Big Food is causing big problems
What’s in YOUR belly?
A new article in the medical journal PLoS Medicine takes aim at the huge food and beverage makers who peddle fast food, processed food and sugary soft drinks, saying they are using the same tactics as Big Tobacco to avoid taking any responsibility for the epidemic of obesity and the medical complications that come with it, including Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, joint problems and more.
The food produced by these companies is less nutritious and far more fattening than fresh food, but even after their heavy marketing and their influence on government not to be regulated, Big Food blames its victims for not taking responsibility for their own weight.
These companies market their bad food to children (toaster tarts, sodas, sugary cereals, “chicken” nuggets, cheese-food product, deep-fried chips and fast food), who then pester their parents. Often, parents have little or no idea how bad these foods are; they often join their children in feasting on this stuff.
Unfortunately, there are just too many opportunities to eat junk. I gave blood yesterday and was offered a free lunch — fast food from several restaurants. I declined and went and got some real food.
My 19-year-old granddaughter gave up soft drinks (soda and sweet tea) nine weeks ago and has lost 15 pounds already — without doing anything else.
A study 10 or so years ago found that for every soda a child drinks per day, he or she adds 4 pounds of excess body weight in a year (one soda a day, 4 pounds, two sodas a day, 8 pounds, etc.)
Most sweet drinks are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup now and despite what the “corn sugar” industry says, your body does know the difference. The more high-fructose corn syrup you ingest, the more likely you are to develop Type 2 diabetes. The stuff is metabolized differently than sugar and it affects the way your body makes and uses insulin.
And speaking of corn, the toxin used to genetically modify Monsanto’s sweet corn kills bugs by causing their stomachs to rupture. Monsanto claims the toxin disappears after the corn is harvested, but rats that were fed the corn displayed organ damage and the toxin has been found in the tissues of pregnant women.
Even so, Congress killed the attempt by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to require Monsanto and others to label its genetically modified foods.
Big Food has big sway over government. That’s how sugar got into the food pyramid, and how Monsanto got to force more farmers to use its seeds. It owns the DNA structure of its corn and if the corn cross-pollinates with that on another farm, Monsanto sues the farmer for patent infringement. So family farms are going under and Monsanto just buys up more land to grow its corn.
Industrially farmed meats also are less nutritious, and less safe. The meats are higher in saturated fats and cholesterol and the meat is filled with growth hormones and antibiotic, leading to more resistant and deadly strains of bacteria. They also have less flavor than animals fed what they should be eating.
If Big Food was so safe, why do we have so many people who are both obese and malnourished?
Yet these Big Food companies are influencing nutrition all over the globe. They join in public-private partnerships with governments and with the United Nations as “experts” on nutrition and peddle their bad food and bad policy.
So, how do we fight them? Simple. Eat local food. Go to tailgate markets to do your shopping. Buy organic when you can’t get something locally. Make more things from scratch so you know what’s in your food. Grow some of your own food. If you don’t have room for a ground garden, have a patio garden.
Yes, it’s somewhat more expensive, but you will have lower medical costs, and you will learn to appreciate and understand good nutrition.
When my kids were little, I baked all their snacks from scratch. They wanted the forbidden Hostess and Little Debbie cakes, but once they tried them, they realized homemade tastes better. It’s also a lot cheaper and it’s not hard to make.
When you become aware of what you’re putting into your body, you begin to foil Big Food. They’re counting on you to believe what they say is good for you.
Want to know more about good and bad food? Try reading Michael Pollan’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma” or “In Defense of Food,” or Marion Nestle’s “Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health.” You can also rent the movie, “Food Inc.”
Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to your food.
Tags: antibiotics, Big Food, diabetes, genetic modifications, growth hormones, local food, obesity, organic
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Patient Pals & Family Friends
Life o' Mike has a peer support program for people with one or more serious or chronic medical issues or disabilities.
We aim to reduce isolation and fear among people who have conditions, including psychiatric illness, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mild dementia or other cognitive disorder or disability, thereby reducing depression and complications as people learn to improve self-management of their medical conditions.
Patient Pals help alleviate feelings of isolation and frustration. They can help people develop a list of questions to ask the doctor and then accompany the person to the doctor to make sure all the questions are answered, taking notes to be sure the person understands the doctor’s answers.
Our trained volunteers also accompany their “Pals” to art exhibits, movies and walks outdoors, meet for coffee, call to check in and more.
Our Pals have experienced weight loss, improvement in diabetes, HIV, psoriasis, depression and more, just because they have someone who cares about them. Some relationships develop into longer-term friendships; other Pals move on to more independent lives.
Family Friends are there to help caregivers and other family members grow into their new role.
We need volunteers, who are asked to donate a minimum of one hour a week. Training is free and includes information on active listening, ways to help and when to know more help is needed.
And of course, we need funding.
To learn more, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712 or e-mail lifeomike@gmail.com.
Life o’ Mike honors Joe Eblen
Life o' Mike presented its first Michael T. Danforth Community Service Award to Joe Eblen at a luncheon on June 8, in the Friendship Hall of First Congregational Church, 20 Oak St., Asheville.
Joe, seen here with Leslie Boyd, left, and his wife, Bobbie, has spent his life helping children and families, both as a coach and game official for more than 60 years, and as founder of Eblen Charities.
Start From Seed
Life o' Mike has a new program- Start from Seed (SFS).
SFS is a volunteer doula program aimed at providing non-medical, comprehensive support to low income, high-risk women and families of Buncombe County focusing on three areas:
1. We help new doulas with certification and training in return for their participation as a volunteer doula for SFS
2. We mentor volunteer doulas with their first few clients
3. Our volunteer doulas provide birth and postpartum doula services to low income, high risk moms, providing support and tools to empower them as a new parent.
A birth doula is a trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth; a postpartum doula provides emotional and practical support during the postpartum period.
Start from Seed clients are referred to us from the Buncombe County Department of Health’s Nurse-Family Partnership Program, Western North Carolina Community Health Services, and Mission Hospital. The Program is intended and designed for growing clients’ inner strength and helping them gain empowerment to help them cope with the emotional, physical and mental challenges of childbirth, labor, and motherhood.
Our new moms and their infants have many needs. If you would like to help them get off to a good start, please visit our Start from Seed web site: Start from Seed, or call Program Director Chelsea Kouns at 804-814-9946.