America's Obesity Epidemic is a Direct Fault of Capitalism

And SUGAR is America's number one TRUE enemy.

Why?
Because sugar is what actually makes us fat, not consuming foods with x-amount total fat. Sugar is known for its sweetness, a taste we humans love and crave, but unfortunately, because of the health detriments, it should be avoided as often as possible (because if we eat what we're supposed to, ie fruits, sugars may occur natural in them already... making those natural sugars okay in moderation).

But since we crave the flavour, oftentimes making it an addiction as poor diet brings sweet and salty cravings, companies try to capitalize on it by including it in foods more often. Or, to save more money and gain more profit, they use high fructose corn syrup, an artificial sweetener that is worse than plain table sugar. Other sweeteners include Aspartame, Saccharin, and 'regular' Corn Syrup.

Where does this become a problem? Well, with the gap between higher and lower classes increasing, most people try to save as much money as possible. Cheap foods are the ones that utilize HFCS and sugar the most, while organic foods cost much more. If almost all cheap foods contain some sort of sugar (or even worse, trans fat), and sugar leads to obesity and other health problems, yet we as humans like the taste and can become addicted, and companies decide to take advantage of that... it becomes a vicious circle where the only ones who can get out are the ones willing to look at the labels and spend more money on food.

I mentioned trans fat a little while ago. This is the only type of fat that is 100% bad for you (while other fats serve a function in the body). Why? Because it is man made. Most everything that has been artificially modified when it comes to foods means lower quality food and ultimately health issues. Trans fat is made from hydrogenated or hydrolyzed (or a similar adjective) oils which makes them solid and last longer. The problem with that is our bodies don't know how to deal with the chemically altered fat, making it difficult to process and may cause problems if used in excess. Always look at the ingredients for the hydro- buzz words - the loop hole in nutrition labeling is if the trans fat is less than one gram per serving, the manufacturer does NOT have to include it in the trans fats. Messed up.

I would like to thank my Nutrition class and prof for all of this information. It fuels my fire.
Oh, and watch out for corn [products], too.