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Fat in America, Part 1
Published: 26 August, 2010, 00:23
Edited: 27 August, 2010, 12:51
TAGS: Health, Human rights, USA
Americans are among the fattest people in the world. According to the World Health Organization, over 60 percent of the general population of the US is obese.
What's even more disturbing, the US is the only country in the developed world to label obesity as a prime national security health risk.
It’s all part of a growing epidemic. Why are Americans so fat? And what brought the fast-food nation to rely heavily on foods most developed countries banned decades ago.
"There is a lot of innovation going on in America at all levels, whether it be organic or at a genetically engineered activity," said David Snively, the general counsel for agro-giant Monsanto.
Monsanto is the former manufacturer of the killer herbicide, Agent Orange, which was sprayed through the jungles of Vietnam during its war with the US in the 1960's and 1970's. Exposure to Agent Orange resulted in illness and birth defects that were only recognized decades later. But Monsanto is now responsible for more than half of the US's food and produce supply.
The United States also holds the record for the largest production of genetically modified products in the world. 95 per cent of American corn and 85 per cent of soybeans are genetically modified. All processed foods contain GM ingredients, which means that 70 to 75 per cent of the food we eat every day is genetically engineered.
"I believe that food is medicine and genetically modifying the food that we eat is going to have a great health impact on us," said Caroline Alexander, a doctor and principal at Healthy Muse.
Jeffrey Smith, the author of “Seeds of Deception” and a medical expert specializing in the effects genetically modified foods have on the human body said, "This is one of the most dangerous massive experiments we have ever conducted on our planet."
In the mid 1990’s, the FDA and the USDA allowed genetically modified food products and ingredients to flourish through the American food supply and farming industry. Suddenly, processed foods filled with chemically altered ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, canola oil and modified soybeans hit the shelves of America’s supermarkets.
"When GMOs were introduced in 1996, 7 per cent of Americans had three or more chronic illnesses. Within nine years, that went up to 13 per cent, food allergies doubled in less time, food related illnesses doubled between 1994 and 2001. Autism is up, obesity is up, and diabetes is up. No one is checking to see if the most radical change in the human food supply, the introduction of genetically modified foods, is contributing to these dangerous statistics," said Smith.
According to a separate report by the Trust for America's Health, minority communities such as the African-American, Hispanic and Native American communities have four times more cases of obesity than white Americans.
Dr. Caroline Alexander suggests that the alarming numbers plaguing minority communities are directly linked to the genetically modified foods.
"I believe that these are certainly the root cause, especially in low income communities because they don't have access to real food," said Alexander.
"We're feeding the products of an infant science to the entire population," said Smith.
So if the food is slowly killing us, making us unhealthy and fat, why is it on our supermarket shelves? And more importantly, why aren't genetically modified products labeled?
Coming up in part two of fat in America, we'll delve into those questions and more.
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Roger a link between health risks and GMO does exist. In fact, the very premise of genetic engineering is predicated on flawed theory. I cannot elaborate the flawed here but the idea has something to with what is known in biology- as theory of alternative splicing- meaning that a gene can code for more than one protein. however, genetic engineering is based on the believe that all genetic traits are encoded in DNA genome and that each gene encodes for only one protein and that information transfer is always one way: from a gene[translated] to protein. But what happens if this is not true? What happens if in fact genetic information can be reshuffled and repackaged through alternative splicing? If you take this into account, many unexpected results could occur. I believe that fact was noted after the mapping of the human genome project but the implications of this paradigm shifting results have been ignored by the US media and the scientific community. This is reason why European consumers have been against GMO food. It is also pertinent to mention that according to the magazine Scientific America report in 2009, no independent research on the safety of GMO has ever been conducted in the U.S. GMO food is not safe. If so, why is the Biotech industry against independent research on GMO food? http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14570
USA is also the largest consumer economy in the world, so being the fattest probably doesn't seem so shocking. A large part of the economy is based around service economy, or restaurants that serve food. It is also out of choice. It's not necessarily that people can't "access" healthy food. That is nonsense. Healthy food is just not as delicious as high fat, high carb food. Also people tend to over-eat high fat food, not because they can't access healthy foods, because that's what they like. People eat a whole box of chicken. One single chicken leg, or breast is good enough for one well portioned meal a day. Thing is people tend to eat more than one piece of chicken. I seen documentaries of severely obese people frying up few steaks of meat, or several of them in the pan. No vegetables, just fried steak. Some people eat many cheeseburgers a day. I don't see no connection between genetically modified foods to obesity, and this article doesn't even explain the connection. People are going to eat what they want to eat. Coincidently, so much talk about high fructose corn-syrup when the US government subsidizes it. Heh.
Monsanto is being sued by so many farmers [83 in USA]. Are you concerned with obesity [by those who sit in front of TV sets & do little exercise - or HEALTH foods for you and children & eat way to much food sugar/starch/fat/TRANSfats?] Do the Monsanto research and what it is doing to countries that used it and how Monsanto sue their customers and the NEXT owner of their customers' farms [forcing THEM to by seed/feed from Monsanto]. Monsanto said their goal is to control the world's food market. Obama 1/4/2011 signed Food Safety Bill [controlled by Monsanto]. Other country [and U.S. farmers] call Monsanto seeds "The Terminator". http://wn.com/Mosanto [14 videos on right side of page]Read Monsanto history and do the research - hope Russia does not allow Monsanto in Russia - russia farmers/citizens have enough problems - they need their country to protect them - they have had starvation before in their history.