In the mid-1970's the question of obesity, heart disease, and their cause was raised officially for the first time in the United States. The food industry boiled down the possibilities to just two serious sources, fat or sugar? The decision was made that fat in our foods was the main problem at hand, and thus the "low fat" era began. The removal of fats from our processed food diets required a substitute, so heavily increased sugar was substituted in its place. This was truly one of the most drastic changes to the human diet in our entire history. As Dr.Mercola, author of marcela.com puts it, "Replacing fat with sugar has been one of the most disastrous nutritional recommendations in human history, if not THE WORST." [Mercola 1] Obesity levels in the United States have been on the rise for the past thirty years without almost any sign of slowing down. The steady spike of overweight and unhealthy individuals continues in a time where we push exercising and personal fitness more than ever before. We are often coaxed into believing that the source of our nation's obesity stems from just consuming too many calories per day and not exercising enough, but in fact this theory is a twisted version of the truth behind the crisis. Increased levels of obesity have also attributed to enormous rises in diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, strokes, heart attacks, and many more serious and potentially deadly health effects. Children are now becoming more obese than ever before they are old enough to choose meals for themselves. Adults are dying younger due to unhealthy dieting and being caught in the consumer trap set by our countries food industry. Varying socio-economic classes are being effected differently due to income, location, and education. Our nation is being poisoned from within it's own borders, and many American's remain uniformed, misinformed, or just naive to the source. The food industry is knowingly causing obesity and related diseases due to the production of sugar infused foods in America.

The "sugar tsunami" can and should be looked at as the worst change to the United States' diet in history. When fat was removed from processed foods, sugar was poured in by the boat load. We were led to believe that this would help to improve our national health and lower obesity and heart disease levels. However, this decision by the food industry ended up being the perfect storm for destroying our nation's overall health. So why did this change so drastically harm our health and well being? The answer lies in many factors that have to deal with processed foods and the way that we now look at "foods". Our ancestors from the stone ages were forced to hunt and forage for food every day in order to survive. Humans burn calories quickly, so they searched for high energy foods that could sustain them until their next meal. When that next meal came our ancestors would eat as much as possible, loading up on high energy calories to avoid starvation. This created the basic human need and addiction for food which is imprinted in every human's DNA to this day. Fresh meats and plants were our only source of food in a time before processed foods existed, and that is what humans evolved to thrive upon. As Dr. Mercola states, "In Paleolithic times (until about 12,000 years ago), the human diet consisted of primarily meats, non-starchy vegetables, seafood, nuts, seeds, and occasionally fruit. There was no processed food or refined sugar  --  not even bread, cereal, potatoes, or pasteurized dairy  --  a far cry from the standard American (and British) diet." [Mercola 1] As we can see, our modern day diet is a long way away from what our bodies evolved to consume and ingest to remain healthy. Dr. Mark Berry points out, "Our Stone-Age ancestors not only ate an incredibly wide variety of natural foods. Dr. Mark Berry, who is involved in Paleolithic nutrition research, explained that Paleolithic humans ate 20 to 25 different plant foods each day. Today, many Americans struggle to fit in five." [Mercola 1] It is very likely that there are almost no Americans that consume as many natural foods as our ancestors did, and as a whole we have replaced this diet with one of processed junk and sugar. In fact, our diet has become almost the complete opposite of what we need to remain healthy. Eric Shlosser the author of "Fast Food Nation" found that "About 90 percent of all the money Americans spend on food (both groceries and food outside the home) is spent on processed foods"[Schlosser 1] When you step back and look at these factors, you can see why this is a serious problem for our national health.

