Are food scientists and food industry engaged in inflicting grievous bodily/mental harm on consumers?

A chronic disease affects the lives of countless millions causing serious harm to health on the scale of a global pandemic.

Bariatric surgery to reduce stomach size

You pick up (literally) the disease in your local supermarkets, corner stores, delicatessen and other food shops. The disease comes through the additives permeating through the food and around the food. Some foods and drinks marginalise benefits of a healthy diet through overwhelming additives.

The name of the disease is ultra-processed – having nothing whatsoever to do with food, nothing to do with anything grown out of the ground.

UPFs usually contain elevated levels of saturated fat, sugar, salt, additives, preservatives, emulsifiers, artificial colours and flavouring.

Ultra-processed scientists working in their laboratories behave like food terrorists as they unconsciously make war on the destruction of the health and wellbeing of men, women and children.

Employed by the food industry, these scientists manufacture ultra-processed enabling the food industry to maximise profit through minimising the purchase of fresh food, which costs more in the journey from the soil to the shop.

The food terrorists engage in this war on health, enabling major chronic diseases to infect the lives of everyone from babies to the eldest of our citizens.

UPF generates such diseases as obesity, heart disease, pulmonary embolism, cancer, diabetes, putting people on lifelong medication, extended periods in hospital, intensive surgery and often an early death.

Last month, The Lancet, the UK’s leading medical journal, published a report written by 47 medical scientists. The medical scientists stated:

“The key driver of the global rise in UPFs is the growing economic and political power of the UPF industry and its restructuring of food systems for profitability above all else.”

UPF industry campaigns to drive up production, marketing and consumption of UPFs.

Where do we find UPFs leading to disease conditions in humans?

• Processed meat

• Ready meals

• Mass produced bread in supermarkets

• Breakfast cereals

• Starches

• Saturated Fats

• Oils

• Crisps

• Biscuits

• Fizzy drinks, Colas

• Gelling and thickening agents

• Artificial sweeteners

Governments do nothing except perhaps add a little taxation to UPF excess.

You might find the contents of a food product on the packaging. The food industry writes in the smallest letters possible to discourage shoppers from trying to read the small print. Food items free from additives, which bear no relationship, are happy to ensure their list of ingredients in large letters.

Ultra-processed are extremely low, if at all, in essential nutrients like fibre, vitamins, and minerals. Manufactured to replace food, UPFs are engineered to be highly palatable, which encourages overeating and addiction.

If you see a long ingredient list on a package, it is almost guaranteed the food terrorists have their fingerprints all over the text. You will rarely find UPFs in your kitchen cabinet or in your food store.

Impact on the National Health Service

Our hospitals would have vast numbers of empty beds if the government passed legislation to ban the majority of UPFs from homes and restaurants. Instead, they spend £billions a year funding the NHS (National Health Service) to treat the consequences of UPFs. The food industry should build hospitals, pay surgeons, doctors and nurses for the chronic health issues and suffering they inflict up those who depend on UPFs in their diet.

One weak-kneed government after another never addresses the primary cause of chronic ill health. More people died from the disease from UPFs due to what they put in their mouths than Gazan citizens who died from Israel’s act of genocide on families in Gaza. Governments worldwide stand complicit in allowing the food industry to inflict such terrible suffering on citizens.

Around two out of three people in the UK are overweight or labelled as obese. 29% are obese, meaning their BMI (body mass index) is more than 30. A healthy BMI is 18 -24. Japan has one of the lowest obesity levels among wealthy nations with figures ranging from 4% to 6%.

One national report found that around one third of adults felt down, anxious, or depressed because of their body image, and about one in five had felt shame. In a 2022 scientific report in Neurology on UPF and brain health, the report stated: “Each 10% increase in energy from ultra‑processed foods is associated with about 20–25% higher risk of overall dementia, and higher daily servings are linked to increased Alzheimer’s disease risk.” Research drew upon a UK database of more than 500,000 people.

Latest UK-wide estimates show about 168,800 cancer deaths per year. A similar number of deaths from cardiovascular disease, include coronary heart disease and stroke. Diet has a major influence.

UK government estimates suggest obesity is responsible for “more than 30,000” deaths a year; this is an attribution figure, not a separate cause on the death certificate. Doctors will usually document death from a specific disease rather than death from obesity.

Heart and circulatory diseases cause about 170,000–175,000 deaths each year in the UK, roughly one quarter of all deaths.​

For heart and circulatory disease alone, around 31,000 deaths per year are attributed specifically to excess weight and obesity (BMI 25 or higher).

There are around 49,000 deaths per year occurring in people under 75.​

The government sits on its hands, permitting immense suffering daily to its citizens.

Where is the legislation to stop this widespread suffering, pain and death ?

Where is the compassion?

www.anengagedlife.org