Long Bones

This article is really thought provoking. Right now I really want a piece of Lindt Intense sea salt and I’m going to go get some in a moment (obviously, see yesterday’s post) but this article made me stop and think. Junk food is supposedly as addictive as heroin. That is pretty intense. Also probably an overstatement, but junk food has an obvious proponent — which would make it really hard to get over — that Heroin doesn’t: You need to eat.

The third hardest thing I have done in my life is give up high fructose corn syrup. (I’m big on lists. 1. My father’s death. 2. Going without picking for 21 days. 3. Giving up HFCS. 4. Graduating college.) Though in the modern world it is pretty much impossible to completely give up HFCS, I don’t drink soda anymore and I very seldom eat processed food. I am planning on getting a small bag of candy corn for Halloween but before that, the last HFCS I’ve had….ages ago. Especially if you are a binge eater like me, junk food is engineered to go beyond tempting to irresistible.

On the one hand, I get why companies like Mars or Frito Lays do it, and obviously HFCS isn’t the entire issue, profits are king in a capitalist system. Not complaining, the system works for most. But, and this is a big but, I really hope that some day profits stop outweighing karma, or the golden rule, or whatever the heck you want to call the human drive to do the right thing.

When it comes down to it – large companies are intentionally addicting the population to harmful substances for profits. People think that obesity is a matter of will-power. It isn’t.