The scary science behind processed foods

Our last blog looked at high fructose corn syrup in refined foods, and how it leads to metabolic syndrome...which in turn causes us to think we are starving all the time, consuming more calories and gaining weight.  

It's not just metabolic syndrome that is causing us to consume more  - food has become a drug, engineered, cooked and marketed by an industry banking on addiction.  Food scientists have gone into a lab, and created these chemical concoctions that are very sweet, very fatty and very salty and they call it a "bliss point".  

Big food companies engineer processed foods with ingredients that peak the taste buds while checking the brain into thinking you're still hungry causing you to eat more.

Another major profit generating ingredient is food marketing in the US and Canada there's virtually no regulation of food and drink advertising even when it targets children.  A lot of people in these companies put a lot of work into making sure we keep on eating. These companies rely on the deep science to understand how we're attracted to the food, and how they can make their foods attractive to us. The result is carefully engineer combinations of salt sugar, fat and chemicals deliberately designed so you cant eat just one. 

The food companies know that when perfect amounts of fat, sugar and salt are added, the products become highly addictive. When they hit that combination, they know their products will fly off the shelves - we will buy more, and as companies they will make more money.

Also, because these products must be able to sit on the shelves for months, many of the ingredients have nothing to do with taste, but act as preservatives and chemicals to control the appearance of texture and a series of ingredients known as flavour enhancers - to trick the brain into tasting something that isn't there.  There's tremendous amounts of money spent behind creating tastes and smells that feel real, but in reality are completely artificial, because without flavour enhancement, no one would eat it.

A tour of the grocery aisle reveals that something is changing - suddenly cookies boast health claims, chips have whole grain and fibre.  Because they taste so good, we want to believe their claims.  Ask yourself though - is the food manufactured, or is it farmed (I.e exists in nature like fruits/vegetables, meats, fish, eggs etc)?  Real foods don’t have any of these additives or preservatives….they don’t have huge marketing companies, fancy packaging, tv and print commercials…or any of the added chemicals.  Just another reason to steer clear of refined and processed foods.