Put an orange in a small necked container. When the monkey tries to pull its hand out with the fruit, it can’t… unless it lets go of the fruit. And it won’t. You think that all the monkey has to do is let go and reason that there’s got to be a better way, but there is no reasoning, it’s instinct, it’s food. That monkey is driven. No reason — he’s got to have that orange. Sadly, we’re the clueless monkeys. We’ve given up our ability to reason and sold out our health for mindless convenience.

Through out-of-control manipulation of food product development skewed to chemically tingle our taste buds and tantalize our brain centers, food scientists in laboratories for popular brand food manufacturers, chain restaurants, and fast food franchises, all in collusion with advertisers have all helped us become a nation of overeaters. We’re mindlessly stuffing our bodies with false ‘food’ putting ourselves on the painful path to obesity and related diseases. Foodwise, there is no “better living through chemistry” (DuPont Chemicals old slogan), but there are huge profits, and we’re paying for it with something more precious than money. We’re paying for it with our lives and the health of our children’s lives.

Food Cues by Design — “It’s all in your mind.” It is. The food chemists know it. They know the brain’s chemistry can be triggered by designed cues to compel us to overeat by manipulating the makeup and chemical content of three irresistible, well known ingredients: fat, salt, and sugar. Lays slogan: “Betcha can’t eat just one” is absolutely true, and they count on these big three cues to getcha. The general American public has succumbed to the addiction of prepackaged, premade foods of any kind, restaurant or store bought. We’re hooked by our chemically programmed brain’s concept of ‘taste’. It’s not all our fault, but making us aware of WHY makes us responsible and aye, there’s the rub. We have to choose to make the effort to change our life’s Wellness and food patterns to literally greener, healthier pastures.

“The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite”, a book by Dr. David Kessler, former FDA commissioner 1990-1997, tells us about how our brain chemistry is being held hostage by the commercial food industry for profit. We’ve been programmed to be overweight, obese, overeaters. FOR PROFIT, did I say that already? In an interview by Monica Eng for the Chicago Tribune, he tells us why we can’t stop ourselves:

“…food is being designed to activate the neural reward centers of the brain and keep them engaged, so that we don’t even know we are full. The food industry also has engineered food to be highly palatable and almost predigested. They inject it with fat and marinades [salts, sugars, chemicals, etc.] so that it’s almost like baby food, it goes down in a whoosh and this combination makes you want to reach for more and more to activate those reward (dopamine) centers again…”

He estimates about 70 million people are affected. This sounds like what it is… an epidemic. The food manufacturers and advertisers have created an appealing and unrelenting atmosphere of desire and consumption ending with us “double dipping” from our own pockets – (1) paying them to make us overeat and then, (2) paying the pharmaceutical/medical industry to cure the incurable because it’s embedded in our brains… behavioral! We’ve been programmed to overreach and overeat. Dare I call it brain dead?

Wellness You Can Count On – There is a growing body of scientific research actually on the side of natural Wellness. Breaking the habitual craving cues is up to us. Imagine how our righting this diabolical wrong will change not only the entire food industry, but the health industry – its providers and policy makers. Imagine healthcare rates going down and benefits going up because we become healthier as we take control. Hopefully, Dr. Kessler, having been the boss of the FDA will have enough heft, so to speak, to influence America, “…explain…what’s going on – how do we break through and help people understand how their brains have been captured?” he said. He suggests keeping food simple. I pose this as a start: home cooking, of course, but more importantly using whole grains, vegetables and cutting back on salt. We can’t live without it, but we can’t live with too much of it. Cut back. Taste your food for the first time. I fully believe that many other cravings, again staying away from chemically enhanced processed/prepackaged foods, will dwindle. BUT it will take time, patience, and your will, just like with any other rehab, to reprogram your brain. Mere thoughts, sights, suggestions, and smells will not be the motivating triggers for mindless, nonstop grabbing and overeating on the way to obesity. Real hunger will motivate and real repletion will rule to be the natural end of meals and snacks.

All of us monkeys out there should give ourselves the gift of personal power, leave that orange in the jar and get out while we still can – it’s most likely chemically engineered anyway. Don’t allow the food industry to short-circuit your body’s self regulating instinct anymore. Dr. Kessler’s plea is for us to “fight back against the industry’s relentless quest for profits while an entire country of people gain weight and get sick.” (Publishers Weekly) Here, here Dr. Kessler. Glad to have you on our side.

