Fat Traps

Shane Ellison writes in the June 16 Early to Rise newsletter on "a scheme designed by food manufacturers to make you eat more of something that you think is healthy," i.e. grocery store fat traps. Such as high fructose corn syrup (hfcs):

HFCS transforms people into eating machines. Once consumed, it sets into motion a chemical cascade that begins with spiked insulin and ends with feel-good molecules known as "endorphins." Intoxicated by artificial feel-good, the brain is unable to sense overeating and demands more, more, more - and the excess calories get stored in your body.

I’ve even heard of kids accidentally taking bites out of their fingers when under the influence of HFCS. Worse yet, many children who overindulge in Frankenfoods that contain HFCS and other sugars eventually become diabetic.

From beef jerky to bread and even spaghetti sauce, HFCS has infiltrated most processed foods and turned them into fat traps. Avoid this ingredient at all cost!

Others "fat traps" include:
- "fat free" labels, because while fat is removed, sugar is added;
- artificial sweeteners, "drugs disguised as sweeteners;"
- MSG: "not only spikes insulin, it also lowers the hormones that ward off obesity, premature aging, and diabetes: IGF-1 and human growth hormone." The fetus of a pregnant mother who consumes MSG may be doomed to overeating for the rest of his or her life.

I normally don't pay attention to what I eat, generally assuming that if it's not a fresh fruit or vegetable it's probably bad. On the whole, I don't see how adding chemicals to foods can be good for you.

But this does suggest that there's more to being overweight than "lack of discipline" or sedentary lifestyles. The people are persuaded, and sometimes manipulated, into buying processed foods through advertising and labeling. Then, they feel guilty for not controlling their appetites better, for not having the "will power." The solution? Purchase diet books and special diet foods! Round and round it goes. It's just another way to get people to part ways with their money. Much of it is wasted.

There isn't any particular way to control or prohibit this. The FDA doesn't act, and can not be made to act, in the "public interest," if there is such a thing. Prohibition of certain foods or chemicals would be, in a word, moronic. But, just as we are better off to know the subtle manipulations of advertising and propaganda, we are better off knowing the ways processed foods affect our brains and bodies.