Monday, May 24, 2010

Startling Research Findings: A Newly Discovered Cause of High Blood Pressure and Obesity?


Posted by Dr. Mercola | May 25 2010





If you have been reading my recent articles about fructose you will probably recognize Dr. Richard Johnson.
Dr. Johnson is one of the physicians on the cutting edge of sugar metabolism research today, his focus being on how the overabundance of sugar in the American diet -- particularly fructose -- is causing obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and a number of other health problems in staggering numbers.
In this lecture, Dr. Johnson takes a more historical approach to obesity and cardiovascular disease, reviewing the important uric acid connection and some interesting evolutionary findings related to the way humans metabolize sugar.

Cardiology is a Relatively NEW Field

Obesity rates have paralleled sugar consumption trends in Western civilization. Although the obesity epidemic is relatively recent, obesity is not a new phenomenon.
In 1860, the prevalence of a BMI (body mass index) of 30 or higher (which defines obesity) was 1.6 percent among 50 year-old men. By 1900, it had tripled, and it has sharply increased over the past century.
Like obesity, hypertension was also rare prior to the twentieth century:
  • In 1900, only 5 percent of the population had a blood pressure of 140/90 or higher.
  • By 1939, 10 percent of adults had blood pressures above 140/90.
  • Today, 31 percent of adults are hypertensive.
Prior to 1940, there was no such thing as a cardiologist because there was no need for them. That was only 70 years ago!
The first reported angina was in 1929. In 1950, there were 500 cardiologists in the United States. Now there are 35,000 -- and they perform more than one million heart surgeries annually.
What is driving this eruption of cardiovascular disease?
One key factor: the explosion of sugar in the Western diet.
Sugar used to be quite expensive. It was a nonessential food item reserved mostly for the wealthy. Prior to 1800, Americans were consuming only about 4 pounds of sugar per person, per year. By 1800, that number had increased to 18 pounds as sugar plantations began to emerge. And by 1900, it was 90 pounds.
And sugar consumption has literally exploded since then -- our entire society is dependent on a substance that offers no nutritional value at all.

Diabetes Was Linked to Sugar Back in the 1800s

Diabetes has shown similar historical trends.
In 1892, there were just two cases of diabetes per 100,000 people, according to a famous medical textbook by Sir William Osler, The Principles and Practice of Medicine. Today, the rate is 9 percent across all age groups, and sadly one of every three children is diabetic.
When you look at the numbers of adults aged 20 and over, the incidence rate is almost 11 percent. And when you look at seniors aged 60 and up, the prevalence is over 23 percent!
The statistics are even more grim when it comes to the prevalence of pre-diabetes (impaired fasting glucose).
Almost 26 percent of U.S. adults over the age of 20 are pre-diabetics, and more than 35 percent of seniors, 60 and older.
All in all, the reality is that one in every four Americans is now either diabetic or pre-diabetic. Even in the 1800s, it was recognized that diabetes was related to sugar consumption.
Dr. Haden Emerson, one of the first epidemiologists and a public health commissioner of New York, wrote a brilliant paper about the rise in diabetes in New York City. In it, he commented that people who got diabetes were wealthy, sedentary, white, and he posed that sugar was driving it, according to the information presented by Dr. Johnson.
Today, the average American is consuming 56 gallons of soda and 152 pounds of sugar-based sweeteners annually. Soda consumption has risen by 70 percent since 1977. Ten to 20 percent of children’s calories come from sugar -- and the top 20 percent of sugar-addicted children are getting 40 percent of their calories from sugar every single day.
It is no accident that childhood obesity is at a record high and life expectancy for the youngest generation is, for the first time, lower than that of their parents.
The worst type of sugar you can ingest is fructose, which may surprise you because it is derived from fruit.

