"Artificial colors, preservatives etc... There's no good reason to eat these ingredients"
Sure there is. Artificial colors make food more attractive, which is an important part of the esthetic experience of eating. Don't believe me? Try blending all your meals up into a gray goo and see what that does for your eating enjoyment. Nutritionally it would be the same, but esthetically you'd be eating something that looked like vomit.
Preservatives keep it from going bad, which is a major health issue in most of the world. The "no preservatives" lifestyle is a luxury that is, in general, only available to those with high-tech western lifestyles. Other than very locally and very recently, people have been eating food with loaded with preservatives (including, most prominently, salt, but also sugar, nitrates, nitrites, lactic acid, benzoates, smoke...) for a long, long time.
The alternative to artificial colors is not very good... It's either using natural colorants such as carrots, beets or turmeric, or cooking food that doesn't require coloration to appear appetizing. Typically only very low quality food devoid of nutritional value resorts to artificial coloring.
Manufacturers can choose less harmful presevatives such as vitamin E vs bha/bht, but choose not to for their own economic reasons.
I'm able to avoid presevatives because I cook a lot of good myself, from scratch. This involves cooking vs say, watching tv and is actually cheaper than processed or fast foods. Cooking rice and beans from scratch is not first world privelege - eating synthetic compounded beans from Taco Bell is, actually.
Bulk rice and beans are cheaper than prepared foods, even at Whole Foods. If you're worried about scurvy, buy a lime for 30 cents.
I don't think the food scarcity in Guatemala is relevant. Kale and carrots and dairy products can be obtained for pennies a day, and meat is subsidized and readily available in raw form.
If you want to see the other side of that, which is abundance of low quality, toxic food, check out the various odd Heath problems that are on the rise in the US such as childhood obesity, diabetes, unexplained hyperactivity and so on.
Sure there is. Artificial colors make food more attractive, which is an important part of the esthetic experience of eating. Don't believe me? Try blending all your meals up into a gray goo and see what that does for your eating enjoyment. Nutritionally it would be the same, but esthetically you'd be eating something that looked like vomit.
Preservatives keep it from going bad, which is a major health issue in most of the world. The "no preservatives" lifestyle is a luxury that is, in general, only available to those with high-tech western lifestyles. Other than very locally and very recently, people have been eating food with loaded with preservatives (including, most prominently, salt, but also sugar, nitrates, nitrites, lactic acid, benzoates, smoke...) for a long, long time.