Is Refined Food Really Organic?
By Brane Žilavec, May 2012
In recent years we have seen more and more certified
organic products made from refined ingredients, such as white flour and
whitish types of sugar, while at the same time we are witnessing in the
mainstream food market the trend towards whole grains and even a movement
promoting complete elimination of sugar on the basis of health reasons. How
is it possible that the organic movement, in spite of all its past positive
work to provide people with good quality food, has lost its compass in
regard to the choice between whole and refined food?
How can the representatives of the organic movement claim that their
main purpose is "to produce high quality, nutritious food that contributes
to preventative health care and well-being" of people while there is no
single scientific evidence about the positive health impact of refined
foods? There is a full report available which looks at this issue from
various perspectives in an attempt to raise attention to this greatest weakness
of the organic movement with the aim to remedy this weird and unhealthy
situation.
CONTENT OF THE REPORT
1. Holistic approach to nutrition
A holistic approach to nutrition is very extensive and multilayered
because of the extremely complex nature of the human being. Even if we look
to the physical body only we can see a bewildering complexity when we
penetrate to the cellular and molecular levels. If we add to this the
complexity of other natural kingdoms which are the sources of the food we
consume, we can understand the difficulties when one wants to approach the
questions of nutrition in a truly holistic way. My website is an attempt to
cut through this confusing complexity and to formulate the fundamental
principles of a holistic approach to nutrition in a similar way to the
fundamental principles of organic farming. For this reason I am here giving
just a brief introduction.
I always stress that whenever we deal with the living organism, one
cannot underestimate anything which has an effect on it. I never say that
nutrition is the only important or the most important thing in regard to
human health. My understanding is that everything "a person does, or is
guided to do" [1] is extremely important. We need to extend our knowledge
and awareness about the multitude of physical, psychological and spiritual
influences and their interrelationships with various parts of human being.
This is a real holistic approach to human health and wellbeing.
The guide for the practices of the members of the organic movement
should be based on understanding how the food affects the human being in all
his manifold aspects. In regard to the question of what kind of food is the
most appropriate for human beings we need to guard against the very
widespread practice of one-sided, simple answers. Even if we leave aside
those answers which are motivated by profit, we are still not free from
false conclusions. In many cases what is true inside limited areas turns
into falsification when it is extended to the whole humankind. This is the
most widespread error in regard to nutritional rules and advice with which
we are flooded nowadays in the media and elsewhere.
"Present-day mankind must, above all, realise more and more that man is
a complicated being and that everything to do with man is connected with
this complexity of his being. If there is a kind of science holding the
opinion that man consists merely of a physical body, it cannot possibly work
beneficially with the healthy or the sick human being. For health and
sickness, have a relationship to man as a whole and not to one part of him
only, namely the physical body." [2]
For that reason I will present an overview of all possible influences
which contribute to the final outcome of a meal and which determine if the
meal fulfils the needs of a person in a healthy way, or it does not. If we
want to understand the essential differences in the effects of Wholefood vs
Refined we need to get first a broad picture which will prevent us to be
lost in the details when we focus on the particular aspects in the following
chapters.
As you can see the question of the quality of ingredients in our food
is just one among nine aspects. This shows that any attempt to promote
Organic = Healthy is contrary to the facts
of life. Of course, one can say organic food is healthier than food produced
by the help of artificial chemical substances. However, the use of
general health claims for promotion of organic food is leading people into
false beliefs that one can ‘buy health’. The reality is: as we cannot buy an
understanding of something with the purchase of a book, we cannot buy health
with the purchase of organic food. In both cases we need to put in an effort
to achieve either understanding with the help of good book or a healthy
state of balance with the help of good food.
But this does not lessen the importance of food quality. On the contrary
– it has a tremendous significance. One can find the aspect of quality in
all other aspects. In fact, living organisms are never working in an
isolated manner, but within them everything is interrelated. Only for the
sake of understanding do we need to separate out of them various aspects of
their being.
Because of this living web of interconnections I had some difficulties
in keeping exclusively to the chosen topic in the following chapters. Of
most importance is that the presented facts are understood and that links
are established by the readers themselves. I hope that in the follow up
there will also be presented additional perspectives. Only if we listen to
each other can we improve our understanding of the numerous aspects of food
quality. In a way this should be our ‘duty’ if we are seriously committed to
the task of producing food which will serve the needs of human beings in the
best possible way.