Fructose Turns You Into a Uric Acid Factory

It’s been known for ages that meats and purine-rich foods can raise uric acid, but it turns out that one of the most profound ways to raise uric acid is by consuming the simple sugar fructose.
The chemical name for regular table sugar is sucrose, which is made up of two simple sugars, fructose and glucose, that are linked together.
Glucose and fructose are different types of simple sugars. After they are separated apart and broken down in your body they are metabolized using completely separate pathways. Glucose is utilized by every cell in your body -- in fact, your body was designed to use it for energy.
But fructose breaks down into a variety of waste products that are bad for your body, one of which is uric acid. As it turns out, uric acid drives up your blood pressure.
How does it do this?
Uric acid inhibits the nitric oxide in your blood vessels, and nitric oxide helps your vessels maintain their elasticity. Nitric oxide suppression leads to increases in blood pressure.
In fact, 17 out of 17 studies demonstrate that elevated uric acid levels lead to hypertension.
Thanks to Dr. Johnson’s research, we now know that fructose generates uric acid within minutes of ingestion. High levels of uric acid are normally associated with gout, but it has been long known that people with high blood pressure and kidney disease, and people who are overweight, often have elevated uric acid levels.
It was thought this increased uric acid resulted from the disease, but it appears now that it may have been CAUSING it!
Not surprisingly, uric acid levels have been increasing for the past hundred years.
When your uric acid level exceeds about 5.5 mg per dl, you have an increased risk for a host of diseases, including:
This is exactly why I am so passionate about educating you about the dangers of fructose! I am thoroughly convinced it’s one of the leading causes of a great deal of needless suffering from poor health and premature death.
One of the other professionals who truly opened my eyes and educated me on this issue is Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at University of California in San Francisco.
If you still haven’t watched his very popular and excellent lecture on the dangers of fructose and other sugars, I strongly recommend you take the time to do it. (I’ve published it in two parts. Click here for part 1, and here for part 2.)

Glucose Makes Fructose Even More Potent!

Fructose consumption clearly causes insulin resistance, whereas straight glucose does not. Insulin resistance can eventually lead to full blown diabetes.
Interestingly, glucose actually accelerates fructose absorption. So when you mix glucose and fructose together, you absorb more fructose than if you consumed fructose alone. This is an important piece of information if you are struggling to control your weight.
Remember, sucrose, or table sugar, is exactly this blend -- fructose plus glucose.

Is Fruit Bad?

If you are craving something sweet, your best bet is to reach for an apple or a pear. And if you give yourself a sugar holiday for even a couple of weeks, you will be amazed at how much those cravings will decrease. But be sure and count the grams of fructose and keep your total fructose from fruit below 15 grams per day as you are sure to consume plenty of "hidden" fructose in the other foods you will be eating.
You can use the table below to help you count your fructose grams.
FruitServing SizeGrams of Fructose
Limes1 medium0
Lemons1 medium0.6
Cranberries1 cup0.7
Passion fruit1 medium0.9
Prune1 medium1.2
Apricot1 medium1.3
Guava2 medium2.2
Date
(Deglet Noor style)
1 medium2.6
Cantaloupe1/8 of med. melon2.8
Raspberries1 cup3.0
Clementine1 medium3.4
Kiwifruit1 medium3.4
Blackberries1 cup3.5
Star fruit1 medium3.6
Cherries, sweet103.8
Strawberries1 cup3.8
Cherries, sour1 cup4.0
Pineapple1 slice
(3.5" x .75")
4.0
Grapefruit, pink or red1/2 medium4.3
FruitServing SizeGrams of Fructose
Boysenberries1 cup4.6
Tangerine/mandarin
orange
1 medium4.8
Nectarine1 medium5.4
Peach1 medium5.9
Orange (navel)1 medium6.1
Papaya1/2 medium6.3
Honeydew1/8 of med. melon6.7
Banana1 medium7.1
Blueberries1 cup7.4
Date (Medjool)1 medium7.7
Apple (composite)1 medium9.5
Persimmon1 medium10.6
Watermelon1/16 med. melon11.3
Pear1 medium11.8
Raisins1/4 cup12.3
Grapes, seedless (green or red)1 cup12.4
Mango1/2 medium16.2
Apricots, dried1 cup16.4
Figs, dried1 cup23.0

