That's what's needed according to international obesity experts meeting in Sydney, Australia:
Farm policies such as government agricultural subsidies have been damaging peoples' health for decades, leading obesity expert Philip James told the 10th International Congress on Obesity in Sydney on Monday. ...
"We have concentrated on using taxpayers' money to featherbed the very parts of the food chain that are causing the obesity epidemic today," James told more than 2,000 academics and health professionals at the four-yearly conference.
"The over-production of oil, fat and sugar, largely due to government subsidies to protect farm industry revenues, has contributed over decades to the health crisis we have today."
Ya think? I object to those subsidies not only for health reasons but because they're not going to family farms; they're going to agribusiness. We have better uses for our tax monies than corporate welfare.
One thing that this conference has highlighted is something that folks studying traditional diets keyed in on a while ago: People aren't eating more, they're eating worse:
Health experts at the week-long congress starting on Monday said calls for the past 30 years for people to eat less fatty foods and exercise more had failed to combat global obesity. ...
"We know this is not about gluttony -- it is the interaction of heredity and environment," said [conference co-chair Kate] Steinbeck.
New obesity research has found that too little sleep and fats from fast food can alter a person's biology, making them more susceptible to overeating and less active, said the International Association for the Study of Obesity. ...
"Early humans sought energy-dense food with high levels of fats, starches and sugars. We are genetically programmed to find foods with these qualities appealing," said [obesity researcher Dr. Anne-Thea] McGill.
"However, highly energy-dense Western diets have had many of the flavour and micronutrients processed out of them. The artificial replacements in starchy, fatty and sugary foods make them over-palatable and easy to eat quickly."
But too much processed food results in an excess energy intake deficient in micronutrients, producing a state of "malnutrition", which in turn sees the body react to a "famine stress" by storing fat around the upper body, said McGill.
"Many over-the-counter remedies such as concentrated herbal preparations, food extracts, minerals and vitamins are promoted as helping to decrease body weight," she said.
"However, they do not redress the nutrient imbalance from poor diets that produce obesity."
This is what we've been trying to do in our home--get rid of the processed crap--and you know, it's extremely easy to fall back into the habit of buying and eating that stuff, even if you're fairly dedicated. Just today I ate way more cookies and chips than I should have while watching some friends perform an amateur Shakespearean production. It's also easy when you're not feeling well to buy this stuff because the alternatives take time and work to produce.
And sometimes, let's face it, you just want it. Like the researcher said, this crap's been made "overpalatable," which, translated from the researcher-ese, means "betcha can't eat just one." I'm finding that letting any of it into the house is a bad idea.
John and I had just finished talking about this very issue when I read this article. Here's hoping I can get back on the stick, and soon.
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) And I'm sorry I hogged your blog. Guess I had some venting to do. And I know in past years we have done this before. I just had to restate my stance once again. LOL! Hopefully, someone learned something new about farming. LOL!
All the additives were literally toxic in my son's tiny little body, and he would literally bounce off the walls. Then I'd get summoned to the principal's office to deal with the problem that they created by feeding that crap to my son. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is reason #33454 for deciding to homeschool!
