UltraMetabolism

By Mark Hyman, M.D., author of ULTRAMETABOLISM

Health Alert: Are Government and Food Industry Policies Making you Fat?

Every year, the food industry spends thirty billion dollars trying to make you fat! Of course, it's not that they expressly want you personally to be one of the 65% of overweight (and obese) Americans. It's just that they want you to eat as much as possible of their soda, sweets, candy, gum, and other junk foods.

And make no mistake about it: If you eat the foods that their marketing campaigns promote, then you will make them rich-- and they will make you fat today and obese tomorrow.

Where you eat, what you eat, and how your food is prepared may seem like a given --but it's not. A whole host of mega-industries shape today's nutritional landscape -- and your health and wellbeing is not their concern. To remain healthy in today's world, you have to understand what's happening, and how to counteract it, or else you will suffer the consequences -- weight gain, poor health, and worse.

Our nutritional landscape has changed since the beginning of the 20th century. Back then, Americans cooked and ate most of their meals at home. By the year 2000, they ate over half of their meals outside the home, or ate processed food they didn't prepare themselves.

Like many people, you probably imagine that this change occurred by accident, or in response to the hectic schedules of modern life. But that's not so. This downgrading of our food was designed by the major food conglomerates.

These giants devote phenomenal resources to market cheap food of poor nutritional quality. Their sole aim is to sell more and more of their products to more and more people.

Do they care about its effects on the health or waistlines of their customers? Apparently not. These folks market to babies to make them lifelong customers.

To them, you and your family are just numbers on a spreadsheet.

While scientific studies demonstrate the dangerous health effects of French fries, fast food, and sodas, it's hard to avoid these foods and win the battle of the bulge. There are over 13,000 McDonalds in the United States alone!

Without the right help, who can resist this marketing onslaught? It's near impossible! And that's why I wrote UltraMetabolism -- to give you an easy plan (backed by hard science) to tip the scales in your favor.

Here's what all of us who care about our health are up against:

The food industry generates over a trillion dollars in annual sales, accounts for 12% of the US gross national product (GNP), and employs 17% of the country's labor force.

It spends over 33 billion dollars a year to market unhealthy fast foods to you, your family, and every other American.

Seventy percent of those dollars go to pushing fast food, convenience foods, candy, snacks, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and dessert -- the very foods that lead to weight gain, obesity, diabetes, heart disease and a host of other ailments.

Take a guess how many of those marketing dollars they spend on advertising fruit, vegetables, grains or beans, the healthy foods that promote weight loss? Only 2.2%.

What's the effect of all that marketing?

The food industry is pushing us face forward into the over consumption of foods that trigger weight gain, obesity, and all the known diseases of aging including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and Alzheimers. These conditions are not the inevitable result of aging. They arise from a poor quality diet.

This recent rise in eating related health disorders is directly related to the advertising dollars spent to convince us to eat low quality foods. If those ads weren't working, they wouldn't be paying for them. Yes, they work -- at your expense. But you won't easily find the real skinny on food because they don't want you to.

How can you, your children, and other family members get correct information? How can you resist the cultural messages that bombard you daily via television and other media to eat those unhealthy foods? If you've tried, you know it isn't easy -- especially when conflicting dietary advice only confuses you more.

In my new book, UltraMetabolism, I'll cut through the confusion to provide a simple plan that makes sense. I'll show you what to do, and whom to trust when it comes to your health.

Now, you may imagine that it's the government's job to protect your health. So why aren't they giving you the correct information and protecting you from business interests that cause harm? Good question!

The United States Department of Agriculture (the USDA, which is the governmental agency responsible for agriculture and food policy) spends $300 million on nutrition education. Where do these dollars go? Mostly to research or small projects in farming areas that you've never heard of.

Where are the public health campaigns to teach Americans the sound, scientific principles of good nutrition? Oddly enough, the government can't come up with the dollars to promote sound nutrition, the foundation for a healthy life.

