Hello
Every year the average American eats 33 pounds of cheese and 70 pounds of sugar. On average, 11 percent of our diet comes from saturated fats. Every day we eat 8,500 milligrams of salt-that's four whopping teaspoons of salt.
In his book Salt Sugar Fat, Michael Moss shows that during the past two decades some of America's largest food producers
carefully studied how to "help" us crave all this junk food. For example, some of the food industries biggest names--including Cambell Soup, General Foods, Kraft, PepsiCo, and Cadbury--hired "crave consultants" like the scientist Dr. Howard Moskowitz to help them determine our "bliss points," the point where food compainies can "optimize" our cravings.
Or as another example, Frito-Lay, makers of Lay's potato chips and the 21 varieties of Cheetos, operated a research complex near Dallas that employed nearly 500 chemists, psychologists, and technicians and spent up to $30 million a year to find the bliss point for their junk foods.
One food scientist called Cheetos "one
of the most marvelously constructed foods on the planet, in terms of pure pleasure." Cheetos has what's called "vanishing caloric density." In other words because it melts down quickly, your brain thinks that there's no calories in it, and you think you can just keep eating forever.
Interestingly, many of the former executives who Moss interviewed
for his book avoid the foods they tried to get us to eat. Howard Moskowitz doesn't drink Pepsi products because he claims "[soda's] not good for your teeth." A Frito-Lay executive admitted to Moss that he avoids most processed foods-like Cheetos. Moss concluded, "Like other former food company executives I met, [this Frito-Lay executive] overhauled his diet to avoid the very foods he once worked so hard to perfect."*
"What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Does watching what we eat actually matter to God? The scriptures are clear that is does. Food can be a tough dilemma for just about anyone (if the food they really enjoy is presented to them.) I struggle with a number of things (penuche fudge and pizza for example.)
God wants us to remember Who
we belong to, and He wants us to approach life (through His power and grace,) with balance and a prayerful attitude. It's not possible without His help, but He is willing and able to fill us with His Holy Spirit, and to help us in making the right choices for our bodies.
Have a great day and God bless!
Pastor Mike / The Open Word
