Why Americans are soo fat
07 December 07 - 20:29
One of the things that a visitor from Europe, South America, Africa or frankly any other country first notices is the incredible obesity of Americans as a nation. White people, Black people, Latinos, all share this characteristic. It cuts across all racial, cultural, age or social groups.Americans are fatties.
And not just ordinary obese. We are talking 300lbs monsters walking the street. We are talking Latino, White or Black kids ages 5-10 that weigh more than mature European women. We are talking people who are so fat that they have trouble walking in a store, and move their bodies using an electric scooter for invalids... We are talking people who weigh 400 pounds (that is about 180 kilograms people!).
At first I thought that this was due to how cheap and plentiful food is in America. Buffets (Chinese, American predominantly) are VERY common, and what that means is that a person pays a fee up front (by no means a large amount; can range from $8 to $20) and then can eat as much as they can. The food is plentiful and of good quality.
And once inside a buffet restaurant, you will see HORRORS. You will see 300-400lbs land whales maneuvering with 1-2 plates, chok full of foodstuffs. You will see kids, ages 3-10, who really DO weigh more than mature European, South American or African adults. You will see grandmothers, using canes to help themselves, grunting as they shuffle from one buffet tray area to another.
In short, Americans really do EAT a lot when they go to a buffet. They are pigs.
Add lack of exercise and sedentary, unhealthy lifestyle and you have the American society at large.
But that explanation is too simple.
If there is anything I learned in this country, is that simple explanations are there to mask the real, deeper reasons for a state of affairs. It is never what the TV, or what looks so obvious at first glance. So look deeper.
Corn.
Specifically genetically modified corn.
More specifically, High Fructose Corn Syrup and Xanthar Gum. Both industrial by products of genetically processed corn.
Look at your yogurt. Cool Whip. 7UP. Coca Cola. Pepsi. Cake. Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Salad dressing. Ketchup. Fruit Juice (every single brand). Health foods (now there is a misnomer!).
What do they have in common?
Give up?
All of them have corn by products in them - chiefly the High Fructose Corn Syrup.
You would figure that most people would spot this fact, that the majority of American foods have corn byproducts in them (like I said before, mostly HFCS). That the newspapers, that TV reporters and pundits would talk about it. But no, this issue does not exist.
First, lets talk about American version of corn.
ALL corn in the United States is genetically modified. ALL of it.
Corn in the United States is copyrighted, patented, by a giant bio-agricultural company called Monsanto. 100% of it. Even if a farmer in the United States chose not to buy the genetically modified seeds, the seeds spread to his fields anyway - wind brought them to his field, or they were washed by rain water. And these seeds spread and overtook all natural corn.
Most people around the world would stop reading right there, and decide not to eat American foods. In fact - that is exactly what is happening, as Japan and Europe chose NOT TO import American food into their stores. They call these foodstuffs Frankenfoods and shudder at the mere thought of them.
But this blog is also for Americans, so I will have to explain further.
In a documentary I link to, you can see insects who try to eat the corn (a normal occurence in nature of course) die off from the effects of toxin. In Europe, that would be because the corn would be sprayed with a toxin, which then would be washed off by the store that bought them and then the people who will eat them. In USA, the toxin IS ALREADY IN the corn. It was put there by scientists; it is produced by the corn. Corn Vs Insect!
Sounds yummy.
OK, Americans are probably obtuse and will think that poisons that kill off other lifeforms will not affect them (or other humans). Fair enough, it is one possibility (unless you develop a REACTION to it... but the data of how many Americans get sick from ingesting industrial corn byproducts is NOT available. Don't wait for a study to come out either - more on why not in a moment).
So OK, Americans are hunky dory with eating poison.
What else is wrong here?
Plenty.
The main thing is, this syrupy shit that you are ingesting like a junkie on a drug binge is messing up your metabolism.
The main effect of this poison is that your body is ingesting EMPTY CALORIES, and does not feel full. That is why you are always hungry after eating so much at that chinese buffet. Why you can drink a litre of Pepsi and feel thirsty and MORE HUNGRY.
Basically this HFCS stuff is EMPTY calories, which your body makes directly into FAT. But since they do not have any nutrients, vitamins, hell, they aren't even food, you are hungry because YOU NEED REAL FOOD.
Best Article Ever
Here are some quotes guaranteed to make you sick (well, not any sicker than you are now, after you slammed that Coke and ate that cookie):
"Individuals who consumed large amounts of sucrose (28% of energy) showed an increase in energy intake, body weight, fat mass, and blood pressure after the 10-wk intervention"
Big Scientific Article
You get fat after ingesting these empty calorie sweetener.
"Fructose contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals, and it leeches micronutrients from the body. Unbound fructose, found in large quantities in HFCS, can interfere with the heart's use of minerals such as magnesium, copper and chromium."
Plague of HFCS in foods
"Fructose also reduces the affinity of insulin for its receptor, which is the principle characteristic of type 2 diabetes."
Plague of HFCS in foods
Translation: this shit gives you diabetes. Now you know (lucky you!).
"(...)they repeated their studies with two groups of rats, one given high amounts of glucose and one given high amounts of fructose. The glucose group was unaffected but the fructose group had disastrous results. The male rats did not reach adulthood. They had anemia, high cholesterol and heart hypertrophy--that means that their hearts enlarged until they exploded."
