This is a very rough draft of my research paper. My points of concern are with my grammar, effective transitions between paragraphs and my conclusion. I am concerned my paper may not flow or transition very well between ideas. I am also not happy with the conclusion. Thank you so much for your time!
Nicole Campbell
English 102
Stephanie Olson
29 October 2013
Food is one of life's main essentials to sustain viability. The ongoing growth, maintenance and repair of the body depends deeply on the energy and nutrients supplied to the body through foods. The nutrients that food delivers to the human body is an amazingly, dynamic process that keeps people alive and well. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over 25 million people in America have diabetes; 215,000 of those are children and over 69 percent of all Americans are overweight and obese. This includes childhood obesity, which has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. There is also the deadly threat of food allergies, which according to the CDC, has increased approximately 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. That means 1 in every 13 children under the age of 18 have a food allergy, according to statistics. These diseases cause many complications and are responsible for a reduced quality of life. These startling statistics reveal that Americans, especially children, are not getting the proper nutrients their body needs.
America has made giant strides with technological innovations in food production and has an abundant food supply. So why are so many Americans sick with food related diseases, especially children? Taking a closer look at America's diet holds the answer. A typical American diet consists of 70 percent processed foods. This includes packaged foods, fast foods, and foods that could not be prepared with simple ingredients in a home kitchen. This 70 percent figure was the result of a rigorous analysis done by the Brazilian nutrition scientist Carlos Monteiro (Warner). Research indicates that processed foods are depriving children of essential nutritional needs, affecting food choices by scientifically engineering foods, and contributing to various health disorders among children in America. With American's diet invested 70 percent or more in processed foods, this information is not unexpected for some people.
Processed food companies rely heavily on additives, synthetic nutrients and other unhealthy ingredients to sustain and sell their products. These many ingredients, containing little or no nutritional value are added to thousands of food products children consume on a daily basis and is contributing to the deprivation of essential nutrient needs. Dr. Ludwig, an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, expresses his concern about the scores of artificial additives and how they will interact in the human body over a time. He explains, "The declining quality of children's diets is robbing them of key vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and plant chemicals that are known to support cellular metabolism and promote optimal health" (O'Brien 46). Food companies are, however, making an effort to utilize science and create healthier processed food. This effort involves taking a natural food source in a laboratory, treating it with various high-powered chemicals, solvents, heat, and distillations to reduce it to a specific vitamin or mineral, which then can be added to millions of food products. On the other hand, according to Dr. Drucker, a highly respected doctor with a Masters of Science degree in Natural Health and Doctorate in Naturopathy, synthetic chemical nutrients do not compare to living plant-derived nutrients. He explains, "That studies have repeatedly shown that synthetic nutrients are less bio-available than natural nutrients found in fruits and vegetables, rendering them inefficient" (Drucker). Despite the food companies many efforts to fortify processed foods and make them healthier there is still the unexplained fact of the unnecessary amounts of sugar, salt and fat that are added to processed foods. Michael Moss, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, spent several years researching the processed food industry and found that the industry relies profoundly on three main ingredients: salt, sugar, and fat (Moss). These are three main ingredients that if consumed in excess causes many health disorders, especially among young children. These processed foods that are high in sugar, salt, and fat prove to be much more appealing to children but cause a major dietary shift away from more natural, nutrient dense foods such as fruits and vegetables.
When a shift is made from natural foods to processed foods, an individual can still get all the fat, calories, and carbs, but not the nutritional building blocks that the body needs. Dr. Fuhrman points out that we get two types of nutrients from foods: macronutrients, which come from fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, and micronutrients, which contain vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, or other plant based chemicals. "So, even when processed foods are fortified they may not be as good for an individual as natural foods, because it is uncertain of all the micronutrients natural foods might hold" (O'Brien 44). Children are also being exposed to many marketing games and advertisements that contribute to this dietary switch from natural foods to processed foods. The most popular advertisements are seen in cereal commercials geared towards young children. These cereals used to entice children are loaded with sugar. An analysis published in the Journal of American Dietetic Association, found that children's cereals have more sugar, sodium, carbohydrates, and calories per gram than cereals not marketed to kids. They also found that they have less protein and fiber (Dr. Mercola). There was also a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2010, which findings indicated that a large number of foods with low nutritional value were being marketed to children via advergames. The study concluded that a standardized system of food marketing guidance is needed to better inform the public about healthfulness of foods advertised to children (CDC). This shift towards processed foods and the clever advertising by food companies pulls children away from more natural, nutrient dense food items, which deprives them of basic nutrient needs.
