Obesity is a prime cause of preventable chronic illnesses, and your diet is a huge factor in maintaining a healthy weight. Americans have increasingly adopted a diet high in ultra-processed foods and sugar. One reason for this is that only 10 food manufacturers control the processed food aisles in your local grocery store.
Many of these processed foods are made with genetically modified crops, which now comprise 70% of all crops grown in the United States. And, 70% of the American diet is processed foods, leading to many chronic health conditions.
Government policies began favoring large corporate growers in the 1970s, and now conglomerates control agriculture and seed supplies. This includes big pharma. It’s a vicious cycle: they control the food and supply drugs to treat chronic illness.
Americans have replaced saturated fats with sugar, white carbohydrates, and vegetable and seed oils had had a profound impact on the increasing number of people with chronic illness and obesity. It is incredibly important to select your food choices wisely.
The 2015-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) recorded the highest rate of obesity ever documented by the survey — 39.6% of adults with obesity. Those numbers continue to increase. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 42.5% of adults 20 and over with obesity in 2017-2018.
When the percentage of people who are overweight is included, that percentage rises dramatically to 73.6% of the population. The highest prevalence of obesity and overweight is in the midwestern and southern states, with over 40% of the population being obese. The exception is Florida.
Diet is important. You cannot eliminate the problems of a poor diet with exercise. If you want to maintain a healthy weight, diet is the first component to address.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6 of every 10 adults in the U.S. have at least one chronic health condition, such as heart disease, cancer, or Type 2 diabetes. These are also the leading causes of death in the U.S.,6, and obesity and being overweight are significant risk factors for them.
One 10-year study found a dose-response relationship between being obese or overweight and developing specific health problems such as heart disease, colon cancer, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and gallstones.
Making the change is more difficult given our choices at the grocery store. These are the biggest challenges that Americans face today to eat a healthy diet:
1. 70% of the american diet is processed food
Approximately, 70% of the crops grown in the U.S. are genetically modified, 73% of the population is overweight or obese, and approximately 60% of the population has at least one chronic disease. The data from 2 studies show the consumption of processed and ultra-processed foods in over 70% of the general population.
There are more than 40,000 on grocery store shelves, with the majority being processed and ultra-processed foods. One study found that 57.9% of foods eaten were ultra-processed and contributed 89.7% of calories from added sugar. Data also show that an excess of sugar in the diet may lead to a decrease in satiety, an increase in calorie intake, and impaired energy production in your body.
2. 70% of all crops are genetically modified (GM)
Nearly 70% of crops grown in the U.S. are from genetically modified seeds. According to data from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), the most popular GM crops are soybeans, corn, cotton, and canola.
Soybeans, corn, and canola are products used in many processed and ultra-processed foods on grocery store shelves. There are two types of genetically engineered seed: herbicide-tolerant (HT) and insect-resistant (Bt). The USDA finds the adoption rate for both is increasing, and the adoption of stacked seed varieties, which has both traits, has accelerated in recent years.
The implications for your health after exposure to GM plants come from the use of the herbicide glyphosate. Your gut microbiome is important to your health and is negatively impacted by glyphosate. Experts have tied exposure to glyphosate and GM plants to an imbalance in gut bacteria and a variety of chronic diseases including obesity.
3. 10 companies control almost all manufactured food
Currently, 10 companies control most of the manufactured food found in grocery stores. Together, their revenue adds up to over $1 billion every day.
These companies include Coca-Cola, Mars, Nestle, Kellogg, General Mills, Wrigley, and Wonka. They have a vested interest in using advertising to promote their products as healthy, wise diet choices for foods or as a fun splurge.
Advertising drives people’s preferences and eating habits, supports a company’s financial return, and drives the obesity epidemic. Make a conscious decision to read the labels and avoid processed and ultra-processed foods.
4. Big pharma controls agriculture and the seed supply
In the 1990s, lawmakers introduced legislation to protect bioengineered crops. In 2021, four large corporations owned more than 50% of the world’s seeds, which is a staggering monopoly that dominates the global food chain. One of those companies is Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018. Not only do they own the patents on engineered seeds, but they also require farmers to purchase new seed every year rather than replanting leftover seed from the prior year.
