Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought, “I could stand to lose a few,” or struggled to pull on an old pair of pants? Given that over 70 percent of Americans are now overweight or obese, there is a good chance that you have found yourself packing on the pounds. Go to a doctor, and they’ll tell you to lose weight. To do this, you are going to need to select healthier foods. Easy…. right?
Wrong. The food industry has made it incredibly difficult for the average American to distinguish healthy options. By labeling foods “low-fat,” “all natural,” “reduced sugar,” all while adding sugar to foods without fat, adding chemicals to foods claiming to have none, and adding fat and sodium to low sugar products. Why? Because processed food without copious amount of fat, sugar and sodium does not taste good. The food industry needs consumers to buy their products. They are misleading consumers to get them hooked on their product, while also making them think what they are eating is healthy. Then, wondering why they aren’t losing any weight.
Food scientists working for these corporations have one mission: to get the consumer addicted. Like drugs, alcohol or gambling, people can develop addictions to salt, sugar and fat. Taking advantage of this fact, corporations load their products with these ingredients to keep us coming back for more. For instance, a 1983 Lays commercial premiered the popular phrase “I bet you can’t eat just one,” demonstrating the idea that food is something that we crave. And once you have a taste of something so fatty and salty, you won’t be able to resist.
This goes back to a time when humans needed to hunt for survival. We craved fat, salt and sugar because we needed to eat a lot of it at once in order to survive long enough to catch the next meal. Then, when our brains got a trace of one of these chemicals, receptors in our brain released
Serotonin and dopamine, brain chemicals that make us feel happy and satisfied. This is what kept humans motivated to keep moving. They needed low volume, calorie dense foods in order to travel large distances, build shelter, and prepare for the next hunt. Now, those happy chemicals in our brain can help us through the workday or help us recover from emotional trauma. Feeling good is why humans do most of the things that we do. Which explains why, once feeling these chemicals, one would continue eating the thing that produced them: junk food. Processed foods are pumped full of addictive chemicals that taste good, all to keep us buying more. To make matters worse, like other addictions, humans can build up a tolerance to these foods. This means that the more you eat, the more you will need to eat next time to get the same satisfaction. This gradual increase of calories causes a subsequent increase in waistlines.
Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought, “I could stand to lose a few,” or struggled to pull on an old pair of pants? Given that over 70 percent of Americans are now overweight or obese, there is a good chance that you have found yourself packing on the pounds. Go to a doctor, and they’ll tell you to lose weight. To do this, you are going to need to select healthier foods. Easy…. right?
Wrong. The food industry has made it incredibly difficult for the average American to distinguish healthy options. By labeling foods “low-fat,” “all natural,” “reduced sugar,” all while adding sugar to foods without fat, adding chemicals to foods claiming to have none, and adding fat and sodium to low sugar products. Why? Because processed food without copious amount of fat, sugar and sodium does not taste good. The food industry needs consumers to buy their products. They are misleading consumers to get them hooked on their product, while also making them think what they are eating is healthy. Then, wondering why they aren’t losing any weight.
Food scientists working for these corporations have one mission: to get the consumer addicted. Like drugs, alcohol or gambling, people can develop addictions to salt, sugar and fat. Taking advantage of this fact, corporations load their products with these ingredients to keep us coming back for more. For instance, a 1983 Lays commercial premiered the popular phrase “I bet you can’t eat just one,” demonstrating the idea that food is something that we crave. And once you have a taste of something so fatty and salty, you won’t be able to resist.
This goes back to a time when humans needed to hunt for survival. We craved fat, salt and sugar because we needed to eat a lot of it at once in order to survive long enough to catch the next meal. Then, when our brains got a trace of one of these chemicals, receptors in our brain released
Serotonin and dopamine, brain chemicals that make us feel happy and satisfied. This is what kept humans motivated to keep moving. They needed low volume, calorie dense foods in order to travel large distances, build shelter, and prepare for the next hunt. Now, those happy chemicals in our brain can help us through the workday or help us recover from emotional trauma. Feeling good is why humans do most of the things that we do. Which explains why, once feeling these chemicals, one would continue eating the thing that produced them: junk food. Processed foods are pumped full of addictive chemicals that taste good, all to keep us buying more. To make matters worse, like other addictions, humans can build up a tolerance to these foods. This means that the more you eat, the more you will need to eat next time to get the same satisfaction. This gradual increase of calories causes a subsequent increase in waistlines.
