The modern diet of the west is completely different from that of our grandparents. We have more variety of all foods available including the ability to readily get fresh produce from almost anywhere, but we also have more processed foods, more fried foods, and more sweets incorporated into our diets. As a people our diets have changed and so have our waistlines, so what happened?
To figure out what happened we need to go back to before the obesity epidemic began around 1976. In the start of the 1900’s seed oils began to be introduced into our diets, as time went on studies funded by special interest groups claimed that the saturated fats humans had been consuming for millennia were causing heart disease and other health problems. The solution, according to these studies, was to replace saturated fats found in things like butter with supposedly healthy alternatives like margarine. Were seed oils originally intended to be consumed? No, they were intended to be used to grease heavy machinery in the wake of the industrial revolution. Later, people experimented with consuming them and after World War 2 they were actively being promoted as better alternatives to animal fats. As time went on, they started using them in more foods especially in processed foods and consumption of processed foods has progressively grown over time.
How has the way we get food changed? We used to cook our own food, we used to know the ingredients that went into our food. Now people are frequently going to restaurants, ordering fast food and ordering delivery of these prepared foods to their homes. Often we don’t know all of the ingredients going into the foods we consume and many of these foods are fried in or contain seed oils. Those who earn higher incomes are more likely to choose convenient foods which are usually the least nutritious foods. With so much convenient prepared food accessible at virtually anytime people have become addicted to the ease. One issue is that even though we have an easier time accessing food we are not as productive as we could be.
Diets primarily of processed or prepared foods that contain high amount of vegetable oils lack the nutritional density of diets of whole foods. What this ultimately means is that you won’t have the same amount of energy that you would from eating a balanced diet containing more fruits and vegetables and less fried foods. They contain more calories but that doesn’t mean they are an effective fuel source for the body, the lack of proper micronutrients will make you feel less energetic. So, the time people save from not preparing their own food at home becomes wasted from the lack of drive to do anything productive. What foods should we be eating instead? Foods that feed our cells such as leafy greens, healthy starches like baked sweet potatoes, beans and a variety of fruits. Not only will these foods help us feel more energetic, but they will also help combat oxidative free radicals found in processed foods and seed oils. Oxidative substances will cause inflammation which is the foot cause of many health issues.
What are the biggest issues of having a diet high in vegetable/seed oils? One of the biggest issues is that it will progressively kill off good gut bacteria. Our gut bacteria work as a hive mind and have “wiring” that stretches up into our frontal cortex that influences our decisions on our food cravings. Bacteria are living things and don’t want to be killed which is why we generally like certain foods because that will keep the bacterium we have alive (Alcock et al. 2014). In fact, there are now studies being conducted to try and figure out the extent of the transfer of bacterial microbes from host to host and whether the change in cravings is from contact or socially transmitted (Song et al. 2013).
There are studies being conducted showing that fecal transplants from a healthy person to an unhealthy person can actually change what they eat even to the point of causing reduced alcohol cravings (Bajaj et al. 2020). It is easier and quicker for “bad” gut bacteria to grow and “good” gut bacteria to get killed off from a poor diet than the other way around. Because of habitual bad diets throughout childhood people tend to experience weight gain, inflammation and health issues at very young ages. Of course, there are other factors involved in many cases but that doesn’t take away from the contribution a poor diet has to debilitating health problems.
One question remains if the research is now overwhelmingly proving the negative side effects of overconsumption of processed foods and vegetable oils, why are we are being influenced to consume these unhealthy products? It’s all about money. There is little to no profit in someone who only drinks water or inartificial drinks. There is very little profit in someone who only eats whole foods. In reality, there is a potential that such a person could sustain themselves with a reasonably sized plot of land therefore making themselves unprofitable to the big corporations. But if you can get people addicted to certain products and to even identify themselves as consumers of those products now you can create “brand junkies”. This exploitation of easily addictive foods helps to fuel empires like McDonalds, Frito-Lay, Coca-Cola and many, many others. Consumption of these foods can help contribute to a multitude of health issues. This also creates the need for another rapidly growing sector of the economy, healthcare.
Western healthcare, as we think of it today, oftentimes doesn’t deal with the root causes of problems unless it requires surgery. Usually, you would be given a drug to negate the symptoms of an underlying issue not actually trying to fix the issue. This creates a scenario where someone will have to take a specific drug indefinitely and be a constant income stream for the drug company who produces it. Who created this parasitic healthcare system design? John D. Rockefeller, the oil tycoon also known for saying “I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers”. Before Rockefeller got involved in medicine there were many more holistic ways of healing that we had used for thousands of years, but those methods weren’t patentable. Rockefeller funded studies to be reported to Congress for the purpose of redesigning the healthcare system in the US, writing off herbal and holistic remedies as nonsense and trying to create a market for petrochemicals that he could patent. It worked and soon America’s healthcare system became allopathic with the mindset “a pill for an ill”. Now people’s illness and pain mean profit, creating a horrifying negative feedback loop of overconsumption and ultimately slavery to this system.
Breaking free from the bondage sounds easy until you try to do it. Because of how these foods rewire your brain they can become more addictive than drugs. Starting to incorporate more whole foods into a diet as well as pre and pro biotics will help to start a change in the right direction. For millennia people followed what the original founder of western medicine Hippocrates taught “Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.” Today scientists are rediscovering the fact that this holds true in most instances and can be the cure for many issues.
Most people simply don’t know about what they are eating and why they should or shouldn’t eat certain things. There is also this push on social media, the idea that “food is food” in other words people are trying to say they can eat whatever they want without limits and be called healthy. This growing trend of pure ignorance is dangerous to those easily influenced and deceived. We need to have more promotion not just of a healthy body image but of what a healthy diet actually looks like.
We aren’t really taught about food in school and all of the advertisements we are exposed to are always showcasing unhealthy foods. Many advertisements today do a great job at making you feel like getting their food product will somehow be fun or improve your life. Subway has even fooled people into thinking that eating a sandwich from them is healthy, despite the fact that many of them are filled with deli meats which are ground meat scraps that have been glued back together. Many advertisements primarily go after kids so that they can get them hooked young and create lifelong customers. How could this be combatted? Some might feel that our political leaders should do this by making laws. This might work to stop the use of GMO’s and pesticides, but it would most likely result in an overreach if used on sales and advertising. The real way people vote is with their dollars, if people stop purchasing something it will cease to exist. Knowledge of nutrition should probably be taught more effectively in schools however the best way would be to learn about it is at home. Parents play the most critical role in their children’s health and ultimately set them on the path to health or illness. Parents should take it upon themselves to ensure that their children eat healthy diets and are also not being fed the nonstop commercialism that makes them want junk food. With proper nutritional understanding of our food and viewing it as fuel for the betterment of our health we can begin to implement healthier choices that will vastly improve our lives.
Works Cited
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