The American people are being deliberately starved to death on fast foods...

This doesn’t seem to make any sense. I already know what you are thinking. “How can you starve to death if you’re eating fast food? People who eat fast food aren’t starving, they’re fat!”

And this is exactly what we have been trained to think. The sad truth is that fat Americans are quite literally starving to death. They eat plenty of food, but are provided no nutritional value.

A person is hungry, so they stop at a fast-food place on their way to work. An hour later they are hungry again, and wondering to themselves with guilt, “Why am I already hungry again?” It is because they satisfied their stomach, but not the rest of their body. Now their body is calling for more food, to satisfy the need for proper nutrients. The sort of nutrients that provide energy, and stave of all sorts of sickness and disease. If they had a nutritious breakfast, they would not be hungry now. Instead they opted for the cheesy-sausage biscuit that shot right through them like greased lightning. Now to satisfy their hunger once again, they raid the box of donuts in the break room. Again, no nutritional value, but it satisfies the stomach for a while once more. At this point, the person has probably already exceeded their proper caloric intake for the day, without even gaining any proper nutritional sustenance that the body actually requires. The person has been eating for nothing, other than to put down the creeping feeling of starvation.

Now repeat this cycle throughout the day, everyday. The person will continue to gain weight due to calories, but at the same time, the body is provided none of the essential nutrients to keep one healthy and active. Hence, this fat person is literally starving to death in a viscous cycle. So regardless of personal choices, I believe I have shown that fat people are literally starving to death, while eating more and more to silence the alarms of starvation the body is sending to the brain.

Now I will move to the deliberate campaign to ensnare Americans in this cruel trap.

The motivation here is two-fold. First comes the profits, as to be expected in any good Capitalist society. Food with little or no nutritional value is cheap and easy to produce, yet can be sold for a substantial profit. The profit margin is increased through genetic modifications to the food that increases mass, while further depleting nutrients. Now the profit margin is further increased by selling this “food” in massive quantities. Not only at fast-food restaurants, but in the supermarkets as well. Snack foods and frozen dinners obviously, but now even the fruits and vegetables have been modified so that nutrition is lost in favor of quantity. Twenty years ago, all food was organic. Now if you want food that has any real nutritional value, you have to pay twice as much as what the standard product is selling for.

Now we run into the more sinister part of the conspiracy. The scary truth is that our infrastructure can no longer provide food to the people. This is the second motivation for increasing quantity at the cost of nutrition. “Let them eat cake!” To keep the people from realizing that the infrastructure can no longer sustain the people with the foods that maintain the proper nutritional health, these “food-like” products are shoved in our faces to fatten up the population. After all, how could anyone possibly claim that fat people are starving to death? Moreover, they can clearly claim that food is being provided to the people, when in reality what we are eating is not food at all but artificial sustenance. Our tummies are full, so no one bother to question what is actually happening.

So let’s move on to personal choice then.

Again, the sad truth is most people don’t even realize that what they are eating is not actually food. Sure they know that fast-food isn’t really good for you, but at least it’s something to eat. So unless people are actually aware of what is happening here, how can they be expected to make the right choice? Then add on to that the ferocious campaigns of consumerism. Americans are relentlessly subjected to the most unscrupulous methods of psychological battery to get them to buy and consume. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the advertisements that tell us what to eat. Even when you think you are eating food that is good for you now, you are still slowly starving to death with each bite. The meats, the vegetables, it’s all being stripped of its nutritional value while the campaign mounts to shift everyone over to a diet of pre-packaged meals.

And this campaign goes well beyond advertising. The chemicals that are used to increase the size of the food you eat, goes into you as well. This means that these chemicals will actually induce hunger when you digest them.

The destruction of the family unit and the rapid deterioration of our economy has played a key role in the dramatic shift in the eating habits of Americans. No one sits around a dinner table in the evening anymore. Why? Because no one has the time to cook a proper meal, or to go shopping for all the ingredients. You have two parents working 60 hours a week each, and telling the babysitter that there are Hot Pockets in the freezer.

Then you have the cost of food itself. There are many people who simply can no longer afford to eat real food. It is cheaper to eat foods that have little or no nutritional value.

