How often do we seriously consider the ethics behind food production and delivery? Robert H. Lustig presents an excellent argument in his article, The Most Unhappy of Pleasures: This is Your Brain on Sugar. First he explains what constitutes addiction, and then how sugar meets those guidelines. He follows up with how the food industry is manufacturing and marketing food as a means to happiness and how it does just the exact opposite.
Dr. Mark Hyman has a new book, The Blood Sugar Solution: The UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now! He reviews holistically how important blood sugar control is to our health and wellness. The book provides a detailed guide on how to decrease the incidence of diabetes and obesity, as well as many other diseases and conditions that are related to blood sugar control.
With these sources you learn that food can be your darkest addiction that creates illness or be treated as medicine to prevent and heal most conditions that plague you today. Our experts in the food industry are well aware of this also and have used it to lure you in with savvy marketing. They also know what ingredients will encourage you to eat a whole container versus a healthy serving because it’s more profitable. It’s well understood that you will eat more fast food if eaten unconsciously in the car or in front of the tv so they promote and produce it as such. The industry also understands how to fudge the rules of ingredient disclosure and create new ingredient names to disguise the ones that we decide to boycott. The more that I learn about these practices and what it’s doing to our country’s wellness, the more disappointed and empowered I become.
I propose that there are many practices in the food industry today which I would consider unethical in the pursuit of profitability and greed. And since we live in a country that is proud of protecting our freedom to choose, I am choosing to do better. We are at a point in history right now where we are struggling with the freedom to produce and deceptively market whatever can be sold with the responsibility and morality of doing what is right for the consumer. Will there come a day that we look back at our use of sugar, sugar substitutes and many other ingredients the same way that we look at tobacco and other drugs today?
You will note that I have had a lapse in blogs for the last 8 weeks. It is because at my house we were taking back control of our health and eating habits. We removed all products with sugar, fake sugars, and most ingredients that you can’t pronounce, and began preparing food from scratch. Learning how to read labels, researching recipes and making the time to cook a priority takes time and commitment.
Wrapping your head around the idea of choosing to do better and be empowered rather than succumbing to the feeling of victimization and deprivation of food addiction is a struggle to say the least. Some people will shrug and say “moderation” is the answer that allows them to eat what they like. And I respond with how do you define moderation? Since I don’t know the answer to that, I am trying to be more safe than sorry. There is a strong movement going on to demand better food choices that is wrestling with those profiting from doing otherwise.
How do you feel about these issues?
More Resources:
Michael Polan is the author of four New York Times bestsellers:Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual (2010); In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (2008); The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006) and The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (2001)
Natural Flavors and other food labels are Deceptive Marketing
Healing in Healthcare 