I was having a conversation about junk food in places with my six-year-old daughter. Her response spoke volumes.
She said that if the people who made the food at these places realized that their food was truly unhealthy then they wouldn’t make it.
It was what one would expect a kind-hearted six-year-old to say. What’s very unsettling, though, is that in this day and age adults think, talk and act in much the same way regarding unhealthy food products, particularly junk food.
It made me remember when I was young. I didn’t think of what I was eating as being junk food. I blocked such thoughts out of my mind. As I began to learn more about unhealthy food, I continued to be in denial because my cravings for it were so strong.
Adults are subject to the same shortcomings as youth in this regard. Overcoming incredibly strong cravings for unhealthy food that has been eaten for years and years is not easy. So to some degree most people of any age will be in denial about this issue. They may have some information about the health risks of such foods, but not enough to register strongly enough to cause them to take steps to stop eating them.
I believe that one thing that is needed, perhaps the most important thing, is for much more information about unhealthy foods in general and junk foods in particular to be made public. If people had much, much more exposure to information about these incredibly unhealthy products, they would be less likely to continue in their denial. They would also become much more highly motivated to adopt healthy dietary practices.
People who have discovered the truth about these types of things should be able to talk about them openly and to a very wide audience. But they shouldn’t do so in a judgemental or hostile way. We all know (or should know) that you can’t force people to change.
What you can do is make people aware of problems related to unhealthy food products. You can educate them. And you can encourage them to vote for people who would create laws that made certain unethical food manufacturing processes and products illegal.
As a law abiding citizen, I think that the government should outlaw the use of certain additives that will disrupt human chemistry in food product manufacturing. I think that it’s irrelevant whether the additives cause harm quickly or slowly. It’s just corrupt and unethical for companies to manufacture incredibly unhealthy and harmful food products for the purpose of economic profit.
One issue is the size of societies in the present day. Often what is good for humanity in general and large local communities in particular is put aside for the benefit of a few individuals. This has always been one of the primary sources of destruction warfare, poverty, and even disease.
This was not so much the case in earlier times, when people lived in small communities that were usually no larger than 500 people. There was a degree of accountability and awareness in such communities that made it so that poisonous products would not have been allowed on community tables. Presently, however, there are few if any moral considerations dealing with corruption relating to legalizing poisonous and destructive substances in our food.
I believe that eventually society will create rules to outlaw the uses of poisonous substances in food products. I will advocate for such change. But I will not be the kind of activist that does harmful or destructive things to try to cause such change to happen. I will not be part of a less than peaceful revolution.
I will speak my mind about these matters, some of which are very unsettling. I feel that to be my calling. I don’t want to communicate things in such a way that I’d be perceived as a pushy preacher. What I do want to do is disseminate information and pass knowledge along to as wide a listening base as possible.
Having said that, one of the things that I will communicate often and on no uncertain terms is that much chemically processed food and junk food is incredibly unhealthy, addictive, and nothing less than extremely dangerous.
I hope that we all will resolve to stop eating junk foods. I hope that many will advocate for legal action to prevent its widespread manufacturing and distribution. And I even hope to live to see the day that such foods will become unavailable, that the greater good of the health of the global population would be served.