Photo by Polina Tankilevitch from Pexels
While we are putting a lot of blame on the food industry, the American education system is also to blame. Even the states ranked highest in education offer one, maybe two semesters of health involving nutrition in all of K-12, meaning that by the time students graduate, they have no or if they’re lucky, very little nutrition knowledge. Most adults don’t even know how to read a nutrition label. How would they be able to tell that a “reduced-fat,” bag of potato chips isn’t actually a good thing, because now those chips likely have more sugar and salt? A television show from 2015 called Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution had a group of first graders try to identify common fruits and vegetables. Surprisingly, they found that almost none of the children were able no name things like broccoli, potatoes, or tomatoes. While the kids from this school were likely from a state in which nutrition education is not mandated at all, it is not unusual to see this trend among American children. Many of whom do not eat fresh fruits and vegetables on a daily or even a weekly basis. Likewise, A 2009 study on children in Mississippi, found that out of 13 common fruits and 7 common vegetables, fifth graders responded that they had only ever seen 85% of the fruits and 60% of the vegetables in their homes. Meaning that many of the students had encountered less than 7 vegetables by age 12.
The food industry is no simple machine. It overlaps quite violently with the diet and wellness industries. In fact, when consumers realize that the processed food, they are eating is contributing to their weight gain, they can move down a shelf and find the diet version of the same product. Which likely have chemicals to trick our brains into thinking we are getting that fix of sugar or salt, but instead we are getting artificial replacements. These alternatives are often harmless in small amounts, but they are addictive as well and in large amounts they can cause strokes, blindness or even death.
It gets worse. The food industry is also all wrapped up in health. You may think that organizations like The American Cancer Society, The American Diabetes Association, The American Heart Association, and the Olympics are doing everything in their power to move the health of Americans in a positive direction. However, dig a little deeper and you will find that the American cancer society receives funding from Tyson Foods, although processed meat is a known carcinogen. The American Diabetes Association receives support from Dannon yogurt, although excessive sugar can cause diabetes, The American Heart Association receives funding from the Texas Beef Council and list beef recipes on their website, even though red meat contributes greatly to heart disease, and finally, Olympics receives funding form Coca-Cola, despite promoting healthy living.
While we are putting a lot of blame on the food industry, the American education system is also to blame. Even the states ranked highest in education offer one, maybe two semesters of health involving nutrition in all of K-12, meaning that by the time students graduate, they have no or if they’re lucky, very little nutrition knowledge. Most adults don’t even know how to read a nutrition label. How would they be able to tell that a “reduced-fat,” bag of potato chips isn’t actually a good thing, because now those chips likely have more sugar and salt? A television show from 2015 called Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution had a group of first graders try to identify common fruits and vegetables. Surprisingly, they found that almost none of the children were able no name things like broccoli, potatoes, or tomatoes. While the kids from this school were likely from a state in which nutrition education is not mandated at all, it is not unusual to see this trend among American children. Many of whom do not eat fresh fruits and vegetables on a daily or even a weekly basis. Likewise, A 2009 study on children in Mississippi, found that out of 13 common fruits and 7 common vegetables, fifth graders responded that they had only ever seen 85% of the fruits and 60% of the vegetables in their homes. Meaning that many of the students had encountered less than 7 vegetables by age 12.
The food industry is no simple machine. It overlaps quite violently with the diet and wellness industries. In fact, when consumers realize that the processed food, they are eating is contributing to their weight gain, they can move down a shelf and find the diet version of the same product. Which likely have chemicals to trick our brains into thinking we are getting that fix of sugar or salt, but instead we are getting artificial replacements. These alternatives are often harmless in small amounts, but they are addictive as well and in large amounts they can cause strokes, blindness or even death.
It gets worse. The food industry is also all wrapped up in health. You may think that organizations like The American Cancer Society, The American Diabetes Association, The American Heart Association, and the Olympics are doing everything in their power to move the health of Americans in a positive direction. However, dig a little deeper and you will find that the American cancer society receives funding from Tyson Foods, although processed meat is a known carcinogen. The American Diabetes Association receives support from Dannon yogurt, although excessive sugar can cause diabetes, The American Heart Association receives funding from the Texas Beef Council and list beef recipes on their website, even though red meat contributes greatly to heart disease, and finally, Olympics receives funding form Coca-Cola, despite promoting healthy living.
