The Poisonous Food Problem (Kids Edition)

Continuing on the food theme, here is one very fine example of how the MSM muffles the obesity issue, to the point that the poison that passes for the industrial food diet, as applied to children, is successfully and completely leached out of an otherwise informative and alarming article. Briefly, a study of 2.8 million Texas school children found that few (very few) can pass basic physical fitness tests. The percentage of failure grows ever larger as the children move through the years, culminating in an astounding 10% pass rate for high school seniors. The link between diabetes, obesity and sedentary lifestyles is mentioned (a reductionist would say that video games are blamed for obesity) but nowhere in this article is the issue of what kids eat explored or even mentioned. Apparently, the logic goes like this: diabetes is caused by inactivity and obesity, and obesity is caused by inactivity, so hey presto! get the kids moving, and you've solved the problem. Chaos hopes readers can see the obvious omission here, which is an illustration of how deeply in denial the current culture is regarding food (and most other things too, but we digress...).

The Monoculture of Food, Explained

Chaos has, over the past couple of years, begun to realize just how toxic the American diet actually is, and why. In brief, the vast overproduction (caused in part by subsidies to agribusiness) of corn, soy, and other grains has resulted in a monoculture of food, wherein the same substances are introduced into the ingredients of food items or as feed for industrially farmed animals (chickens are referred to as "crops," for example in the referenced article), such that there is in fact, little variety in the highly refined carbohydrate/inferior meat diet foisted upon the unsuspecting public. For more reading on this most important subject, we fly, figuratively, across the Pond to read this excerpt from an upcoming book (nice title for the article: "Our Diet of Destruction"). If it's a surprise to you that a tiny number of gargantuan corporations control most of the food production, you need to do a bit more reading...start with Michael Pollan.

New Perspective On Dumpster Diving

Very fine exploration of the art of living without a salary occurs in this article,(registration required) featuring a former Barnes and Noble executive who gave up her expensive (and energy-intensive) lifestyle for something simpler and (vastly) cheaper. Short version: she and other like-minded individuals have learned how to scavenge for food in the wasteful environs of Manhatten (funny also that the article originates in the Los Angeles Times...). Interesting concept of living off the detritus of society...not replicable on a larger scale, of course.

The State of Food: Michael Pollan

This author, of last year's outstanding The Omnivore's Dilemma, has an article in the nation's paper of record (the "Magazine," actually), which nicely encapsulates many of the problems with the US industrial food system (and make no mistake, "industrial" is the best term here) and the way we eat. If readers are too consumed with other matters to make it through the book, this article is a nice summation of the topic. Pay particular attention to how the food industry, through its lobbyists and bought-and-paid-for representatives in Congress, manipulates official government recommendations on what should constitute healthy eating. Also particularly insightful is the discussion on why "scientific" findings regarding diet are frequently wrong. Towards the end, Pollan has some rules or suggestions on what to eat (which is what we really want to know, isn't it?):
1. Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
2. Avoid even those food products that come bearing health claims.
3. Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number — or that contain high-fructose corn syrup.
4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.
5. Pay more, eat less.
6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
7. Eat more like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks.
8. Cook. And if you can, plant a garden.
9. Eat like an omnivore.
Peruse the article for the explanatory comments. The man really does have a fine perspective on the whole question of what and how we should eat. Since most of the sentient beings in Chaos' world consume food, this is a somewhat burning question (Chaos has always been somewhat of a gourmet, in fact).