Marketing that appeals to young children is not the only thing driving a dietary shift towards processed foods and away from more natural foods. Food companies are now utilizing scientific methods to engineer their food products, which in turn, are affecting the food choices of many children in America. According to Michael Moss' book, "Salt, Sugar, and Fat", food companies are exploiting the biology of children. These food companies pay scientific institutes, such as Monell Chemical Senses Center, to conduct special research for them. Monell tests such things as; the pleasures derived from sensations like tasting sugar in young children. They use this information to decide how sweet the children like their food, referred to as "the bliss point" among research scientists (Moss 13). Moss witnessed one of these very tests, on a six-year-old little girl who was to taste vanilla pudding, each at a different level of sweetness, and tell which she liked better. She chose the pudding that was 24 percent sugar. Outstanding information, considering the food companies will use this information to produce an unhealthy product based on a child's bliss point for sugar, rather than nutritional needs. Health reporter Kelly Crow also reports how the food industry is researching the connection between the taste receptors on the tongue, to the corresponding chemical reaction in the brain. This is all done so food companies can carefully engineer a food product deliberately designed to make it impossible to eat just a small amount of their product (CBC News). In fact, companies such as Unilever, have gone as far as hiring a team of neuroscientist. Their team conducts research studies to explore the neural response to stimuli in things such as sweetness. These companies have an abundant amount of knowledge as to how the brain reacts to certain stimulus such as sugar and the negative effects it has if consumed in excess, yet their products contain large amounts of it. With junk food engineered after a child's own biology, it makes it clear as to why many children have a hard time picking fruits and vegetables over processed foods.
The Doctor Oz Show published an article called, "Salt, Sugar and Fat: Could You Be Addicted?" which points to research that has shown that various forms of food stimuli (advertisements, smells, photographs of food) trigger the brain the same way that seeing white powder triggers cocaine addicts. Eating foods that are high in fat and sugar has been shown to surge the body's release of its own opioids, which act like morphine in the body. This is shocking considering all the advertising you see for sugary cereals, snacks and drinks geared towards such young children. Another startling piece of evidence comes from Eric Stice, a neuroscientist at the Oregon Research Institute, who compares the effects of sugar on the brain to the same effects as heroin. He uses a functional MRI scanner to conduct his research and learn how the brain responds to sweetness from sugar. Stice explains how sugar activates the brain in a special way, and how it triggers the release of dopamine and causes a euphoric effect in the brain. Sugar fires the reward regions of the brain and when sugary foods are over consumed it blunts the brain, the body then needs twice as much sugar to achieve the same effect it once had. "Sugar is much more addictive, than I think we ever realized" adds Stice ("Is Sugar Toxic"). Food companies are well aware of the effects of sugar on a person. They pay top scientists and research groups for this specific information. Yet, these food companies are using large amounts of sugars and fats in their products and according to recent research these ingredients can cause cravings and even addiction. Children, unaware of their own food cravings and exploited biology, are unable to realize the effects of processed foods on their own natural food choices. When a child's food choices are effected, they tend to form unhealthy eating habits, with the help of parents who appreciate convenience and less protest from their children. These actions cause an overload in the consumption of processed food, which contribute to the epidemic health disorders we are witnessing among children in America today.
