The (Self-Administered) Weapons of Mass Destruction
To my count, eight changes have occurred to our food supply that have driven the development of these chronic metabolic diseases. And every one of them is something that the food industry has done to our food for its own purposes, not for ours.
First, the three things that are now in short supply:
1. Fiber. Everyone thinks fiber belongs in the wastebasket, that it’s the unwanted by-product of nature. In fact, fiber is the “stealth nutrient,” one of the most valuable items in nature. Fiber is the nutrient you don’t absorb. Fiber does two things that take the edge off your mitochondrial onslaught. First, the combination of soluble fiber (e.g., pectins, what holds jelly together) and insoluble fiber (e.g., cellulose, the stringy stuff in celery) help in your intestine to form a “gel,”—a secondary barrier that limits the rate of absorption of food and gives your liver a chance to metabolize it so your mitochondria don’t get overwhelmed. Think of it this way—suppose you had an extended-release formulation of a medication, say acetaminophen. The medication is trapped in a matrix that releases the medication slowly. Each pill delivers a certain dose over a long period of time. But let’s say the manufacturer forgot to add the matrix. The dose would be the same, but the amount delivered would be faster, so a higher, and potentially dangerous, blood level could be reached. That’s what fiber does—it acts as the matrix so the dose gets delivered slowly to the liver. Second, fiber increases the transit rate of food through the intestine, so the food reaches the end of the intestine faster, and the satiety hormone at the end of your intestine can tell your brain that you’re full, so you won’t eat the second portion. But processed food strips away the fiber, because you can’t freeze fiber. Take an orange, put it in the freezer overnight, set it on the counter the next morning, thaw it, and then try to eat it. See what you get. The orange turned to mush. Because the ice crystals damaged the cell walls of the plant, allowing water to rush in. But if you squeeze it and freeze it, then it lasts forever. This decreases depreciation, so the food industry loses less money. Good for their wallet. Maybe even good for your wallet. Bad for your health.
2. Omega-3 fatty acids. They are the precursors to the fatty acids EPA and DHA, which stabilize your immune system (anti-inflammatory) and your neurons (anti-dementia). But these are “essential” fatty acids. You must eat them; your body can’t make them. The most notable omega-3 in our diet is called linolenic acid, which is unfortunately in few foods anyway. Omega-3s are found in wild fish, which means that the coasts are more omega-3 replete than the nation’s midsection. Numerous studies show that omega-3 supplementation staves off the ravages of chronic disease. Wild fish don’t make omega-3s; they eat omega-3s. Algae make omega-3s. The wild fish eat the algae; we eat the wild fish. But we’re fishing the seas dry, and wild fish is more expensive. So we farm fish instead, and farmed fish eat corn, which has a paucity of omega-3s. You might as well just eat a steak.
3. Micronutrients. There is some early research that suggests that as we’ve bred bigger and sweeter fruits and produce, that the concentration of micronutrients and antioxidants in the food has declined. Also, many micronutrients hang out in the fiber fraction; for instance, beriberi (vitamin B1 deficiency) was first noted in Japanese who ate polished rice; the B1 was in the fiber! Our processed-food diet is notoriously deficient in numerous vitamins, minerals, and cofactors.
Indeed, we have numerous micronutrients that, when deficient, cause disease. Well, we also have nutrient excesses, which cause disease. It’s really not different from any medication overdosage. The five nutrients in excess that can cause disease are:
1. Trans fats. Trans fats are the single most dangerous item in our food supply. Patented in 1902 and introduced into food (Crisco) in 1911, trans fats increase the shelf life of virtually everything to which they are added (thus, the “ten-year-old Twinkie”), because bacteria don’t have the machinery to digest the molecular trans double bond for energy. Unfortunately, our mitochondria are just refurbished bacteria—they even have their own DNA; we can’t metabolize trans fats, either! So, instead of our bodies metabolizing them for energy, they line our arteries and our livers. Trans fats are literally consumable poison. The good news is that their consumption is going down. Yet they are still legal, because the food industry wants them to be, and the FDA and USDA are “captured agencies” by the food and drug industries. More on trans fats later.
