It’s the Process That’s Hard to Swallow (or Too Easy?)

  

It’s the Process That’s Hard to Swallow (or Too Easy?)

If we are what we eat, we are large containers of preservatives and extenders with some obviously nasty results. Nothing brings that home like the rising incidences of type 2 diabetes and the rise in colon rectal cancer among Gen Z. A study by the Centers for Disease Control found that, for U.S. children and young adults, new diagnoses of type 1 diabetes increased by approximately 2 percent every year, while new cases of type 2 diabetes increased by more than 5 percent every year. Comparable studies of colon-rectal cancer (CRC) have witnessed what used to be a disease associated with the elderly to be increasingly migrating into younger American demographics. CRC is on the rise among adults in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, increasing by as much as 2% each year since 1994. In adults under 50, it has become the No. 1 cancer killer of men, and the No. 2 cancer killer of women.

But the rise among Gen Z and younger Millennials has been particularly startling. Much of this can be traced to the rise in obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, socio-economic indicators, and, more than ever, dietary shifts, particularly within the ultraprocessed food landscape, embracing more sugary beverages and the increased consumption of fast food and processed snacks among a younger generation that has often been labeled as the “convenience generation.” Studies have also shown a graded association between increased screen time and higher levels of insulin resistance in children and adolescents, even independent of obesity or even just excess weight.

Writing for the October 20th The Morning (NY Times news feed), Alice Callahan, a PhD nutritionist, explains how we got here: “Humans have been processing food for millenniums. Hunter-gatherers ground wild wheat to make bread; factory workers canned fruit for soldiers during the Civil War… But in the late 1800s, food companies began concocting products that were wildly different from anything people could make themselves. Coca-Cola came in 1886, Jell-O in 1897, and Crisco in 1911. Spam, Velveeta, Kraft Mac & Cheese and Oreos arrived in the decades that followed. Foods like these often promised ease and convenience. Some of them filled the bellies of soldiers in World War II….

“During World War II, companies devised shelf-stable foods for soldiers — powdered cheeses, dehydrated potatoes, canned meats and melt-resistant chocolate bars. [K-rations pictured above.] They infused new additives like preservatives, flavorings and vitamins. And they packaged the foods in novel ways to withstand wet beach landings and days at the bottom of a rucksack.

“After the war, food companies realized that they could adapt this foxhole cuisine into profitable convenience foods for the masses. Advertisements told homemakers that these products offered superior nutrition and could save them time in the kitchen. Wonder Bread commercials from the 1950s, for instance, claimed its vitamins and minerals would help children ‘grow bigger and stronger.’ An ad for Swift’s canned hamburgers boasted that they were ‘out of the can and onto the bun’ in minutes….

“In the 1980s, investors wanted food manufacturers to show larger profits, so they developed thousands of new drinks and snacks and marketed them aggressively... The tobacco companies Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds diversified into the food industry, dominating it through the early 2000s. They applied the same marketing techniques that they crafted to sell cigarettes — targeting children and certain racial and ethnic groups. Kraft, owned by Philip Morris, created Kool-Aid flavors for the Hispanic market and handed out coupons and samples at cultural events for Black Americans… Obesity tripled in children and doubled in adults between the mid-1970s and the early 2000s.

“By the 21st century, you couldn’t walk through a school cafeteria, a supermarket or an airport without being inundated by ultraprocessed foods. Obesity kept rising, and food companies addressed it by making products they marketed as ‘healthier,’ like low-carb breakfast cereals, shakes and bagels; artificially sweetened ice creams and yogurts; and snacks like Oreos and Doritos in smaller, 100-calorie packs… They were popular, but they did not make us healthier. Scientists soon linked ultraprocessed foods to Type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline and cardiovascular disease. For generations, obesity had been seen as a problem of willpower — caused by eating too much and exercising too little. But in the last decade, research on ultraprocessed foods has challenged that notion, suggesting that these foods may drive us to eat more…

“Today, scientists, influencers, advocates and politicians publicly condemn ultraprocessed foods, which represent about 70 percent of the U.S. food supply. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. calls them ‘poison.’… Are we at a tipping point? Maybe. There are signs that people are eating slightly fewer of these foods. But our reliance on ultraprocessed food was ‘decades in the making,’ one expert told me, and ‘could take decades to reverse.’” I don’t agree with much that comes out of the mouth of HHS Secretary, Robert Kennedy, Jr., but his take on our dietary habits seems accurate. And while there is a nascent backlash among some younger Americans, switching to organic foods, free of chemicals, it still a relatively small movement, countered by rising food prices… organic produce tends to be more expensive. But it is cheaper than slowly dying.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if there ever were marching orders for parents feeding their children, convenience without thought (and there are healthy prepared foods) can lead your children into a lifetime craving addiction for ultraprocessed foods that could shorten their lives, if not kill them.