Processed foods contain many empty calories, too much fat, and an extreme amount of sugar. When consumed in excess on a daily basis it leads to unhealthy weight gain and insulin resistance in children. Many studies today, in fact, indicate that processed foods are contributing to the many health disorders plaguing the youth of America. Dr. Robert Lustig a professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, explains that when high-fructose corn syrup and sugar became cheaper to refine and produce, Americans started gorging on it. He points out a connection between the rise in high fructose corn syrup consumption from 1970 to 2011("Is Sugar Toxic), to the obesity epidemic that has doubled in young children and tripled in adolescents from 1980 to 2008(CDC). It is no secret that sugar is in just about every processed food product imagined. Looking at many ingredient and nutrition labels for such things as peanut butter, yogurt, bread, and spaghetti sauce, shows the content of added sugar. These added sugars can add up to 600 empty calories to a child's diet a day, further fueling the obesity epidemic among children. Forty percent of children are now overweight and 2 million are morbidly obese, exceeding the 99th percentile for weight (JAMA). As obesity rates in children have climbed, so has the incidence of Type 2 diabetes; a more complicated disease that was rarely diagnosed in children before the 1990s. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over 25 million people in America have diabetes; 215,000 of those are children. In adults, diabetics and pre-diabetics are often not diagnosed and in children, most of the cases are missed. An alarming new study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine found that Type 2 diabetes progresses more rapidly in children than in adults and is harder to treat. The study followed 699 children ages 10-17 at medical centers around the world. The study found that oral medication, normally used to treat Type 2 diabetes, had stopped working in about half of the patients within a few years. Researchers were shock to see how poorly the patients responded to oral medication, which worked much better in adults (New York Times). This is devastating information considering the significant health risks these children will face in the future if Type 2 diabetes is poorly treated.
Along with the increase in obesity and diabetes, there is also the deadly threat of food allergies, which according to the CDC, has increased approximately 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. 1 in every 13 children under the age of 18 have a food allergy. Most processed foods contain a variety of food coloring, flavors, preservatives, and other additives, that can contribute to allergies for a number of different reasons. Dr. Ludwig explains that consuming a highly processed diet with the wrong kind of calories and not the right amount of nutrients can deregulate the immune system. He suggests that this deregulation is causing a less responsive immune system to certain kinds of infections in children. It could also cause the immune system to become oversensitive with such diseases as food allergies and autoimmune disorders (O'Brien). The reaction to food coloring agents in children is also another concern. Most processed foods are colored with synthetic agents that are used to improve the colors of foods that have lost their color through storage and or heat. Many of these coloring agents are derived from unnatural sources like the manufacturing of coal tars, which include FD&C Yellow#5 (tartrazine) and FD&C Blue#2 (indigo carmine). Some children are sensitive to these artificial colorings, which can cause problems with asthma, and inflammatory skin conditions. According to a recent study conducted by Columbia University and The New York State Psychiatric Institute, food additives, such as, yellow Dye #5, or tartrazine, and Yellow Dye #6, also contribute to symptoms of ADHD in children (McKillip). Another common ingredient used for flavoring is called mono-sodium glutamate, which causes a variety of unpleasant symptoms, including dizziness, nausea, headaches, inattention, chest pain, heart irregularities, muscle weakness and asthma or breathing difficulties in children with food sensitivities (McKillip). Furthermore, a Bristol University study that was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health demonstrated a link between the consumption of processed foods before the age of 3, and a lower IQ score at the age of 8. These studies are not a coincidence, they show that all across America, health professionals who specialize in pediatrics and dietary nutrition are becoming seriously concerned with the effects of processed foods on a child's overall health.
America's food supply has changed drastically in the last century and so has the health of many Americans. Americans used to thrive on whole foods for nutritional value, now Americans thrive on processed food for convenience. Food companies have altered the very way we view nutrition. They have taken science to a whole new level and added it to what we now call food. Processed food companies promote synthetic vitamins over whole food vitamins and elect precooked dinners and snacks packed with salt, sugar and fat, over home cooked meals with nutritional value. Processed food companies innovative and high-tech manipulations of foods have destroyed the true value of essential nutrients.
Food related diseases and illnesses among children are at epidemic proportions in American today, and research proves that the cure doesn't lie in a laboratory. The cure lies among a shift towards a more nutritional diet in children. It lies in supporting the community and local farmers who provide fresh, natural fruits, vegetables and real whole grains. The cure certainly doesn't lie in food companies that rely on scientific research that exploits a child's biology just to sell their product. These food companies have lost insight as to what is truly important in a food product.
