In my last column, I spoke about the growing power of a few omnipresent industries that seek to profit by addicting a nation and controlling its habits. Like drug peddlers on the street corner, their desire is to addict you to their destructive products, thus ensuring a consistent, reliable customer who consumes an illogically excessive amount. Today we’ll focus on the first of these: the convenience food industry.

The source of our manipulation by the food industry is a shift in our collective value system that has prioritized comfort, convenience, emotion, and the perception of fairness over health, discipline, honesty, and the intentional cultivation of human fulfillment. This is not the fault of individuals, but a carefully calculated campaign for which our culture was not prepared. It was the failing of our major institutions to communicate clear guidance and to stand up as leaders should.

The consequences are already dire, and show all signs of getting worse. As I laid out last time, obesity has more than tripled since 1970, and by 2030, over 44% of the adult population will be categorized as obese. Children today are expected to live shorter lives than their parents, and be saddled with poor health the whole way. Consequently, health care costs will become unsustainably high.

More than just physical ailments, our food choices lead to long spirals of depression, low confidence, and a constant, foggy lethargy. Talk to people who have finally lost the weight. They will tell you how much it controlled them; how they dreaded flying or public transportation, feeling as if they couldn’t help invading people’s space. They will tell you how they dreaded warm weather, or how they were uncomfortable all the time.

This epidemic was no accident. It has taken a huge investment of time, money, and resources by the food industry. We have been complicit, perpetuating the cycle of addition in ourselves and our kids.

To reverse our present course, health must become a community dialogue. Our education system must become the authority in human development practices, warning us of pitfalls and instructing us toward best practices.

Addiction as a Business Model

“We may be approaching a time when sugar is responsible for more early deaths in America than cigarette smoking.”

– Lewis Cantley

While brilliant marketing and cultural components increase our dependency, chemical addiction is a component of the food industry’s model. Extremely sweet or fatty foods deliver a reward response to the brain similar to that of cocaine, gambling, or modern technology. One animal study even showed that an overwhelming 94% of rats chose refined sugar over cocaine. The combination of corporate strategy, cultural indoctrination, and chemical engineering creates ingrained habits that are harder to break than virtually any other stigmatized addiction.

Perhaps the most ubiquitous poor health habit is the daily soda. At Coca-Cola, the industry leader, executives talk about “heavy users,” rather than “consumers.” The average Coke users aren’t single-can types. As Michael Moss explains in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Salt Sugar Fat, they lean towards the “20 oz. bottle with 15 teaspoons of sugar; liter bottles with 26 teaspoons; and the 64 oz. Double Gulp sold by 7-Eleven stores, with 44 teaspoons of sugar.”

Exacerbating its own health effects, soda has been shown to increase appetite. In a 1987 study of the effects of soda, participants were given 40oz of soda daily for three weeks. At the end, the average weight gain was almost a pound and a half—on track for 26 pounds in a year. Former Coca-Cola executive Jeffrey Dunn puts it plainly: “You can look at the obesity rates, and you can look at per capita consumption of sugary soft drinks and overlay those on a map, and I promise you: They correlate about 99.999%.”

Our Diet Isn’t Normal

To understand nutrition, we need to go way back to pre-history. As Noah Harari contends in his book Sapiens, contrary to popular belief, humanity was healthiest prior to the agricultural revolution that kickstarted the growth of civilizations. Farming created too much reliance on too few crops and livestock. Our bodies were made to thrive on foods available in nature. They work best with whole foods, not prepackaged chemical engineering projects. While preservatives are wonderful for starving people who need any source of sustenance they can get, the vast majority of Americans would do well to stay away.

These statements may sound simple or obvious, but they are foreign or extreme to the vast majority of Americans. So ingrained is our societal dependence on heavily processed food, that most Americans can hardly conceive of lunch without chips and soda, or a day without a drive-thru. They believe eating healthy is having a sugar-infused granola bar, or flavored yogurt, or baked chips, or pasta with spaghetti sauce like Prego, which packs two full tablespoons of added sugar. They are completely at the whim of the food manipulators: giant corporations like General Mills, Kraft, Coca-Cola, Kellogg, Frito-Lay, Nestle, Nabisco, and Cargill.

