Salt Sugar Fat: Q&a With Author Michael Moss

[gfreejz]

No references to wheat but this article sheds a little light on the processed food industry. 

 

 

Open Original Shared Link

 

"In his new book, Open Original Shared Link Sugar Fat, Pulitzer Prize winning, New YorkTimes investigative reporter Michael Moss takes readers on a tour of the $1 trillion processed food industry, and the sights aren’t pretty. The average American eats 33 pounds of cheese and 70 pounds of sugar a year, and health experts say those trends triggered the obesity epidemic that has left millions at risk of Open Original Shared Link,Open Original Shared Link and other chronic health conditions.

 

After all your research, do you believe these foods can be considered “addictive?”

 

That is the one single word that the food industry hates: “addiction.” They much prefer words like “crave-ability” and “allure.” Some of the top scientists who are very knowledgeable about addiction in the country are very convinced that for some people, the most highly sugared, high fat foods are every bit as addictive as some narcotics. Their advice to these people is don’t try to eat just a couple Oreo cookies, because you are not going to be able to stop. Sugar uses the same neurological pathways as narcotic [products rely on] to hit the pleasure center of the brain that send out the signals: “eat more, eat more.” That said, the food industry defends itself by saying true narcotic addiction has certain technical thresholds that you just don’t find in food addiction. It’s true, but in some ways getting unhooked on foods is harder than getting unhooked on narcotics, because you can’t go cold turkey. You can’t just stop eating. The head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Washington says that it’s more difficult for people to control their eating habits than narcotics. She is hugely empathic with overeaters.

 

Were you surprised by how many scientists and food company executives avoid their own products?

It was everything from a former top scientist at Kraft saying he used to maintain his weight by jogging, and then he blew out his knee and couldn’t exercise, his solution was to avoid sugar and all caloric drinks, including all the Kool-Aid and sugary drinks that Kraft makes. It ranged from him to the former top scientist at Frito Lay. I spent days at his house going over documents relating to his efforts at Frito Lay to push the company to cut back on salt. He served me plain, cooked oatmeal and raw asparagus for lunch. We toured his kitchen, and he did not have one single processed food product in his cupboards or refrigerator.

[Takala]

You missed the reference to wheat.  Towards the end, he talks about switching his children to eating whole wheat toast for breakfast.    Then they let the kids pick out their own breakfast cereals, as long as they are low in sugar.  So these kids are getting a double whammy serving of grains for breakfast, which is portrayed as being "healthful."  I didn't see any reference to them actually eating real fruit or real vegetables for breakfast, did you ? 

 

If humans didn't have an "addiction" to food, they would die.  Hence you have the ongoing uptick in articles attempting to portray gluten free eating for mere gluten intolerance as a fad diet and possibly as a psychosomatic affliction, complete with quotes from semi- anonymous "experts" in addiction, not experts in diseases of the auto immune system of the gut.  I've commented here previously on this, (link here: https://www.celiac.com/forums/topic/99658-now-the-daily-mail-joins-daily-beast-in-claims-that-gluten-intolerance-could-equal-eating-disorder/                               ) under other anti- gluten free diet media pieces, such as the one written by an author in Psychology Today (link to orig PT article "Gluten Sensitivity as Eating Disorder"  here:  Open Original Shared Link       ) who turned out to be a rheumatologist who actually works for the government and has worked for the Veteran's Administration.  Slick trick.  We're just trying to avoid Triticum grain proteins, and we get a govvie rheumie implying we're a bunch of people with addiction issues, because treating "addiction issues" are his sideline in dispensing drugs for chronic pain, according to his own website !    This week, it's sugar who gets to be the demon addiction cause of obesity.  No mention of course, of thyroid disease anywhere...... or what causes it.  Nor the link between type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome.  Nor between nutrient starvation and the resulting cravings.  "Experts say" it has to be sugar.  This is nothing more than the various agricultural interests (USA) all lining up now trying to do media articles portraying the other commodities nutritional benefits as Less Worthy, as they get ready to fight over the farm subsidies.