It is completely true that we all have our own free will and no one can force you to eat foods which are unhealthy for you, but what if you are being deceived to what is good and bad for you? When we look at how the food industry is operating in this country, we can see many similarities to the way that big tobacco used to have a grip upon the mind's of it's customers. The food industry in many ways is no different morally than big tobacco ever was, and seems to almost emulate them in many ways. In order to understand this more fully you need to look at many different details of the way the food industry operates. The recommended amount of sugar for adults is less than many people have probably consumed by the time that they finish their breakfast. The American Heart Association is one of the leading researchers on sugar and states, "The American Heart Association advises a stricter limit for added sugars  --  no more than 100 calories a day for most women and no more than 150 calories a day for most men. That's about 6 teaspoons of sugar for women and 9 for men. One teaspoon of sugar has about 16 calories."[Mayo Clinic 1]. Now we must look at the fact that one can of standard soda in the United States has around 10 teaspoons of sugar in it, with some exceeding more than 15 per 

serving. This is a very frightening statistic, and becomes even more scary when you take into consideration that most people are aware that soda is sugar filled. Many products that you would never even imagine have sugar in them can cause you to go over your daily limit, some 

examples include bread, ketchup, juice, milk, yogurt, salad dressing, and pasta sauce just to name a few. The addicting qualities of sugar are added to countless foods that many Americans would look at as healthy options in order to keep consumers eating more and more. The next thing to look at is food labels and how every single ingredient on them includes a daily percentage, except for sugar. This can be one of the most shocking realizations of all and deceives many consumers who are trying to eat healthy choices from knowing what they are truly getting. The food industry argues that there is no way to know how much sugar should be consumed daily and thus they cannot add a daily percentage. In a USA Today article on added sugar, we find that "The Food and Drug Administration also has proposed changing food labels to list added sugars. The current label lists "total sugar," a combination of added and natural sugars. The Sugar Association opposes the labeling change, arguing that there's no scientific reason to differentiate added versus natural sugars."[Szazbo 1] There are countless examples of the food industry funding skewed research in order to cover up the truth. As big tobacco funded scientific studies that "proved" that you could not connect smoking cigarettes to lung cancer, the food industry funds studies that find no way to link our overly high sugar intake to obesity and related diseases. When it comes to finding the proof about sugars connection to health problems, "Studies funded by the beverage industry are four to eight times more likely to show a finding favorable to industry than independently funded studies"[Harvard Chan School of PH 1] Big names such as Coca-Cola will pay scientists millions to fund studies that tend to defend their claims while studies not funded by the food industry tend to find the opposite. This is where our "free will" is really put to the test because it hard to make the right choices when your constantly being mislead and misinformed.

Marketing allows big food and beverage monopolies to push out their unhealthy products on a grand scale. The use of misleading labels that don't include a daily percentage of sugar allows this to go unnoticed by the public. The naturally occurring foods such as fruit, vegetables, and raw meats and poultry are what American's need to be purchasing from the grocery store, however when you enter you are bombarded by flashy, attention grabbing colors, names, and brand logos which our brains can instantly connect with. The food industry spends billions of dollars per year in order to imprint their food's in our mind's, and they start by focusing on gaining consumers from a shockingly young age. In the film "Fed Up" Directed by Stephanie Soechtig [Fed Up 1] this use of marketing is put under the spotlight. The movie shows how sugary products such as cereals and gummy candies have cartoon characters placed right on the front of the box to attract toddlers and small children to their products. The addictive quality of sugar will keep them coming back for more as they do not know any better. A good analogy for this situation would be having a child choose between going to the library for a day or the movie theatre, in this case vegetables, fruits, and other sections of the grocery store being the library and the sugary products section being the movies. The visual stimulation and recognizable characters and logos draws in children and has them connect to the food they think about. In a study published by the "American Heart Association", they found that "Kids watch an average of over ten food-related ads every day (nearly 4,000/year)".[Powell 1] This is used by fast food chains such as McDonalds who give children a toy just for ordering food there. The film "Fed UP" shows children as young as two years old being able to recognize brands such as the McDonald's signature golden "M" logo. Imagine the difference in their diet logos such as cartoon characters on fruit could make to their food decision making process. Soft drink monopolies such as Coca-Cola incorporate the same tactic with commercials and other advertisements to imprint on young children that their product is good. "Beverage companies in the US spend billions of dollars marketing carbonated beverages, with a significant portion of marketing aimed directly at youth ages 2 -- 17." [Harvard Chan School of PH 1] This comes as a enormous contrast with the marketing for healthier eating, "In contrast, the budget for the development and promotion of the US Department of Agriculture's "My Plate" food guide released in 2011 is $2 million per year."[Center for Food Safety1] It is no wonder why the obesity level of grade school children is at an all time high when they are bombarded with advertisements from such a young age.

