What are the chances they do!? We are not talking about a smoke with or after dinner here!
What would be the chances the same people that brought you, stinky cancer causing chemical protection in a stick aka cigarettes are the same companies that brought you some or your favorite childhood snakes and so called food! At the same time changing the food industry across the world!
Would you believe it? Read More If You Dare But Know You May Never Look At Food The Same Again!
Cigarettes and food! Well, for some smokers, that sounds like a delight—a lit cigarette after a nice meal. But for non-smokers, of course not, right? Well, who would have thought that the two go hand in hand in another light? Here's the kicker: the same companies that brought you chemically perfected highly addictive cigarettes with top-of-the-line advertising campaigns also used their skills to produce a worldwide controversy with what many still call food, some call treats, and those that know better call products.
We are not talking about some fly-by-night brands here; we are talking about brands you could find in almost every American home and countless ones abroad. Brands such as Kraft, General Foods, and Nabisco! That's right, those same brands were for many years owned by two cigarette companies, producing many childhood favorites such as Kraft Mac & Cheese, Jello-O, Kool-Aid, Oscar Mayer hot dogs, Oreo cookies, Teddy Grahams, Ritz crackers, and SnackWell's fat-free Devils Food cookies. To name a few!
Remember Lunchables!? Yep, those were even referred to as blood pressure bombs by some doctors at a time who understood how bad they really were.
Findings suggest that tobacco companies engineered processed foods to hit what is known as our "bliss" point and elicit cravings, said Ashley Gearhardt, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan who studies food addiction.
She said that hyper-palatable foods have a lot in common with addictive substances. They contain ingredients from naturally occurring plants and foods that have been purified, concentrated, and transformed into products that are quickly absorbed into our bloodstreams, which amplifies their ability to light up reward centers in our brains.
Tobacco companies got into the food business over 60 years ago to diversify their product portfolios. These same highly profitable firms had extensive libraries of colors, flavors, and additives that they developed for cigarettes. Executives, likely driven by profit and greed, realized they could use these ingredients to make a variety of highly addictive processed foods. More than likely, they couldn't have imagined how well it worked or how successful it could be, but at what cost? When most people are consumed with work, kids, and bills, those who have the time to obsess over sports, politics, or celebrities are often one in the same. How many people are taking the time to fact-check and research the new popular items people are feeding their kids or snaking on work to get through a busy day? That's what we have the FDA for, right? I mean, if it were FDA-approved, how bad could it really be?
Well, if you're old enough, you might even remember the days when cigarettes were not only doctor-approved but also doctor-recommended and said to be safe even for pregnant women. I kid you not. Though we live in a fast-paced, highly technological world, how much do you really think has changed since then? Are we more informed?? Or just as trusting or naive as what is accepted or supported as healthy or safe today?
The keys here are what is said to be often not so be wise to what you decide to put in your mouth, as just when we were small and your mother would say don't put that in your mouth or get that out of your mouth. Well, the catch 22 was that they were the same ones feeding us what no one should be even eating if they knew better. Does this cycle not continue today? The good news is that all bad cycles can be broken one day and one choice at a time. Eat wisely and get and stay healthy, my friends.
Comments