Murky World of HFCS
Rats who were given a diet of HFCS had ANEMIA, HIGH CHOLESTEROL AND THEIR HEARTS EXPLODED.
The rats with normal sugar were just fine (if a bit jumpy and full of energy :)
"The livers of the rats on the high fructose diet looked like the livers of alcoholics, plugged with fat and cirrhotic."
Murky World of HFCS
"The consumption of high fructose corn syrup not only exacerbates the obesity epidemic, it also harms organs like your liver and pancreas, leading to bone loss, anemia and heart problems, just to name a few." Plague of HFCS in foods.
Translation: this shit is bad for you.
I sincerely sugest to all Americans who live here, and to immigrants and tourists who pass through, do not eat or drink products that have corn syrup. Keep in mind that High Fructose Corn Syrup is even worse, as it is a chemically refined corn syrup to squeeze as much sweetness out of "normal" corn syrup as they can do.
So why is this a non issue? After all, in ALL European countries people protested and now their governments effectively BANNED American food from being imported. Why no discussion on this topic by Dr. Gupta on CNN?
Could it be that ALL corn is subsidized by the American government, and something just HAS TO BE DONE with all that excess corn? I mean, we cannot just produce extra alcohol from all this corn sweetness (it was tried and Prohibition was the result).
So there you have it. High Fructose Corn Syrup is here to stay (alongside other corn industrial laboratory by-products) and make us sick, and NO STUDY will be made too public by the media. I can guarantee it.
Bonus Material:
Xanthar Gum.
This is another of corn industrial by-products. From Xanthar Gum has its own site:
"Xanthan gum is a long chain polysacharide composed of the sugars glucose, mannose, and glucuronic acid. The backbone is similar to cellulose, with added sidechains of trisacharides".
Hmm, sounds too scientific. I am a layman, and after living in USA for too many years, also a functional idiot.
Continuing from same site:
" It is a slimy gel produced by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris, which causes black rot on cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower and broccoli.".
Ahh much better!
Where is this black rot crap used?
" Xanthan gum is used as a thickener in sauces, as an agent in ice cream that prevents ice crystals from forming, and as a fat substitute that adds the "mouth feel" of fat without the calories." Aha.... " It has a very high viscosity (thickness) even when very little is used." Ahh of course! Salad dressing! And Philadelphia Cream Cheese! It makes these products thicker, so they do not settle like a liquid (salad dressing) or become solids (Philly cheese).
But wait there is more (from some geek site)
"Xanthan gum is used in dairy products and salad dressings as a thickening agent and stabilizer. Xanthan gum prevents ice crystals from forming in ice creams, and also provides a 'fat feel' in low or no-fat dairy products."
OK so far so OK...
"Xanthan gum is also used as a substitute for wheat gluen in gluten-free breads, pastas and other flour-based food products. Those who suffer from gluten allergies should look for xanthan gum as an ingredient on the label." Ah OK so it's in your bread too. Wonderful!
Oh wait last paragraph:
"One lesser-known use of xanthan gum is in the oil industry. Oil companies often use water as a lubricant for oil well pumps, but regular water is not very thick. A natural thickener such as guar gum or xanthan gum can be added to the water in order to increase its viscosity, or thickness. You could think of this as turning tap water into 10W-40 motor oil. The thickened water keeps the drill parts lubricated and displaces more of the natural oil found in the deposit area."
Lubricant for oil pumps? Black rot on vegetables?
Excuse me... I need to throw up... Wait where's my (ALL NATURAL!) 7UP (up yours!)
And I didn't get into how chickens are fattened on steroids, how cows are given hormones and chemicals to give more milk, how fish are fed with some veeeeerrrrry interesting stuff so they grow up quicker and are ready to sell faster.
Essential resources (copy and paste it into your browser please):
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/76/5/911
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-xanthan-gum.htm
http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-fructose-corn-syrup/AN01588
http://www.mercola.com/2007/feb/1/the-plague-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-processed-foods.htm
http://www.deliciousorganics.com/Controversies/corn.htm
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/18/FDGS24VKMH1.DTL
Please watch this documentary, all parts of it:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AkJ4UkKH6uI
And this one is just for fun:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FLn45-7Pn2Y
Bon appetit!
one comment:
Yup. The only person I have heard even discussing this is Bill Maher.
I’m a 50 year old woman who still wears the same size 4 I wore in high school. At least I am the same size – I now wear a size 2 because the clothing manufacturers have responded to the expanding of America by increasing the size of the standard sizes. Soon I will be a 0 and then I guess I shall have to walk around naked. Do they make negatively numbered sizes? I keep my weight by (1) limiting my high fructose corn syrup intake to as close to nil as possible (not being a soda drinker helps) and limiting my simple carb intake. That’s all.
Of course, you can find chapter and verse from all sorts of *experts* claiming that HFCS is just fine and doesn’t have any of these effects (there, there, cowlike American, just leep consuming, don’t worry, be happy).
You can also see the effects of this if you walk into any women’s clothing store or department and look at the clothes. They have racks of 10s, 12s and 14s, and then they have (4) 4s and maybe (1) size 2. It is an accident when I can find something that fits. It doesn’t make sense for the clothing manufacturers to make many of the smaller sizes.
Punkster - 10 12 07 - 14:20
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