Moss’s Salt Sugar Fat reveals the story of an industry that is well aware of the consequences of its products, and yet intentionally works to create that addiction. In 1999, heads of the largest food companies gathered at Pillsbury headquarters to discuss the growing health crisis and what to do about it. Some contended that people would demand they accept responsibility and change their products. Then the CEO of General Mills, Stephen Sanger, took over the room and communicated a clear directive to stay the course. Fickle consumers would continue to fail at diets and gravitate back to the almighty salt, sugar, and fat. Their cravings, reinforced by ubiquitous ad campaigns and societal norms, would rule the day.

From the Lab to the Grocery Aisle

Food manufacturers have stepped up their science to sink the hook and increase profits. Sugar enhances the bottom line in two ways: it’s not only addictive enough to stimulate perpetual overconsumption, it’s also a cheap substitute for costlier ingredients. According to Moss, “some of the largest companies are now using brain scans to study how we react neurologically to certain foods, especially to sugar.” And they don’t stop there. Nestle, for example, has figured out how to engineer Dreyer’s Ice Cream (also sold as Edy’s) so that fat droplets distribute more efficiently, thus tricking the body into perceiving an even fattier, tastier reward.

The goal is lifetime customers, so when it comes to addiction, the earlier the better. We see this in the play places and happy meal toys at McDonalds, in Coke’s ploy to be synonymous with every landmark event, and most obviously in cereal commercials. Each cereal comes equipped with a Tony the Tiger, or a Count Chocula, or even a silly rabbit who doesn’t understand that Trix are for kids.

Frosted Mini-Wheats had the audacity to advertise that “a clinical study showed kids who had a filling breakfast of Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal improved their attentiveness by nearly 20%.” Of course, this claim was debunked, as the high sugar content actually disrupts attentiveness. But the lie had already gained traction. Kellogg’s market research indicated a full 51% of adults surveyed believed the claim was true, and true only for Frosted Mini-Wheats.

To be clear, the public has a responsibility in this. We’ve decided as a society to buy what is being sold to us. We’ve embraced the narrative that it isn’t childhood without Pop Tarts for breakfast, dessert at every meal, candy as a reward for the simplest behaviors, and sweets to accompany every sporting event. We equate childhood with constant candy, and dismiss warnings as the extreme views of “health freaks.” Our standard model programs habits that lead to lifetimes of physical and mental angst, while ignoring the devastating consequences of these cultural norms.

The Battle of the Bettys for Home Economics

We didn’t always lay down and concede that most of our country’s diet would consist of nutritionally devoid convenience food. There was a time when schools and parents would never accept a kid’s day fueled by sugar bombs, fast food, and an endless conveyer of processed, packaged, and instant foods.

Before Betty Crocker, there was Betty Dickson. Unlike Mrs. Crocker, Dickson was a real person with wonderful intentions. Having grown up on a farm in South Carolina, she believed in homegrown and home-cooked meals. After graduating college, she began teaching home economics, and soon became the national model of this class, which was designed to prepare students for day-to-day life.

Mrs. Dickson taught students to make grocery lists, budget, and shop so that they got the highest quality ingredients at the lowest prices. Most importantly, she taught them to prepare nourishing meals and to understand how essential this was to the strength of a family and a nation. Cooking was considered a core competency. In her day, the Home Economics Association was instrumental in consumer activism. They fought the push of convenience food, and lobbied in Washington for “nutritious, inexpensive cooked food in the home and in school.”

By the mid-1950s, however, the Food Giants were making inroads. They knew education was their golden goose. To infiltrate the schools was an opportunity to entrench a new generation with convenience food habits and an addiction to the salt, sugar, and fat expertly dosed to strike each child’s “bliss point.” Exhaustive studies were conducted for every new convenience food to find that perfect range of flavor tantalization, certain to create optimal pleasure and addiction. Through the schools, they could redirect the habits of a nation. But how were they to overcome the strength of concerned parents and their allies in the Home Economics Association?

First, General Foods hired an arsenal of its own home economics “teachers.” Though they weren’t employed in schools, they set up everywhere to advocate the emancipation from preparation tyranny that convenience foods offered. These attractive young women held cooking competitions and conducted cooking classes to compete with those in the schools. Next, General Mills created Betty Crocker to be the spiritual lead of a new paradigm in eating. Betty, who existed in name only, advertised incessantly, responded to fan mail, and constantly preached the values of the convenience kitchen: “Just Heat and Serve!”

