In the beginning of the previous century with the industrial revolution
well underway, as an american were becoming complacent and needed some
way to relax from our daily workload. The industry was ripe to make
changes to our need and demands to be pampered with convenience foods.
Industry obliged. Convenience, or prepared foods emerged. It was quickly
made aware to the various manufacturers that the more they could lower
their cost producing each of these "TV dinners", not necessarily passing
on this savings to the consumer, the more bottom line profit they could
make. Through their ongoing research it was found that additives could
be combined with many preparations to increase their shelf life. This
meant less waste on any given food package. Less loss meant more profit.
The consumer was happy and the manufacturers were even happier.

Today, virtually all of the freezer section of our food markets are
filled with various manufacturers of convenience food preparations from
A to Z. Fewer and fewer of these consumer meals contain original
products. Many that are labeled as "Blueberry xxx" do not contain "real"
blueberries, but instead have been replaced with artificial equivalents
which have a semblance and taste of the real fruit. Along with imitation
content there's usually an excess addition of refined sugar concentrate,
a no-no for proper nutrition, especially in the growing years. What is
so outrageous is that the consumer pays good money for food that has
very poor "nutritional" value. Are we getting our money's worth ? In
some cases the prepared food is found to contain ingredients that have
been found to pose actual toxicity levels that could pose a possible
danger to those who have a weak immune system or weak liver. These foods
are the one's loosely labeled "lower sugar content" or "sugar-free",
which have replace some of the sugar ingredients with Aspertame, or
other sugar substitutes, which have also been found to have very high
toxicity in the human body.

A guide for every consumer at this point would probably be...read the
ingredients of any food package you buy. The question to ask... Is this
possible or even practical ? It would take up most of our day just to
go through a small shopping list. With this noted, this says to us that
the manufacturers of the food products in our supermarkets make it too
complex for the consumer, but more profit oriented for the originator
of the product. Since the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) is supposed
to regulate and set guidelines as to how our foods are produced for us
consumers, there seems to be a missing link of involvement, at least as
far as what can be seen.

Maybe it's time to recall a one-time recurring quote that was aired a few
years ago by one fast-food chain for its commercial importance and the
quote had the finale..., "where's the beef?"