very quite about the fact that their product is addictive, controls lives and kills people – and all the while it was advertised on television and radio (and of course the government got its share of the profits). Many doctors even suggested smoking to their patients as a good way to relieve stress from their lives. Doctors at the time were actually suggesting a known stimulant will relax a person. It is now known that many tobacco companies were deliberately adding chemicals to tobacco in order to make then even more addictive. My question is a simple one: is it possible the same thing is happening in some areas of the food and beverage industry? Is it possible that there could be some unscrupulous characters in the industry who would, like the tobacco companies, deliberately add chemicals to their food simply in order to make them less satiating and thus sell more to an unsuspecting public?
We have a situation where it is fairly widely accepted that the vast majority of ‘food’ sold in a McDonald’s isn’t exactly the healthiest on the planet. Yet some years back, planning permission was given to have a McDonald’s in the grounds of the Tower of London. BIG FOOD often have good contacts and, like the tobacco companies of old, they seem to be able to get their food sold in the most unlikely of places. Having a McDonald’s in a sacred place such as the Tower Of London is bad enough, but did you know there’s even a McDonald’s in Guy’s hospital in London? Yes, a McDonald’s in a blooming hospital!
You may think it’s unfair to put junk food in the same category as cigarettes. After all cigarettes kill people, often control their lives, cost them a fortune and are highly addictive. But where exactly is the difference? As a nation the UK spends £7 million a day on fast food. Second only of course to the good ol’ U.S of A. This money is spent on ‘foods’ that are known to be addictive and are known to cause all kinds of diseases, including cancer and heart disease – the two biggest killers in Western society. Just table salt alone is known to kill over 40,000 people a year in the UK, that’s more than 100 people a day. This is virtually the same number as alcohol. White refined carbohydrates and refined sugar are known to be a major cause of diabetes and a whole host of other diseases (which I will explain later). Aspartame (the artificial sweetener found in diet drinks etc.) has been linked to ninety-two different adverse symptoms and all kinds of health problems. This stuff is known to tighten blood vessels, cause additional thirst and has even been linked to brain tumours. Yet not only is it being sold as a ‘food’ stuff, but is promoted as a product that will help people who have a weight problem. (I will cover aspartame and products like it in depth later so you’ll never want to touch them again.)
The point is this, in my estimation the wrong kinds of food overall actually kill more people than all other drugs combined. And yes that includes heroin, crack, cocaine and even cigarettes. Yet there is not one single drug food product that has a warning on it.
We banned direct cigarette advertising, yet BIG FOOD spend literally billions advertising products that have been linked to major diseases and hardly any restrictions are put on them. These are ‘foods’ that can and do cause premature death, just like cigarettes; control people’s lives, just like cigarettes; and products which, I estimate, slowly kill two-thirds of those who are hooked on them (which is more than cigarettes).
You cannot open a magazine, switch on your TV, or go to the cinema without being bombarded with images of drug-type foods. The government of course is not about to do anything about it as they earn billions in tax revenue from people’s addictions to these heart-disease causing, stroke-inducing so-called foods. Their argument is always the same and runs along the lines of ‘people are not stupid, they know the facts, we advise them to eat five portions of fruit and veg a day. If they choose to eat junk, then it’s up to them’. Yet they make it law to wear a seat belt. Why isn’t it our choice then? Because people are not addicted to putting on or leaving off their seat belts, but they are addicted to trashy foods. To say to someone like Barry Austin, (reportedly the fattest man in Britain) who I believe, at the age of 29, was 50 stone (317 kg) in weight and had a 82 in. (208 cm) waist, that it’s his genuine choice to be like that is ludicrous. Given the genuine choice I imagine he would love to end his addiction to crap foods and he would love to be slim.
You Black Tar Nicotine Loaded Bastard
One of the major problems with ‘food’ addiction is that the problem is visible because the most common symptom for many (although not all) is excess fat on the body. Think about it: no matter how many cigarettes someone smokes, they’re never called a black tar, nicotine-filled git or a cigarette-smoking bastard are they? Yet along with food addiction go the names and scathing attack on our characters: we get called gits and pigs – we’re never just fat are we? This is why so many people don’t reach obesity – because of how they will look. But they still have a food problem and are still constantly battling to control what they eat.
I used to feel very proud of myself if I managed to be good for a few days, or if I managed to control my intake of chocolate to the point where I only had it at weekends. I often used to cut down on the coffee and biscuits – put myself on the ‘food wagon’ if you will. There are people who do manage to exercise extreme control over their intake of trash food, but this is an awful way to go through life. If you have to exercise control over something, it must mean that that something is controlling you. It is the need to exercise control that means you are not in control as I alluded to previously. Confused? Let me put it this way. I do not have to exercise control over my banana intake, if I needed to discipline myself with my bananas then I would have a banana problem. For years smokers thought it was their genuine choice to smoke (in fact some people still retain this belief). However, when the ban came in and smokers were forced to stand outside their workplace in the freezing cold in order to get their fix, they started to realize they were not choosing to smoke, but had to (I know first-hand as I used to smoke 40–60 a day).
I do not know one single person who has to exercise control over their apple intake. Why? Because it is not a drug food. No chemicals have been added deliberately in order to compel you to overeat them. There is a natural cut off point. I also don’t know anyone who would have the slightest problem getting rid of apples from their diet if a doctor told them they caused heart disease, lethargy, weight gain, and premature death. Yet there are hundreds of thousands of people who, if you told them the same thing about coffee, chocolate, alcohol, crisps, or fast-food burgers for example, would say, ‘Up yours, life’s too short’ and continue eating them. Why? Because they are drug-like foods that compel people to want more and more, even if it goes against their rational judgement. Whether you actually have more and more is neither here nor there, it’s the wanting more that causes the real problem – the need to exercise control.
TOTALLY WIRED
Some unfortunate people have lost the ability to exercise control over what they eat or drink. It was reported that Barry Austin was told he would die unless he slimmed, and he went through the drastic measure of having his stomach stapled. I also understand that when he was 19 he had his jaws wired together which lasted for four months and he lost 4 stone (25 kg) in that time because all he could consume was soup. I imagine his life was hell, especially at Christmas when he saw all the beautiful food laid out in front of him and knew he couldn’t take part. Can you imagine the torture he must have been going through? Apparently, his family liquidized his roast dinner and pudding for him to drink but on seeing the mush he was supposed to drink, his desperation was such that he ripped the wires out with wire cutters, leaving his mouth bleeding in agony. Do you think he goes through all this for a hamburger because he simply likes the taste? Is it possible that there is more to it? Is it possible he is simply mentally and physically addicted to drug foods in the same way a nicotine addict is addicted to cigarettes? It is not just possible but once we start to really look at it, it becomes obvious. It is not his genuine choice to do this – given the choice he would just eat healthily. Given the genuine freedom of choice we would be free to eat what he wants to eat. He doesn’t want to eat that rubbish, he is just compelled to – for reasons unknown to him
The reason I have used Barry as an example is to illustrate the point that often it is not our genuine choice to eat certain ‘foods’. We have simply been conditioned and brainwashed by BIG