I've seen people on message boards and websites, talk about how fat Americans are and how disgusting. Many make fun of us. Thinness is such the norm for many countries, they do not understand how easily obesity comes here and that includes Europe where they have all the modern technology, cars, subways. Sadly they blame us instead of realizing how badly our food is being adulterated and filled with chemicals that are leading to obesity. If they are developing nations their obesity rates will be skyrocketing the more they let the same thing happen to their food. No one asks the obvious which is why on earth would people in one country get so fat? It's not like the passage of time and history meant for more would be gluttons, and same for the countries which are now fattening up where American food corporations have imported their products.
If you look at the pictures of what the world eats, the bulk and volume of the food for a week for each of these families seems to be about the same amount except for the poorest of the poor. There is a lot less processed food but even with the processed food in Europe, they forbid a lot of things being put in food here. I have even read the ingredients lists for the processed food in the international aisle, at my local large grocery store and seen a massive difference--this food from Britain, Israel and other countries.
On a message board recently, an American man wrote that he had gone to Europe for a year and lost 50lbs without even dieting. I believe him.
I'm praying for everyone who got hit by Sandy...and really worried about what is going to happen in New York City especially now that the infrastructure seems to have taken a giant hit...
Disasters like this are very scary. One week without electricity and because I sleep on a CPAP, I would be in trouble. One thing that hit me, is what will happen to the old and sick who cannot walk well since all the buses and subways are not running? I lived carless in an urban environment for 5 years so know how dependent one is in the city on these things. How will they get to work? And if they can't? How will they pay their rent?
This storm also happened during the last week of the month where most poor or lower income people have already hit bottom, we do in our household. When I read preparation lists, I think, Whose got the extra hundreds of dollars sitting around to bolster up the supplies when the day to day supplies are barely maintained?
If I could afford it, I would be a prepper but that seems a hobby for the middle class and above set,so many can barely can keep normal food in the house month to month. That said, is it just me or has the American infrastructure grown too fragile and delicate? Why do we still have 1930's technology when it comes to the electrical system, where the slightest puffs of wind bring the whole thing down? Do you all know many European nations got smart and started putting the electrical wires underground?
What is going to happen in NYC, as people grow weary, run out of the first storages of food, and figure out the subway that takes 5 million people to work daily, is damaged beyond belief by saltwater? What is going to happen with the big city criminal element or the drug addicts who can't get their fix, since their wealthy drug dealers probably hightailed it out of town.Are we looking at another Katrina situation? I sure hope not. I dread what could be happening there.
I seriously am worried for those facing flood and other problems. Even states very far away from Sandy got hit with high wind even up to 800 miles away. I know people in Ohio and Indiana who had their lights go dark. Some people never have seen anything like this.
Years ago I got caught in a blizzard in 1993, I had not had my weight gain, but was already a severe asthmatic, and probably weighed around 240lbs at that time and I traveled to North Carolina to look into teaching jobs in mid-March. Well, not listening to my intuition, cost me badly as I went there from over a 1000 miles away in someone else's car and paid heavily for not just cutting ties with this person and finding a bus or train home. This was the "1993 Storm of the Century"
If I hadn't thrown a fit and got my now EX-friend to turn off an exit into Mount Airy NC, we probably would have died. A kindly sheriff would rescue us out of 4 feet of snow drifts and take us to the fire station and then later sadly an unheated hotel with no power, which was better then nothing but trying to survive during that entire week, freezing and with very little food or water--I fortunately had brought a couple boxes of crackers and a couple of gallons of water- was very scary. I lived in extreme fear, that the cold and stress would trigger a huge asthma attack.
One big storm, and civilization itself was stripped away, at least we had gotten to a small town, where we were paid some mind. It would take a week and half, before the roads were cleared and we could leave. I would never return.
And with the hurricane, I think of the disabled people, the ill, those who can't walk either from weight or other reasons, those who may be alone and have no family, and it's a scary mix. Ever feel like civilization itself is on the cusp at times? I sure do. And more and more we live in a society that seems jerry-built, and fragile beyond belief. This is a scarier world to be disabled in. Did any of my readers go through Sandy?
I am mid-way through it, and already astounded, I had wondered where all the lightening bugs and inch worms of my youth went, and was thinking about that the other day. It may be the chemically treated lawns, that basically kills everything off including the earthworms.
Even the plastic containers we are eating, drinking, and storing our food in haven't been tested for safety and are full of chemicals, that are already deemed harmful to human beings. I had worried about the bad habit I had of microwaving left overs in this plastic bowl instead of getting out the heavier glass ones. Then there is problems with food itself and what is being added, chemicals leaching from lining on cans. He addresses the concerns about endocrine disruptors.
