My rant for 2017 is the same as it was in January 2016: we have an obesity epidemic that is largely being ignored by the people who are responsible for the type and quality of food most available to average consumers in the USA, and most western countries. No other so clearly documented rise in a disease area would be ignored; yet, obesity is laid uncaringly at the feet of consumers.
Never before have our markets had such a domination of the shelves by cheap high sugar-starch foods. The poor have even fewer options. Unless you can grow your own food, which is neither easy nor inexpensive these days, or have farmers’ markets nearby, you are solely in the hands of the five big agricultural controllers of the world’s food supply. Our markets now have less variety of foods, and lower quality, with more of the same low cost-to-produce goods, filled with highly addictive and damaging carbohydrates, and no warnings on those products to mostly untutored consumers.
The latest data can been seen at the sites below, and we can expect obesity, and its related diseases (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia dominating) to continue to increase at disturbing levels. If government and industry won’t address the problem, and it seems unlikely they will since it means big-ag loses money–and fewer lobbies are bigger in Washington, D.C. than big-ag. That leaves it up to ordinary citizens like us to make sure information is spread to help people who are particularly vulnerable.
Yours in basic human decency,
Nan aka Sugarbaby
http://www.gallup.com/poll/189182/obesity-rate-climbs-record-high-2015.aspx
https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
http://stateofobesity.org/rates/
Sugaraholics 