Free Range Chicken. Aaaah! Conjures up the delicious aroma of a roasted, oven browned, juicy chicken surrounded by equally browned potatoes basted and steeped in a white wine and herbed gravy waiting to be devoured by you and that you can feel good about devouring. Funny how the mind works. In that same split second we see a happy hen pecking at its 100% pure grain feed outside in the warm sun enclosed by a friendly humane wooden pen. Uh uh! Right picture, right focus, wrong USDA camera. Not the aroma or the sight but the ‘feel good about devouring part’. Senses are deceiving. And this is prime.

Buy Organic! Unless your chicken is labeled organic, here’s the real picture of your regular supermarket and ‘free range’ poultry. Even though ‘free range’ conjures up that cozy picture, the only difference between the more expensive ‘free range’ and the regular market variety is that the USDA says the ranchers have to open the door for only at least 5 minutes a day in case the hens want to go outside. They may not even make it or have the energy let alone the desire, and they don’t have to. Otherwise, same chicken! There’s no other change in feed and no other difference in caged habitat. Read the egg carton and the chicken labels. Compare. You’ll see. No difference unless it’s stated. Then I’d call and possibly visit, just to make sure.

Eat organic! The USDA and FDA regulate our ‘feed’ by their inhumane and sickening treatment of these hens and their feed, ‘free range’ or not. The ‘wooden pen’ has been replaced by a windowless, sunless, brick or concrete bunker hardly open to the light of day. I actually drove by a ‘poultry plant’ (as opposed to a friendly, organic chicken ranch) in the Southeast. The chickens are caged in confined spaces, subjected to high intensity artificial light to simulate sunlight, fed a daily variety of hormones to fool their bodies for faster growth for early egg laying maturity/production, and antibiotics to ward off disease and bacteria from being in that confined area with thousands more – the deadly unfortunate side effect of overcrowding. When their first birthday comes around which is when they’re supposed to start laying, they are effectively ‘used up’, exhausted, and incubating diseases that we know along with those we don’t know that come from drug resistant bacteria. Inhumanely treated, weakened, chemical specimens that the USDA, FDA, & Big Pharma can be proud of…where do they all go? You’re not going to like this…

Well, here’s the bonus sickening kicker: at the end of their one early forced egg laying year, just before all the lurking cancers and diseases attack their livers and bodies, they’re slaughtered and go straight to our supermarket coolers to become….us and our children! And you wonder why we and, more importantly, our children are plagued with more diseases than there are names for? Here’s one of the multitude of reasons. Forget Free Range. EAT ORGANIC! And there’s that wonderful bonus of superior taste.

It will cost more, but the cost for the bills of rising anxiety, fear, medical, and health care are more than the cost of an organic chicken. I’d rather pay that.

Here is one reference for my blog. I am not endorsing any ads on this site, but I thought the article was very concise, informative and summed up much already known info that would help my blog stay more concise as I tend to run on…… http://www.healthynewage.com/spirit… Also write, email, blog your favorite TV/radio news station etc. your congressperson, everyone. Only we can uncorrupt our food chain.

… what to eat on the road? That’s the question.

I love road trips, loooong road trips. Having just driven here to NYC from San Diego through the breathtaking vistas of Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota I was appalled at the multitudes of heavy weight/obese people filing in and out of the fast food eateries abounding along the Interstates. Why was I at these travelers’ ‘watering holes’? I wasn’t. But because I didn’t prepare our travel cooler the way I usually do with the delicious abundance of homemade and natural goodies, I had the opportunity to scout out the local supermarkets and groceries often side by side with the eateries. That was eye opening. And many of these people were not on the road but local residents. It saddened me that so many people have so little regard for their health that they allow obvious ill health to become perceived good health simply because everyone starts looking the same from eating the same — the herd mentality. Those spare tire midriffs used to be associated with a small segment of our society. Now it’s the norm on or off the road. For here, for now I’ll stick to ‘on the road’.

Somehow in the car foods that you might not ordinarily think that much about as staples, become not only important but even more delicious especially when you bring your favorites. A long picnic on wheels. A chance to have your favorite natural sandwiches, snacks, and munchies mostly made by you and the kids. Flexibility is the key so some junk food is also fun. Sometimes you stop at (more…)