’t trust the brand is because the folks I trust might choose to sell that brand one day (which is fine and totally their prerogative – this is a capitalist country after all)  to a Big Food company.

Then, all of a sudden, the brand is cheapened and its ingredients or method of production no longer acceptable.

Has this ever happened to you?   A brand you thought you “trusted” that had excellent ingredients and that you used for years suddenly was sold unbeknownst to you to a large food corporation that did a bait and switch with the ingredients?

The reason this happens is because the person you trusted who originated the brand is now out of the picture due to the buyout.   The brand then goes to the dogs even though the name and the marketing remain the same.

This is why you must always put your trust in people through buying locally or from small scale producers in other locations that you ideally know personally or at the very least, can talk to on the phone directly.

It’s another reason why you need to frequently check the ingredients label of the brands you do buy unless you personally know the owner and are in contact with them on occasion.  Otherwise, you are at risk for The Big Fast One.

Big Food loves to pull The Big Fast One on the consumer. It is a favored marketing technique that explains why so many little organic food companies have been gobbled up over the past 10 years and continue to be acquired at a rapid rate.

Check out this chart by clicking here.  Can you believe all the little organic food company acquisitions by Big Food over the past few years?

Big Food is attempting to buy consumer trust with this acquisition strategy.

I don’t know about you, but you can’t buy my trust.  You have to earn it.

I’ll bet some of your favorite healthy “brands” are in fact owned by Big Food and you didn’t even realize it!   Doesn’t this shocking visual help to cement the notion that people, preferably local people, and not brands, should really be the focus of our trust?