Day 92 -- Unhappy Meals

I was reading a blog yesterday about the current state of nutrition in this country and the writer harkened back to an old Star Trek episode to make a point about our diet.  The Enterprise was called in to help get critically-needed medication to a population suffering a planet-wide plague. The medication controlled the condition -- but when doses wore off, the condition would resurge, up to the point of death.  A cartel controlled the manufacture and distribution of the medication and by the end of the episode, we learn that the plague was actually an addiction.  The drug cartel addicted everyone to their drug, then convinced the people that the drug was the only way to treat their illness.  Of course, Star Fleet saved the day.

The author, Dr. Michael Katz, went on to make the point that we in this country are like the people of that plague-ridden planet. "We have epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases -- fueled by ever more calories, sugar, salt, atherogenic fats, and processed starch. But we need that sugar, salt, starch, bad fat and calories -- because we've been conditioned to crave them. So we 'treat' our condition with the very stuff that created it in the first place, and created epidemic chronic disease as a byproduct."

The blog referenced an article in the New York Times, written by Michael Pollan called "Unhappy Meals."  I'm not going to summarize the article because it is something that needs to read from beginning to end.  So, I will leave you with that.  It's long, but it will open your eyes about the role of food in our lives and the control that big business wields over our diets.