I Watched Fed Up and I'm all Fired Up!

If you haven't watched it yet, I'd like to urge all my friends, FB acquaintances, family and anyone reading this to watch the documentary Fed Up and share it with your friends and family. If you have children in public schools it's even more important. The documentary is currently streaming free on Putlocker. I've summarized it here if you don't have time.

It is widely known amongst the medical field that too much sugar has been proven to not only make us fat, it also wreaks havoc on our liver, mucks up our metabolism, impairs brain function, and may leave us susceptible to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. ("Your Brain on Sugar") 

The government has a lot of propaganda out about what we need to do about the alarming rate of obesity in our country. It's telling us to use our willpower, exercise more and eat less calories. Yet the very same people are allowing the processed food industry, which puts sugar in everything, to infiltrate our grocery stores and schools. Sugar is the one of the most addictive substances known to man.

• In a lab study, cocaine addicted rats were given a choice of either sugar water or more cocaine. Once they tasted the sugar water, 40 out of 43 rats chose the sugar water every time they entered the cage. 

Our government is supporting the obesity epidemic in our country by allowing unsafe amounts of sugar to go in nearly every product in grocery stores.

• There are 600,000 items for purchase in a typical big chain grocery store, 80% of them have added sugar

Everywhere we go we are bombarded by advertising that triggers our brain to crave junk and fast food and it's making it virtually impossible for people to get off the sugar train. You should be outraged as we are being attacked by extremely powerful forces that make up the major food suppliers of this country. Our country is sick, diseased, exhausted, dumbed down and complacent due to our sugar consumption.

• 1 in 5 children in America are overweight today
• in 1980 - Zero Adolescents had Type 2 Diabetes
• in 2010 - 57,600 Adolescents had Type 2 Diabetes which used to be called Adult onset diabetes.
• At the rate we're going, 95% of Americans will be overweight in 2 decades
• By 2050, 1 in 3 Americans will have diabetes. 

Where this all started? Back in 1977 - The McGovern Report, after reviewing a study senator McGovern warned that obesity would be a major concern if the food industry kept going the same way it was. The Sugar, Fat, Dairy, and Meat industries all banned together and lobbied against releasing this report. Instead they encouraged Americans to buy lower fat food.  But when you take the fat out of food it makes it taste bad, so they started adding sugar! The low-fat industry was born and our intake of sugar was on the rise.

• So from 1977-2000 - American's have doubled their intake of sugar
• There are 257 different names that food companies use for sugar. The body absorbs all of them the same way, secreting more insulin which converts into fat. So whether it's agave, cane sugar, raw sugar, it's all addictive and harmful if consumed over 6 teaspoons per day

• In 2002 the World Health Organization which sets global health standards put out a report (TRS916) that said sugar is a major if not the cause of chronic metabolic disease and obesity in the world. They were going to reduce the recommend daily intake of sugar to 10% of calories, which is about 6 tsp.
• However Sugar lobbyists got together and threatened Tommy Thompson, then the secretary of the WHO, that they (the Sugar industry) would withhold their contribution of $406 million dollars if the WHO published that report.
• The sugar industry got their way and instead the WHO recommended the daily intake of sugar to be 25% of total calories.
• The average American diet consists of 20-45 teaspoons of sugar/day.

• The Let's Move Campaign by Michelle Obama was a good effort on her part to get healthier food to our children. The processed food corporations began to panic and instead of fighting her they joined her. The deal they signed was they had to change the recipes instead of removing harmful ones or adding good ones. They basically got away with re-engineering the processed food, creating new labels, and making new products that they could market. Nothing became healthier.
• 50% of school cafe's have contracts with major soda and fast food companies
• Processed food industry's banned together so the FCC couldn't ban marketing of their junk food to children. From 2008-2010 children's exposure to junk food ads increased 60%. It's been shown that kids as young as 2 years old begin to recognize brands. And which brands do you think they learn first? Coke and McDonalds! 

What are we going to do about this when right now eating healthy is like swimming upstream? It's actually cheaper to eat whole foods and veggies than it is to eat fast food, contrary to popular belief and what our advertisers would like us to believe. But whose going to choose healthy food when junk food is everywhere we turn?

As far as I'm concerned, if you're upset with the way our government is functioning right now, (and if you're not, you're in a sugar coma), one of the most radical things you can do to fight back is to take control of your diet and say NO to the processed and packaged food industry. Say No to consuming junk food and fast food.

We don't need to put blame on ourselves and beat ourselves up about willpower. It's not completely our fault, the cards are currently stacked against us when it comes to being healthy and getting educated about health care. But we can choose to take action against this detestable act of terrorism on our people by our own government.

A Nutritional balancing program allows people to get the vital minerals and vitamins they need through supplements. When the body gets what it really wants, it naturally begins to feel energized and happy. This is proven to decrease sugar cravings. It's the only real solution I see right now that can help people stop their sugar and food addictions without the need for incredible willpower and excessive exercise. Now we just need to figure out a way to get all the right vitamin and mineral supplements to everyone in the country for low cost.

In the meantime, spread the word about the Fed Up Documentary and start to taking steps towards reclaiming the health and vitality of you and your family. Please help your children by teaching them proper nutrition, put them on a kelp supplement at the very least to get them the minerals they need. Start introducing whole food snacks. Begin to change your perspective of what food is. Understand that 80% of what you see in grocery stores is not food our body wants. We need your kids to reach their full potential and be the super hero's they were designed to be. We need them healthy to create a brighter future. Back to whole foods we must go!