Nicole Campbell
English 102
Stephanie Olson
29 October 2013
Food is one of life's main essentials to sustain viability. The ongoing growth, maintenance and repair of the body depends deeply on the energy and nutrients supplied to the body through foods. The nutrients that food delivers to the human body is an amazingly, dynamic process that keeps people alive and well. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over 25 million people in America have diabetes; 215,000 of those are children and over 69 percent of all Americans are overweight and obese. This includes childhood obesity, which has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. There is also the deadly threat of food allergies, which according to the CDC, has increased approximately 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. That means 1 in every 13 children under the age of 18 have a food allergy, according to statistics. These diseases cause many complications and are responsible for a reduced quality of life. These startling statistics reveal that Americans, especially children, are not getting the proper nutrients their body needs.
America has made giant strides with technological innovations in food production and has an abundant food supply. So why are so many Americans sick with food related diseases, especially children? Taking a closer look at America's diet holds the answer. A typical American diet consists of 70 percent processed foods. This includes packaged foods, fast foods, and foods that could not be prepared with simple ingredients in a home kitchen. This 70 percent figure was the result of a rigorous analysis done by the Brazilian nutrition scientist Carlos Monteiro (Warner). Research indicates that processed foods are depriving children of essential nutritional needs, affecting food choices by scientifically engineering foods, and contributing to various health disorders among children in America. With American's diet invested 70 percent or more in processed foods, this information is not unexpected for some people.
Processed food companies rely heavily on additives, synthetic nutrients and other unhealthy ingredients to sustain and sell their products. These many ingredients, containing little or no nutritional value are added to thousands of food products children consume on a daily basis and is contributing to the deprivation of essential nutrient needs. Dr. Ludwig, an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, expresses his concern about the scores of artificial additives and how they will interact in the human body over a time. He explains, "The declining quality of children's diets is robbing them of key vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and plant chemicals that are known to support cellular metabolism and promote optimal health" (O'Brien 46). Food companies are, however, making an effort to utilize science and create healthier processed food. This effort involves taking a natural food source in a laboratory, treating it with various high-powered chemicals, solvents, heat, and distillations to reduce it to a specific vitamin or mineral, which then can be added to millions of food products. On the other hand, according to Dr. Drucker, a highly respected doctor with a Masters of Science degree in Natural Health and Doctorate in Naturopathy, synthetic chemical nutrients do not compare to living plant-derived nutrients. He explains, "That studies have repeatedly shown that synthetic nutrients are less bio-available than natural nutrients found in fruits and vegetables, rendering them inefficient" (Drucker). Despite the food companies many efforts to fortify processed foods and make them healthier there is still the unexplained fact of the unnecessary amounts of sugar, salt and fat that are added to processed foods. Michael Moss, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, spent several years researching the processed food industry and found that the industry relies profoundly on three main ingredients: salt, sugar, and fat (Moss). These are three main ingredients that if consumed in excess causes many health disorders, especially among young children. These processed foods that are high in sugar, salt, and fat prove to be much more appealing to children but cause a major dietary shift away from more natural, nutrient dense foods such as fruits and vegetables.
When a shift is made from natural foods to processed foods, an individual can still get all the fat, calories, and carbs, but not the nutritional building blocks that the body needs. Dr. Fuhrman points out that we get two types of nutrients from foods: macronutrients, which come from fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, and micronutrients, which contain vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, or other plant based chemicals. "So, even when processed foods are fortified they may not be as good for an individual as natural foods, because it is uncertain of all the micronutrients natural foods might hold" (O'Brien 44). Children are also being exposed to many marketing games and advertisements that contribute to this dietary switch from natural foods to processed foods. The most popular advertisements are seen in cereal commercials geared towards young children. These cereals used to entice children are loaded with sugar. An analysis published in the Journal of American Dietetic Association, found that children's cereals have more sugar, sodium, carbohydrates, and calories per gram than cereals not marketed to kids. They also found that they have less protein and fiber (Dr. Mercola). There was also a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2010, which findings indicated that a large number of foods with low nutritional value were being marketed to children via advergames. The study concluded that a standardized system of food marketing guidance is needed to better inform the public about healthfulness of foods advertised to children (CDC). This shift towards processed foods and the clever advertising by food companies pulls children away from more natural, nutrient dense food items, which deprives them of basic nutrient needs.