Nevertheless, they managed to find $28 billion to spend on agricultural subsidies, a $10 billion increase in just four years.

The USDA is responsible for two critical areas: food policy (what the American people need for health), and agricultural policy (what the agricultural industry needs).

How well are they addressing the needs of their two main constituencies?

$300 million (for consumer needs) vs. $28 billion (for agri- business interests).

If you want to know who they're looking out for, just do the math.

How could the USDA possibly look out for our interests when they also represent the opposite interests of the gigantic agriculture industry? If the USDA were a lawyer representing both sides, there would be a legal term for it: conflict of interest.

The USDA is supposed to set food policy on behalf of consumers. How well are they doing that job? Well, let's take the USDA committee that sets Food Safety guidelines. It's populated by many "experts" who work for the food industry -- so how can they possibly be objective?

When distinguished scientists and nutritional experts offer research to help design consumer-friendly guidelines, who does the committee listen to? These dedicated doctors, or the Sugar Industry?

You know who.

Like negligent parents, the government looks the other way, instead of protecting us-- but when it comes to protecting the food industries, they leap into action.

The recent "Cheeseburger Bill" passed in Congress prohibits lawsuits against the food industry for making us fat or sick.

Why create a law to protect the food industry, when the government is entrusted to protect citizens?

The bottom line is that the government won't protect you-- so you'll just have to protect yourself. In UltraMetabolism I show you how.

This book has clear guidelines to help you escape a nutritional environment that threatens your health. UltraMetabolism tells you the truth-- beyond the business marketing hype and governmental indifference. And making the decision to face the truth about how to resist these forces and live right could be the most important action you take.

Here's why:

Food can make you well, or food can make you sick. Scientific data prove that.

A recent study found that poor diet and physical inactivity contributed to approximately 400,000 deaths annually, a one-third increase from 1990, and almost as many as are caused by smoking.

That's right, the current American lifestyle puts your life at risk.

Obesity will soon overtake smoking as the leading killer in America. And guess who profits from the two leading causes of death? Two of the biggies are RJR-Nabisco and Phillip Morris- Kraft Foods -- yes, the tobacco companies and the junk food companies are the same companies!

They're out to get you either way. From their viewpoint, it's called business diversification.

From your viewpoint, it's called "choose your poison."

How long will it take for people to see that their food products (just like their cigarettes) are killing us?

So What Can We Do?

Clearly government food policy needs to change. Dr. Marion Nestle, former professor and chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University, superbly sums up the necessary changes-- and I agree that taking these steps could help change our nutritional landscape from a deadly one to a healthier one:

• Small taxes on junk foods and soft drinks (to raise funds for anti-obesity campaigns)
• Restrictions on food marketing to children, especially in schools and on television
• Calorie labels on fast foods
• Changes in farm subsidies to promote the consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Finally, Nestle recognizes that the political factors promoting obesity require that we revisit campaign contribution laws and advocate for a government agency independent of industry, with clear responsibility for matters pertaining to food, nutrition and health.

In UltraMetabolism, I aim to inform you of the crucial health facts you'll need, as well as help you take action on critical matters of public policy that impact your health and your life.

Empowered with the truth, you can change your health, change your environment, and change the world. And you can lose weight at the same time.

While I'm certain that these changes can dramatically improve the food landscape in this country, until they are in place, I also urge you act right away to protect your health.

Every single day that you follow the mega-food industries' harmful agenda, you'll line their pockets, as your health declines. Weight gain is a symptom of worse health problems yet to come. You need to escape now.

In UltraMetabolism, I'll help you do that. In place of the mass confusion about diet, I'll share the 7 keys to the new science of healthy weight. You'll learn how to make the best eating choices and lifestyle decisions despite the misinformation from the government and the food industry. Escape this country's greed- driven nutritional nightmare to start losing weight and feeling better today.