Wendy's
double cheese burger (135g each) x 2 = $2
chili = $1.19
TOTAL = $3.19

Stop & Shop Supermarket
half-pound bologna = $1.40
quarter-pound american cheese = 1.38
one can soup = $1
TOTAL = $3.78

Notice that the grocery list does not even include the bread or condiments. So where does the poor person take their five-spot when they get hungry? Also note that bologna sandwhich is probably just as bad for you as the Wendy’s cheeseburger.

I will leave it at this for now, and argue on a point by point basis against the barrage I expect to be pelted with here.




[edit on 2/2/0808 by jackinthebox]

Jackinthebox, compelling argument. Interesting pov.

Another motive may also be the profitability of a chronically unhealthy or ill population, since our's is a for-profit health care system, that treats the symptoms of illness, rather than the cause. Your patients never actually get well and you have an endless supply of customers (big pharma).

Edit to add: Very true, that it's more difficult now to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables than it used to be. What they call fresh at the corporate chain grocery store has been sitting in trucks for weeks getting artificially ripened and losing nutrients. And tastes like it. Remember what a peach tasted like when you were a kid? No wonder you can't get kids to eat fruits and vegetables.. they're terrible and have no taste and probably less than half their original nutrients.







[edit on 2/2/08 by kattraxx]

Ah, yes indeed. Excellent thought. I had something about the un-healthcare system rattling around in my head. Must have been picking up your frequency. Thanks.

Yes, people of lesser means cannot afford to shop at health food stores. Nor can they afford proteins such as lean meats and cheeses, etc. So they end up buying a lot of carbohydrates, which always seem to be prominently featured at the grocery stores and are much cheaper.

Reminds me of watching a program about food lines in Ohio, people lined up in the blowing snow at dawn. And that moron Bill O'Reilly (sp?) commenting that "those people didn't look like they were going hungry" to him. Taking an obvious shot at the fact that they were over-weight... and for all the reasons you have pointed out.

Again, very compelling and well-researched.

It's kind of amusing to me how these companies can get away with lying about what's in their products. Most people don't go over each and every ingredient in their food, they just take a quick look at the nutrition facts, see how many calories are in the food, how much fat, carbs, etc.. They don't look much further than that. They don't look to see if the listed "0 grams trans fat" actually means 0 grams trans fat. If you see any hydrogenated oils in the ingredients list, there's some trans fat in that product. They're allowed to claim there's 0 grams trans fat in the product as long as the amount of trans fat per serving is less than 0.5g. That's pretty dangerous manipulation of the facts, considering American's propensity to go well beyond the suggested serving size.

Before 2005, these companies were not even required to list trans fat. I just take a quick look at some of the nutritional facts on some of these products and it's astounding to me how many things have trans fat in them. Things you wouldn't even expect it to be in. I look at a can of pillsbury's dinner rolls, and see that they have 2 grams of trans fat per serving. Bread has trans fat? How exactly does that happen? I mean bread is so basic, why the hell does it have trans fat in it? And then I looked at this package of shredded cheese with this green emblem on the front claiming "low in cholesterol", but if you stop and take a look at the back of the package, it had 3 grams of trans fat per serving. Yea, trading cholesterol for trans fat, smart idea.


Those are just a couple of things they are/were allowed to get away with. You really have to pay attention to what you're eating. Even if you think it's healthy, there's a chance it might not be.

Add in the fact that the food industries add chemicals to the food to make them 'taste' better which also cause obesity and many other illnesses that result in people being put on prescription drugs, which now benefits big pharma. This scam is much bigger than most people know.

All little off subject but yet its not is nutritional info. I havent to lift weights and I like to watch what I eat (To an extent) but the only places that give any nutritional info are the fast food joints (on Their Websites) There is nothing on Olive Garden, Ruby Tuesdays, Cheesecake Factory, Benigans, most of the sit in restaurants. You wonder why America is so obese this is a HUGE reason why. You think you are eating normal until you find you that lunch was over 2000 calories. Pathetic I must say good post.

Originally posted by jackinthebox
Twenty years ago, all food was organic. Now if you want food that has any real nutritional value, you have to pay twice as much as what the standard product is selling for.

Two mistakes right there. Twenty years ago, not all food was organic. Far from it.

There are also products like Presidents Choice Organic Baby Food which sell for the same price as the non organic baby food of the same brand.

