The FOOD INDUSTRY: Be Afraid, Be Aware

The Food Industry has Unhealthy Fallout

Few people realize a food industry actually exists. You read this and say, “Of course there’s a food industry, everyone knows that!” What most are failing to understand is that there’s a food INDUSTRY. An industry ... focused on profit margins and stock fluctuations, answering to the bottom line and shareholders above all. At first glance, one may ask, “What’s the problem with that? Everything in a free market becomes part of an industry, why should this concern anyone?” In theory, a regulated industry to market food, with a series of checks and balances in place, is a fine, even honourable concept. From the grass roots of family farmers banding together to protect wheat prices at the turn of the twentieth century to grocery co-ops, the idea of the working class creating a fair industry has its place and appeal.

Unfortunately, this idealistic view of how we receive our food, in truth, barely exists now. The decline started with information, way back in the early seventies. When women started to move into the work place in larger numbers, the food industry clued in fairly quickly to a gaping opportunity: faster food! You don’t have time to cook, now that you’re a working woman! (Now, it is likely that the fact that women were working 25-40 hours a week and still doing 90% of the housework didn’t help). And so was born the advent of quick meals - which keep getting quicker and quicker. Boil-in-bag steaks (eeew, remember those?), instant pizza, minute rice, instant mashed potatoes, pancake mix, instant coffee (coffee!? Isn’t that already fast? I digress) the list is long. Now, not having the time to cook, no one (of course) took the time to examine the nutritional trade-offs we were making, such as the fact that those in-a-minute rices have less nutrients in them than cardboard. Fat and salt taste good, and thanks to God and the Amana Radarange (the first microwave ovens), the instant meal revolution had begun. Okay, maybe we should leave God out of it, not even he could have foreseen pizza pops.

So, the media started telling us we don't have time to cook, and the selling of beautifully packaged foods, through our Zeniths & RCA’s by hot moms in pearls had begun (the polyester pantsuits soon followed).

What a coup! But alas, it wasn’t enough; fast food restaurants had to jump on the bandwagon. Once viewed as perhaps a twice-monthly treat, economical, high-fat-low-veggie content menus were introduced by various food chains as a viable alternative to cooking. No longer a family treat, but now a new necessity, because, as the media was screaming, “you don’t have time to cook”. All the while, a media message that was originally delivered via purchased marketing; namely magazine ads, television commercials and radio spots, now found itself seeping into mainstream media as fact. Were actual studies done on how long it took to broil a few pieces of chicken, steam some broccoli and perhaps let the rice cook while you helped the kids with homework? Given that these tasks amount to somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes of actual labour, one would assume not. (Come on, North America, even reheating food is often faster in a pan than the microwave – quick healthy meals are so doable, why are you believing this nonsense as fact?!) It’s important to note that this message was, in fact, growing a whole new area of the economy, a powerful, lobbying, agenda based industry with marketing and manufacturing dollars to spend.

The fact that as this emerging food industry grew larger and more powerful, its influence became more insidious and influential goes without argument, and it did, unfortunately, go without argument for years.

The food industry has been quietly influencing the groups that create our food guides, inspect and approve our foods and so on for years. Why else has there never been a recommendation in any North American Food Guide to reduce our intake of red meat? This in spite of overwhelming evidence that diets higher in red meat increase an individual's risk of cancer, heart, cardiovascular disease and other health problems. The USDA is unabashedly stocked with executive staff that at one time served various areas of the food industry; look it up, it will shock you. When aspartame was first put before the FDA for approval, it was denied eight times. The approval and testing methods utilized in getting Aspartame approved and standardized in food can be called corrupt and suspect at best. Some of the ninety-two aspartame side effects listed by the FDA include memory loss, nerve cell damage, migraines, reproductive disorders, mental confusion, brain lesions, blindness, joint pain, Alzheimer's, bloating, nervous system disorders, hair loss, food cravings, and weight gain. (Okay, I stole that straight from The Skinny Bitch, see addendum below) Feed that to your kids? Wow!