We all know by now — don’t we? — that many of the synthetic chemicals in our food, personal-care and cleaning products, toys and household goods are harming not just the environment but ourselves. Body-burden tests, for measuring exposure to chemicals, reveal flame retardants, plasticizers, pesticides and perfluorinated chemicals in the blood of almost every person studied. We see rising rates of some cancers, autoimmune disorders, reproductive illnesses, autism and learning disabilities. Meanwhile, our consumption of synthetic chemicals, a majority of which haven’t been tested for human health impacts, has skyrocketed. A growing number of books make the case that these phenomena are linked.
I've written about High Fructose Corn Syrup here before...I try to avoid HFCS myself, it's difficult when the budget is tight...she is right about how obesity and diabetes skyrocketed from HFCS being used far more.
(WebMD) Antibiotic overuse doesn't just lead to drug-resistant superbugs, it may also permanently wipe out the body's good bacteria.
Good bacteria in the gut help people in many ways, including helping make vitamins and boosting immunity. Some researchers think that killing them off with antibiotics may be contributing to rises in chronic health conditions such as obesity, asthma, and cancer.
Antibiotics have saved my life, so I can't totally diss them myself but this is an interesting theory. I was on tons of antibiotics for chronic bronchitis related to severe asthma in my early 20s.
Farmers, for example, discovered decades ago that animals fed small amounts of antibiotics, below the doses used to treat infections, gain more weight.
"That works so well that it accounts for more than half of antibiotic use in the United States," Blaser says. "Since it works in chicken, turkeys, cows, and sheep, I presumed it would work in mice, and it does."
Antibiotics, he thinks, may also be contributing to obesity in humans, though Blaser says no one yet understands how.
Beyond obesity, he says studies have shown that a child's risk for inflammatory bowel disease increases with the number of courses of antibiotics taken
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I need to look into this, are they feeding our animals antibiotics to get them to gain weight faster?
What do they expect to happen to us since we eat those animals?
I think this movie, explains how we have gotten to where we are. I believe a lot of the obesity epidemic is tied to immense changes that have happened to our food. All the GMOs, it is NOT good for you, not at all. The food has changed into an adulterted chemical mess and people have changed. They are right about how the multi-national corporations who control so much of the food. I have talked to farmers in my pervious rural community, one told me something very interesting how farmers know due to depleted soil, the nutritional components in even grown unadulterated vegetables has been dropping like a rock.
When I talk about there being some serious issues being slid underground by the fat haters vs. the fat delusionists fight, I meant it. Even exploring the reality of what is happening to the food in this country, will open one's eyes.
Years ago I found an study that connected PCP poison to fatter young people. We are living in a toxic stew and I believe it IS impacting the population and affecting metabolism and how the body is operating. The article also describes the reality of endocrine disrupters, which essentially the chemicals in the shampoos and plastic would serve as but this is a very interesting study...
Emerging evidence suggests that a more sinister reason than food and activity could be contributing to weight problems and that so-called ‘chemical calories’ lurking in everyday beauty products such as shampoo, body lotions and soap could be to blame.
Doctors at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York claim that phthalates, chemical ingredients in 70 per cent of cosmetics as well as many household cleaning products, have been shown to throw the body’s natural weight control system, a delicate balance of hormones, off kilter. They suggest that exposure to phthalates through daily use may be linked to childhood obesity and weight problems in adults. In their long-term study on girls living in the inner city area of East Harlem, the Mount Sinai team measured exposure to phthalates by analysing the children’s urine. ‘The heaviest girls have the highest levels of phthalates in their urine,’ says Professor Philip Landrigan, a paediatrician and the study author. ‘It goes up as the children get heavier, but it’s most evident in the heaviest kids.’ Phthalates have been widely used as gelling agents in cosmetics, cleaning products and to make plastic bottles for more than half a century, but it has only just come to light that there may be possible health risks.
and
Another substance, Bisphenol-A (BPA), also present in containers and bottles, has also been found to provide ‘chemical calories’. It’s the fact they are absorbed into the body that causes most concern. Billed as ‘endocrine disruptors’, they are known to affect the glands and hormones that regulate numerous bodily functions. Studies on animals have shown consistently that the chemicals depress testosterone levels, known to be a risk factor for weight gain. They have also been found to mimic the effects of oestrogen, which have been linked to weight gain and early puberty. Further research on humans linked phthalates with poor semen quality in men and with subtle alterations in the reproductive organs of male babies. And now come the latest revelations that they may also influence weight. In numerous studies, mice exposed to such ‘endocrine disruptors’ became obese. But could the same effect occur in people? Zoe Harcombe, nutritionist and author of the Obesity Epidemic, says that even the slightest disruption to hormone levels ‘is very bad news’ for someone trying to lose weight. ‘In men, phthalates and other chemicals have an anti-testosterone capacity that has been linked to obesity,’ she says. ‘In women they mess up our basic genetic hormone balance so that you get disruptions similar to those that might occur during the menopause or at puberty.’