Marketing that appeals to young children is not the only thing driving a dietary shift towards processed foods and away from more natural foods. Food companies are now utilizing scientific methods to engineer their food products, which in turn, are affecting the food choices of many children in America. According to Michael Moss' book, "Salt, Sugar, and Fat", food companies are exploiting the biology of children. These food companies pay scientific institutes, such as Monell Chemical Senses Center, to conduct special research for them. Monell tests such things as; the pleasures derived from sensations like tasting sugar in young children. They use this information to decide how sweet the children like their food, referred to as "the bliss point" among research scientists (Moss 13). Moss witnessed one of these very tests, on a six-year-old little girl who was to taste vanilla pudding, each at a different level of sweetness, and tell which she liked better. She chose the pudding that was 24 percent sugar. Outstanding information, considering the food companies will use this information to produce an unhealthy product based on a child's bliss point for sugar, rather than nutritional needs. Health reporter Kelly Crow also reports how the food industry is researching the connection between the taste receptors on the tongue, to the corresponding chemical reaction in the brain. This is all done so food companies can carefully engineer a food product deliberately designed to make it impossible to eat just a small amount of their product (CBC News). In fact, companies such as Unilever, have gone as far as hiring a team of neuroscientist. Their team conducts research studies to explore the neural response to stimuli in things such as sweetness. These companies have an abundant amount of knowledge as to how the brain reacts to certain stimulus such as sugar and the negative effects it has if consumed in excess, yet their products contain large amounts of it. With junk food engineered after a child's own biology, it makes it clear as to why many children have a hard time picking fruits and vegetables over processed foods.
The Doctor Oz Show published an article called, "Salt, Sugar and Fat: Could You Be Addicted?" which points to research that has shown that various forms of food stimuli (advertisements, smells, photographs of food) trigger the brain the same way that seeing white powder triggers cocaine addicts. Eating foods that are high in fat and sugar has been shown to surge the body's release of its own opioids, which act like morphine in the body. This is shocking considering all the advertising you see for sugary cereals, snacks and drinks geared towards such young children. Another startling piece of evidence comes from Eric Stice, a neuroscientist at the Oregon Research Institute, who compares the effects of sugar on the brain to the same effects as heroin. He uses a functional MRI scanner to conduct his research and learn how the brain responds to sweetness from sugar. Stice explains how sugar activates the brain in a special way, and how it triggers the release of dopamine and causes a euphoric effect in the brain. Sugar fires the reward regions of the brain and when sugary foods are over consumed it blunts the brain, the body then needs twice as much sugar to achieve the same effect it once had. "Sugar is much more addictive, than I think we ever realized" adds Stice ("Is Sugar Toxic"). Food companies are well aware of the effects of sugar on a person. They pay top scientists and research groups for this specific information. Yet, these food companies are using large amounts of sugars and fats in their products and according to recent research these ingredients can cause cravings and even addiction. Children, unaware of their own food cravings and exploited biology, are unable to realize the effects of processed foods on their own natural food choices. When a child's food choices are effected, they tend to form unhealthy eating habits, with the help of parents who appreciate convenience and less protest from their children. These actions cause an overload in the consumption of processed food, which contribute to the epidemic health disorders we are witnessing among children in America today.
