Obesity Among The Masses

According to the latest medical journal the United States has more than doubled in the number of obese adults since the 1980's. Over 150 billion dollars this per year alone was spent combating obesity related aliments. This, while over 30% of adults today are on kind of diet or another and yet continue to gain weight. Meanwhile, our youth, the future generation the statistics aren't any better in fact they are worse. What is occurring today is instead of changing our eating habits, we continue to buy convince foods, namely the foods we shouldn't be eating or the food we can only afford. Our whole society is fixated on convenience foods. Until our manufacturing technologies in agriculture and food production find ways to make the growth, the processing, and the transport of fresh fruit, fresh produce, and organic meat quicker, less costly, while maintaining their freshness and nutritional value convenience foods like hot dogs will always trump nutrition every time.

Recent research indicates where the poorest populations are in such states as Mississippi they are also the largest percentage of the population that is the most obese. Coincidence, don't bet on it. Another startling find today in the United States is in states where there is more affluence there is also a correlation with obesity in that the wealthy states continually have lower rates of obese people. What we are seeing today is that food prices and the availability of food that contributes to obesity are more attainable when incomes are lower. The relationship between wealth and the rate of obesity is in sharp contrast to each other. Today, we have federally allocated funding in food stamps for our citizens who find themselves struggling to make ends meet. That number of Americans receiving food stamp assistance is at an all time high and it is projected to only increase. The biggest concern now is how to reverse the trend of obesity that is like a plague on our less affluent population which is fast becoming the majority of the populace? No easy task considering the rising cost of healthy nutritious food.

One of the major factors is in the assumption and now becoming a stark reality is that food availability is fast becoming very scarce. In some parts of the world are already facing acute food and fresh water shortages. In the United States especially with this summer's massive heat waves that have scorched corn and other food crops, not to mention the vast number of wildfires that have left millions of acres unable to use for the cultivation of any crops or reforestation of any kind all that was destroyed. All in all this continues to make the cost of food soar. Our own government in order to combat the ever increasing cost and decreasing availability of food have undertaken to genetically alter food sources in order of produce more abundance and availability of food.

Instead, what is happening when genetically altered food sources finally reach our tables they no longer have most of their nutritional value. For that matter the health benefits of food that was not grown organically more and more of our population will have health related problems as a result. We are not just talking of obesity rates either. The deceptive practices of food processing today is fast becoming the norm. It has been for some time that most of the food we now buy chances are that food has been altered in some way or other. The food industry has been using genetically modified seeds that have been engineered form labs have now infiltrated into most of our crops here in the United States. Corn, soy, rice, and wheat which make up much of the food that we eat all have been altered in some way or other to resist pesticides and incest's. It is corn and soy that are the most common ingredients in feed for our livestock. Sad to say that practically all of the meat we consume today in the United States is not grass feed but grain feed and that makes all the difference in the world when it comes to healthy eating. Not only that the cost of organic meat is more that five times more than that of grain feed meat. This alone is a major factor that deters one form eating healthy. Other countries like Panama and other South American countries all their beef is grass fed. We can also state that those countries don't have any where near the rate of obesity that the United States has.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department are consistently approving more genetically engineered food sources. We are already consuming genetically modified salmon. What next? This is only the start of a long list of genetically altered food groups that will and have been integrated into not only our food supply but practically every country around the world. One of the biggest issues is that our government and the large biotech corporations continue and purposely withhold vital information from the public concerning the dangers of genetically altered and modified foods. Contrary to what is now being considered the greatest answer to combating Global hunger these genetically modified foods actually don't. What is worse is that these food sources which have been altered pose more health concerns and our publics safety is in real serious jeopardy because we literally have now no choice because the stores are stocked with the foods that have been genetically modified.

The agribusiness and seed companies swear that their products help boost crop production, lower prices while feeding the multitudes. That is a stretch. Here in the United States the cost has only increased in everything we consume. The FDA and the USDA all state that engineered foods are safe, and yet we continue to have the world's highest obesity rate. A rate so high it is putting the United States deeper in debt because of all the other health related problems associated not only with obesity but because of the lack of proper nutrition in the food that we do consume. Already in the United States population the incidence of low birth weight in newborn children, the high rate of infant mortality, and the infertility of both men and women are all escalating faster with every genetically modified food we consume.

