Until recently, there have been few studies that show the detriments to brain and body health caused by additives, sugars, and other processed poisons the food and restaurant industries are monetarily motivated to use—for the sole purpose of addicting us to need more. Thankfully, a search of the internet will demonstrate that the alarm bells are getting louder.
Starting with baby food and food for toddlers, the food industries and restaurant chains have been putting more and more sugar and/or dextrose, fructose, and other “ose” and “dex”products, unnecessary additives, plus huge amounts of cheap soy (which, in large quantities, slows down our metabolism) in our food supply.
In the early to mid fifties, once television and transportation began to boom, the food and restaurant industries became motivated by money to put these kinds of addictive “poisons” into everything we eat. Advertising took hold of our palettes and we began to rapidly purchase more and more foods, with added sugar and additives, that kept (and still keep) us hungry and craving more.
Starting in utero and continuing through adulthood, these poisons are intended to hold our American hunger senses hostage, before we have any idea of the detrimental results caused by additives that change our metabolisms for the worse. It has happened because greed was (and remains) a patient master.
This dietary disaster results in sugar (or hidden sugar) laden foods on every grocery store shelf as well as on restaurant menus. I just came across a restaurant menu with hidden pancake batter in eggs, pancake batter adulterated oatmeal, and not so hidden cheesecake pancake porn, to name just three of the unnecessary thousands of fat laden selections seeking to turn us (including younger and younger consumers) into fatter and fatter, but less and less nutritionally satisfied, food porn addicts.
Hooking babies from birth with adulterated baby food and then toddler fast food, those problems have worsened with each generation. The sad reality is that it will continue, to the detriment of populations to come, if we don’t learn to demand better from the food and restaurant industries. The only way to fight this is to start a media campaign, to demand absolutely necessary change, starting with healthy pregnancies and moving forward.
Expectant mothers should make decisions every day to eat only healthy food during pregnancy, and then as parents, to make their own baby’s food without sugar and additives. And finally, be among those who educate others to be role models for toddlers and children about a lifetime of healthy eating, which means remembering to:
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Count the carbs and kinds of carbs in everything…understanding that bad carbohydrates are in white or junk wheat—wheat in color only—bread, white rice, white potatoes, etc. as well as in sugared foods.
2. Check on actual sugars and hidden sugars, understanding that white and junk wheat bread, white rice, and white potatoes quickly turn into sugar in our bodies.
3. Go VERY easy on most fruits and most fruit juices because they contain LOTS of sugar, and/or sugar substitutes and the more sugar, in any form that we eat, the more we’ll want.
4. Consume only lean meats, chicken, and fish and lots of fresh or frozen vegetables.
5. Eat salads without poisonous (filled with additives and sugar) dressings.
6. Watch the intake of condiments (like ketchup, mayo, and relish that contain sugar (only a few brands don’t).
7. Almost never eating anything fried, because fried coverings on meat, chicken, and fish—not to mention French fries—are more than just hard to digest; they’re hard (and soft, as in flabby) on the derrière.
If all of this sounds overwhelming, it’s because the food and restaurant industries have hooked most consumers into becoming, (just like drug addicts) addicted to sugar-filled, adulterated food. If that kind of ”food” isn’t purchased, the industries will have to eventually listen and provide healthy choices.
Also, because we live more sedentary lifestyles, with much less physical activity or exercise, while being hooked by and on the extra sugar and food additives; the result is unhealthy weight gain at younger and younger ages. Which, in a circular turn of events, doesn’t motivate people of even younger ages to move. Once people begin to make healthy choices and lose weight it’s easier to move, whether by walking, bike riding, swimming, or playing sports, for all age groups. And with a daily routine, moving will become even easier as age progresses.
Treating ourselves, once in a great while, is necessary. But we need to remember to go easy because sugar is very addictive (why it’s put in almost everything and gets us hooked), creating the more we eat the more we’ll want effect—always needing the next “fix”.
