A story in the Daily Express in the UK has connected a number of ‘ultra-processed’ foods with a potential increase in cancer. These foods include things like breakfast cereal, white bread, crisps and ready meals. Many of those are part of the staple diet of many people, which is a truly terrifying statistic. 

The question I want to ask is, who thought those foods were actually good for us? 

Now, I'm not preaching, I love food and have eaten all the foods listed above, but I haven't done so with the ignorance that I thought they were doing anything good for me. When I eat a packet of crisps (which is very rare) I am fully in the knowledge that, it is a treat and is only going to impact my body negatively. 

But, it seems some people feel that they can eat all the rubbish in the world, and then seemed shocked when they get sick or feel tired all the time, and even feel depressed. Now, I'm not going to say that depression doesn't exist or anything like that, what I will say however is this, and feel free to quote me on it because I'll stand by it, ‘No one has ever felt worse from eating good food and being in good physical shape’. I truly believe that eating well and hitting the gym may not solve all your problems but it sure as hell won't make the theme any worse. In fact, in the majority of cases, it will dramatically improve them. 

Eating good food is a choice, it's a lifestyle choice, and one we seem to have got completely backwards. A poor diet of junk food and too much alcohol is the staple diet for so many in this country. If you're interested in learning more about the social part of this then I'll direct you to an article Tommy Holgate wrote on the channel earlier this week, a link to that is below. 

CLICK HERE - Why is it OK to call me a health freak?

Many of the reasons given for people eating processed foods like the ones listed in this study are financial reasons. Cheap food has no nutrition and it's the case for many people, that they buy what they can afford, which sometimes, is only processed foods. So a key point of discussion is, why is healthy food so much more expensive and shouldn't it be the establishment's job to assist with making that more affordable? 

I mean, it's basic economics really, the healthier the population are, the less pressure there would be on the health services, which is something we're constantly told is a problem here in the UK. ‘The NHS is in crisis’ seems to be the news headline every 5 minutes it seems, but what is being done to prevent so many people from getting sick in the first place? It's commonly accepted in science and medicine that we're becoming more obese as a population and having more health issues at a younger age. 

Why, when we're supposed to be at the pinnacle of evolution, technology etc are we becoming more unhealthy? Well, there are plenty of reasons for that, but a few are becoming increasingly clear, one is the accessibility of toxic foods, and another is the increasing expense of organic foods, there are more to go along with that, but let's focus on these two for now. 

Toxic food is cheaper and easier to find

Very true, it's always in prime place in the supermarkets, there are always offers on and it's so easy to source. I live in a city of 250,000 people and there are 5 Mcdonald's drive-thru restaurants that I can think of, a Burger King, Tim Hortons, KFC and others, so it's not just the supermarkets that make it super-accessible, its the fast-food chains as well. During lockdowns, gyms were closed, while the fast-food outlets remained open, and we were in a health crisis, apparently. 

There is very little red tape and tariffs on these chains, the ‘sugar tax’ is a joke because it's now encouraging more people to drink the diet, zero and sugar-free drinks which in my opinion are much worse for us, as they have synthetic sweeteners and other processed chemicals in them to imitate the original flavours. Governments around the world need to get a grip on this and put policies in place to prevent these chains from selling their toxic products so easily. 

The same goes for supermarket chains, high taxes and tariffs for processed foods, a maximum number allowed in any shop, and really strict policies that help people to make better decisions and stop temptation. 

Organic food is too expensive

Also true, and I believe that rather than pumping more and more money into the endless pit of expense that is the NHS, we should be spending money supporting organic farmers, encouraging new farms to open and making it an attractive career to choose, after all this is our very nature, historically everyone worked on the land, and we ate better foods as a result. 

Governments always have money for pharmaceuticals and war, but never any money to start a grass-roots project to improve the health and well-being of their population. I said in a previous article that there should be council-owned gyms that include a ‘free’ membership as part of your council tax every year, and local farmers should be given grants and low taxes to encourage them to produce to feed communities. 

All of this can be done on a very local level, bypassing big government and letting local councils be responsible for local communities, giving them the resources needed to support whatever it is that area needs. 

Each country should have a completely self-sufficient food supply, not relying on others, and supply chains, because as we've seen recently, these can all be manipulated for political gain. 

A simple fix

A simple fix would be to ban all processed foods, subsidise organic foods so they're the same price as cheaper foods, free gym memberships and encourage healthy lifestyles. Now, I doubt that is going to happen any time soon, so for today, I'll settle for a better education and more rules placed upon the companies that are producing these processed foods. That could begin today. 

And the final thing I will say as a guide on real food, this is a good thing to have in your mind. 

‘If the food is in a packet, and has more than 5 ingredients, then it's not real food and consume in moderation, not as part of your staple diet’

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