[Kat117]

A very revealing, albeit disheartening, truth. The food industry intentionally adds ingredients into foods to create food addicts and that shut down that part of your brain that says just have one.

The book is called Beating the Food Giants by Paul Stitt. Even though this was written in the 80's it is more true now than then. There is also massive amounts of money spent by food companies on the psychology of food.

Vanilla is the most popular flavor because it is formulated to be an almost exact replica of breast milk/formula. Fast food is so great because it has a "pre-chewed" texture like baby foods, thus creating the association with comfort and love.

You can find Mr. Stitt's book if you search the title and add PDF after or PM me.

There is also the book Salt, Sugar, Fat by Moss. Came out in 2012 and I think his info on fat is already outdated. But hundreds of pages of insider info on the food industry. Overall a worthwhile read.

But books like these help you be a good consumer and help you get angry. Moss' book starts off with these food execs. All of whom are fit. Why? They never eat their own products. They are living in luxary homes, driving cars we can't even phantom, sending their kids to Ivy League schools by intentionally ruining you and your families health. Or at best not giving a darn even if they ruin it for a penny more in profits. And not caring about our hundreds of billions in health care costs from their products.

If that doesn't make you furious I don't know what will. Does it help to know that? You bet it does. At least for me. It really helped me avoid my lifelong junk and fast food habits.

I don't want to give these people a dime of my money.

[worththeeffort2]

You might find the lecture Sugar: The Bitter Truth interesting. Search for the title on YouTube and you'll find it.

[Mad Donnelly]

And then have the audacity to put out position papers -- just like the tobacco companies -- that their product is not bad for you. Like high fructose corn syrup. Now, that's just laughable that sugar -- which is not essential to your body's health like FAT actually IS -- is not bad for you or doesn't cause weight gain. As if.

[Locke]

What I do is shop around the edges of the grocery store- meat, produce, dairy. I also hit the frozen section for additional fruits/vegetables that aren't in season. I stay away from the rest of the store. That eliminates most of the problems from food companies.

[Kat117]

I actually work for a fast food company right now (as ashamed of that as I am.) None of our exec team eat our food. They only eat organic, low carb, low fat...

So while we each may have our issues with food - keep in mind that somethings are actually designed to keep you from eating just one...

And I was thinking about the 'Bet You Can't Eat Just One'. This is how powerful food companies are. That is the equivalent of a cigarette company proudly advertising, bet you can't stop once we get you hooked and have just one cigarette. But food companies are so brazen and bold and yes frankly powerful they can just essentially mock us and their food addiction products and proudly say Bet You Can't Just Eat One.

Right now things are starting to change in England because despite how many jobs food companies make and how much economic activity they generate the health bill in Britain from them is actually starting to equal it. When it exceeds it then they are a net drain on society.

I hate that food companies keep all the profits but pass the costs on to all of us taxpayers. There was a multi state lawsuit against cigarette companies saying hey you are costing us tens of billions or hundreds of billions in cancer health care costs pay up. Guess what? The states won. We won.

Past time the states bring the exact same lawsuit against the food companies. Don't like health care costs, do not blame Washington (well in so far as they have colluded with food companies but that was really because the food companies are so powerful), blame the food companies.

Hey Kat,

You can tell your exec team me, my wife, and daughter don't spend a penny in fast food restaurants now. The tsunami is coming for them. Either by individual choices or lawsuits or both.

At least I sure hope it is :-)