Photo by Julia Kuzenkov from Pexels
Now let’s move back to advertising. Have you ever wondered how a food commercial can stick in your head for hours on end? The food isn’t real, it has been injected, manipulated, and stretched to appeal to addicts. It looks better than good and when you get it, it won’t look anything like it did in that commercial. Another advertising trick used by the food industry is placement. If you go into a grocery store, the most popular products will be placed at eye-level. These are usually the brands that make the unhealthiest snacks. Things like Lays, Oreos, Doritos. You’ll find their knockoffs on the shelf below. Go one lower, and you have the child’s eye level where the most colorful snacks are placed. These are where the brands that target kids are placed. Form sugary cereals to fruit snacks loaded with sugar. Even more convenient, the child’s eye-level means that the child can grab what they want before the parent sees. And parents are less likely to say no once the child already has what they want in their hands.
Speaking of kids, a child who is obese is 80% more likely to become an obese adult. And Obese adults are the ultimate consumers. The food industry targets children so that they develop unhealthy eating habits young. If their parents are obese, they will likely become obese as well. Leading to a never-ending cycle of obese adults as eating habits and cooking methods are passed down through generations. Now these obese adults will buy more food from these large companies than healthy adults resulting in more money for the company. Making it essential for the food industry to create more and more obese people.
Obesity is the number one preventable cause of death in the United States. It causes illnesses like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer. The food industry is playing a huge role in the ongoing epidemic, and it may be the only thing that can stop it. Processed foods with high levels of sugar, salt or fat should be required to have a warning of addiction on the label. Much like alcohol or cigarettes. Additionally, regulations need to be placed on the amount of each of these chemicals in foods. There should be a calorie limit placed on foods and finally, no false or misleading claims should be allowed on food products. Unless the education system changes, people are not going to stop buying what they have been conditioned to think is healthy.
Next time you think that you are completely at fault for your weight gain, or inability to lose weight. Look at the products that you eat. Check if they are really healthy by learning the significance of the nutrition label and ingredients list. Learn to ignore any misleading claims on the front of the package. Above all, try to incorporate more whole foods in your diet. Whole fruits and vegetables cannot deceive like processed food. The food industry must become more transparent in order to reduce the current obesity rates.
Now let’s move back to advertising. Have you ever wondered how a food commercial can stick in your head for hours on end? The food isn’t real, it has been injected, manipulated, and stretched to appeal to addicts. It looks better than good and when you get it, it won’t look anything like it did in that commercial. Another advertising trick used by the food industry is placement. If you go into a grocery store, the most popular products will be placed at eye-level. These are usually the brands that make the unhealthiest snacks. Things like Lays, Oreos, Doritos. You’ll find their knockoffs on the shelf below. Go one lower, and you have the child’s eye level where the most colorful snacks are placed. These are where the brands that target kids are placed. Form sugary cereals to fruit snacks loaded with sugar. Even more convenient, the child’s eye-level means that the child can grab what they want before the parent sees. And parents are less likely to say no once the child already has what they want in their hands.
Speaking of kids, a child who is obese is 80% more likely to become an obese adult. And Obese adults are the ultimate consumers. The food industry targets children so that they develop unhealthy eating habits young. If their parents are obese, they will likely become obese as well. Leading to a never-ending cycle of obese adults as eating habits and cooking methods are passed down through generations. Now these obese adults will buy more food from these large companies than healthy adults resulting in more money for the company. Making it essential for the food industry to create more and more obese people.
Obesity is the number one preventable cause of death in the United States. It causes illnesses like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer. The food industry is playing a huge role in the ongoing epidemic, and it may be the only thing that can stop it. Processed foods with high levels of sugar, salt or fat should be required to have a warning of addiction on the label. Much like alcohol or cigarettes. Additionally, regulations need to be placed on the amount of each of these chemicals in foods. There should be a calorie limit placed on foods and finally, no false or misleading claims should be allowed on food products. Unless the education system changes, people are not going to stop buying what they have been conditioned to think is healthy.
Next time you think that you are completely at fault for your weight gain, or inability to lose weight. Look at the products that you eat. Check if they are really healthy by learning the significance of the nutrition label and ingredients list. Learn to ignore any misleading claims on the front of the package. Above all, try to incorporate more whole foods in your diet. Whole fruits and vegetables cannot deceive like processed food. The food industry must become more transparent in order to reduce the current obesity rates.
Photo by Sunsetoned from Pexels