My Recommended Fructose Allowance

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day.
However, for most people it would actually be wise to limit your fruit fructose to 15 grams or less, as it is virtually guaranteed you will consume “hidden” sources of fructose from most beverages and just about any processed food.
Fifteen grams of fructose is not much -- it represents two bananas, one-third cup of raisins, or just two Medjool dates!
Since the average 12-ounce can of soda contains 40 grams of sugar, at least half of which is fructose, this can of soda ALONE would exceed your daily allotment of 15 grams -- plus it offers you absolutely nothing nutritive, only empty calories.
Reducing sugar in your diet can be tough. After all, sugar is just as addictive as cocaine!
In his book, The Sugar Fix, Dr. Johnson includes detailed tables showing the content of fructose in different foods -- an information base that isn’t readily available when you’re trying to find out exactly how much fructose is in various foods. I encourage you to pick up a copy of this excellent resource.

If you feel you must have a sweetener, here are a few guidelines to follow:

  • Avoid ALL artificial sweeteners.
  • Avoid all conventional agave and high fructose corn syrup
  • If you have favorite products that you use PLEASE write the company and tell them to remove the fructose or you will not purchase them in the future. We have been VERY effective as many major companies have already shifted their practice of using HFCS.
  • Limit sugar of all types as much as possible. You can buy pure glucose (dextrose) as a sweetener for about $1 per pound, which has none of the adverse effects of fructose if used moderately. It is only 70 percent as sweet as sucrose, so you’ll end up using a bit more of it for the same amount of sweetness, making it slightly more expensive than sucrose -- but still well worth it for your health.
  • Use high quality agave that has fructose in it's conjugated from. You can also use raw honey in moderation or avoid it completely as it is 70 percent fructose which is higher than HFCS. However the fructose is not in its free from so that moderates the damage. But each teaspoon of honey has nearly four grams of fructose so you will want to carefully add the total grams of fructose (including fruits) and keep them under 15 grams per day.
  • Use regular stevia in moderation, but avoid stevia-based sweeteners like Truvia and PureVia because they have undergone more processing. My favorites are the liquid stevias that are flavored with English Toffee or French Vanilla.  Remember, in the US it is illegal to advertise stevia as a sweetener so you will need to look for it in the supplement section where it is legal to sell.
  • Lo Han is another excellent natural herbal sweetener.
  • Exercise can be a very powerful tool to help control fructose in a number of ways. If you are going to consume fructose it is BEST to do so immediately before, during or after INTENSE exercise as your body will tend to use it directly as fuel and not convert it to fat Additionally exercise will increase your insulin receptor sensitivity and help modulate the negative effects of fructose. Lastly exercise will also help to blunt your appetite and control your sweet tooth.
If you have fasting insulin levels, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, or if you’re overweight, I suggest you avoid all sweeteners, including stevia, since any sweetener can decrease your insulin sensitivity.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Effect of Words on Water


