A Well-Defined Problem

By: Dr. J. Renae Norton

As mentioned previously, we have not defined the U.S. health crisis very well. Recall that we are the most obese country in the world with the most obese children, who, as a result of that will live shorter lives than their parents and which is a first in the history of mankind, unless there was a nuclear event. Not only are we the most obese country in the world, we are at the bottom of a very long list when it comes to health. Especially when you compare us to all the other wealthy nations in the world since great wealth almost always means good health. And we are the wealthiest country in the world! But instead of being the healthiest country in the world because of our great wealth, we are at the bottom of a long list when it comes to health. Our children will be the first generation in the history of the world, unless there was a nuclear event, who will live shorter lives than their parents… What the heck?

Actually, the question is why is this happening? I believe that it is happening because our food is polluted. So polluted that it is literally killing us.

Unfortunately, most of us assume the problem to be one of personal excess. We say things like “I am just eating too much sugar (fat, carbs…) and this is causing all of my problems.” Partly true. But it’s not just that excessive amounts of sugar, fat and/or carbs can be problematic. It is the toxic nature of the sugar, fat and carbs that you are  eating that is causing your health problems. You are not the only one.

So why is this happening? The United States has some of the most polluted food in the world. Our government does not protect us as the citizens of other countries are protected. We are drowning in round up a.k.a Glyphosate. We represent 4% of the world population, but we are eating 33% of the world’s glyphosate! So what? Glyphosate is an obesegen, meaning that it causes obesity , allergen, and Autogan, meaning that it causes autoimmune disease and a carcinogen meaning that it causes cancer. No wonder we are so sick and fat. And most of us are completely oblivious… Have no idea what is happening to us and to our children.

Take high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) for example. It comes from genetically engineered corn that has been sprayed with Roundup and is basically a sugar on steroids. It is literally in almost every  processed food on the U. S. market today. It is in your ketchup, and in all processed and fast foods!

There are dozens of other examples just like this. In fact, there are so many other good examples of  how polluted the US food supply is that we will not be able to cover them all in one article. So let’s just start by defining the problem, which I have defined as Food Pollution Disorder (FPD).

I started this journey looking at the strange problems that my patients with eating disorders were displaying almost 15 years ago. Suddenly they were showing symptoms of autoimmune diseases (like MS, PICOS, and Hashimoto’s) cancer, schizophrenia and/or intense anxiety, type 2 diabetes, severe allergies and so on. What I came to realize was that the new “problems” that I was seeing among patients with specific eating disorders were also becoming quite common in the population at large.

I was noticing the uptick in these conditions because the specific eating disorder, which is often life-threatening, brought the patient in for treatment. Whereas individuals in the non-ED population with the same symptoms would go for years undiagnosed because both they and their doctor only addressed the symptoms, and in so doing, masked the causes of their health problems, often until it was too late to resolve them.

The things I was seeing, in a population that I had been treating for 20 plus years, were new, and in some cases, rather strange. The “complications” included symptoms of a number of different autoimmune disorders such as gerd, as well as high cholesterol and high blood sugar to name just a few.

In an environment where most patients ignore their symptoms for years, often until they become so severe that they cannot be reversed, the problems remain Below the Radar as does the solution. The critical nature of the eating disorder mandated treatment. Most importantly, my “treatment” was centered around “clean” food.

Today, the vast majority of practitioners with whom I interact have not connected the epidemic levels of disease and obesity that we are seeing with the poor quality of U.S. foods.

In other words, as mentioned previously, if you have acid reflux, you will likely be given an antacid. If you have high cholesterol or high blood sugar you will be given a statin. If you are obese, you will be put on a diet.

In none of these situations will your doctor or therapist suggest that you change the “quality” of the foods that you are eating, which is the only way to solve the problem given how polluted the U.S. food supply has become.

If all you’re eating is polluted food, (and you are unless you are intentionally eating organic, grass-fed, wild-caught and minimally processed foods) you are in a no-win situation. Believe it or not, the obesity epidemic, as devastating as it is, is just the tip of the iceberg. The polluted foods we eat are ruining our lives in a variety of other ways…

Tune in for the next article in this series in which we talk about the impact that polluted food is having along with the solutions for ridding ourselves of this plague that I call FOOD POLLUTION DISORDER.