 |
Health Editorial For Those Concerned About A Healthy LifestyleWhat's Happened to America's Food Supply?
Webster's dictionary defines food as: "any substance taken into and assimilated by a plant or an animal to keep it alive and enable it to grow and repair tissue; nourishment; nutriment." So that there can be no doubt as to what Webster had in mind when he defined 'food', here is his brief biography. Noah Webster, who is the author of the dictionary which bears his name, lived from 1758 to 1843. He is known as the "Father of American Scholarship and Education." Back in Noah Webster's era there were no genetically modified organisms (GMOs), high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, monosodium glutamate (MSG), artificial colors, artificial preservatives, artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, pesticides, herbicides, and cloned animals...yikeesss! Food scientists who developed the chemicals listed above consider many of them to be food. Many of these substances have been given the status of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the Federal Drug Administration. However, unbiased studies have pointed out the outright dangers of some of these laboratory concoctions, and the potential health problems of others. But despite the questionable safety and dangers of these chemicals, with the exception of trans fats, they continue to be used in America's food supply. Though food manufacturers swear by the safety of these so-called 'foods', and produce more and more products containing them, America's health crisis continues to grow. Heart disease, cancer, autism, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's disease and other chronic ailments continues to affect ever-growing members of our population. Unfortunately, Americans buy more synthetic 'food' than the real food available in Noah Webster's day. Synthetic 'food', better known as fast food, snack food, junk food, and processed food, is available at your local supermarket, restaurant, school and workplace cafeteria, and vending machine. You can even find foods with synthetic ingredients in stores catering to health-minded individuals. Note the following statistics: One of the most evil, insidious, and harmful synthetic ingredient to come along is the genetically modified organism. Also known as frankenfood, the genetically modified organism is everywhere. The United States grows over 50% of the world's soybeans. Fully 85% of its soybeans are genetically modified! One fourth of America's farmland has been converted to raise genetically modified crops. If you buy processed food (and who doesn't?), there is a 75% chance that it contains genetically modified ingredients. "...If you recently ate soy sauce in a Chinese restaurant, munched popcorn in a movie theater, or indulged in an occasional candy bar--you've undoubtedly ingested this new type of food. You may have, at the time, known exactly how much salt, fat, and carbohydrates were in each of these foods because regulations mandate their labeling for dietary purposes. But you would not know if the bulk of these foods, and literally every cell had been genetically altered!" (Nathan Batalion, 50 Harmful Effects of Genetically Modified Foods) Although GMOs have been granted generally recognized as safe status, there has been no long-term and rigorous testing performed on them. Remember Dr. Frankenstein and his monster? He too thought that his creation was safe and harmless. In the end the monster proved dangerous and killed his creator. This is why GMOs have been aptly called Frankenfood. There are unmistakable indications that this synthetic 'food' is not living up to its hype. Like Dr. Frankenstein, genetic food engineers are fooling with Mother Nature-God's perfect creation. In essence, Americans, and third-world nations where GMOs are being fed to the populace, are guinea pigs-laboratory rats. And this is all without our knowledge and permission. Food manufacturers are NOT required by law to label that their products contain genetically modified ingredients. America's food supply has become adulterated. The great majority of its food is contaminated with synthetic ingredients, and poisoned with pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. No wonder we are progressively becoming sicker and fatter. I can't in good conscience call what can be purchased in our food stores 'food.' It doesn't meet the definition given to it by Noah Webster. And why doesn't it? Because the synthetic ingredients do not nourish the body for growth and repair. As a matter of fact, they are doing the exact opposite. The synthetics are breaking the body down, and making us sicker and sicker. Even nutrients necessary for a healthy body have been made dangerous by food scientists. Omega-6 fatty acid is one of the essential fatty acids (EFAs)-together with omega-3. But in order to be beneficial, they must be balanced. It has been estimated that 100 years ago Americans consumed 60 percent omega-6 and 40 percent omega 3 oil, a perfect ratio of 1.5:1. Today Americans consume a ratio anywhere from 25:1 to 50:1! You know the old saying, 'too much of a good