Dear Dad,
You’re quite a salesman. What would be your strategy in this situation?
One of my favorite comedians has a bit describing his time at the appliance store dealing with the refrigerator salesman…
Yeah, this one right here will keep your food cold for $600. This one will do the same thing for $800. Check this one out, $1,400, will keep all your food cold.1
This ridiculous bit highlights a significant point. Many things that we encounter, which are purported to be similar, may vary drastically in quality. The same is true for the food that you eat.
The effects of food quality on health were unexpectedly demonstrated in a study which set out to answer an entirely different question. Two different groups of researchers embarked on separate studies to answer the question of how a calorie restricted diet impacted the lifespan of rhesus monkeys. The researchers belonged to the National Institute for Aging and University of Wisconsin. Both studies separated monkeys into two groups: group one received a calorie restricted diet; group two, the control group, was given more food and calories to eat.
The results collected by both studies conflicted:
“The University of Wisconsin (UW) study found that rhesus monkeys that were fed a calorie-restricted diet, which contained 30 percent fewer calories than a control group’s diet, survived to about 28 years for males and about 30 years for females—above average for such primates in captivity. In contrast, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) study found no significant effect of calorie restriction on survival.”2
Great. So what’s the point? Well, thankfully, based on this discrepancy another study was launched by a third group to study the previous studies and determine the causes of the opposing data. Science! This third study, uncovered a helpful point:
“NIA fed their monkeys a naturally sourced diet comprised of varied protein sources, while the UW diet was purified with limited ingredients and contained a significantly higher amount of sucrose [sugar] compared to the NIA diet.”3
Essentially, the third study found that food quality matters. The NIH study found no significant difference in longevity as it related to the amount of food eaten likely because they fed their monkeys high quality food meaning the negative effects of overeating was inconsequential when the food was of high quality. The Wisconsin study found a significant difference in longevity as it related to the amount of food eaten likely because their monkeys were fed poor quality food meaning the effects of overeating bad food explained the disparity between the monkeys. The study was particularly helpful because, “rhesus monkeys are vulnerable to many of the same diseases as humans, including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.”4
Just like shopping for refrigerators: quality matters—eating higher quality food might impact your health more than the amount of food that you eat. Especially, if you were a monkey.
The best news is that high quality food tastes better too. This is true whether the food is a fresh picked vegetable at the roadside farm stand versus the same one grabbed from the supermarket; or a steak from Outback versus the same cut from Peter Luger. While there might be an obvious financial barrier when it comes to the cuts of meat, the same is not true for the fresh produce. In either event, the richness of taste and nutrients will be beneficial in the fresh veggie or high quality cut.
Measuring food quality in real time can be hard and of course I’d recommend parsing through my first 27 letters to sort it out…but here are 5 quick helpful tips to choosing better quality food.
If packaged, 5 ingredients (or less) that you can pronounce and picture accurately in your head.
Foods not package at all—think fruits and veggies
Does it expire? Fresh high quality food should spoil if not eaten! Think wonder bread versus a fresh loaf from the bakery.
Is it in season and local? A blueberry in the summer from the local farm will be better than one in the winter shipped from across the country.
Did you make it yourself?
Monkey See Monkey Do.
With Love,
JSR
