Food - You Become What You Eat (Part 3)

Welcome back to this week's Part 3 of the Food - You Become What You Eat article.

Having perfect food would mean growing your own herbs, fruits, vegetables and grains, and breeding your own farm animals and fish for meat and milk.
This is the ideal situation where you create your own dairy products, butters, oils, sauces...

Unfortunately, for most of us, we have to rely on the food industry to provide us with the foods we eat.

For many decades, the food industry has dictated without any resistance (or at least very little) what foods we can choose for our families.
The introduction of free range and organic ranges have highlighted the fact that the foods we have been eating all these years might not have been that good for us - pesticides, hormones, steroids, antibiotics have been part of our food for so long, linked to that the increase in obesity, heart diseases and food allergies and intolerances - surely all this should have dumped a massive neon sign in front of our eyes and make us realise that the food industry has not had our best interest at heart and, more importantly, our health and well-being.

You are definitely proven right when you actually start looking at the ingredient list of items you usually purchase for yourself and your family.
It should give you the chills! Chemical additives, added salt, added sugar...

Added sugar and refined sugars (such as sweeteners, syrup, "flavouring"...) are one of the main culprits for the alarming number of obesity cases in the industrialised world today. To understand how unhealthy, and even dangerous, this is, let us have a look at what happens in our body when we ingest high amounts of sugar (at least a simplified version):

Insulin from the pancreas processes sugar and transforms it as energy to go into the bloodstream for the body to function. Unfortunately, the pancreas does not produce insulin on demand and in line with the amount of sugar consumed - let us not forget that all other foods are also turned into sugar to be processed as fuel for the body (carbs, protein, fats, fruits and vegetables) and, of course, healthy foods have nutrients that can benefit the body functions and so should be prioritised to fuel your body.

Therefore all excess sugar is turned into body fat, increasing body weight and pressure on the body's skeletal system as well as on our vital organs, arteries, respiratory airways and conduits.
Excess sugar in the bloodstream is also extra toxins that will create deposits, possibly clogging arteries.

Scientific studies conducted in the 20th century were pointing the finger repeatedly to foods high in fat, giving the general cultural acknowledgement that fat is bad for you and distracting you from the genuine dangers of sugar excess. What we couldn't have known as only members of the public until the very last few decades, is that these studies were commissioned by companies from the food industry. The food industry has been a lie, accepted by all for many generations, and ingrained deeply into our psyche. Why are sweets and cookies a treat given to children to reward them of their good behaviour or make them feel better after they fall and hurt themselves? That's something we'll discuss in another article - Now that commissioned scientific research studies have to reveal the company or organisation commissioning it, members of the public are realising how the past studies were highly biased, and companies have to be more forthcoming and honest about the research they are commissioning and revealing.

Sugar is an appetite booster. The more you eat, the more you will want to eat - and therefore the more you will buy. This, in time, will create a dependency and alter your taste buds so that anything without sugar - that could stop the vicious circle - will taste bland.

The truth about the "Fat is bad for you" myth is being uncovered while it is being progressively discovered that good fats are good for you (and even vital) and bad fats are bad for you. Natural fats from nuts, natural oils are essential in the good functioning of our body, as they are a back-up fuel when all carbs have been processed and used as fuel.

We now have the power to choose what we eat with the rise of organic foods and the no additives, no preservatives, no added sugar, not from concentrate... labels (I would always take a look at the ingredients list, just to make sure, however).
Members of the public need to be as aware as possible about the effects of processed foods, refined sugars, saturated fats as well as traces of pesticides treating fruits and vegetables we eat, and antibiotics used on farm animals to treat infections. Only then will people voluntarily choose better foods for themselves and their families, and help eradicate the food industry scam. After all, if we don't buy it, they can't carry on selling it.

And hopefully that will change mentalities of all food companies to protect their customers' health rather destroy it for profit.

Until next week for the final part of this article...