60 Minutes - Sugar Is A Poison. The Medical And Industrial Food Bureaucracies Are Teetering On The Precipice.
Americans most certainly have the most unhealthy diets of any civilized country on earth. That includes not only what we are putting in our mouths but the process through which our food is “manufactured”. It’s rather bizarrely disturbing for me to read the words I just typed. That our food is manufactured. Yuck. Chemicals, removal of vital nutrients, over processing, toxic additives, etc. Even our drinking water has dozens of chemicals in it including widespread estrogens from animal feces and even rocket fuel.
We’ve been fed a line of bulloney by the medical establishment, the industrial food monopoly, the politically-motivated FDA, the politically-motivated EPA and politicians. Some of this bulloney was right-minded but based on faulty science. Most of it though was purely a result of self-interested corruption. Most of that corruption was at the hands of corporations rigging politics. The self-interest of the invisible hand working to create harmony for society is a major crock of shit. And, by conclusion, so is the myth of free markets that are controlled by self-interest. Only if intent was always virtuous and humans never made mistakes would free markets be a plausible reality.
Change is everywhere in the food culture of this country but the industrial food monopoly is still the dominant dynamic in our food supply chain through the control offered by the comingling of money and politics. As we have noted, corporate, large-scale industrial farming is in serious trouble. And, so is the entire supply chain that it feeds. They just don’t get it. Yet.
Robert Lustig, whom we have highlighted before, is part of this 60 Minutes segment as are other heavyweight researchers driven by morality, truth, reason and science. Then there is the sugar industry spokesperson. The paid con man. The self-interested bureaucrat who deflects truth and science by using manipulation in an effort to achieve some modicum of control over self-evidence. A truth that can no longer be denied. We know right down to the chemical reactions how the body processes sugar and what its outcomes are. It’s as close to fact at 2+2=4.
Some of this knowledge regarding sugar goes back thirty years. Some that I am aware of nearly one hundred years. Thank national treasures like Robert Lustig and others for bringing his research into the mainstream. Sugar most certainly is an addictive substance. Personally, I have just about completely removed it from my diet. It’s still there as a treat, mostly in the forms of dextrose (glucose) rather than sugar or fructose, and I do love homemade cookies and donuts but with the right food routine the addiction and cravings subside or even disappear. If your cravings are physical, it’s not a matter of willing yourself to do it. It’s not about will power. That sets people up for failure by believing they are weak when they cannot overcome their sugar cravings. It’s about applying rational knowledge to appease the cravings. If you use food to regulate your mood or feelings, well, then it could be a far larger issue than simply physical cravings and you hopefully appreciate the possibilities that you may need assistance in breaking the addiction. Unfortunately, with a health care system that resembles the lawlessness and cruelty of the animal kingdom, help may be out of reach for many.
Let me say something else that is not discussed in this 60 Minutes segment. I suspect this is an even bigger issue than sugar itself. And, that’s saying something because sugar is a serious, serious issue. There is substantial evidence that eating sugar and industrial food in large quantities substantially changes the bacterial fauna in the gut. There’s substantially more bacteria in our body than actual human cells. In other words, we are more of a microbe than we are a human. Think about that. The medical bureaucracy doesn’t even recognize this fact. It is a profound statement with profound implications that some researchers are just starting to grapple with. In other words, change in gut fauna may play a greater role in our health than anything current medical science understands about the health of the human body and the human mind. Albeit small, there is growing evidence, as one would expect, this change in gut fauna has a major impact on the body’s ability to ward off illness, both emotional and physical, and to even regulate our internal processes including weight and even mood. In other words, we are most likely not just sick, depressed, stressed and fat because of what we eat but because of the changed fauna in the gut that impacts our body’s ability to regulate itself. Antibiotics, as well as sugar and poor diet, too has been shown to permanently change bacterial gut fauna in humans and the animals we eat. Animals that are stuffed full of antibiotics in their daily diet. That we then eat. The systemic overuse of antibiotics in our food supply and by the medical establishment is most assuredly killing us in ways we don’t yet understand. A whole other discussion.
