Dear RDH eVillage,
I beg to differ with your assessment (Director's Message: Tongue and Cheek with the Stars) of the simplicity of food selection. A quick read of The Omnivore's Dilemma will open your eyes to the industrialization of our food supply. How can our nation with access to so many diet food products become so extremely overweight? In 1980, only 13 percent of society was considered clinically overweight. In less than 25 years, that number has more than doubled to 27 percent, and it shows no sign of slowing down.
Hidden food additives (primarily corn-based), excessive sodium, trans fats, and other flavorings are bypassing our biological system of satiation. Add to these steroids in our meat supply, and you have the solution to a very commercial question: How do you increase the average consumption of Americans (1,500 lbs. per year) and essentially bypass their stomachs in an effort to sell more stuff?
You see the evidence of poor nutrition everywhere. Within a few years of naturalization in our country, many once-underfed individuals are tipping the scale.
I ask that you reconsider your position. I understand the point of demystifying periodontal disease classification. Heck, it confuses me and I'm a professional. I applaud anyone who can help me to understand why the "healthy" low-fat salsa that I purchased is packed with 990 mg of sodium (and not the good kind either).
I wish I lived close to this store; I'd shop there regularly. Reading and evaluating packaging on an individual basis is grueling. My new rule is: If the product has more than five ingredients, it is likely overmanufactured. These six-plus-ingredient foods are bad for my figure, if you know what I mean. Forget liver cancer or fatigue on my heart, this is pure and simple vanity.
Yours truly,
Vicki McManus, COO
Productive Dentist Academy
www.ProductiveDentist.com