Monsanto is an agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology company, owned by a pharmaceutical company that controls a significant portion of the world’s seed supply. This means that Monsanto controls the GM food you eat, and Bayer manufactures the drugs to treat chronic illnesses caused by that food.
5. Meat packers play a critical middle man role
In 2020, the Department of Justice began formally investigating antitrust violations of the four largest beef packers in the U.S. following complaints from several states and agricultural organizations. The “Big 4” companies are Cargill, Tyson Foods, JBS, and National Beef, and they are responsible for processing 85% of all beef in the United States.
These 4 companies process 70% of beef production. The four firms gained greater control of the industry in the early 1990s when USDA data showed the market share of slaughtered animals rose from 25% in 1977 to 71% in 1992. Several incidents brought attention to the consolidation that gave just four companies controlling interest in the market.
When a meatpacking plant closes, a rancher’s cattle become less valuable. On the other side of the equation, less meat production means less meat making it to market. The result is higher prices for consumers. The middle man, the packers, makes more profits. And higher meat prices may force more consumers to choose plant-based fake meat.
6. Doctors over prescribe medications for chronic disease
Many doctors overprescribe the medications to treat chronic illness rather than help patients make important lifestyle changes to address the root causes. This includes pain medication, proton pump inhibitors, antidepressants, antibiotics, and medications to manage the side effects of other medications.
This gives the appearance that doctors are highly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. They focus on masking symptoms instead of prevention or treatment of underlying conditions such as nutritional and lifestyle changes.
7. Saturated fat replaced with refined sugar
Research known as the Seven Countries Study was conducted by Ancel Keys, a mid-20th century physiologist who promoted polyunsaturated fats over natural, saturated dietary fats. His goal was to identify dietary patterns that cause or prevent heart disease.
The study led the government to change its dietary recommendations to eliminate saturated fats and replace them with polyunsaturated fats. At the same time, the food industry began adding sugar and white, processed flour to processed foods.
These changes had a broad impact on health and instead of helping to decrease heart disease, actually increased many people’s risks of coronary heart disease as replacement leads to changes in LDL, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and triglycerides that may increase the risk of heart disease.
In addition, diets high in sugar may induce many other abnormalities associated with elevated heart disease risk, including elevated levels of glucose, insulin, and uric acid, impaired glucose tolerance, insulin and leptin resistance, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and altered platelet function. A diet high in added sugars has been found to cause a 3-fold increased risk of death due to cardiovascular disease.
Now, Americans consume up to 130 pounds of sugar every year. Sugar has become so inexpensive and ubiquitous, that it’s in nearly every processed and ultra-processed food.
8. Natural fats replaced with factory-produced vegetable oils
According to the USDA, consumption per year of added fat and oil rose by 30 pounds from 1970 to 2010. However, the amount of saturated animal fat declined while the rate of vegetable fat from seed oils increased. These are industrial vegetable and seed oils that are likely behind the majority of diseases diagnosed in this past century.
The number of people diagnosed with heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease and stroke has all risen dramatically in the last decades and are linked to the consumption of seed oil.
High consumption of omega-6 seed oil in everyday diets is a major cause of the chronic degenerative diseases of western civilization. Some researchers have called the addition of harmful industrial oils into the diet a global experiment without informed consent.
9. Fake meat plant foods sold as healthier choice
Although many fake meat products are sold as a healthier choice for you and the environment, this is not necessarily true.
We know that ultra-processed foods are the enemies of good health, even increasing the risk of premature death by 62% when eaten in quantities of more than four servings each day, with each added serving increasing the risk by another 18%.
So, what is plant-based meat? It’s not food; it’s intellectual property covered by 14 patents. And fake meat products may destroy the environment by causing a harmful reliance on GM grains that accelerate soil loss and detract from regenerative agriculture.
Final thoughts
Controlling the food supply is one more way of controlling your health and your future. With every passing year, it becomes more critical to be educated about the food choices you make each day as they impact your health and wellness.
Your nutrition dictates how well your body works, and therefore how well you feel each day. Make a commitment to make smart choices for your health and visit local farmers’ markets for produce, seek out regeneratively-grown produce, meat, and dairy products, and consider buying your meat and dairy directly from local farmers.