There is no way I would ever touch Splenda or Truvia or Sweet and Low. Nutrasweet I do try to get rid of and need to stop drinking ANY Diet pop, but haven't quite managed it yet, have it down to about 2 glasses a week.
Research the health effects of this stuff, even with Truvia, there seems to be some major concerns. Truvia Side Affects
I believe sugar should be limited, but its better to even deal with a little bit of the real stuff, then filling your body with even more dubious chemicals.
I have been pretty sick the last few months, digestively to the point I have become food aversive many days. Yeah ironic, eh? No fat has come off but there were days, I was barely eating. I found out by trial and error on thing making me sick was the use of bagged lettuce and spinach. [even after rinsing it myself]. Someone told me that many people do get sick from what they spray on the lettuce as they process it. I looked up some websites to see what is sprayed...[see page 35 here] I already knew baby carrots made me sick, I eat all mine unprocessed where I have to peel them, so by trial and error, giving up bagged lettuce and spinach, has dropped bowel problems by quite a substantial degree. So it seems I am getting more of a handle on this stuff. Trust me any problem I can solve myself is better then lining up for a litany of expensive medical tests with risk. I am noting that other processed food is tending to be a trigger as well as anything too greasy or spicy or with any derivatives of milk--already dairy-free. With the lettuce this could be a food allergy but it also could be what they are spraying on it to keep the e-coli and other things away. Others have reported aversive smells and reactions.
I found this interesting video the other day, tell me what you think. Yes it is on what people call the "conspiracy theory" side of things, you may not agree with everything he brings up, but there is some really creepy things going on with our food! Profit and greed explains a lot of it, but why so many chemicals?. I found his comment about it being some of the substances being poured into our food, being made illegal in other countries to quite revealing, on this blog I have shared my theories about growth hormone already. I found this video on a website, that describes what they think is happening.
Some of these hard questions do need answered. For example why are none of the obesity epidemic researchers who are MAINSTREAM even honestly dealing with the facts of how the American diet has been switched over to being corn based, especially high fructose corn syrup which was used formerly to fatten livestock! In this article he states:
Today, 75% of foods in the grocery store contain at least one corn-based ingredient. Guess what corn does? It makes you fat. That's why cows are fed so much corn; it beefs them up so there's more meat to profit from
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Then there is the GMOs, and other chemicals. GMO food they have successfully snuck in food with altered DNA, into the food supply, maybe this is some of the cause of rising rates of food allergies and celiac...
So much of our population is getting sick, fat, and just in bad shape. Some of my elderly friends have told me people in their 20s, 30s and 40s are far sicker and chronically ill [even the thin ones] then they were when they were young. I personally know so many people in their early 40s, with cancer it is shocking. While medicine has had some advances, the life expectancy rates in AmericaARE DROPPING.
I don't buy the normal calories in, calories out onus put on the obese. We have become a sick people. The food has less nutrition. I am telling my husband we need to grow some of our own food and consider getting into a living space where there is either a patio or a small yard instead of an apt without any because anything decent costs so much money but financial pressures leave this change undone.
Our food is being turned into a bunch of toxic trash. I pay $6.00 bucks for a loaf of gluten free bread. I have scary food allergies that have only gotten worse. In cooking things from scratch, one can do better, but now even basic foods like spaghetti sauce have the corn syrup and crap poured in. Buy a package of hummus and you get some yummy sodium benzoate for your trouble, I found it very fascinating its used for fireworks manufacturing too.
One thing about me people may figure out reading this, blog, I do ask some of the hard questions, I am not someone brainwashed by Jenny Craig and or the powers that be that profit off endless human suffering. I believe I stayed alive this long, because I refused to be brushed off, and go home and shut my brain off--[in regards to my 400lb weight gain] where doctors told me I was to blame and to go home and "diet". What a joke before I was diagnosed with severe endocrine problems!
Just even the most basic research brings up some scary things, MSG is one of them. Why is that being poured into almost every food product? Read this article and DO NOT MISS THE SCIENTIFIC STUDIES LISTED TOWARDS THE BOTTOM:
He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was writing called The Slow Poisoning of America. In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies.
No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so the scientists have to create them. They make these morbidly obese creatures by injecting them with MSG when they are first born. The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing rats (and humans?) to become obese; they even have a title for the race of fat rodents they create: “MSG-Treated Rats,,,,,,,, MSG”?
I was shocked too. I went to my kitchen, checking the cupboards and the fridge. MSG was in everything! The Campbell’s soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavored potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the ‘healthy low fat’ ones. The items that didn’t have MSG had something called Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, which is just another name for Monosodium Glutamate. It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children everyday are filled with this stuff. They hide MSG under many different names in order to fool those who catch on.
It's there. Try avoiding any of these chemicals, its nearly impossible. By the way, the more expensive a food, the less chemicals, interesting huh?