2. Omega-6 fatty acids. These lead to the production of arachidonic acid, which is the precursor to prostaglandins (the target of aspirin and other pain-killers), and other inflammatory agents in the body. Now, omega-6s are necessary for your immune system to function to rid yourself of foreign invaders. However, we’re supposed to strike a balance between pro-inflammatory omega-6s and anti-inflammatory omega-3s of about 1:1. Right now, we’re at about 25:1, meaning we are in a decidedly pro-inflammatory state. Omega-6s are found in vegetable oils (like canola and corn oil) and animals fed corn and soy. That means corn-fed steak, chickens fed commercial pellets (combination of corn and soy), and corn-fed farmed fish.
3. Branched-chain amino acids. These are the amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine. They are essential amino acids (components of protein, and only available by eating them) that account for >20 percent of the amino acids in the typical “Western diet.” This is what is in the “protein powders” that body builders love to consume. And if you are body building—that is, actively building muscle—then branched-chain amino acids are necessary, because you can’t make muscle without them. But if you are not actively building muscle (which is the majority of America), then these branched-chain amino acids go to the liver, where they are metabolized for energy. And guess where? Yup, the mitochondria. These amino acids can easily overwhelm the mitochondria’s capacity, and they will also be turned into liver fat. Studies show that branched-chain amino acid levels in the blood correlate with metabolic syndrome. And where do you find them? Any animal that eats corn—again, corn-fed beef, chicken, farmed fish. For instance, examine the “marbling” in the fat between corn-fed and grass-fed beef. The corn-fed beef is way more marbled. That’s muscle insulin resistance! It used to take eighteen months to bring a cow from birth to slaughter; now it takes six weeks. That cow has the same chronic metabolic disease we do; we just slaughter it before it gets sick. Between the omega-6s driving inflammation and the branched-chain amino acids, these animals become enormous very rapidly. You may never again look at a piece of meat the same way.
4. Alcohol. Alcohol is a little more complicated. A little seems to raise HDL levels and keep the liver on guard and prepared to metabolize other environmental toxins more rapidly, keeping you on metabolic alert, which can be beneficial. A little seems to improve insulin sensitivity. However, a lot does the exact opposite, by causing liver fat accumulation. A lot (more than two drinks per day) drives mitochondrial overload, so mitochondria have no choice but to turn that excess energy into liver fat; ergo the development of metabolic syndrome. In high and chronic dosage, alcohol fries your liver, leading to alcoholic cirrhosis and fibrosis. However, alcohol does not explain why children and Muslims around the world are getting metabolic syndrome as well.
5. Sugar (those compounds containing the sweet molecule fructose). Lots of sugar. Over-the-top sugar. The science shows that sugar is addictive. We have causative studies in animals and correlative studies in humans. Kind of like alcohol. Weakly so, and not in everyone, but addictive nonetheless in a percentage of the population. And habituating (sugar as a taste preference) in the rest. So spiking the food supply with all this excess sugar keeps the addiction going, because you can’t go “cold turkey.” New imaging data shows that fructose lights up the parts of the brain. Weakly so, like alcohol, and not in everyone. But it doesn’t matter. Because the food industry knows, when they add it . . . you buy more. And more. Sugar sells. But sugar kills, because sugar is metabolized by the liver mitochondria to liver fat. So why does sugar kill? If it’s not about obesity, what is it about? It’s about metabolic syndrome. Sugar overloads liver mitochondria, the excess gets turned into liver fat, and that drives metabolic syndrome. My colleagues and I have shown that sugar is the proximate cause of diabetes worldwide. Preventing diabetes means less liver fat. Surviving our toxic food environment means cutting back on sugar consumption. The American Heart Association says Americans currently consume twenty-two teaspoons of sugar per day, and we are remanded to reduce this to nine teaspoons per day for adult men and six teaspoons per day for adult women. The problem is, how can you do this when half of the added sugar you consume is in foods that you didn’t know even had sugar—for instance, yogurt, tomato sauce, salad dressing, barbecue sauce, hamburger buns, even bratwurst! Yes, it’s 1 gram per sausage in several brands, but nonetheless—sugar in your brats?
