OBESITY CONSPIRACY: The U.S. Government Scandal that's Really Making You Fat (re-post)

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OBESITY CONSPIRACY: The U.S. Government

Scandal that's Really Making You Fat

 

 

 

Tue, 4 May 2010 09:48:10 -0700

 

 

 

Jan Slama <slamajama2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OBESITY

CONSPIRACY:

The U.S. Government Scandal that's Really Making You Fat

 

 

This is

the cruelest and most disgraceful betrayal of America's

trust

ever. Find out which crooks are manipulating the US

government to reward you for

eating food which robs you of your health and makes you fat...

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/04/how-the-us-government-contributes-to-the-obesity-epidemic.aspx

 

OBESITY CONSPIRACY: The U.S. Government Scandal that's Really

Making You Fat

Posted by Dr. Mercola | May 04

2010 | 105,729

views

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A decade ago, an American woman's waist, on average, was close to

two inches smaller than it is today. Eighteen year olds are 15 pounds heavier than they were in the

1970s.

One reason is federal subsidies for food production. Take a look at

these numbers:

 

Meat/Dairy -- 73.8 percent

Grains -- 13.2 percent

Sugar/Oil/Starch/Alcohol -- 10.7 percent

Nuts/Legumes -- 1.9 percent

Vegetables/Fruits -- 0.4 percent

 

That’s right – just 1.9 percent for nuts and legumes and 0.4 percent

for fruits and vegetables. As a result, a salad often costs you more

than a Big Mac.

 

Sources:

Treehugger

March 15, 2010

 

The

New York Times April 26, 2010

 

 

 

 

This Treehugger article contains several interesting charts and graphs that are well worth

taking a closer look at. But it should come as no surprise that federal

subsidies for certain kinds of food will directly influence the

production and subsequent consumption of that food.

As you can see in the list above, the US food subsidies are

grossly skewed, creating a diet excessively high in factory-farmed

meats, grains and sugars, with very little fresh fruits and vegetables

or healthy fats from nuts and seeds.

 

The Root of the Problem

 

I believe many of our society’s chronic health problems could be

resolved if attention was paid, at the highest levels of government, to

the root problem – our agricultural subsidies.

If growers of subsidized fresh vegetables were in a clear

majority, you might start to see some fine advertising campaigns

promoting the consumption of those veggies…

Unfortunately, the Department of Agriculture is deeply entrenched

with the agri-business, and current legislations protect the profits of

these large industries at the expense of public health.

In fact, the agriculture lobby is more powerful than even the

pharmaceutical industry! You don’t hear about it as often, but the

ramifications of their political influence are just as hazardous to

your health as that of Big Pharma.

Sadly, you also see this influence in nutrition science. It is

actually not designed to help you make sound dietary choices but rather

to allow food companies to make health claims to increase profits, and

this is a primary reason why you cannot get sound dietary advice from

your government.

Take the Food Pyramid, for example. Back in 2005, when the updated

food pyramid was unveiled, nutritionist Luise Light, a former USDA

insider and contributing architect of the original version of the Food

Guide Pyramid, exposed how the US government bows to industry interests

and plays

a key role in the obesity epidemic.

As this recent New York Times article states,

“Thanks to lobbying, Congress chooses to subsidize foods that we’re

supposed to eat less of.”

 

US Government Subsidizes Fast Food

 

The food crops currently subsidized are corn, soy, wheat and rice.

What do you end up with?

A fast food diet!

And what many fail to remember (or don’t realize) is that the farm

bill has a direct impact on what your child gets fed in school, for

example, and what food assistance programs will distribute to poorer

households.

It’s quite clear that the farm bill creates a negative feedback

loop that maintains the status quo of the standard American diet.

Because by subsidizing the farming of corn and soy, the US government

is also actively supporting a diet that consists of these grains in

their processed form, namely high fructose corn syrup, soybean

oil, and grain-fed cattle – all of which are known contributors to

obesity and chronic diseases.

(In addition, let’s not forget that the vast majority

of these two crops are also genetically modified, which in and of

itself is a major health hazard!)

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is perhaps the most obvious

example of how the farm bill destroys health, as opposed to promoting

the production of food that is actually worthy of being called “food.”

HFCS is in TENS of THOUSANDS of food products. If it’s processed,

it probably contains HFCS; oftentimes it’s one of the top three

ingredients. With everything we now know about how

HFCS and other sugars create obesity and chronic disease, it’s no

wonder we have a health care crisis on our hands!

Our federal food policy reaches to the very core of our everyday

lives; the core of our health. Unless the food policy is addressed and

corrected, little progress will be made to improve the current health

care crisis.

The links are clear: These food policies directly impact what and

how we produce our food, which impacts disease rates, which in turn

drive health care costs into the stratosphere.

The average American is now 10 pounds overweight, which translates

into $250 billion in added yearly health care costs, not to mention a

shorter lifespan.

 

Farm Bill Also Promotes Excessive Fossil Fuel Consumption

 

In addition to producing little else but fast food, this type of

monoculture is also very dependent on fossil fuels. Because when you

grow one type of crop almost exclusively, you deplete the soil, which

means you have to use more fertilizer, which is made from fossil fuel.

Monocultures also invite more pests, which need to be treated with

ever increasing amounts of pesticides – also made from fossil fuel.

Cheap food is actually incredibly expensive once everything is

added up, including stratospheric health care costs, continued

dependence on fossil fuels, and the destruction of the earth as a whole.

 

Opt Not to Play Along – Choose Health!

 

If you want to optimize your health, you simply must return

to the basics of healthy food choices. And try as they may, industry

lobbyists still cannot force you to buy these types of junk foods. The

choice is entirely yours, and consumer demand will always win

eventually, so the more people demand healthy, unadulterated foods, the

more they must produce, one way or another.

I encourage you to support

the small family farms in your area. You’ll receive nutritious food

from a source that you can trust, and you’ll not only be supporting the

health of your own family but the health of your entire community.

However, there is still much confusion about what is healthy – and

in some cases, whether

or not something is actually food. The easiest way to get confused

and be led astray by misleading advertising is by focusing on

individual ingredients or nutrients rather than the food as a whole.

In a nutshell, the easiest way back toward health is to focus on

WHOLE, unadulterated foods; foods that have not been processed or

altered from their original state. Food that has been grown or raised

as nature intended, without the use of chemical additives, pesticides

and fertilizers.

Whole,

especially organic, foods contain so many nutrients that work

together synergistically, making them superior to anything that

contains only the active ingredient (and frequently as a synthetic

version at that).

Now, if you don’t’ know what’s implied by “as nature intended,”

then that should be a sign that you have gotten too disconnected from

the natural world, and a refresher course in natural farming practices

may be called for. (For example, corn is not, and has never been, a

natural part of any cow’s diet. You will never see a cow nibbling on a

corn stalk when out to pasture, no matter how much corn is growing

nearby.)

Eating a diet of processed foods while popping vitamins and

supplements, thinking you’re getting everything you need for health, is

a reckless miscalculation that will extract its true cost in the form

of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Remember, any amount of time and money you save today by stopping

at a fast food restaurant, you’re bound to repay later when you’re too

ill to lead an active life.