The Drug Pushers on Every High Street

There is an abundance of addictive substances in every supermarket and most local shops. Not alcohol or cigarettes, although they are bad enough, but the actual 'food' we eat. Every bit of processed food contains substances to which we are addicted because of the way we evolved. Foods such as TV dinners, ready meals, canned foods, snacks, candy, ice-cream, fizzy drinks all contain this stuff. Sugar, artificial sweeteners, MSG - the list goes on. The processed food manufacturers feed our addiction and feed their bottom line.

Recent scientific research has shown that the sweet taste of sugar and artificial sweeteners is actually more addictive than cocaine. Other tastes may soon be found to be just as addictive. The reason is in our genes. Our ancestors learned that sweet foods were a source of high energy, high flavor foods were the most nutritious and salt was scarce. We evolved pleasurable reactions to those tastes - reactions that give more pleasure than hard drugs. Processed food manufacturers know this and load their 'food' with sugar, salt and flavor enhancers to fool our bodies into thinking they are getting nutritional value.

There are now global industries, established in the last few decades and based on the marketing hype of low sugar, low fat, anti-cholesterol and so on. Inadequately tested chemicals are added to our food to make nutritionally valueless junk taste palatable. A bean that used to be regarded as too poisonous to eat is now the number one 'health' food - even though it is carcinogenic and it is impossible to remove all the poison. An emulsion of cheap vegetable oils with water is stabilised, preserved, colored and sold as a healthy alternative to butter.

There's an unholy alliance between the the multi-national food producers and the drugs companies. The loose regulation of drugs is a scandal, where profit reigns and public safety is way down the list. If we get an adverse reaction to a foreign chemical in our food, there's always a convenient cure for the symptoms provided by a drug company. The fact that the 'cure' may give us worse symptoms is not accidental - it's no good for business if we're all healthy.

The obesity epidemic we are now seeing is a direct result of the prevalence of processed food. The average American family spends 90% of their budget on it. Because our genes make us addicted to taste, we become easy targets for the food marketers. Unfortunately (fortunately for them), having eaten a calorie laden, tasty ready meal, we soon need another because the nutritional value is so low. The result is that we eat far more calories than we need.

Just the same as Alcoholics Anonymous, the first step is to recognise that you are addicted. Are there some foods you just can't resist? The fact is that we are all addicted to some degree - it's part of our make-up. The Caveman Diet is not just about losing weight - any diet can do that. It's about adopting a healthier lifestyle and choosing to eat naturally produced food and changing your lifestyle. This life is the only one you have - better make the most of it.

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