And it doesn’t matter what kind of sugar we’re talking about. Everyone pins the obesity epidemic on the advent of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which first appeared in our food around 1975. The obesity epidemic started in earnest in 1980. So it’s not surprising that HFCS takes the rap. But here’s the problem—HFCS is only available in the United States, Canada, and Japan, with limited exposure in part of Europe. The rest of the world just has sucrose—table sugar, cane sugar, beet sugar; you know, the white stuff you put in your coffee. And they have every bit as much diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Just take a look at Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Malaysia. They have the highest rates of diabetes on the planet. Why them? No alcohol . . . but they consume soft drinks like they’re going out of style. Because it’s hot; because their water supply is a big question mark; and because . . . no alcohol! Soft drinks are their reward! And they need their reward.
Alcohol is self-limiting (drinking yourself under the table); soft drinks are not. Combine the sugar with another addictive substance—caffeine—and you have a truly toxic and addictive brew called “soda” (or “pop” or “tonic, ” depending on where you live).
Does sugar cause obesity? Common sense says sugar is clearly related to obesity. After all, look around at all the sugar addicts at Disney World. But I don’t believe in common sense. I believe in data, and the data say something else. A recent worldwide analysis says that sugar does promote weight gain, but not nearly as much as everyone thinks. A total of 0.8 BMI points—real, measurable, significant, but not the Big Kahuna. Given that we have an increase of 5–7 BMI points to explain, sugar is not the factor that you might anticipate. In fact, the two foodstuffs that lead to the greatest degree of weight gain are potato chips and French fries. Does sugar cause weight gain? Yes. Is sugar a cause of obesity? In some, no doubt. Is sugar the cause of obesity? Not even close.
There are two business models, and the food industry has mastered both. 1. We give the public what it wants. In this model, the industry is reactive to our needs, and makes it look like the supply is just meeting demand. 2. If you build it, they will come. And when they add the sugar, oh boy . . . do we come. In this model, the industry is proactive and culls an increased demand. Both these models are easy when you’re peddling an addictive substance. Thus far, all attempts at getting the populace to “eat less” have met with failure—in part because sugar interferes with the signaling of hunger and reward in the brain, which fosters overconsumption, and because no one knows what they’re eating. The food industry hides the sugar well, and in plain sight. There are fifty-six names for sugar; by choosing different sugars as the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth ingredients on the Nutrition Facts ingredients list, they can rapidly add up to number 1. Stephen Colbert said he knows them, but I promise you don’t. So some education is in order.
It’s one thing to sell something that is addictive; after all, no one is going around petitioning for the closure of Starbucks. Or to ban cell phones or iPads or video games, for that matter. But it’s another thing if the addictive substance you sell hurts people. That’s why tobacco and alcohol are both regulated. And you can’t get away from the onslaught of sugar, unless you grow the food yourself. If you buy anything with a food label, that means it’s been processed, usually putting the sugar in and taking the fiber out.
It is this high-sugar, low-fiber fare that distinguishes processed food. This is the weapon of mass self-destruction. And of the 600,000 items in the American food supply, 80 percent have been spiked with added sugar. Not for your purposes but for theirs.
The other seven changes to our food environment listed above are indeed problems, but they are not among the forces driving the increased consumption. In addition, many of these are inherent in the types of food we consume. But sugar . . . that’s just there because the food industry added it to hook you. It’s the most actionable item on the list. And it’s the one that’s hardest to avoid.
