The other day I had an interesting, if not incendiary conversation with a lawyer from our modern food industry. His argument to me was that if any corporation makes a food product that has been passed by the government as safe to sell, then no one has the right to say that it will harm you. They acronym GRAS, which stands for “generally regarded as safe” is used as the official stamp of approval for the many ingredients in our modern foods. As such, this is a legal benchmark required for the food industry to pass regarding the many chemical ingredients they put into the processed food products they produce and sell to us. His point was that if an individual eats any of these modern foods, then “legally” their health will be just fine. Further, it should be against the law for anyone to advise to the contrary.
He asked me if I had any studies showing that Pop-Tarts could hurt you or cause disease, even if consumed in large quantities. I didn’t. He asked “Did I have similar studies for consuming large quantities of Chef Boyardee canned ravioli or Campbell’s soup for weeks or months on end?” “Nope.” What about the same thing for “Kraft dinner, or Captain Crunch cereal?” “No,…can’t say I do.” Therefore, he stated victoriously “I should be sued” for spreading lies about these foods regarding their danger to public health. I should be punished for interfering with the sales of these fine products from the obviously and officially upstanding corporations that create and sell them.
Wait a minute…..what the hell happened to my argument? How could I be so helpless against this lawyer from the food industry? I certainly did have the huge statistics that show overwhelmingly that the modern North American diet is making us really fat and really sick and causing many of us to die in misery. I paused, sat back and thought about our conversation for a moment. Rather than capitulating though, I put my hands together and began to applaud this man for the concise representation of why so many of us are so fat and sick with diet related disease.
He had effectively framed our enormous problem with food and disease in a very unique and telling way. Regarding evidentiary studies on specific modern foods, he was correct. There are very few. One that comes to mind is the experiment conducted by Morgan Spurlock, for his excellent documentary film “Super Size Me”. In this film Morgan documented the dangerous changes to his health caused by eating a diet of McDonald’s fast-food exclusively for a month. Other than a few other similar anecdotal experiments the type of information he demanded from me is quite lacking. Until there are more voluntary human lab rats that will eat specific modern foods or combinations thereof in various quantities under scientific observation, I am afraid I will not be able to provide him with the direct evidence for which I was challenged.
It gets far more complicated though. Over the course of a day consider someone eating the following popular foods: a bowl of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes cereal, then a couple of Pop-tarts, some Chicken McNuggets with fries, an apple pie with a glass of milk, followed by some Cheezies, Pepsi-cola, Pizza Hut pizza and then a Twinkie washed down with some Dr. Pepper soda. The quantities here would represent small, acceptable and seemingly harmless quantities of each of these foods relative to total caloric intake over a day. This would give the food companies a completely defendable position, even if one conglomerate produces many of the same food items consumed. That is because each one of these crappy, unhealthy foods was consumed in truly “reasonable” quantities. Regarding defending their assertions that their processed foods are really quite harmless – they can’t lose.
Interestingly, from a legal standpoint the onus is far more on the side of the public to prove that processed or fast foods are not safe. Indeed, eating the foods mentioned in the last paragraph over a day will likely cause some immediate ill-feeling – gastro-intestinal and otherwise – and changes in mental temperament. Nothing major, but that is only one day. The problem for us (the public) is quantifying the deleterious health effects of eating these foods continually over months or even years. That is a big problem, because this is not being done. All we get are mostly vague and general suggestions to avoid some of these foods. Our own government and many other health organizations even see them as part of a healthy and balanced diet. I submit to you that the effects of eating these foods on a regular basis, especially over years can be more harmful to your health than smoking.
The argument presented by this man is exactly why we are so helpless against this garbage we put in our mouths every day. He had a family and I asked if he provided even regular quantities, let alone large amounts of many popular processed foods to his wife or children? “Uhhhmmmm….no…well, maybe a little, occasionally, you know…sometimes.” I smiled, because I knew full well that he and his wife fed their children only the best organic, fresh unprocessed foods. They had it delivered for crying out loud. You would never catch them at a McDonalds or in the sugared cereal aisle of your local discount grocery store – not on your life!
This guy made his living as a counsel for a huge food conglomerate though. That’s exactly how he could afford the ability to make these choices and to not eat the unhealthy, low grade food products that his company churned out. He was also very educated and quite well read. The same could be said for the other executives, board members, vice-presidents of marketing and other executives responsible for these processed products. This is also generally true for the scientists and lab technicians creating the chemical flavoring, texturizing and preservative ingredients used in these foods. His argument and this entire situation represented their money, prosperity, success and even health at our expense. Our continued obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and ill-health for buying and consuming more and more of their dangerous products. Quite simply – their gain for our loss.
The scariest part of this situation is what is says about the human condition. This guy proved to me that at our worst, we are truly nothing but animals in suits. This man could care less about the ill-health of other less enlightened people and their children. More disturbingly, he actually requires their physical misfortune. By staunchly defending the producers and propagators of modern industrial food, he actually depends on other people buying and consuming as much of this dangerous and fattening food as possible. His prosperity, his quality of life and that of his family and children depend on other people eating low cost, low grade, unhealthy foods and the terrible consequences that ensue for them. He is comfortably degrees of separation removed from their suffering. He won’t be personally exposed to their obesity, diabetes, chronic illness and years later quite possibly their deaths due to food related chronic disease. I highly doubt those other folks in suits and lab coats had any guilt either.
This is the legal “divide and conquer” strategy that has our population spiraling out of control with obesity and chronic food related disease. From a business standpoint it’s brilliant really. It keeps these giant corporations free from liability related to the dangers of their food products. It doesn’t matter how many of us get fat, sick and die just as long as they keep selling their processed products jammed with cheap fat and sugar calories, chemicals and almost completely devoid of healthy nutrients. Like parasites feeding on this misery, the medical and pharmaceutical industries are becoming as fat as we are! We buy their ineffective and often dangerous pseudo-solutions, allowing their profits to soar.
I mentioned that given all of this power and influence, these companies really can’t lose. That’s actually not true. There is one way for them to lose everything:
Don’t buy their products!
If you simply do not give these huge corporations your money, they will wither and die. So will the effects of all their lawyers, scientists, marketing directors, and all of the other people who are so exceedingly dangerous to our health and the health of our children. Don’t give them your money. Not one penny. Remove yourself from this terribly unjust cycle in one day. Get off of their greedy, harmful, and dangerous industrial food grid. It’s actually really easy.
A local farm, small fruit and vegetable store, and some farmers markets will seamlessly replace your large, big box grocery store. Except for a few small items like tea and spices, you can get all of your other foods from healthy, reasonably priced sources. I made this transition a long time ago and can show you exactly how. Please stay tuned for my next blog “Your 1 Day Food Transformation”.
If this post makes sense, feel free to check out our diet plan. It’s called the eco-diet and it’s based on the natural, healthy eating habits our ancestors followed for centuries. There are no excuses now.