More Messages in Water

The Spirit of Ma'at interviews Dr. Masaru Emoto

by Reiko Myamoto Dewey
REIKO: We have read your book The Message from Water, and we introduced it on our website in our August issue (see "Conscious Water Crystals: The Power of Prayer Made Visible"). It has been our most popular article, with its readership increasing every week, and has raised many questions.
You mentioned in your book how you would type out words on a piece of paper and paste these written words onto a bottle, and see how the water reacted to the words -- what kind of crystals were formed from the words. From your research, are you able to discern whether the reaction of the water came from the vibration of the actual words that were pasted onto the bottles, or whether the intention of the person who was pasting the words onto the bottle influenced the experiment in any way?
DR. EMOTO: This is one of the more difficult areas to clarify. However, from continuing these experiments we have come to the conclusion that the water is reacting to the actual words. For example, for our trip to Europe we tried using the words "thank you" and "you fool" in German. The people on our team who took the actual photographs of the water crystals did not understand the German for "you fool", and yet we were able to obtain exactly the same kind of results in the different crystal formations based on the words used.
REIKO: Have you found that distance made any difference when people were praying over water? For example, if people in Japan were to pray over water in Russia, would this be different from people praying over water that is right in front of them?
DR. EMOTO: We have only experimented once with that in the book. But from that experiment, distance did not seem to matter. The intention and prayers of the person still influenced the water. We have not yet tried further experiments from a long distance. However, my feeling is that distance would not make much of a difference. What would make a difference is the purity of intent of the person doing the praying. The higher the purity of intent, the less of a difference the distance itself would make.
REIKO: Have you seen any difference between one person praying over water versus a whole group of people praying over water?
DR. EMOTO: Since the water reflects the composite energy of what is being sent to it, the crystalline structure reflects the composite vibrations of the group. So one person praying reflects the energy or intention of that one person. In terms of how powerful the effect can be, if you have one person praying with a deep sense of clarity and purity, the crystalline structure will be clear and pure. And even though you may have a large group of people, if their intention as a group is not cohesive, you end up with an incohesive structure in the water. However, if everyone is united together, you will find a clear, beautiful crystal, like one created by the prayer of a single person of deep purity.
In one of our experiments, we had some water on a table, and 17 participants all stood in a circle around a table holding hands. Then each of the participants spoke a beautiful word of their choice to the water. Words like unity, love, and friendship. We took before-and-after shots and were able to obtain some beautiful crystalline structures as a result of this. I have some slides that I will be showing of these crystals in my upcoming European tour.
REIKO: Is the water influenced immediately, or is there a time lag?
DR. EMOTO: In these cases we would freeze the water right away, so we could say that the water is changed instantaneously.
REIKO: Have you ever tested other human body fluids, such as saliva, blood, urine etc?
DR. EMOTO: Yes, we certainly have. However, fluids with other elements in them, like seawater, blood and urine, do not form crystals. However, we can dilute them with distilled water to something like 10 to the power of -12 or -20 or so. This dilutes the component of other elements in the fluid to the point where we can freeze the sample and obtain crystals.
REIKO: Could you then see the effect that energetic healing or prayer has on a person by looking at the crystals formed by their blood or urine?
DR. EMOTO: As far as experiments related to the human body are concerned, there are a lot of subtle influences that also need to be taken into consideration. So although we are looking at this, we have not publicized any information yet. However, you can look forward to hearing about our findings on this in the future.
REIKO: If we could imbue water with the energy of various words, for example, with the word, "health", could we then use the water that has that vibration in it and use it to do things like grow food, water plants, etc?
DR. EMOTO: We have not tried this, but some people who have read the book are experimenting with bottling tap water and taping words like "love" and "appreciation" on the bottle and using that water to water their plants, or to put cut flowers in. They are finding that their cut flowers are lasting much longer, and that the plants in the garden are much more radiant.
REIKO: Once a certain vibration is introduced to the water, how long does the water "remember" that crystalline structure?
DR. EMOTO: This will be different depending on the original structure of the water itself. Tap water will lose its memory quickly. We refer to the crystalline structure of water as "clusters." The smaller the clusters, the longer the water will retain its memory. If there is too much space between the clusters, other information could easily infiltrate this space, making it hard for the clusters to hold the integrity of the information. Other micro-organisms could also enter this space. A tight bonding structure is best for maintaining the integrity of information.
REIKO: What kind of words would create smaller clusters and what kind of words would create larger clusters?
DR. EMOTO: Slang words like "you fool" destroy clusters. You would not see any crystals in these cases. Negative phrases and words create large clusters or will not form clusters, and positive, beautiful words and phrases create small, tight clusters.