Obviously your children fall into the lucky category, and I applaude you for your efforts. I was raised to eat nutritiously at home, and enjoy cooking as well.

But alas, my financial situation has restricted my diet to ramen and vienna sausages along with all too frequent stops at fast-food joints. This is a sad fact of life for many Americans.

Many more were not raised to know how to cook, and are suffering for it along with their children.

There are also many families who simply cannot afford to spend "the little bit extra" for healthy food. In my teens, my family hit hard times, and had to live off of food donations. This meant a daily routine of mac n' cheese with knock-off spam, cheese sandwhiches on white bread, canned veggies with no nutrients, etc. I used to kick up the cheese sandwhich a notch with some garlic salt.

Why didn't your kids' friends get home-cooked meals?

Good post it's an interesting read.
I live in the UK so I don't know much about what it's like to live in your country but reading posts like this I always find myself thinking would your government and industry really do this to the people?
Are we really at that point where so called 'civilized' countries do this to the people?

I mentioned this in the "Middle class-how to fight back" thread, but it seems appropriate to mention it here, as well.

Even people who think they are eating better, might not be. In many stores it's impossible to know if the food you are eating has been irradiated to make it's shelf life longer.

Irradiation of food not only deprives it of nutrients but replaces those depleted nutrients with free-radicals. So, even if you decide it's going to be a raw-foods, completely vegetarian diet for you, you may be starving yourself of nutrients. The grocers have no mandate to label irradiated foods, although it is law that they be labeled for sale to them. So, the crate comes in the back door with the "radura" ( a flower symbol internationally known as the sign for irradiated food) but goes out into the produce section with no indication that it's been irradiated. The food lasts (well, it LOOKS like it lasts, but it's basically rotten) indefinitely and there is no indication that it's rotten. It never starts to stink, it never starts to wilt. Well, I'm sure it would eventually...but I had a head of broccoli for months that never rotted.

Irradiation began when the meat industry lobbied Congress for some kind of procedure that would protect them from litigation by people who got sick from eating undercooked meat (because the conditions by which meat is processed is so filthy).

Watch "Fast Food Nation" for a glimpse into the meat processing business.
The best thing a person can do for themselves , nutritonally (and for the environment), is stop eating processed commercial meat. You couldn't force me to eat anything from a fast food restaurant. As a matter of fact, the only kind of restaurant I really like to frequent is the Japanese steak house where they chop and cook the food right in front of me.

As far as being poor and subsisting on ramen noodles and such: you can do better. (Those ramen noodles are glue, dude!) There has to be a farmer's market near you somewhere. Or a co-op? If not, start one! Even getting together with friends to buy in bulk at a bigger store can defray costs. Eating beans and brown rice provides a complete protein and all the carbs you need for energy. Bake your own whole wheat bread...it isn't rocket science and it costs pennies compared to the expensive multi-grain loaves that still contain high-fructose corn syrup (another pervasive ingredient that goes straight to your liver and never comes out).

HFCS is in evvvvvvvvvvvvverything. Extends the shelf-life, thus making it more profitable to the corporations that market the goods.

Since cognitive ability has been directly linked to nutrition, it's no surprise that America is filling up with fat, dumb people.

In a year, I brought my cholesterol down 80 points, something my doctor claimed was impossible to do with diet alone. (Hm! Impossible, you say? Oh...big pharma says!)

Great thread...I think this is one of the most important (and least addressed) issues of our day.

Namaste.

i think most of the obesity is not really from eating poor meals or living off macca's every night

so many people cook a decent meal but then the kids sit down in front of the telly to a large packet of chips and wash it down with copious amounts of soft drink right before bed.

gone are the days of a sandwich, apple + fruit drink in a kids lunch box as most kids get some sugary breakfast and in their lunch box is choc layered muesli bars and a can of drink from the machine in the lunch room.

People consuming processed foods high in calories, fat and sodium and generally being lazier and less active than in the past, equals an explosion in obesity and type 2 diabetes. Not to mention a boon for the healthcare companies.

People just rather sit in front of their TV or computer and stuff their face with junk food these days.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to eat healthy.

Obesity crosses all economic and ethnic lines.

It's pretty simple to eat healthy, if you really want to.

[edit on 3-2-2008 by bg_socalif]