Still, schools had the power to shape most health norms. The food industry had to insert itself somehow into the daily habits of schools, and redirect the mission of home economics. This final, most devious step consisted of a campaign to win the hearts of a new generation of home economics teachers. In 1957 alone, General Foods gave over $288,250 to a college grant and fellowship program for future home economics teachers. For reference, tuition at Penn, an Ivy League school, cost ,000 in 1957.

With these teachers indebted to the giants, the overwhelming power of this advertising machine was finally heard. Over the next few years, home economics radically shifted its curriculum from teaching skills for a healthy, structured home, to one purely motivated by consumption. It became an indoctrination course for a new set of expectations and values driven by convenience and consumerism.

These were the opening salvoes of the marketing campaign that helped create our current health epidemic. By taking the money from these morally vacant companies, schools sealed the nation’s fate. The institution charged with leading the nation’s development was effectively on the convenience food industry’s payroll from then on.

The Nutrition Landscape in Schools Today

Today, the food industry’s infiltration of education is complete. Our schools rely more than ever on the revenue stream from supplying the salt, sugar, and fat the kiddos have come to crave. Vending machines line the halls, right next to the PTA moms selling cookies. Districts negotiate contracts to sell specific soda products. Every banquet features a pasta buffet, and FCA meetings attract students with the promise of donuts. Superior performance or good behavior is rewarded with pizza parties, there is cake for every single student’s birthday, and clubs sell crates of candy dozens of times a year to raise money.

What you’ll find in the cafeteria is no better. Breakfast is chocolate milk, French toast sticks with loads of syrup, or single-serving sugar bomb cereal. Lunch is nachos, white bread chicken sandwiches, square pizza, or another item that would have been utterly unacceptable 60 years ago. Without a trace of irony, schools call their cafeterias “nutrition departments,” and boast of serving X number of nutritious meals a year. This assertion placates the masses, but belies what’s actually going on.

School sports, far from being bastions of healthy habits, are all sponsored by multiple fast food companies. The buses head for the golden arches after away games, and fast food is brought in for fundraisers or any occasion that requires students to be at school during unusual hours. They sell burgers, fries, hot dogs, and candy at the concession at every game, and even do fast food giveaways at athletic events.

Every conceivable moment of the educational experience has become an endless conveyor belt of convenience food and sweets.

Even the government is complicit. City councils and planning commissions approve the fortification of a fast food wall around every high school. Federal corn subsidies create an environment where high fructose corn syrup, the dominant source of added sugar, is even cheaper. Rather than providing assistance to make eating healthy less expensive and more likely, the government is content to keep business as usual.

Fix the Problem Where It Started

People want to lose the weight. They want to look good and feel good for themselves. They want to accomplish this health change for their own sense of self-worth. The poor health that results from the Food Giants’ dominance of our diets is an anchor that weighs them down and holds them back from being their fullest selves. People want to be healthy, but they’ve lost the ability to resist the chemical, cultural, and societal pressures engineered to keep them addicted and unhealthy.

Our current valueless, profit-obsessed environment has created a stranglehold for the Food Giants over all of education. Crazy as it sounds, they even have their sights set on the fitness industry (see Coca-Cola’s plot to convince us that lack of exercise is the only cause of our health epidemic). Sweets have become such a norm that good people contribute to the madness, thinking they are being nice.

The solution to our food crisis lies where it began. Education must honestly assess this environment and commit to their responsibility to become the authority in human development. They must be above perception and accept that they will face many disgruntled parents and students who don’t understand. At the heart of this goal must be an integrity and independence that never takes the easy road or chases the money. The most vital resource in education is inspired educators guided by knowledge and enabled with the determination that new scoreboards and fancy atriums are a hefty price for a nation’s health.

• The Saboteurs Of Health In America
• We Used To Be Humans: Practical Strategies To Combat Tech Addiction
• The Cures That Are Killing Us
• How We Can Combat The Saboteurs Of Our Health
• The New Core Curriculum For A Healthier Future

The post Your Junk Food Addiction Is No Coincidence appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I wonder if you have seen this popular meme? It implies that even the statue of David would become obese if it resided in the United States, due to the prevalence of the evil American fast food industry.