The food industry takes advantage of different socio-economic classes and often targets the lower class or certain areas for their marketing scheme. People with less wealth are often seen by the marketing teams as less educated and easier to manipulate as well as more desperate for deals and cheaper eating options. This is clear because "Economic features of the food environment also contribute to obesity. The cost per calorie of healthy foods exceeds the costs of energy-dense (and often nutrient-poor) foods."[Center for Food Safety 1] The cost of processed foods is low because of the amount that can be produced so cheaply and widely. While many farms have gone out of business because of this and the natural foods that we need to consume to remain healthy have gone up. In a study provided by the University of South Carolina, experts found that "In the past 30 years, this cost disparity has increased; between 1985 and 2000, the prices of healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, fish, and dairy products increased at more than twice the rate of the prices of sugar and sweets, fats and oils, and carbonated beverages."[Finkelstein 1] Fast food chains are much more abundant in areas of lower income which has a direct result on the overall health of the community. African American's can suffer because of this, "Each day, African-American children see twice as many calories advertised in fast-food commercials as White children."[Harris 1]. Areas for immigrants and minorities can be targeted by marketers more heavily because they think that they can maximize profits more than where they think the population might be more educated.

The financial burden placed upon this country due to health care is sky rocketing because of effects of the foods that we are consuming. The dramatic rise in obesity related disease such as diabetes, liver disease, heart disease, etc, is putting a huge financial strain on the American people. "Two out of three adults and one out of three children in the United States are overweight or obese, (29) and the nation spends an estimated $190 billion a year treating 

obesity-related health conditions." [Harvard Chan School of PH 1]. This statistic is absolutely staggering and would come as a complete shock to the American people. The effects of obesity are causing serious health issues such as diabetes which cost billions alone per year to treat in the United States. In a "USA Today" article, a study found that "Diabetes alone costs the USA $245 billion, according to the guidelines.[Szabo 1] That money could be put towards many other things that could help improve our countries national debt or be placed into reforms that could help our country to become more healthy. This gigantic financial strain is being placed on us by our own food industries desire for profit at all costs. Doctor's and scientists have speculated how much money could be saved if we ate differently. With a 20-40% reduction in sugar consumption, they speculate that, "These aims are likely to be successful, as they are modeled off of sodium reduction efforts that have led to an estimated reduction of sodium in packaged foods 'between 20 and 40%, with a minimum reduction of 6,000 strokes and heart attack deaths per year, and a healthcare saving cost of  pounds 1.5 billion [approx. $2.5 billion USD]"[Kobayashi 1] Small changes could save our country billions on health care and a more drastic approach to this crisis could save an exponential amount of money. If we don't do anything to help change our diet now, in a "NY Times" article it was found that "Health-related obesity costs are projected to reach $344 billion by 2018"[Bittman 1], and that is a truly frightening thing to imagine.

In conclusion, the food industry is knowingly causing obesity and related health issues through mass production of overly sugar infused processed foods and deception of the American people to the dangers that they can cause. Easy accessibility to the over abundant amount of processed foods and scarcity of healthy options is having tragic effects on health in the United States. The use of marketing and deception keeps a vast majority of this country in the dark to the causes of becoming over weight and developing health issues. Different socio-economic classes are effected differently, but the lower class is often targeted by the food industry because of lack of education and funds. Children are targeted from a very young age in order to get them addicted right from the start to highly sugary infused products in 

order to create addicts for life. Comparatively to the cigarette industry in the 1960's, the food industry manipulates facts and pays for research which claims that it is not creating the health problems that it is in this country. Although we all have our own free will to eat what we want and exercise how we please, we cannot make informed decisions for ourselves if we are lied to about the dangers of our food. Food related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and a countless list of others are costing millions in health care every single year and are the direct effect of the food being produced by the food industry. This issue is the biggest health issue facing our country today and one of the only ways to help solve it may be for more American's to become aware of what is in our food and how we can learn to eat naturally again.

