Food could be defined as "Choices made for you!" :-)

As a German, living in Japan, I may have an untypically wide array of choices. I could be adding my view on something you can easily research for yourself (Japanese cuisine, for example, or German cooking). If this whets your appetite, it might be leaving you where you live with a partial list of hard-to-get foods.  So I don't do the expected marveling about food choices.

Instead, I add my view on what may be worth NOT eating, or eating much less of, leaving you with the great choice of all the other raw foods or just slightly processed more healthy alternatives you can get. Fair deal? Read on.

Food could be defined as "Choices made for you!" :-)

Mary Louise said this, in response to Randell posting in a closed social media circle  about the book

The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite

by David A. Kessler.  Here he is, to introduce pertinent points by video.

It is amazing indeed what food can do for you, or against you, once you find out what to eat and what to cut. I speak from recent subjective experience, painful until the removal of one massively marketed food additive allowed the healing to start.

I had to cut refined sugar, sucrose. More than a month now and the torn muscles are almost fully healed while they did not for some painful three months before.

See why food as the topic for the 2009 WBSD (World Blog Surf Day) intrigues me.

I believe Kessler is right in his basic take about the frequent folly of feasting on factory food. Sensing ruthless business intentions, I ask:

Is convenience food a product of addiction engineering for profits?

This suspicion was fueled by brazen disclosures such as from Ajinomoto in its patents mentioning MSG (Monosodium Glutamate). For example check out US patent

5,955,124

Process for producing a condiment

2. Discussion of the Background

Extracts of livestock meats and bones thereof have previously been used for  various condiments or bases thereof and have wide application. However, these extracts are limited both in complexity of flavor and strength. Moreover, extracts obtained from chickens and pigs generally have unpleasant odors. Beef extract has been used in the past for many condiments, but an extract of good quality cannot be easily obtained and is expensive. Thus, other extracts including vegetable extracts, components such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) and inosine monophosphate (IMP), sugars, and many other condiments and spices are usually added and used.

That amounts to claiming this substance is, as earlier patents put it, useful to "mask a bad taste" and to improve the taste sensation, by adding the elusive "umami". This translates to - eating more, selling more! Ever had this bag of potato chips and could not stop snacking until it was empty? Check those labels now. I do, and thoroughly.

Years ago, NHK Japanese national TV demonstrated one measurable effect of MSG was stimulating specific areas of the brain into seven- to ten-fold of their regular activity levels. That made me think is reason enough to explain the 20-30% of us suffering from China restaurant syndrome headaches or worse, caused by MSG being poisoning to their metabolism. Once found out, and it took me decades, I can now avoid this, thanks to strict fool labeling laws in Japan. 

Think I am being far off the mainstream? You are certainly entitled to enjoy your opinion, but then I am not alone. Seth Godin said in a recent TED interview:

If you were a James Bond villain, how would you take over the world? -- Andrew Noseworthy

I'd release a pheromone that increases the fear that people have about doing great things. It would only increase it by 3%, but that would be enough to wipe out most competition. I'm convinced someone is already doing this, by the way.

Seems logical to me that fast factory food composition has side effects not declared in the Nutrition Facts, such as contributing to bingeing, overweight, obesity and attendant feelings of self-hate only quenched by more - you guessed it - unhealthy "comfort" foods. (This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.)

But wait.

Before pointing a finger at the fattening (its customers and its wallets)  food industry, let's realize they just make more of what we buy more. Look where the remaining three fingers are pointing. Despite colorful seductive ads pushing emotional buttons, and whether addiction-engineered or not, the only one to overcome a food temptation or the likes of a sugar addiction is the one reading this.  I wrote this for you and only you. How about going foodie today?

Disclosure: I have not read Kessler's "The End of Overeating". I do not recommend for or against it. You determine whether this book or any of the insights I share is right for you or for your friends. This latter point would not change even after I read the book. If you are griping about exploring what looks like a book review only to find it isn't -  stop it. If you read all the way to here, you are either genuinely interested in this topic or you sensed way earlier this was not what you were after but kept reading anyway. Do you usually approach life like that?

Check out the next WBSD blog: Czaroma

WBSD link list

World Blog Surfing Day is a loving co-creation, among others with Anastasia Ashman, an American cultural producer based in Istanbul, who is the creator of Expat Harem, the anthology by foreign women about modern Turkey. Her Tweetstream is named Thandelike. She focuses on women, travel and history and she shares resources for writers/travelers, expats, Turkophiles & culturati of all stripes.