Teenage Mutants.

As we press on into a world of advancing synthetics, it is simply not enough to be diligent about reading labels, or searching Google for answers. While a scam may not be consciously carried out by food industry leaders, an entire economy has been built on the existence of invisible territory, and we are entirely subject to it. The only truth in the marketing of food is the fact that secrecy exists in abundance, and it is detrimental to public health. Being a conscious consumer might not be enough to avoid the synthetic chemicals that permeate so much of our food.

Processed food companies have fostered a belief that we have come to accept without question. This belief promotes synthetics as harmless, even superior to the products of nature that we once relied on to nourish and heal us. The food industry is operated no differently than any other competitive market - economic principles are the basis of action, not the health of consumers.

Synthetics have become an all encompassing part of our world to the point that a visitor from the past might liken it to some sort of chemistry experiment in which we humans are the guinea pigs. As a result of our dependence on the food industry, some of us might develop mutations, (cancer, reproductive issues, diabetes, the list goes on) as a result of the infinite combinations of chemicals in our food, water and drugs. It is clear that we aren’t getting any healthier. But we are getting smarter - our innovations are becoming more and more advanced daily. Our innovations in food may end up killing us.

On the surface, food labels don’t go into much detail about the “natural flavours” in our cereal, or the “sweeteners” in our soda. What is made evident to the label reading consumer is the fact that the drink only has one calorie, is sugar free, and tastes awesome. On the surface, what the label says might look appealing to someone who has never heard of aspartame. Those who have, however, have probably heard how the popularity of this calorie-free sweetener increased alongside a 10% increase of brain cancer among U.S. citizens. So it won’t make you fat, but it could give you cancer, Parkinson’s disease, or a brain tumour. It is also warned that this additive could trigger birth defects, depression, chronic fatigue, brain tumours, epilepsy ... the list goes on.

How can we be educated when information about our food is so elusive? Any curious consumer knows it can be like pulling teeth to get answers.

The pharmaceutical industry also benefits from synthetics. The conditions that make life so profitable for both the food and pharmaceutical industries revolve around the weakening of the human immune system from inadequate nutrition and the employment of synthetic chemicals to remedy the problem for a little while. This vicious cycle works for the drug and medical industries, while depleting our own resources. The technological advancements of our culture are pretty good at helping us feel better in the short term, but we generally fail when it comes to getting to the root cause of illness.

Prescription drugs are an enormous part of western life. Elderly people take as many as one dozen different prescription medications per day. Yet, there are complications that result from our drugs that land us in hospitals, even kill us. We are never told that the root cause of our illness if our medication, we always need another prescription.

How can a species that is so intellegent, continue to fail? The system is set up in such a way that the path of least resistance is often the way that involved chemical induced foods and endless drug prescriptions. We would have to go seriously against the grain to get out of this cycle. Until these industry leaders genuinely care about our health - or when people start dying, (whichever happens first),we need to demonstrate to chaos and lawlessness about our oatmeal, chicken wings and Tylenol!

Health should be made easy for us, but it’s not. Not yet, at least. Not until I become prime minister. We can trust only ourselves, and must take matters into our own hands if we wish to avoid mutating into teenage ninja turtles.