It continues to fascinate me, how Big Food tries to justify its products in the face of the broad ill health that they are bringing to the world.

The new example is a story on foodnavigator-usa.com, reporting the remarks of a General Foods nutritionist, Susan Crockett, at the Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo in Philadelphia this week. Here’s a synopsis:

1) Processed food isn’t the enemy.

2) It’s unrealistic to expect people to eat more whole foods and fewer processed foods.

3) People who endorse whole over processed are snobs.

4) Most people don’t want healthier food.

5) There’s no difference in how Big Food processes food and how grandma prepared foods in her kitchen.

Oh my frickin’ goodness! Obfuscation, misdirection, outright lies. Said with a straight face, presumably, in front of an audience very interested in nutrition.

I understand about group-think and denial, but how can anyone be expected to grant even a scintilla of credibility to crap like that?

Whole foods are demonstrably healthier, even if they're not as convenient, and almost anyone not co-opted by paycheck would agree. No, this isn’t an absolute, but the closer a food is to whole, the more likely it is to be healthful, and the higher its number of ingredients, the more likely it is to be unhealthful.

Does establishing that fact mean no one should ever eat processed food? I say no, and I’m among its steadfast critics. But does it mean they are less healthful, best used sparingly, with full awareness of their unhealthfulness? Obviously.

Nutrition is not a class issue. The basics of nutrition, that are bodies are made up almost entirely what we put into them, apply to all humans just like, say, gravity does. And it is not snobbery to point out a basic truth like that.

A primary reason that some people say they don’t want healthier food is that Big Food has served billions and billions of ads persuading them against it. That’s how junk food became “fun” and nutrition became the province of sissies. There are reasons why Big Food would want to invest in processed food, and then why it would promote it, but those selfish reasons do not change basic facts. And: Ask people if they want to be healthier. Who says no to that question?

And finally, where did your Grandma keep the guar gum? How ‘bout the sodium acid pyrophosphate?

Grandma made food; they make food-like substances (coinage by Michael Pollan). OMG, the stones of these people.