Once we move past the health costs, let’s look at the financial costs of this ‘fast food’ mentality. A recent release of McDonald’s quarterly financials (last quarter 2009), saw an increase in profits over the previous year’s same quarter “due to the economy, and North Americans turning to cheaper food alternatives” [ie: the McDonalds dollar menu]). Yet another media-fed lie we choose to believe. And unfortunately, this lie is being fed to our most vulnerable group - the poor. Fast food diets, whether at home or in restaurant chains, are not the cheaper solution. An average McDonalds meal falls between six and eight dollars. Multiply that by four and you’ve got a meal costing between twenty-four and thirty-two dollars. One only has to peruse the Internet for five minutes to discover there are many web sites dedicated to healthy, quick meals for a family of four for ten dollars or less. (!) As a nation, the cost of rising obesity and other health issues to our over-burdened health care system have been reported ad-nauseam - is anyone listening?

So, if the food industry and media has been misleading us, why isn’t there more of an outcry? Why aren’t we more concerned? Great question. Why aren’t we more upset that trans fats were not addressed as a staple in most processed and fast foods until there was a public outcry? This is our food for pete’s sakes. Why ISN’T it law that restaurant chains of a certain size must publish (in menus) the salt, fat and caloric content? Why when almost all nutritionists finger high fructose corn syrup consumption as a major culprit in the nation's obesity crisis, does this ingredient remain (virtually unchallenged) in everything from our ‘nutritious’ cereals to ketchup and soda? And why IS it that American kids eat an average of five hamburgers a week, mostly in fast food restaurants? These are all great questions, to which I have no answers.

It’s vital as a nation that we finally let go of food myths, lies and misconceptions. You do have time to cook. The food industry does have an agenda, and much more often than you or I realize, we are not getting truthful, researched information.
This subject matter always makes me think; I hope it now does the same for you.

~Alwaysellen

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Want to know more?

SOME INTERESTING NOTES ON THIS TOPIC:

USDA inspector’s visits were predictable, and cows that could not stand (which can be a warning re: mad cow and other issues) were slaughtered, butchered and sold, until the humane society revealed the situation on video, halting the sale of 143 MILLION pounds of beef.

See the video report:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23225611#23225611

1995: American Heart Association initiates a food certification program including AHA’s Heart Check Symbol to appear on certain foods. Criteria is simple – low in saturated fat and cholesterol for healthy people over age 2. Oh and also, a certification payment to AHA by the food manufacturer. Now you know why sugary cereal is Heart Checked.

USDA Inc. highlights what occurs in many federal agencies: appointees are representatives of industry and trade associations, their lawyers, and lobbyists. It is a prime example of how Washington, DC has become corporate-controlled territory. The Department of Agriculture epitomizes this big-business takeover of government. For example:

• Current USDA Secretary Ann Veneman previously served on the board of biotech company Calgene (later taken over by Monsanto)
• Veneman's Chief of Staff, Dale Moore, previously served as director of legislative affairs for the National Cattlemen's Association
• USDA Deputy Secretary James Moseley was a co-owner of a large factory farm in Indiana, Infinity Pork LLC
• Deputy Under Secretary Floyd Gaibler, was the executive director of the dairy industry-funded National Cheese Institute
• Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations Mary Waters was a senior director and legislative counsel for ConAgra Foods, one of the country's largest food processors.

The voices of consumers, environmentalists, and family farmers have been shut out.

Source:

http://www.votenader.org/issues/market/agriculture/

“Skinny Bitch” – the book.

While I don’t endorse every opinion / perspective in this book, it was a great, informative read.

