Frankenfoods ...

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

Ah, frankenfoods, you know, the kind of crap we all love, devoured with extreme relish, particularly when the Super Bowl's on, AKA the worst food day of the year in America, is the root cause of obesity, a prime driver of related health problems killing millions all over the world 24/7.  Channeling this fact relating to the alteration of our food, better known as the western diet, is more than just appropriate as frankenfood not only applies to meat and fish due to how said entities are processed (think antibiotics & steroids) but also to other commodities packaged to last eons thanks to modern technology as it's cheaper to produce these items than to depend on a diet of largely unprocessed foods like nuts, breads, veggie/herbs and fruit of all varieties. 

For yours truly, MacDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's were the star-point of processed foods and why 69% of Americans are overweight, 36% of which are catagoriezed as being obese. 

The percentage of overweight or obese citizens in the United States 

compared to the rest of the world, according to a new Lancet study.

Credit: Lesley Marker

Hall’s study drew a clear link between junk food and excess calorie consumption, but it can’t tell us why people on the ultra-processed diet ate more. After he published the results, Hall was flooded with suggestions from other scientists. Some thought it was because junk food is more calorie-dense. Since processed foods are often deep-fried and high in fat, they pack in more calories per gram than whole foods. Or maybe it was because junk food was eaten more quickly; in the study, people on the ultra-processed diet ate significantly faster than those eating whole foods. Other scientists thought that additives might be playing a role, or that junk food changed the gut microbiome in a way that influenced calorie intake.

A big factor might be the effect that ultra-processed foods have on our brain. Alexandra DiFeliceantonio is an assistant professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine who studies how junk food interacts with the brain’s reward systems. “We know a lot more about fat, sugars, and carbohydrates, and how those are signaled in the gut and to the brain. We know a lot less about the role of ultra-processing in altering any of those signals,” says DiFeliceantonio.

Her hypothesis is that since ultra-processed foods are rich in easily available calories, they induce a potent reward response in our brains that keeps us coming back for more.

Question, can anyone truly resist the allure of MacDonald fries? 

Lest not forget GMOs. 

GMO Salmon Photo of a genetically engineered Salmon. Created so that it continuously produces growth hormones and can be sold as a full size fish after 18 months instead of 3 years.

Photograph by Paulo Oliveira/Alamy Stock Photo

A genetically modified organism (GMO) is an animal, plant, or microbe whose DNA has been altered using genetic engineering techniques.

For thousands of years, humans have used breeding methods to modify organisms. Corn, cattle, and even dogs have been selectively bred over generations to have certain desired traits. Within the last few decades, however, modern advances in biotechnology have allowed scientists to directly modify the DNA of microorganisms, crops, and animals.

They're everywhere ...