Win Your War with The Food Industrial Complex
Know Your Enemy, Yourself.
Two 1-minute Tip Sheets
“The enemy never tires of trickeries.”
“Know yourself, know your enemy,
And 100 battles will bring 100 victories.”Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Know Them
Food Industrial Complex and You, F!C& U for short, but not for long.
Big Money conducts big research to get these big findings on how to suck us into buying big and eating even bigger. They know how our body hormones and brain chemistry are predictably exploitable.
Militarily speaking, many foods are engineered to be “hyper-palatable” (their lingo), addictive, ultra-processed, calorie-dense, sub-nutritious, and super-saturated with subversive submersibles. Using chemical preservatives for shelf-life, they supersize the package and blow you up.
Here’s one such recipe:
Sweet-n-Salty mix throws a one-two punch to knock down your first defense.
Greasing it with enough fat slips you into a combination chokehold.
The quick “sugar high” triggered in you is addictive, even when you aren’t hungry.
A “sugar plunge” quickly follows, dizzying you with low blood sugar. It hits you with an even mightier “hunger strike” than before you ate. You gotta eat again.
Thus, this spiral cycle twists again, screwing you deeper on each turn. The chain reaction—in your own body— “nukes” any last line of defense you have left.
Now, you must eat more, more desperately, and more of what they sell.
And they go above and beyond with ads, placements, influencers, and so on, and massively.
Game Over! You never had a chance. Until now.
They supersize it, then you.
In all fairness, I can’t just blame the food industry. In a free economy, we demand, they supply. What is a profit-based business to do?
BUT, if they have cunningly manipulated “our demand” without or against our will, we must out-maneuver them in this war of life.
We-the-people’s war record is good: we have cut cigarette smoking by 50% in the past 50 years. There are no healthy cigarettes, but there are plenty of healthy food options. We’ve got this.
At the cash register, we must register our demands in a language the industry will register loud and clear. “We only buy health. We don’t buy filth.” Then, they will supply for profit. We get healthy and well; they get wealthy as hell. Nobody gets hurt. Everybody wins.
Know Yourself
What your body does with much of our “food” ain’t pretty.
The body stores unneeded extra calories as abdominal adiposity (belly fat) due to a sugar spike-triggered Insulin over-response. If unrelenting, Insulin gets depleted before its—uh, your—normal lifetime, and you get diabetes.
This fatty tissue in your gut, unlike elsewhere, also makes biochemicals that foster cardiovascular disease, gall stones, breast cancer, aging, and other unpleasantries.
Now, you need to buy costly and nasty diet foods and drugs. And bigger clothes. Unless you lose at least 5% weight. Exercise can also throw a gut punch to knock out belly fat’s anti-wellness misconduct.
Never let in Diabetes.
Never let our Diet beat us.Metacardio©
What can come to your rescue?
Proteins and fibers. More to chew on and a more satisfying “mouth feel”. Slower absorption, thus blunting the sugar spike. More sustained-release energy, thus no rebound “hunger strike”. A better “gut feel” later in the bathroom, a better-looking gut in the mirror, and better health in the long run. Mediterranean folks who live long and healthy don’t go “nuts” for nothing.
Keep the taste of the food you like, but eat the skins, seeds, etc., with it if you can, i.e., less processed. When in doubt and feasible, go natural (least processed) and fresh (local), which is as good as organic (if certified).
Temper down your sweet taste over time. Eat half a piece of high-cocoa chocolate first. Then, eat half a piece of your favorite chocolate. It will taste too sweet to stay in your favor. Now eat half of each together and enjoy it as much as ever. You’ve just pulled your sweet tooth without pain or sacrificing your taste.
Know This, At Least
You should check your bank balance before making a purchase, right? Scanning the food label before buying is the same good idea. It spares you from worry or regret and grants you the freedom and smarts of living.
Serving Size is the most important number on any Nutritional Label of a food package. If it has 10 servings, you need to multiply the calories and all other values by 10 when you eat them all.
It should be easier to get the visuals and details from the short videos at the bottom of this post.
1-Minute Tip Sheet
for Food Shopping
Go food shopping with a list when you’re full, not famished. Pre-plot your route on the aisles. Fill your cart with bulky household items first. Buy food last.
Their most profitable (your least preferable) items are at eye level. Your best bets are in the perimeters and peripheral vision; not aisle ends, display tables, or checkout counters.
Re-package ‘economy-size’ super-sized food items into small-size serving portions, e.g., little zipper bags, as soon as you get home. What you're not eating right away, put away.
Addictive food items with the “sugar-salt-fat underground triad” want you over to “the dark side”. They stuff you with ill-health belly fat. Worse than non-liquid real estate, it is like a “deep state” that subverts your body function. (See above.)
Ultra-processed food—all gooped up, pounded down, even “embalmed” off—is like pre-digested food. Yup, it is ‘Yuck!’
Food with appearance and ingredients you can recognize is likely less processed. Food with higher contents of protein and fiber is better for health and wealth. (See above.)
Watch out. The food content per serving on the label may be small, but the package may have many servings. Also, sadly, the serving size is often much smaller than your savoring size or even sampling size.
1-Minute Tip Sheet
for Eating Out
(Not Eating Out of Control)
“My doctor tells me not to have intimate dinners for four
Unless there are three other people present.”Orson Wells
Online before in line. Pre-check the online menu, even pre-order, to save time, budget, worries, and food sensitivities.
Best food forward - Water with lemon sharpens your taste buds; alcohol dulls them, and you. Olives, nuts, or grain crackers prime your palate better than bread.
No foot in mouth – Alcohol on an empty stomach lowers your defenses. Chips, white bread, and sugary drinks trigger a rapid sugar plunge and hunger pang.
Start-over. If you’re on portion control, put away the ¼ for to-go as “start-over”, not leftover, BEFORE you eat, thus avoiding the “Oh, might as well…” later.
Appetize your whole meal. Many menu appetizers are more delicious, not heavy, and less expensive. What law mandates you to eat an entre before exit?
All in the family style. Share all dishes with your group. More fun. More variety. Eat all and only what you want, not just your own order. Often costs less, too.
No food fight. Don’t force food on one another. Respect others’ dietary, taste, and allergy needs, and they should respect yours. Otherwise, take the excess to go.
BTW, saving your “start-over” ¼ portions also saves you the time and cost of meals about twice a week. It’s a bonus for all the good that does to your health and the environment. Some battle conquests without even fighting, huh!
Final Battle
If you are your own worst enemy, then that narrows it down, doesn’t it? It also takes away the guessing game and the blame game. You’re the only one to face in this war. But, by now, you got this.
Another Ex-Excuse (you won’t make):
“My food cravings always defeat me.”
Which do you crave more: instant gratification or constant gratification?
Bonus Videos for Food Shoppers
To help size up the enemy in your food fight, watch these free videos by our friendly Registered Dietitian from a top-notch university medical center. (2-3 minutes each)
This fifth stand-alone post is of a series, Healing HabitsThis fifth stand-alone post is of a series, Healing Habits, based on successful solutions of 2000-some patients and coworkers in a lifestyle clinical program. 2024
The images are curated from iStock with subscription.