thing...?' Well, our consumption of omega-6 to omega-3 goes way beyond 'too much.' Why are we getting so much omega-6, and not nearly enough omega-3? Blame your vegetable oils, meats, fish, and snack foods. All of America's snack foods have ingredients based on grain derived vegetable oils-soybean, corn, safflower, sunflower, canola, and peanut. Go into your food pantry and look at the ingredients of your favorite breakfast cereal or cracker or even your honest to goodness 'health' bar. They all contain one of more of the vegetable oils-not to mention the excessive sugar, sodium, and preservatives, colors, and flavors. And remember, if your snack food is not 100% organic, it contains GMOs. You also consume excessive omega-6 from your meats and fish. The vast majority of America's meat and fish is factory-farmed. This means that they are raised contrary to God's plan. Our beef, lamb, pork, and fish are confined and fed grain. Grain is composed of omega-6 fatty acid. It doesn't matter that these animals and fish are not designed to eat grain. Unless you take an omega-3 supplement such as fish oil, omega-3, or krill oil capsules, your diet doesn't supply nearly enough omega-3. The standard American diet (SAD) which sadly too many Americans eat daily, has plenty of snack foods, burgers, French fries, meat, fish, and poultry which is weak in any meaningful amount of omega-3, but saturated with omega-6. Even when I was growing up in the '50s and early '60s, America's food supply was not this bad. At least back then we did not have frankenfoods like GMOs and cloned animals. Factory-farming didn't gain a foothold in America until the mid '70s. Those days also didn't have trans fats or high fructose corn syrup. Although we did have MSG (that came in the 1940s), it was nowhere near the quantities that exist today. How many times have you gone out to eat, and complimented the chef (whether personally, or more often than not, to your dinner partner) on the meal. The superb taste of your meat or sauce is due to monosodium glutamate. Todays food processing renders food tasteless and colorless (unless you consider a dull gray colorful.) So preservatives like sodium nitrite has to be added to give your meat a healthy-looking color, and MSG to give it a mouth-watering taste. America's food supply has gone south. The food industry, the multi-national pharmaceutical giants, and health care system are literally raking in untold profits from America's synthetic foods. Let me explain. Our synthetic food is making us very sick. This sickness even trickles down to our children and babies. Children are experiencing exploding rates of autism, cancer, diabetes, obesity, fatty liver disease, high blood pressure, heart disease, attention deficit disorder (ADD), and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and destructive behavior. Big Pharma is only too glad to step in to 'help' with their drugs. These drugs, rather than cure the problem, merely 'treat' the symptom. Of course the cause remains unresolved and thus those on these medications have to take them for life. And that doesn't even address the harmful side effects of these synthetic drugs. Of course other drugs have to be prescribed in order to treat the symptoms brought about by drug number one. And on and on you go-the domino effect. Its the health care community which diagnoses the symptoms initially brought about by the synthetic foods we overeat. What with the battery of tests they give, hospital stay, and maybe an operation or two-America's health care system isn't doing too bad either. It never lacks for patients. Do I sound angry? I am angry. The food, pharmaceutical, and health care conglomerates don't care about you or your family-only as far as you continue to line their pockets. Look at Merck and their drug Vioxx. They knew about the dangers of their drug before they marketed it. Yet the lure of profits was too great. It didn't matter that thousands had to die, and many more suffer because of it. Nothing has changed. Money is still God, and the almighty buck still rules. There is something you can do about America's synthetic (read poisoned) food supply. What? Refuse to buy. Don't buy any more processed food. Eat organic fruits and vegetables, and free-range, organic meats. You can buy locally-grown produce at your local farmer's market. You will have to pay more for organic, free-range meat, but it's worth it. Not only is conventional meat full of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and omega-6, but it may contain Mad Cow disease. Factory-farmed animals are not only fed grain and garbage (I mean literal garbage such as newspaper and sawdust), but animal by-products. The feeding of rendered slaughtered waste to livestock and dairy calves weaned on cattle blood protein in calf milk formula are what support the mechanism for Mad Cow disease. Of course the government reassures us that this can never happen. But don't you believe it. Money talks and the meat, food, and pharmaceutical industries have powerful lobbyists in Washington, and very deep pockets. Only you can protect yourself and your family. Don't depend on the government to do it.
