Fearing the Frank en foods
Fastfood not only has devastating effects on our society, but is self-destructive food, doctor says
Freedom from fries? Good luck! We’re addicted to processed, fake and fast food and it’s killing us.
“Genocide is the most accurate way to describe fast food’ s devastating effects on our society. And the worst part is that the vast majority of people are complicit in their own destruction ,” says Dr. Joel F uh rm an, author of Fast Food Genocide: How Processed Food is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It.
We consume fast food like there’ s no tomorrow—and for many there won’t be. Egregiously unhealthy, “these processed, nutrient-barren ‘Frankenfoods’ are highly addictive, and creating an explosion of disease, suffering and premature death,” says Fuhrman, director at the Nutritional Research Foundation.
Fuhrman is not alone in his fake food fury: There’ s an army of nutrition experts constantly telling us that fast food is not health food. Globally, poor diets pose a greater risk to our health than drugs, alcohol, tobacco and unsafe sex combined, reports the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition (Glopan).
He’s out to spread the wealth of unhealthy, the data collected in hundreds of scientific studies :“This is not opinion, this is the preponderance of evidence that must be evaluated, and shared with our population, so they can choose to take action or not,” he says.
Even moderate use of fast food is dangerous, so it may even be more harmful than smoking, he says, adding that, for example, one serving of commercial french fries per week is linked to an over 25 per cent increase in risk of developing breast cancer. “In fact, the World Health Organization has declared that processed meats are a Class 1 carcinogen in humans, which places them in the same category as asbestos and cigarette smoking .”
There’s no happy in that Happy Meal! People who eat fast food regularly are 51 per cent more likely to be depressed than those who choose healthier foods, report researchers in Spain. So the more fast food you eat, the greater the risk of depression. Fuhrman even adds that fast food diets exacerbate our potential for anti-social behaviour, drug addiction, violence and reduced intelligence.
So just why are we eating the stuff? It’s convenient, tasty and filling. But a recipe for disaster, he says .“Frank en foods are designed by the food industry to be highly addictive, cheap to produce and highly profitable.”
The food industry is not in the business of health. More than onethird of kids and adolescent seat fast food on any given day, reports the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Fast food malnutrition is not only a clear and present danger, in fact, “by eating this type of unhealthy diet, we are harming our children, and our children’s children” by passing on our health problems down to future generations.
Genocide is the most accurate way to describe fast food’s devastating effects on our society.” Dr. Joel Fuhrman