Obesity and The Blame Game

The take-home message is that if you’re fat, the blame belongs not to you, but to the companies who made the food you chose to eat. Further, the fast food industry not only made you eat their food, but they also pulled off a much greater feat – they figured out how to make you eat too much of their food. This is the real reason you’re fat, since it’s been shown you can certainly lose weight eating nothing but fast food.

Let’s put aside the quality versus quantity issues for a moment and consider the state of affairs in America. Even though a lot of press is directed toward the almost endless unhealthy eating possibilities that exist here, almost no attention is directed toward the equally large number of healthy eating options that are also available to consumers. Whether you’re into paleo, IIFYM, low-carb, high-carb, intermittent fasting, vegetarianism, or whatever else, it’s easier to eat the way you want in the U.S. than anywhere else.

Given this fact, if our eating behavior is simply riding on the wave of the U.S. food industry, it would seem equally likely that we’d be eating these healthy foods.

It’s All a Choice

The truth is, even though we have almost endless opportunities for what we can call unproductive eating, we are not victims of the choices that surround us. Sure, we’re all influenced by our surroundings, but in the end, we’re free to make our own decisions. When most of us want reliably inexpensive, tasty food – the free market responds accordingly.

“Be grateful that everything you need to be your greatest possible self, from information, to healthy food, to social support, are all within easy reach in this great nation we live in.”

It should also be noted that there is no absolute consensus for what constitutes healthy foods. At least one notable nutrition coach (Eric Helms) has noted, “There is no such thing as a bad food, only a bad diet.” People who favor the banning of specific foods or ingredients should remember that such legislation will be overseen by the federal government – the same entity that brought you the DMV, the local post office, and lest you forgot, the USDA Food Pyramid.

An Attitude of Gratitude

If I might be so bold as to propose a more productive approach, assuming you live in the U.S., how about this? Instead of bitching about all the fast food companies out there, be grateful for the endless opportunities available to you. Be grateful that you have a nearly limitless, affordable supply of safe, healthy, affordable food choices. Be grateful that your eating options are only minimally determined by your government. And finally, be grateful that everything you need to be your greatest possible self, from information, to healthy food, to social support, are all within easy reach in this great nation we live in.

Hey, it’s just a thought.

This Week’s Training

Volume: 53,690 Pounds (Last Week’s Volume: 46,637 Pounds)

Significant Performances:

• Squat: 380×1
• Bench Press: 255×1

So I managed to increase my volume a bit from last week. I hit a pretty good 380 squat and pulled off a 255 bench, but my deadlift was in the toilet this week for whatever reason – hit a tough 455. I probably had another ten or fifteen in me, but not my strongest week for pulls.

In general, I think I’ve been testing a bit more than training lately, so you’ll notice that on Friday, I did 5×2 with 225 on the bench just to get back into training mode.

My shoulder has been better as of late, and my knee is hanging in there, so no complaints on the orthopedic front this week.

That’s pretty much it for this week. Have a look at the videos if you have a moment, and as always, I love getting your comments and questions, so keep them comin’.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Bodyweight: 201 Pounds

Volume: 15,650 Pounds

Squat

• Set 1: 45 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 45 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 95 lbs × 5
• Set 4: 95 lbs × 5
• Set 5: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 6: 185 lbs × 3
• Set 7: 225 lbs × 2
• Set 8: 225 lbs × 2
• Set 9: 275 lbs × 1
• Set 10: 135 lbs × 3
• Set 11: 225 lbs × 1
• Set 12: 315 lbs × 1
• Set 13: 350 lbs × 1
• Set 14: 380 lbs × 1 (Video Below)

RDL

• Set 1: 135 lbs × 6
• Set 2: 185 lbs × 6
• Set 3: 225 lbs × 6
• Set 4: 275 lbs × 6
• Set 5: 275 lbs × 6

45° Back Extension

• Set 1: 150 lbs × 8
• Set 2: 150 lbs × 8
• Set 3: 150 lbs × 8

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Bodyweight: 200.8 Pounds

Volume: 10,345 Pounds

Bench Press

• Set 1: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 185 lbs × 4
• Set 4: 225 lbs × 1
• Set 5: 245 lbs × 1
• Set 6: 255 lbs × 1
• Set 7: 245 lbs × 1
• Set 8: 245 lbs × 1