REIKO: You say that some negatives do not form clusters, but we see from your photos that they do still form characteristic patterns. How would you classify these patterns?
DR. EMOTO: Think of it in terms of vibration. It's easy to understand that language -- the spoken word -- has a vibration. Well, written words also have a vibration. Anything in existence has a vibration. If I were to draw a circle, the vibration of a circle would be created. Drawing a cross would create the vibration of a cross. So if I write the letters L O V E, then these letters put out the vibration of love. Water can be imprinted with these vibrations. Beautiful words have beautiful, clear vibrations. But negative words put out ugly, incoherent vibrations which do not form clusters. Language is not something artificial, but rather is something that exists naturally. I believe that language is created by nature.
REIKO: Does that mean that every word has its own signature vibration or cluster that is unique to itself?
DR. EMOTO: Yes. During our evolution, we learned what sounds were dangerous, what sounds were soothing and safe, and what sounds were pleasurable, and so on. We slowly learned about various vibrations of the laws of nature. We learned this through instinct and through experience. We accumulated this information over time. We started out with some simple sounds like "a" or "u" or "e," which evolved into more complex sounds like "love." And these positive words create "natural" crystalline structures -- which are all based on the hexagon.
In fact, the structure of all evolution in nature, from an informational perspective, is based on the hexagon. The reason hexagons are formed has to do with the chemical reaction of the benzene ring. I believe that anything that lacks this basic hexagonal structure is out of accord with the laws of nature and holds a destructive vibration. So when we look at things that do not exist naturally -- things that have been created artificially -- many of them lack this hexagonal structure and so they have, I believe, a destructive vibration.
This principle is what I think makes swearing and slang words destructive. These words are not in accordance with the laws of nature. So, for example, I think you would probably find higher rates of violent crime in areas where a lot of negative language is being used. Just as the Bible says, first there was the Word, and God created all of Creation from the Word.
 So words actually convert the vibrations of nature into sound. And each language is different. Japanese has its own set of vibrations that differs from American. Nature in America is different from nature in Japan. An American cedar is different from a Japanese cedar, so the vibrations coming from these words are different. In this way, nothing else holds the same vibrations as the word arigato. In Japanese, arigato means "thank you." But even when there is this mutual underlying meaning, arigato and thank youcreate different crystalline structures. Every word in every language is unique and exists only in that language.
REIKO: Have you come across a particular word or phrase in your research that you have found to be most helpful in cleaning up the natural waters of the world?
DR. EMOTO: Yes. There is a special combination that seems to be perfect for this, which is love plus the combination of thanks and appreciation reflected in the English word gratitude. Just one of these is not enough. Love needs to be based in gratitude, and gratitude needs to be based in love. These two words together create the most important vibration. And it is even more important that we understand the value of these words. For example, we know that water is described as H2O. If we were to look at love and gratitude as a pair, gratitude is the H and love is the O. Water is the basis that not only supports but also allows the existence of life. In my understanding of the concept of yin and yang, in the same way that there is one O and two Hs, we also need one part yang/love to two parts yin/gratitude, in order to come to a place of balance in the equation.
Love is an active word and gratitude is passive. When you think of gratitude -- a combination of appreciation and thankfulness -- there is an apologetic quality. The Japanese word for gratitude is kan-sha, consisting of two Chinese characters: kan, which means feeling, and sha, apology. It's coming from a reverential space, taking a step or two back. I believe that love coming from this space is optimal love, and may even lead to an end to the wars and conflicts in the world. Kan-sha is inherent in the substance H2O -- an essential element for life.
REIKO: So if we were to develop a car that could run on water instead of gasoline, and return the water to the atmosphere and subsequently back into space in this way, would that be one way of fulfilling our task?
DR. EMOTO: I think that would be a wonderful thing, and for the sake of preserving Mother Nature it is the direction that we need to go. However, since water is the mirror reflecting our level of consciousness, a large percentage of the people on the planet, at least 10 percent of the people, need to have the love and the kan-sha awareness. When they do, then the time will come when water can be used to replace gasoline. And the reason I say 10 percent is that this ratio is mirrored in nature. When we look at the world of bacteria, for example, there are 10 percent good bacteria, 10 percent bad, and a majority of 80 percent opportunistic bacteria that could go either way. In looking at the various environmental issues we are faced with, and the tasks that we need to fulfill for the planet, if we could get more than 10 percent of the people consciously aware, than I believe we could pull the 80 percent in that direction, too.
And so I believe that the people who are following a spiritual path are promoting peace for the planet and for other people. If we could only unite on this level of consciousness, then we will be there.
