| Toxic Foods: The Obesity Connection |
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| Diet and Nutrition |
| Written by Dave DePew |
| Sunday, 13 April 2008 13:44 |
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Increasingly over the past few years, more and more medical and fitness experts alike are openly voicing their concerns about the connection between processed foods and obesity in America. In 2006, Dr. Robert Lustig, of the University of California San Francisco took it one step further when he wrote in the Nature Clinical Practice: Endocrinology and Metabolism journal that processed food were loaded with sugars that altered the body's hormonal balance, creating a "toxic environment" and an "addiction" to food. These were strong words that suggested that maybe those who struggled with extreme weight gain were not entirely to blame for their obesity. True, there is no disputing that individually you do have personal responsibility for your body and what you put into it. However, does the processed food industry bear some responsibility for offering foods to consumers that are loaded in sugars? Are they knowingly creating food products that are addictive in nature? The premise as to how the process works isn’t that complicated to understand. When you consume sugar, it causes your body to increase its production of insulin. Insulin, in turn, blocks the hormones in your body that control the function of controlling your appetite. So, you continue to eat and eat because you still feel hungry, when in fact you are full. You may think that you are not consuming sugar-laden products because you have reduced or eliminated sweets from your diet, but you may be surprised that many of the other processed foods you are eating do contain sugar. Foods such as pasta, bread, chips, condiments and thousands of other products all have sweeteners in them. It’s true that you can educate consumers regarding these dietary dangers in processed foods, but is it enough when the food industry continues to turn out thousands of sugar-filled products each year and less healthy option? Even the so-called healthy options like reduce or low-fat are not safe from an injection of sugar because more sugar is added to these products in order to take the fat out. Bizarre, but true! Long-lasting change has to come from within the nation’s food supply. Food manufacturers need to change the way they make food and this idea may not be embraced by the industry because it means they wouldn’t have as much profitability. Since the sweeteners found in most processed foods are derived from corn and corn is one of the cheapest most abundant ingredients out there for processed food manufacturers they aren’t going to move willingly, without resistance, toward healthier alternatives. After all, that would cut into their profit margins and they just can’t have that. As an interested party with a vested interest in your health and well-being, make it a priority to know exactly what you are putting into your body. Always read the labels. And, if you feel strongly enough, get involved to change how the food industry does business by sending a clear message you find their practices unacceptable. Hopefully, some day enough voices joined together may make the difference. Until then, do what you can to protect your health and avoid too many processed foods.
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