Food Is Evil!

Yes, I agree with that statement. We, meaning humans and all other living organisms in the known universe, need some form of food to survive. But not all food is actually good for you, a fact which, once again, everybody knows.

Now to get on to the new information. Do you know exactly what you're eating when you bite into, say, a store-bought granola bar? How about what you're drinking in that diet soda beside you? How about all those frozen dinners that are labeled as healthy and good for you?

Well, chances are, there's some nasty crap in there that you don't want to put into your body. I've known for many years that there are really unpleasant things out there in some foods. If you've ever been in a situation where you've had to have generic anything, or worse yet, government-provided peanut butter (gag!), you have probably encountered fillers and artificial ingredients and flavor-enhancers that try to trick your body into thinking it's getting fed something tasty. As soon as I could afford it, I got as far away from cheap synthetic cheese and cereal-filled ground turkey as I possibly could. I thought I was doing good, too—the larger the grocery budget became, the "healthier" the groceries themselves became. I even read ingredients and avoided anything I couldn't pronounce or identify quickly as something good for me.

And then came the question. My fiancee asked me to identify the "evil addictive substances" I was always complaining about so he could avoid them too. Now, my memory isn't the greatest ever, so I could only remember two of them off the top of my head: high fructose corn syrup, a personal nemesis that I finally kicked out of my life in 2004, and hydrogenated fats and oils, substances that convert straight to fat without stopping to give you any energy or other benefits. And to make them more interesting, the hydrogenated fats and oils don't tell your body to produce the "I'm full" signal.

So I went online and ran a few searches. Wow, was I ever surprised at what I turned up! It seems those "healthy" foods I was buying are stuffed full of MSG, which is something I thought I was avoiding because my fiancee reacts to the stuff. And they were also full of all sorts of other evils, too, just like the rest of the commercially available foods here in America, the land of big business. Argh!

Now, I'm not about to tell anybody what they should or should not be eating. However, what I will do is provide any and all interested parties with the links to the information my research turned up, along with a brief synopsis of what the link leads to. I hope the information helps you make healthy choices to improve your life and diet.

Addictive Substances

Excitotoxins

A moderately technical look at what excitotoxins are, where they are found, and what they do to us.

Quote: There are a growing number of clinicians and basic scientists who are convinced that a group of compounds called excitotoxins play a critical role in the development of several neurological disorders including migraines, seizures, infections, abnormal neural development, certain endocrine disorders, neuropsychiatric disorders, learning disorders in children, AIDS dementia, episodic violence, lyme borreliosis, hepatic encephalopathy, specific types of obesity, and especially the neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, and olivopontocerebellar degeneration.

This article gets very technical, so if you have no background in biochemistry you may feel your eyes glazing over and your brain reducing to a state where no thought occurs. However, it is very thorough in detailing precisely what is so bad about an excitotoxin, and why they should all be avoided.

MSG

Quote: Are you looking for a magic substance that will increase your appetite, give you insatiable food cravings, put on weight without increasing your food intake? No? Well you’re probably eating any number of foods each day that will do just that.

Yes, this one is very much a commercial website, but that doesn't change the fact that the information is presented very clearly.

This actually has two articles in one. The first is an unattributed "open letter" type thing that has been running around the Internet for a while. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest reading it now, since it's interesting.

The second part is an excerpt from a book, telling where you will find MSG in disguise. Some of the things that contain MSG may surprise you.

A link to where you can find that elusive book, The Slow Poisoning of America by John Erb.

Sweeteners

Just like the name implies, this site gives you a chilling list of side effects that can stem from aspartame use. You might want to step away from that diet soda now.

A collection of links that will lead you to lots of information on the evils of aspartame.

This starts out with a discussion of experiments on rats, but moves on to the effects of high fructose corn syrup on humans.

This is funny. At least, I find it funny. Consider yourself warned: there are heavy doses of sarcasm ahead, and a bit of foul language. Don't let the little kiddies read this one if you don't want them meeting up with the F-word. And I don't mean Fructose.

Food Addiction

This is written for men, but the information applies equally well to women. Unfortunately.

Details the common responses to addictive foods before moving on to try to sell you on the Alpha Nutrition Program.

Good Stuff

The Food Guide Pyramid has many resources to help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight, including a diet and activity analyzer that lets you know exactly how many calories you're eating and how many calories you're burning off.

I haven't investigated this one thoroughly, because I don't feel I need the program, so I don't know if it works or not. However, it may be helpful to someone, so I've included it here.

This tells you all sorts of sweenteners you can use without getting yourself addicted to a dangerous substance.