Processed foods contain many empty calories, too much fat, and an extreme amount of sugar. When consumed in excess on a daily basis it leads to unhealthy weight gain and insulin resistance in children. Many studies today, in fact, indicate that processed foods are contributing to the many health disorders plaguing the youth of America. Dr. Robert Lustig a professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, explains that when high-fructose corn syrup and sugar became cheaper to refine and produce, Americans started gorging on it. He points out a connection between the rise in high fructose corn syrup consumption from 1970 to 2011("Is Sugar Toxic), to the obesity epidemic that has doubled in young children and tripled in adolescents from 1980 to 2008(CDC). It is no secret that sugar is in just about every processed food product imagined. Looking at many ingredient and nutrition labels for such things as peanut butter, yogurt, bread, and spaghetti sauce, shows the content of added sugar. These added sugars can add up to 600 empty calories to a child's diet a day, further fueling the obesity epidemic among children. Forty percent of children are now overweight and 2 million are morbidly obese, exceeding the 99th percentile for weight (JAMA). As obesity rates in children have climbed, so has the incidence of Type 2 diabetes; a more complicated disease that was rarely diagnosed in children before the 1990s. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over 25 million people in America have diabetes; 215,000 of those are children. In adults, diabetics and pre-diabetics are often not diagnosed and in children, most of the cases are missed. An alarming new study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine found that Type 2 diabetes progresses more rapidly in children than in adults and is harder to treat. The study followed 699 children ages 10-17 at medical centers around the world. The study found that oral medication, normally used to treat Type 2 diabetes, had stopped working in about half of the patients within a few years. Researchers were shock to see how poorly the patients responded to oral medication, which worked much better in adults (New York Times). This is devastating information considering the significant health risks these children will face in the future if Type 2 diabetes is poorly treated.
Along with the increase in obesity and diabetes, there is also the deadly threat of food allergies, which according to the CDC, has increased approximately 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. 1 in every 13 children under the age of 18 have a food allergy. Most processed foods contain a variety of food coloring, flavors, preservatives, and other additives, that can contribute to allergies for a number of different reasons. Dr. Ludwig explains that consuming a highly processed diet with the wrong kind of calories and not the right amount of nutrients can deregulate the immune system. He suggests that this deregulation is causing a less responsive immune system to certain kinds of infections in children. It could also cause the immune system to become oversensitive with such diseases as food allergies and autoimmune disorders (O'Brien). The reaction to food coloring agents in children is also another concern. Most processed foods are colored with synthetic agents that are used to improve the colors of foods that have lost their color through storage and or heat. Many of these coloring agents are derived from unnatural sources like the manufacturing of coal tars, which include FD&C Yellow#5 (tartrazine) and FD&C Blue#2 (indigo carmine). Some children are sensitive to these artificial colorings, which can cause problems with asthma, and inflammatory skin conditions. According to a recent study conducted by Columbia University and The New York State Psychiatric Institute, food additives, such as, yellow Dye #5, or tartrazine, and Yellow Dye #6, also contribute to symptoms of ADHD in children (McKillip). Another common ingredient used for flavoring is called mono-sodium glutamate, which causes a variety of unpleasant symptoms, including dizziness, nausea, headaches, inattention, chest pain, heart irregularities, muscle weakness and asthma or breathing difficulties in children with food sensitivities (McKillip). Furthermore, a Bristol University study that was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health demonstrated a link between the consumption of processed foods before the age of 3, and a lower IQ score at the age of 8. These studies are not a coincidence, they show that all across America, health professionals who specialize in pediatrics and dietary nutrition are becoming seriously concerned with the effects of processed foods on a child's overall health.
America's food supply has changed drastically in the last century and so has the health of many Americans. Americans used to thrive on whole foods for nutritional value, now Americans thrive on processed food for convenience. Food companies have altered the very way we view nutrition. They have taken science to a whole new level and added it to what we now call food. Processed food companies promote synthetic vitamins over whole food vitamins and elect precooked dinners and snacks packed with salt, sugar and fat, over home cooked meals with nutritional value. Processed food companies innovative and high-tech manipulations of foods have destroyed the true value of essential nutrients.
Food related diseases and illnesses among children are at epidemic proportions in American today, and research proves that the cure doesn't lie in a laboratory. The cure lies among a shift towards a more nutritional diet in children. It lies in supporting the community and local farmers who provide fresh, natural fruits, vegetables and real whole grains. The cure certainly doesn't lie in food companies that rely on scientific research that exploits a child's biology just to sell their product. These food companies have lost insight as to what is truly important in a food product.