Seated Row

• Set 1: 150 lbs × 8
• Set 2: 150 lbs × 8
• Set 3: 150 lbs × 8

Tricep Pushdowns

• Set 1: 130 lbs × 8
• Set 2: 150 lbs × 8
• Set 3: 150 lbs × 8

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Bodyweight: 201.6 Pounds

Volume: 11,145 Pounds

Deadlift

• Set 1: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 4: 225 lbs × 8
• Set 5: 275 lbs × 3
• Set 6: 315 lbs × 2
• Set 7: 365 lbs × 1
• Set 8: 405 lbs × 1
• Set 9: 405 lbs × 1
• Set 10: 445 lbs × 1
• Set 11: 405 lbs × 1

Seated Leg Curl

• Set 1: 160 lbs × 8
• Set 2: 160 lbs × 8
• Set 3: 160 lbs × 8

Friday, October 16, 2015

Bodyweight: 201.8 Pounds

Volume: 16,550 Pounds

Bench Press

• Set 1: 45 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 95 lbs × 8
• Set 3: 135 lbs × 6
• Set 4: 185 lbs × 4
• Set 5: 225 lbs × 2
• Set 6: 225 lbs × 2
• Set 7: 225 lbs × 2
• Set 8: 225 lbs × 2
• Set 9: 225 lbs × 2

Incline Dumbbell Press

• Set 1: 100 lbs × 8
• Set 2: 120 lbs × 8
• Set 3: 130 lbs × 8
• Set 4: 130 lbs × 8

Chin Up

• Set 1: 5 reps
• Set 2: 5 reps
• Set 3: +25 lbs × 5
• Set 4: +25 lbs × 5
• Set 5: +25 lbs × 8 (Video Below)

Bicep Curl (Dumbbell)

• Set 1: 60 lbs × 8
• Set 2: 70 lbs × 8
• Set 3: 70 lbs × 8

You’ll also enjoy:

• Last Week’s Smart Strength: Programming Tips for Experienced Athletes
• Body Image Matters: Your Relationship to Weight Loss
• Pass the Protein Shake: Digging into Pre-and Post-Workout Nutrition
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

The post Fast Food and Obesity: Who Is to Blame? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

But what if fast food consumption isn’t the full story? What if the rest of our diet bears more of the blame for obesity than fast food? A recent study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found exactly that. Researchers studied over 4,000 children in the United States from ages two to eighteen years. They found some surprising results.

First, only half of the children consumed fast food. That’s actually less than I expected. Next, of that fifty percent who consumed fast food, about forty percent got very little of their daily nutrition from fast food and about ten percent got a lot of their daily energy from fast food. That feels about right. That means about one-in-ten children eats mostly fast food every day. I can buy that. Finally, and most notably, fast food consumption itself was not clearly associated with obesity. However, the remainder of the child’s diet was associated with obesity. Now that sounds like crazy talk – but it’s not.

Those who did consume fast food were much more likely to eat a traditional Western diet outside the fast food restaurant. The Western diet consists of lots of refined grains, sugars, processed meat, and refined vegetable oils. This traditional Western diet may be more to blame for obesity in children than the devil and his golden arches.

However, those who shunned fast food were found to eat a more prudent diet that included more fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. The study isn’t conclusive, but it seems that a prudent diet and occasional trips to Burger King may trump a standard Western diet that has never cracked the box on a Whopper. To me, this research reinforces the fact that every single decision counts in your nutrition. You can’t follow any one blanket rule, throw caution to the wind everywhere else, and expect great results. Nutrition is a big, nebulous, slippery jellyfish greased with coconut oil. It’s difficult to get your arms around it, and it doesn’t easily fit into any nice, neat little box.

The only way to ensure results is to educate yourself and make consistently smart decisions every single day. Not sometimes – every single day. But if, on occasion, one of those decisions involves Taco Bell, your progress won’t be wrecked as long as the remainder of your diet stays on track.

References

1. JM Poti, et al. The association of fast food consumption with poor dietary outcomes and obesity among children: is it the fast food or the remainder of the diet? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2014 Jan;99(1):162-71. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.113.071928. Epub 2013 Oct 23.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Fast Food Is Only Part of the Picture appeared first on Breaking Muscle.