The Men who made us Fat

This is a new BBC TV series of which I've only seen Part 2: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01k6l6l/The_Men_Who_Made_Us_Fat_Episode_2/

The immediate thing which struck me is that the presenter focuses on just one issue of poor nutrition: amount. He comes back again and again to discuss the way portions and servings have increased in size and calorific intake. It's easy to get the impression that if only we ate a staple diet of regular size Big Macs and Mars bars we'd all be in perfect health! He also doesn't explain how cases of obesity have increased more than 20 years after what was predicted to be the obesity panacea: Aspartame, was introduced. However the super-size drinks shown were all sugar-based and the sugar-free factor was not mentioned.

No mention is made of how mealtimes in the home have changed, as well as eating out; and this I think is the biggest cause of poor nutrition. And this is due to economic changes that have altered our food purchasing, and therefore our eating, habits. Some years ago a household could survive on one income alone. One parent, usually the father, would go out and work while other, usually the mother, could take their time preparing a decent meal out of fresh wholefoods. Today both parents usually work, so nobody has the time to do that. Therefore it’s easier just to grab a frozen processed meal, often GMO, and microwave it. Microwave ovens reduce even further the already vitamin-depleted slurry that makes up the “TV dinner”. The rise in poor health as a result from this is portrayed in the programme as a problem, but for the Big Pharma regime, a legion of overweight diabetics with heart disease is a goldmine! Why would they want that revenue stream to dry up?

At the end of the programme there’s a short outro where the presenter sets the scene for Part 3, in which he’s obviously going to debunk the benefits of organic food. Expect another article from mew when this is broadcast! See here for my article about the resent anti-GMO protests: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/rothamsted-anti-gm-crops-protest.html