The multi-national pharmaceutical industry (A.K.A. Big Pharma) is successfully selling Americans, and its global neighbors, the idea that no matter what ails ya', they have a pill for your ill. The unfortunate part of this overwhelmingly lucrative (for Big Pharma that is) strategy is that we are buying into it. It is not the American public's fault that they are brainwashed because the United States along with New Zealand allow direct-to-consumer drug advertising in mass media outlets. What with all the satellite and cable television programming that we consume daily, drugs as a viable alternative have become firmly entrenched in our subconscious. Up until the early 1980s, drug advertising was limited to medical journals and health care trade publications. From the 1950s to 1984, television was essentially drug free. Alas, those days are long gone-never to return again. It seems that every other advertisement on the commercial channels is by a pharmaceutical company. I watch CNN (Cable Network News) a lot and I am inundated with commercials about drugs for erectile dysfunction, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, overactive bladder, Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, ad infinitum...Egaaddds! No wonder we are under the impression that it's the American way to simply ask our doctors for these pharmaceutical drugs. They are thrown at us so often and so fast that it's all we know. How bad is America's addiction to drugs? A doctor who trains at Diamond Gym told me that he once tried to convince a woman to lose weight for her health by making lifestyle changes such as better nutrition, and exercise. Her response was 'can't I take a pill for that?' How sad. Pharmaceutical drugs cater to the health care system's medical paradigm of treatment rather than cure/prevention-and that pharmaceuticals are our first line of defense. I am not blaming doctors-it's not their fault. Unfortunately all prospective doctors are taught in medical school, other than caring for injuries, is how to treat disease symptoms with prescription drugs. However, I do blame the multi-national, multi-billion dollar profit making pharmaceutical industry. It is they who control medical schools and doctors (through drug company sales reps.) As a matter of fact, Big Pharma is their biggest supporter (Source: http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/editorial/pharm.htm.) I have three issues with Big Pharma and their drugs: (1) they merely treat a symptom and do not cure the underlying cause (2) the testing period is too short (if a particular drug was to cause cancer, that won't be known in the 5 years a drug is being tested; the incubation period for cancer can be 20 to 25 years) and (3) these synthetic drugs have negative side effects which sometimes can be worse than the 'symptom' it was designed to 'treat.' Issue #1 As I mentioned earlier, America's health care (and I use that term lightly) system is geared to treat not cure or prevent disease. Notice that none of the direct-to-consumer drug ads tell you what causes that particular symptom, and what can be done to cure or prevent its underlying cause. Oh they might mention in passing that a healthy lifestyle will help. But their clever advertisement leads the consumer to believe that a healthy lifestyle is not enough, and their drugs must be used in conjunction. The consumer is cleverly 'hoodwinked' into believing that he has no hope except through Big Pharma's expensive drug. He is therefore convinced that his health is dependent on being a lifetime user of prescription and over-the-counter medications. The drug advertisements used by Big Pharma are concocted by the brilliant minds on Madison Avenue. And no expense is spared in having the ads appear friendly, and to have your best interests at heart. Who can resist Sally Field in Big Pharma's ad about an osteoporosis drug? Sigh...how heart-warming! Merck had the same 'touching' ads about its osteoarthritis drug Vioxx too. When reality set in, thousands died from heart attacks and strokes, and others had their lives devastated. Merck knew the dangers all along but the profits were just too great to pass up. Where billions of dollars are at stake, death and disablement by drugs have become the rule rather than the exception. In order for Big Pharma to continue to have lifetime customers, they must keep them on their drugs. What better way to do that than to just 'mask' the symptom. By masking or treating the symptom, the underlying cause remains in place. In other words, the pharmaceuticals will relieve the pain or discomfort, but will leave the reason for the symptom intact. Heavens forbid Big Pharma finds and cures the cause of disease; that's profit lost. Can you imagine Big Pharma being so interested in suffering humanity that they would actually seek to cure disease? How could they continue to earn their obscene profits from a shrinking costumer base? Issue #2 Drugs are often rushed to market without being adequately tested. At the time Merck was developing its osteoarthritis drug Vioxx, Pfizer was developing its version, popularly known as Celebrex. There was a race between Merck and Pfizer to