Practicing doctors have led society astray on so many topics it is immeasurable. Truly. One of the worst is the massive over prescription of harmful drugs. As I have noted before, every drug is considered a toxin by the body. Where we got off the track into believing a pill or drug solves every health issue, I don’t know. I suspect it is possibly when regulatory limits on pharma advertising to the public were essentially abolished.
Sometimes the benefits of defeating terminal illness make drugs a necessary evil. In those cases the benefits may outweigh the toxicity given our limited scientific knowledge of treating terminal illnesses. But, most of the time, doctors have no idea what the long term consequences of drug toxicity is. In other words, to be frank, they oftentimes have no idea what they are doing in prescribing medications. Well, they do have some idea what they are doing. It’s called self-interest for profit. And, now we are finding out those toxic footnotes on medical prescriptions are incredibly underreported. That drugs are causing substantially more unknown side effects in much larger segments of the population. Most assuredly underreported because of the profit motive of capitalism and self-interest trumps the scientific search for truth. In other words, drug company bureaucrats didn’t really care about safety as much as they may mouth. But they sure did care about profit. That old issue of words and actions not aligning. Rhetoric is free. Ask any politician.
Doctors are not scientists or seekers of truth unless they are involved in ongoing research outside of their professional practice. Or unless they, by nature, have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. That does not define most doctors. Even if they did fit the profile of seekers of truth, the taxing responsibilities of work, family and society limits their time and ability to find truth. In other words, they are not involved in the scientific search for truth or discovery process unless they seek it out beyond the requirements of their professions. Otherwise, they are essentially headmasters of a bureaucratic establishment that disseminates information based on lobby, money, power, greed and control of pharma, medical equipment makers, insurance companies, universities, politicians and other self-interested bureaucracies. In other words, interest meant to perpetuate success of the self over truth, morality, virtue and discovery. The medical establishment is an institution of the ego. Just like banking. Just like politics. Just like any bureaucracy. Even science is distorted by self-interest and politics. Remember, one of our long time theses is this is the cycle where we will see massive failure in institutions of the ego.
I see very little truth in traditional medical school training. Doctors simply aren’t properly equipped with the right knowledge to effectively advise patients in many situations. Medical schools teach doctors to cut, radiate and medicate. Most practicing doctors seem to have little knowledge about the complex system that is the human mind-body dynamic. And, how to maintain that complex system both emotionally and physically. Practitioners of ancient methods are often more informed than doctors on issues of food, natural cures for common ailments, mind-body health and emotional well-being.
I respect medical practitioners for their abilities to cut, medicate and radiate. And, for their service to humanity. Most seek a noble cause. If I am to the point of needing to be cut, medicated or radiated for terminal or very serious issues, I appreciate their abilities within the limits of our knowledge. But I truly respect medical researchers and even everyday people who are unencumbered by money, power, greed and control as seekers of truth. Unencumbered by unregulated capitalism’s motive of profit and self-interest that subverts truth. The reality is most cutting, medicating and radiating would be unnecessary were we to have an economic and social model that met Maslow’s human needs or needs of emotional well-being and safety, had a food system that produced healthy food and weren’t exposed to the endless chemicals in our food supply and our society. In other words, the demand for most of what today’s doctors are trained to do would collapse if truth and service to society were the primary motive in the production of society’s food, the practice of society’s medicine and the function of society’s economy. That’s a good thing because as trained today, doctors unknowingly are often indirect enablers into creating a society of sickness.
As human beings we are all capable of tremendous self-deceit and intellectual-dishonesty. We convince ourselves of our abilities and our own worth. That includes economic worth. Or lack thereof. This intellectual-dishonesty perpetuates our own self-interest. That can even be our own self-interest of victimization. It does not need to be worn as a warrior battle shield of perceived brilliance. The medical establishment needs turned on its head and transformed. It shall most certainly happen either by proactive embrace or by force of truth. Given the human condition, most likely the latter.
<< Home