The culture shift from production to consumption has hit hard. The move from community health to profit maximization has been largely successful. Albeit, at the cost of our health.
We went from a culture of limited sustenance to abundance. With it comes the problems that abundance brings.
Such as massive production in the conquest for ever-increasing quantities of money. Which leads to a preference for cheap, physically dangerous foods over healthy, reasonably priced alternatives.
Globalism has brought about an offshoring of our production capabilities, leading to a need for increased non-native or processed foods, which require harsh chemicals to keep for long durations.
Libertarian-type economic policies have resulted in the continual degradation and destruction of our domestic producers, leading them to be forced to stoop low for any sustainable profits in such a harsh climate.
Instead of a local farmer just raising some cows, the farmer becomes a monopolized corporation seeking profit by raising a billion artificially pumped-up cows to compete with the other globalist countries constantly trying to undercut them. The small-time farmer can’t compete. Real surprise that this produces a negative result in the quality of production. Efficient to keep people fed, sure, but not healthy.
There are plenty of other problems, too. Massive population increases from immigration meant a much higher need for more food, resulting in the fattening of animals and domestic crops with even more dangerous adulterations.
A constant “rush” atmosphere requires us to eat fast food instead of sitting down and having traditionally made food with our family.
The need for both partners to work reduces the ability to have traditional dinners that are home cooked and/or predominantly garden/farm based. No time for gardens or whole food meals when both parents work full-time.
The industrialized and corporate profit-driven industry has fed millions worldwide, but in doing so, it has slaughtered their health. Pasture, farm raised animals are nothing like the CAFO/caged animals. I eat free range pasture eggs since I own chickens. I occasionally buy normal eggs just to compare the two and taste the difference. They are nothing alike. The store-bought ones are so disgusting to me in comparison now, I can’t even eat them. They are runny, have no flavor, and you can tell just by eating them that they are nowhere near the same nutrition level. This doesn’t apply just to chickens, however. It stretches to every animal, cow, pig, even “farm-raised” (non wild-caught) fish.
Physical degeneration starts with cultural (spiritual degeneration) that would allow for the physical to degenerate. If a nation had a strong soul, it would never allow it to reach this point.
The damage is even more extensive in the artificial, non-whole food section. Go read the ingredients from nearly any piece of candy. Here is a great example (Sour Patch Kids):
sugar, invert sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch, tartaric acid, citric acid, natural and artificial flavoring, yellow 6, red 40, yellow 5, blue 1.
All of it bad. All of it nasty. Would you eat some modified corn starch solo?
Or if you want to do a really fun one, check out a Twinkie:
Bleached enriched wheat flour [wheat flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate (iron), thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, animal and vegetable shortening (tallow, hydrogenated tallow, cottonseed oil, mono and diglycerides, polysorbate 60, soy lecithin), eggs, water, dextrose. contains 2% or less: calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, agar, disodium phosphate, locust bean gum, modified corn starch, corn syrup solids, soy lecithin, sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate, whey, glycerin, salt, cellulose gum, sodium stearoyl lactylate, sorbic acid and potassium sorbate (to retain freshness), xanthan gum, barley malt extract, corn grits, natural and artificial flavors, enzymes, yellow 5, red 40.
I don’t even know what a handful of those are and I’m well-versed in this subject. That’s always a great sign.
A lot of the trash in these are in plenty of “natural” and “healthy” foods, as well. Even some that are presumed to be non-processed are often minimally processed with seed oil or have added sugar. The only way to know is to check each thing you buy.
I came across a fantastic article from the Epoch Times that details this effect. This article mostly targets a major culprit called the seed oils, such as “vegetable” oil, but that is not the full picture. It’s all of it. Everything in our production process is degenerate.
The four culprits are a good starting point, however. These four are: sugar, seed oils, refined flour, and trans fats.
Let’s begin:
Macular degeneration and osteoarthritis followed similar striking increases, with Knobbe asking the question of what was so ubiquitous during this time that could have prompted these changes. Dietary history provides the answer, with the introduction of four primary processed foods—sugar, industrially processed seed oils, refined flour, and trans fats—acting as the culprits.
He was one of the major nutritional pioneers of all time, and his research revealed native tribes that still ate their traditional diet had nearly perfect teeth and were almost 100 percent free of tooth decay.
But when these tribal populations were introduced to refined sugar and white flour, their health and perfect teeth rapidly deteriorated.
Now let’s narrow in on my nation, the American nation, a major consumer of seed oils:
Heart disease, now the leading cause of death in the United States, was virtually unknown in the 19th century. The same goes for cancer, which caused 0.5 percent of deaths in 1811 and 5.8 percent of deaths in 1900—spiking to more than 31 percent of deaths in 2010. A similar pattern emerged for diabetes, which was rare in the 19th century and had a prevalence of 0.37 percent in 1935. By 2020, there was a 28-fold increase in 85 years, to a prevalence of 10.5 percent.
Obesity? Same story. With a prevalence of just 1.2 percent in the 19th century, obesity increased 33-fold in 115 years, to a prevalence of 39.8 percent in 2015.
By 2009–2015, 88 percent of U.S. adults didn’t meet the five criteria for metabolic health, measured by blood glucose, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, blood pressure, and waist circumference.
