Food for Thought

By Nick Jacobs

Due in part to increasing rates of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, the United States has experienced a decrease in life expectancy. Since 1990, our obesity rate has doubled. Consequently, 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese. The projection is that by 2050, 65 percent of adults in the U.S. could be obese.

What types of things may have contributed to our transition to obesity? The United States allows over 10,000 additives in our food. Are they fattening? It’s anyone’s guess, but the FDA authorized and generally recognized them as safe additives. Ironically, there are only about 300 or 400 food additives permitted in Europe.

In Europe these additives must be proven to be safe before they are permitted to be used. In the U.S. our food safety approach is reactive. Unless the additive is proven to be harmful to humans, the FDA allows its use. For that reason, Europe bans additives like potassium bromate and titanium dioxide, and the United States does not. And what happens when you combine numerous additives in a product? It’s anyone’s guess. Does it impact our microbiome? Does it impact our health, our weight?

Take Class IV caramel coloring for example. It is used in the United States even though it is linked to healthcare concerns like cancer. Class IV caramel coloring is not permitted to be used in Europe. Yellow #6 Dye in our snack foods has produced tumors in animal studies. What does Europe use to get the same coloring? They use paprika. Our cola products use high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) which has been scrutinized often for its potential negative health impacts. In Europe, Cola is typically made with real sugar.

Then there is the question of how our food supply changed. During the 1990s our tobacco companies decided to diversify. Philip Morris (Altria) and R.J. Reynolds began taking over major companies in the U.S. food industry.

For example, R.J. Reynolds merged with Nabisco in 1985 and became RJR Nabisco. Then Philip Morris bought General Foods. In 1988, Philip Morris acquired Kraft Foods, and in 2000, Nabisco. These acquisitions made them the largest food company in the world.

These companies had laboratories where cigarettes and other tobacco products were designed to become more attractive to consumers. Some have suggested that one outcome of their work made cigarettes more addictive. According to Dr. Neil Benowitz, “Quitting nicotine can be just as hard, or harder, than quitting heroin.”

So the question became, did they pursue the same focus in the food industry? Regardless of your personal beliefs, the food they produced was determined to be “hyper-palatable.” They were processed high in salt, sugar, and fat. “You can’t eat just one” became the norm for these foods.

In order to remain competitive, other American companies began producing reformulated foods during this period that included those same combinations of high fat, sugar, and sodium. That was about the time the U.S. population began to grow heavier.

In the late ‘90s, as the tobacco companies faced huge lawsuit settlements over their tobacco products, they also began to come under scrutiny for potentially manipulating our food supply. By the early 2000s, the tobacco companies began to sell or spin off their food divisions, but whatever influence they had had on the processed hyper-palatable food industry remained.

Ironically, as the pharmaceutical industry produces drugs that are effective in managing obesity and diabetes, there is a movement to approve weight loss drugs for anyone 6 and older in the United States. Those drugs costs approximately $1,500 per month, and if enough of us go on those drugs, it could cost the U.S. trillions of dollars. Even though one of the companies that manufactures that drug is a Denmark-based company, their national stand on obesity management is diet and exercise.

Maybe the EU is getting it right.

Nick Jacobs is a partner with SMR, LLC and founder of the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine, former board member of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, Jacobs maintains a website, Healinghospitals.com.