It should be noted that the genetically modified proteins in soy, corn, wheat, etc all have properties of known allergens that actually fail the allergy screening protocol recommended by the World Health Organization. Both genetically modified soy and corn now contain unintended allergenic proteins seven times higher than levels of natural soy or corn allergen. Herbicide tolerant GM crops continue to have considerably more residues of toxic herbicides which contributes more allergic reactions. This also triggers the immune system to be greatly compromised not only in animals that feed on GM soy or corn but in humans as well.

If you mess with mother nature their is going to be ramifications, like our ever increasing rates of obesity and other health related problems. What is so alarming is that our own government and large corporate biotech firms continue to justify and sanction GM food as the greatest achievement in combating hunger. This when in fact the dangers of GM are becoming more obvious with every health related statistic.

The food that is planted, grown, harvested prepared, consumed and taken for granted that the supply will always be available in our supermarkets is really not what we think it is, that being wholesome, beneficial and nutritious. Gone are the days of the rural farmers where crops harvested went immediately into distribution into neighborhood markets. Today the whole food industry is being run by big conglomerates and the corporate farms. To exemplify what really has taken place in the production of food we have to take a closer look at what is actually in a box of, say, Special K cereal. There is wheat gluten, salt, high fructose corn syrup, rice, malt flavoring, and sugar. Fructose corn syrup is practically in every thing we consume. It is also one of the biggest culprits in the loosing battle against obesity. And, yet it continues to be put in consumables. In practically every thing that still remains affordable contains GM food sources that contribute to why people continue to gain weight.

What has transpired in the past 30 years in the production of our food has a direct impact on the increasing rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and a whole other assortment of other aliments and illnesses that continue to affect our population. In almost everything that is consumed now either has added fructose corn syrup or some other artificial preservative that has cost our health care industry and business billions of dollars annually. Years ago we could always count on what we ate as the actual product without all these added preservatives. The beef we ate was grazed and the dairy products were always fresh. In fact most of everything that was consumed by the general public was affordable and more nutritious in every respect. With the advent of the corporate farms the soil that supports our crops have been stripped of all of the nutrients that are so necessary for any crop to produce the healthful benefits that are so necessary for the overall health of our population. That soil which has been allowed to become so depleted is a direct result of corporate farming. This soil has not been given enough time to replenish the nutrients that are necessary for crops to produce the healthful benefits that are necessary for maintaining ones health. Today, even though we are only through the first half of summer the food crops losses have only exasperated an ongoing crisis and affordability in the food we consume.

The population of the United States can no longer afford and rely on the current method our food is grown, harvested and processed. When rates of obesity and all the other health related issues that have manifested over the past 30 years continue to mount have put this nation in peril. It is time our own government acknowledge that genetically modified food is one of the most inherent reasons that is undermining the health and safety of our population. Change is most urgently needed if we are to regain our nations health and stave off financial disaster due to the rising cost of health concerns that are a direct link to our food supply, consumption and production. Education is crucial in detailing what is actually in the food we it and making the right choices to gain the most health benefits from those choices. Every person has to take responsibility for their own health and enlighten themselves of the benefits of those right choices of nutrition, exercise, and illness prevention to maintain a healthy and productive lifestyle.

The FDA, major biotech corporations and corporate farmers all have to incorporate ways the restore the natural balance of the soil for healthy crops, restore the feeding of our livestock to one that is healthy for our consumption while reducing the costs for all, and if those food sources that are modified at least have them be of the same nutritional value as organic food sources. When profit alone motivates the use of unhealthy practices in food production as is the case now it is like killing the goose that laid the golden egg. It is vital that the United States initiates those changes necessary to educate the population on the dire consequences of genetically modified food consumption and lay the groundwork for all to have the availability of organic food sources without the cost incurred that makes that choice no choice at all.