So there you have it. A Faustian bargain, to be sure: your time or your health; your wallet or your health. This e-book is a companion guide to my hardcover book, Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease, published by Hudson Street Press. That book outlined the science of obesity and chronic metabolic disease. Not the “common sense” of the TV commercials. Not the “science” of the food industry. The real and hard and impartial science. Fat Chance also elaborated how that science should influence the food policy of our country. In particular, Fat Chance showed people how to alter their food environment in order to protect themselves from our processed-food debacle. Most readers have been very supportive, while some people downright hate it. But love it or hate it, Fat Chance is completely science-based, even supplying the original source references. I’ll sum up its theses for you in three statements:
1. A calorie is not a calorie.
2. Sugar is toxic in high dose.
3. Eat “real” food.
Easier said than done. Indeed, I’ve received more e-mail praising the wisdom yet querying me on how to make the precepts actionable now. Exactly right. Eating real food fixes the biochemical dysfunction caused by the dearth or plethora of every single one of those eight problem nutrients. But how do you find real food, when 80 percent of the foods available in the American supermarket are tainted with added sugar? What do you look for? How do you eat real food when your neighborhood doesn’t even have a supermarket? How can you believe the health claims that the food industry puts on the packaging? How can you make good choices? How do you read a food label? What’s even on the food label that tells you something worth knowing? This companion e-book is designed to answer all of these questions for you. But without the science, without the rationale, and without the references of Fat Chance. This e-book is designed to be a practical guide—a how-to grocery store survival guide. You can take your Kindle or your iPad into the supermarket and use these pages as a reference, so you can know what you’re buying, and you can make the right choices for you and your family.
I could be a purist—eat “real food” only. That’s a very pristine, charming, and eminently defensible position. This is the mantra of the Slow Food movement started by Alice Waters and Michael Pollan (both of whom I respect greatly)—one that is catching on in high-income areas like San Francisco and New York. Despite knowing this, I’m a realist. Even with all its deficiencies, toxicities, and addictions, processed food isn’t going away. Number one, there’s just way too much money riding on it. Number two, the poor don’t have a choice. And number three, sometimes it’s a survival tool. Every Wednesday, I have clinic all morning and clinic all afternoon. I get ten minutes for lunch, if that. I confess, I succumb. Chinese food is my usual Wednesday lunch ritual. Indeed, processed food does serve a purpose for many of us, especially in our latchkey, day-care, two-parents-working families. To ignore it and to decry people who eat processed food as somehow self-destructive is truly to do injustice to the public at large. We all need a path back to rationality. Unfortunately, the way the food industry pushes processed food is with a sugar chaser. That’s the hook. That’s the draw. Otherwise it wouldn’t be worth eating! That’s how sugar found its way into every type of food available. That’s how we got up to twenty-two teaspoons per day of added sugar. This isn’t going to change, because the food industry is making money hand over fist. And it’s all legal. This isn’t tobacco, alcohol, or street drugs. We keep all of those out of the hands of children, because they are both toxic and addictive. We prevent advertising and marketing of tobacco and alcohol to children. But for sugar—just turn on Nickelodeon and count. The average child is exposed to forty thousand food commercials per year, and almost all of those are for high-sugar junk food. It has been shown that children under age eight can’t even tell the difference between the TV show and the commercial. Is that a fair fight?
Some might say this is the best reason to eat organic! As Michael Pollan says, there’s “organic” with a small “o,” and then there’s “Organic” with a big “O.” If you eat organic, you’re eating real food (without chemicals, preservatives, or antibiotics) and assembling it yourself. Good for you, but way expensive. But if you’re eating Organic, it just means the food industry didn’t add these chemicals to the sugarcane or sugar beets before harvesting; after that, it’s exactly the same product as commercial sugar, and their products likely have the same sugar content. Check out Organic Oreos.
The chances that the White House or Congress will put any limits on the food industry are virtually nonexistent. The government’s job is to generate money. Public health spends money, with the hope of eventually saving money. The food supply has not changed for the better; it’s only gotten worse. Public health policies for obesity prevention thus far have not worked, and the president and Congress can’t justify spending more money on this. Worse yet, the food industry has bought off members of Congress, and the administrative agencies that are supposed to be our watchdogs, the FDA and USDA. That’s why it’s time for each of us to take matters into our own hands. We have to become our own private security force to protect our families and ourselves from the food industry. And this starts with education. Your point of engagement is the food label. But no one can figure it out. How to read a food label is Job 1. But it’s not easy. Read on.