I feel that my book The Message From Water has given birth to a convincing message through a common language for the whole world. Not because I wrote it, but because I know it was birthed through kan-shatoward mankind. I think this is why so many people from other countries want to interview me about the book. I am being invited to give talks at six different European locations. Things have been coming in non-stop from abroad.
REIKO: Do you believe that water itself is conscious and is reacting to the words?
DR. EMOTO: I understand that many of your readers are people interested in spiritual matters, and I would like to answer this question from that perspective. I believe that prior to Adam and Eve water itself held the consciousness of God -- that God's intention was put into the medium of water, and that this was used in the creation of Earth and Nature. In other words, all of the information needed for God's Creation was reflected in the water.
And then we -- Adam and Eve -- were placed on Earth to be the caretakers for this Creation of God. I believe that water held the consciousness of God until then, but that after the caretakers were placed on Earth, water became an empty vessel to mirror and reflect what was in the heart. It became a container to carry energy and information. Therefore, since this time, I think water has taken on the quality of simply reflecting the energies and thoughts that it is exposed to; that it no longer has its own consciousness. Water reflects the consciousness of the human race.
REIKO: Would you tell us your philosophical thoughts about what you believe these water crystals really are?
DR. EMOTO: After the book was published, I was wondering about this, and I came to the realization that these crystals are spirits. There are many parallels. When ice melts, the crystalline structure becomes an illusion. It's there -- and yet it's not there, because you can no longer see it.
Similarly, when a person dies their body loses several grams of weight -- what some people think of this as the weight of the soul. But then we can often visually see them. I think that the soul has mass, and that it returns to water molecules. And because it has mass, it is affected by the gravitational pull of the earth. And so sometimes the soul cannot transition over to the other side.
In Buddhism, we talk about attaining sattori, or reaching enlightenment. People who attain sattori do not become ghosts. They are able to achieve a certain stage of development at the soul level and return to God for a while before they move on to their next assignment.
We traveled here to Earth on the water crystals of spheres of ice [Editor's Note: You will hear more about this amazing phenomenon in an upcoming issue of the Spirit of Ma'at on the subject of water.] Earth is not our native home. There was nothing here. So these souls can return to their native homes for awhile. That is sattori, or enlightenment. However, most people on the planet are not able to attain enlightenment. To reach enlightenment means to be able to completely let go of the ego and our worldly attachments.
In the past 100 years the world's population has increased from 1 billion to 6 billion. During these 100 years, war and capitalism has dominated the planet. Rather than being able to detach from our desires, the opposite has been true. Our desires have grown and grown. Very few people have been able to attain enlightenment in this environment. Few souls have been able to go "home" and I believe they have remained on Earth in the form of water. This connects into the concept of reincarnation, where these spirits keep falling back to Earth and need to redo their lives here.
REIKO: So when a person dies, if they are unable to attain sattori at that time, their soul remains on this planet as water?
DR. EMOTO: That is what I believe, yes. The Japanese character for spirit is a combination of the words "rain" and "soul." People who have seen ghosts report seeing them in water or in places where there is a lot of humidity. It's as if the imprint of the soul, which is in the form of water, suddenly takes form when surrounded by water or moisture -- much like a mirage.
And so, looking at the pictures of the water crystals and the impact they are having, I came to the realization that these themselves are ghosts. Up until now, I had thought of ghosts as something to be frightened of, something that we could do nothing about. But watching these crystals, I realized that by simply projecting beautiful music and words onto them, the crystals or ghosts become beautiful. If that's the case, there's nothing to be frightened of. We need to let everybody know about this, and all use beautiful words and offer beautiful music, and create beauty in the environment.
By receiving beautiful thoughts and feelings and words and music, our ancestral spirits get lighter and are now able to make the transition "home." When we consider this, we can see the importance of traditions like Obon [a Japanese summer tradition where ancestral spirits are invited back to spend time with the family, and the ancestors are taken care of and respected].
When we are alive, the human body is at approximately 36 degrees Celsius. This is the temperature of the fluids in the body. When we die, this goes to zero degrees Celsius. When we die and go to the other side, crossing the river, we are no longer able to move our bodies. But the crystalline structure of our soul emerges. It's like water. When water turns to ice, the crystalline structure becomes visible, but it also becomes immobile. So "crystal" equals "spirit."
REIKO: Thank you very much.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

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


Posted by Dr. Mercola | May 04 201

A decade ago, an American woman's waist, on average, was close to two inches smaller than. 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:


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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.