Where else has this gotten us?
According to the CDC, six in 10 Americans have a chronic disease, and heart disease, asthma, cancer, and diabetes have increased 700 percent since the National Health Survey was undertaken in 1935.
As tech entrepreneur Jeff Nobbs noted in a breakdown of the statistics, during this time, Americans have been smoking and drinking less, two of the primary drivers of chronic disease. Nobbs, too, believes vegetable oil is the missing link that explains why Americans keep getting sicker.
“I’m convinced that our wars against red meat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium may be misguided. Fighting those battles may be like focusing on the sidekicks when the true villain pulling all the strings is still hiding in the shadows. It’s time to shine a light on that slippery villain, our possible public health enemy No. 1: vegetable oil.
While I don’t necessarily think that seed oil is the No. 1 enemy, it is certainly in my top 3. Regardless, the medical industry gets more money by having more sick people, and the isolated class gets more money by selling foods that gets people sick. It’s not a good combination.
Just look at how the consumption has changed right around the same time all of our diseases have changed:
Knobbe’s published data show that seed oils, which were introduced into the United States diet in 1866, made up 32 percent of Americans’ diet by 2010, which amounts to 80 grams per person per day. In contrast, in 1865, most people would have only about 2 percent to 3 percent of their caloric intake from omega-6 linoleic acid, found in seed oils, which would have come from primarily from butter, lard, and beef tallow.
Ancestrally raised animals had very low omega-6, but this changes when animals are raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO), the way they are today. CAFO pork may contain 20 percent omega-6 fats, for comparison. Knobbe highlights several native populations that have very low rates of chronic diseases and comparatively low consumption of linoleic acid, such as the Maasai Tribe of Kenya and Tanzania.
But lest you think this effect is only an American one, we can even case-study Japan who shared a similar trend to us but in more recent years:
While ancestral populations have had their health protected by not consuming seed oils, other populations, like Japan, have had declines in health that correspond to increasing consumption of these toxic oils. Since 1960, Japan has had marked increases in obesity, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, multiple cancers, and age-related macular degeneration.
Meanwhile, in 1950, the Japanese were consuming only 3 grams a day of seed oils, which rose to 39 grams a day by 2004. As a percentage of total calories, omega-6 increased to 6.2 percent in 2004 from 1.55 percent in 1950.
“That’s the main problem right there,” Knobbe said. “So Japan’s declining health is most likely due to a 13-fold, 1,200 percent increase in highly pro-oxidative, proinflammatory, toxic, and nutrient-deficient seed oils.”
Give it some time and they’ll be fully joining our numbers.
And this is just the brief incursion to the problem. Our immune systems have almost certainly been degraded by both food and the medical community, our rates of odd illnesses are probably tied to this in some capacity (such as “allergies” and asthma), and our rates of mental illness are no doubt shadowed by what we eat. What we ingest is our health.
Culture brought us here. A culture of globalism and individualistic capitalism allowed for the profit-pressure environment, a culture of “rush” and increasing wants demanded a fast food proliferation, a culture of individualism and feminism required a destruction of the family and traditional subsistence, a culture of an uneducated population lead to the ability to get away with pumping up foods with all of these problem ingredients, a culture of apathy allowed people to not care about their health, a culture of centralizer-dominance restricted politicians and doctors from intervening, and on and on… I could go on for hours.
The problem is seated far deeper than we realize. It’s a spiritual problem at this point.
So what can we do?
Avoid those four mentioned in the article and focus on traditionally grown vegetables, fruits, pastured meats, pastured eggs, wild caught fish, and use animal products with the same attributes instead of oils. IE: Whole foods. Nothing processed.
It’s hard to do, considering nearly everything has this crap in it. Hell, you can’t even eat out at most restaurants as they nearly all use processed goods or these oils, if not both.
But it’s worthwhile, it will change your life.
If we had a normal healthy nation, this would be the standard. Our government would be incentivizing this for us. Our culture would encourage healthy eating, would replace fast food, would demand traditional home-cooked family meals, would love home-grown and farm raised local community produce, et cetera.
But we don’t. We have a sick government, sick leaders, and corrupt, sick institutions.
With that comes a sick people. In both a spiritual and literal sense.
If modernity can’t steal your soul, it’ll at least try to kill you.
Reject it all.
-By Kaisar and originally published at The Hidden Dominion
O I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am. For this “fair land of freedom” I do not care at all. I’m glad I fit against it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.
“Nutrition And Physical Degeneration” by Weston A Price
http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/pricetoc.html
Also check out Dave Asprey and some of his works. He’s the Bulletproof Coffee guy. All of his interviews (three total, IIRC) with Joe Rogan have been deleted off of Spotify. If you’ve never heard of him until now, what I just said is a good indication that he’s preaching truth
Agreed that we need to grow and produce our own food. However, the tone of the essay indicates a desire to outlaw Coke and Little Debbie snake cakes. The comment denigrating ‘libertarian type economic policies’ reads like it came from Michelle Obama or Joe Biden. If you don’t like junk food, don’t buy it. But if your neighbor wants to, that’s his business, not yours.