Could it be that the government wants us fat? If we’re fat, we’ll have more health issues. If we have more health issues, we’ll need more health care. If we need more health care, the government will be there to supply it. Once the government supplies all of our health needs, we’ll always vote for more government.

Government usually accomplishes the exact opposite of its stated goals. In spite of the Department of Education’s “vision,” our government schools are making kids dumb and dumber. Our welfare system through Medicaid, Medicare, social security, and general welfare payments breeds more and more poverty. Our Federal Reserve System doesn’t curb inflation or ameliorate unemployment numbers; on the contrary, the Fed causes them. The USDA’s vision statement reads the following:

“To be a dynamic organization that is able to enhance agricultural trade, improve farm economies and quality of life in rural America, protect the Nation’s food supply, improve the Nation’s nutrition, and protect and enhance the Nation’s natural resource base and environment.”

Our government pays big bucks to farmers to grow corn, wheat, rice and soy as well as other commodities. The mass overproduction of corn led to cheaper-than-dirt prices, which led to food manufacturers buying corn to produce cheap food additives, flavour enhancers, preservatives and the toxic sugar known as high fructose corn syrup. These corn products make junk food taste good and last longer on grocery store shelves. Corn and other grains, such as wheat, have now become staples in the American diet. We see the dreaded high fructose corn syrup on labels for breads, pastries, breakfast cereals, soft drinks, canned fruit, fruit juice drinks, condiments and processed meats. Is it any wonder the obesity rates have skyrocketed since the 1970s, when HFCS was introduced in our diets? And we’re not the only ones getting sick and fat from corn.

It’s so cheap that farmers use it to feed their livestock, even though cows cannot properly digest corn. It creates an acidic environment in their gut, perfect for the proliferation of E. coli, which necessitates the use of antibiotics and growth hormones. Cows were designed to eat and graze on grass, but that would require that farmers allow their cattle to roam around in a pasture, a more costly method compared to keeping thousands of cows squeezed on only a few acres of “feedlot,” force-feeding them cheap corn. Refined grains and sugar are all around us, and they’re making us and animals fat.

Recently, The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study done by Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity expert. The study found that a “low-fat diet produced changes in energy expenditure and serum leptin that would predict weight regain” and that “the very low carbohydrate diet had the most beneficial effects on energy expenditure and several metabolic syndrome components.” Further, it concluded that “a strategy to reduce glycemic load rather than dietary fat may be advantageous for weight-loss maintenance and cardiovascular disease prevention.”

Very simply, highly processed grains in products such as white bread, pasta and rice and the over-consumption of sugar such as HFCS make us fat and sick. Also, Americans don’t get enough fat. Is it a coincidence that the USDA food pyramid advises that the vast majority of our diet be comprised of “bread, cereal, rice and pasta” and that little or no fats be included at all? Is it a coincidence that these foods are the cheapest foods we can buy at the grocery?

And since we’ve become a culture of fast and easy microwaveable convenience, that’s what most Americans will go for. Organic and “natural” foods are looked at as too expensive and inconvenient, but the reality is that they are probably closer to an accurate market price, since they’re not filled with subsidized ingredients. The subsidized corn, wheat and soy make for fast, cheap food that makes us fat and sick. The question remains: with all the evidence that supports the fact that refined grains and sugars make us obese, why does our government encourage us to eat those very foods and to avoid the very foods that would make us healthier?

Some would argue that while our government usually does accomplish the exact opposite of its stated goals, our government also usually succeeds in their intended goals. Perhaps the Department of Education wants to make us dumb and dumber in order to make us into willing slaves who have been trained not to question our government, but to submit blindly to force. Perhaps the various welfare departments desire to make us poorer and poorer, in order to make us solely dependent on them. Maybe the Federal Reserve intends to bring about inflation and unemployment, to force people into the welfare system. And maybe our USDA aims to make us obese and ill, in order for us to more readily accept socialized healthcare.

For your guide to optimal health. See Ann Wigmore’s RECIPES FOR LONGER LIFE.