get their respective drug marketed first. Remember, billions (that's millions with a 'b') were at stake. It's unfortunate but the reality is that the consumer runs a distant second when Big Pharma's choice comes between them or profit. Issue #3 Even though pharmaceuticals only treat symptoms, even that comes at a price. The price? Side effects the customer many times is not aware of. The June 5, 2008 edition of the New York Times ran an article about pharmaceuticals increasing the risk of cancer in children. It seems that rheumatoid arthritis drugs Enbrel (sold by Amgen & Wyeth), Remicade (sold by Johnson & Johnson and Schering-Plough), Humira (sold by Abbott Laboratories) and Cimzia (sold by the Belgian company UCB) are suspect in the development of cancer in some 30 children and young adults who were treated with the drugs. These drugs have previously been linked to lymphoma, tuberculosis, and pneumonia. Other than the side effects which are known, and listed on the label, how many others, potentially more dangerous, may there be? Innocent Americans are literally playing Russian roulette with prescription medication. Also recall that thousands upon thousands of innocent Americans seeking relief from arthritis pain paid the ultimate price from the side effects of heart attack and stroke. Merck knew about the dangers but simply chose to ignore them in blindly going after profits. We have become too complacent about medication. I don't mean to imply that they are all bad, but that alternate, natural remedies should be considered first. No one wants to suffer needlessly for the rest of his life. That will happen when you only treat symptoms. Taking high blood pressure medication will only treat the symptom of high blood pressure. Meanwhile the cause of the high blood pressure remains untreated. It may be chronic stress, obesity, or any number of other factors. Find the cause and fix the cause. Do that and you will no longer need to take high blood pressure medication. Talk to your doctor about the possible causes of the symptoms for which you have been prescribed drugs. In many cases a simple lifestyle change will in time cure those symptoms. Once that happens, you can be taken off your medication(s) with your doctor's blessings. Don't be like the woman who didn't want to change her lifestyle, but rather was willing to settle for a pill for her ill. Look at the benefits of reduced drug dependence: (1) economic: drugs are expensive; you could put that money to better use-especially in these economically-challenged times (2) health: why possibly suffer from the side effects Big Pharma lists on their labels? And there is always the possibility that there is a chronic disease like cancer down the road no one knows about. Pharmaceutical drugs are synthetic compounds which are alien to your body. Direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads accomplish their mission of getting Americans to see drugs as the only answer to their health problems. This practice needs to be banned. But it is not going to happen because Big Pharma has powerful lobbyists in Washington making certain that it doesn't happen. It is entirely up to you as an individual to make a change. Big Pharma sees you as a means to lining their pockets with your hard-earned money without the slightest regard for you as a person. Don't be taken in by the 'sincerity' of their drug ads. I am 56 years old and have have never been, am not currently, and will never be on prescription medication. Without boasting, I can truthfully tell you that I don't even take aspirin because I don't get headaches. And I don't buy into that baloney about an aspirin a day reducing the risk of heart attack. I don't suffer from tummy aches, fatigue, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis or any other medical condition. I am not ridiculing those who do suffer from those conditions, but merely wish to point out that a healthy lifestyle will reduce your risk to negligible levels. Also, contrary to what the medical community and Big Pharma spins, you don't have to settle for these medical conditions just because you are aging. Never forget-Big Pharma is a part of the problem- not the cure!
I know from experience that the maintenance of a certain weight requires discipline. Having been a competitive bodybuilder taught me that. I should add that when I did compete on the amateur level, I was a lot younger than I am now. Why is that important? I had youth on my side with its associated higher metabolism and hormone activity. It is a lot easier to maintain a certain weight while being somewhat lax in the diet when you are south of 35 (I began bodybuilding when I was 26 years old,) than it is when you are north of 40, or 50. Of course bodybuilders and other athletes have no problems with working out or exercising on a regular basis. The discipline is required in the area of nutrition. What Are Your Thoughts About the Health Editorials?I would like to know your opinion about these editorials. Don't keep them to yourself-share with others. Return to Home Page from Health Editorial |
America's 'Pill For An Ill' Mentality
Maintaining A Healthy Weight Takes DISCIPLINE