Below is a factual account of the approval process for ASPARTAME, taken from this book:

When aspartame was put before the FDA for approval, it was denied eight times. g.d. Searle, founder of aspartame, tried to get FDA approval in 1973. clearly, he wasn't bothered by reports from neuroscientist Dr. John Olney and researcher Ann reynolds (hired by Searle himself) that aspartame was dangerous. Dr. Martha Freeman, a scientist from the FDA division of Metabolic and endocrine drug Products, declared, "The information submitted for review is inadequate to permit a scientific evaluation of clinical safety." Freeman recommended that until the safety of aspartame was proven, marketing the product should not be permitted. Alas, her recommendations were ignored. Somehow, in 1974, Searle got approval to use aspartame in dry foods. However, it wasn't smooth sailing from there. In 1975, the FDA put together a task force to review Searle's testing methods. Task force team leader Phillip Brodsky said he "had never seen anything as bas as Searle's testing" and called the tests results "manipulated." Before aspartame actually made it into dry foods, Olney and attorney and consumer advocate Jim Turner filed objections against the approval.

In 1977, the FDA asked the U.S. attorney's office to start grand jury proceedings against Searle for "knowingly misrepresenting findings and concealing material facts and making false statements in aspartame safety tests." shortly after, the U.S. attorney leading the investigation against Searle was offered a job by the law firm that was representing Searle. Later that same year, he resigned as U.S. attorney and withdrew from the case, delaying the grand jury's investigation. This caused the statute of limitations on the charges to run out, and the investigation was dropped. And he accepted the job with Searle's law firm. Stunning.

In 1980, a review by the Public Board of Inquiry set up by the FDA determined that aspartame should not be approved. The board said it had not been presented with proof of reasonable certainty that aspartame is safe for use as a food additive." In 1981, new FDA Commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes was appointed. Despite the fact that three out of six scientists advised against approval, Hayes decided to overrule the scientific review panel and allow aspartame into limited dry goods. In 1983, he got it approved for beverages, even though the National Soft Drink Association urged the FDA to delay approval until further testing could be done. That same year, Hayes left the FDA amid charges of impropriety. The Internal Department of Health and Human services was investigating Hayes for accepting gratuities from FDA-regulated companies. He went to work as a consultant for Searle's public relations firm. Interesting. The FDA finally urged Congress to prosecute Searle for giving the government false or incomplete test results on aspartame. However, the two government attorneys assigned to the case decided not to prosecute. Later, they went to work for the law firm that represented Searle. Fascinating. Despite recognizing ninety-two different symptoms that result from ingesting aspartame, the FDA approved it for use, without restriction in 1996. Brilliant.

So many people have been sickened from this shit that there are aspartame victim support groups. Some of the ninety-two aspartame side effects listed by the FDA include memory loss, nerve cell damage, migraines, reproductive disorders, mental confusion, brain lesions, blindness, joint pain, Alzheimer's, bloating, nervous system disorders, hair loss, food cravings, and weight gain.

Aspartame is a $1 billion industry. The National Justice League has filed a series of lawsuits against food companies using aspartame, claiming they are poisoning the public. In September 2004, a class action lawsuit was filed for $350 million against NutraSweet and the American Diabetics Association. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is named in the suit for using political muscle to get aspartame approved by the FDA.

Nutrasweet and Equil contain aspartame. When ingested, one of aspartames ingredients, methyl alcohol, converts into formaldehyde, a deadly neurotoxin. In addition to aspartame, Equal contains the amino acid phenylalanine. Phenylalanine occurs naturally in the brain. But high levels can increase the chance of seizures and lead to depression and schizophrenia. There is no lesser of the two evils. NutraSweet and Equal are both evil. Sweet and Low is no saint, either. It is an artificial sweetener that contains saccharin, a coal-tar compound. Stay away.

Because we're having so much fun, lets bash the shit out of Splenda, one of the newer sweeteners. Splenda is made by chlorinated sugar, changing its molecular structure. The finished product is called sucralose. The makers of this poison tout its lack of calories and claim it's safe for diabetics. The FDA calls sucralose 98 percent pure. The other 2 percent contains small amounts of heavy metals, methanol, and arsenic. Well gee, at least it doesn't have any calories. So what if it has a little arsenic? Sucralose has been found to cause diarrhea; organ, genetic, immune system, and reproductive damage; swelling of the liver and kidneys: and a decrease in fetal body weight. What a splendid product!