Ultra-Processed Food as Ultimate Soft-Kill Weapon

Originally published via Armageddon Prose Substack:

We the serfs on the techno-fiefdom that is the modern world can — at least in theory, at least for now — forego mRNA injections, even under threat of the loss of their livelihoods (although, apropos to the theme of this article, engineered mRNA is increasingly added to the food supply, eliminating informed consent).

We can toss toxic pharmaceutical prescriptions in the trash as fast as doctors on the industry take can write them.

We can skirt 5G radiation via strategic relocation.

As of now, most of the technocracy’s bioweapons disguised as medical therapies or technological conveniences can be avoided, albeit often at great personal expense and risk.

But everyone has to eat food, and everyone has to drink water.

And, unless you’re dredging your own well water and growing your own food to the extent of complete independence (and even then, there’s no protection against soil depletion or GMO franken-DNA blowing onto your property from a nearby operation), the food and water supply is a target-rich environment for depopulationist technocrats — and the corporations, NGOs, and governments in their back pockets — to exploit.

I got in the habit some years ago of actually reading — one might say (gasp!), doing my own verboten research as a non-credentialed peasant, which the “experts” warn sternly against — the ingredients list on products I was considering buying in the supermarket or wherever.

A rule of thumb, bit of wisdom passed down from where I can’t remember, is that if you can’t pronounce each of the ingredients, or if the list is longer than five items, it’s probably a good idea to take a pass.

Via U.S. Right to Know (emphasis added):

“’Ultra-processed food’ describes food products that have been created or altered from their natural state with added sugars or artificial sweeteners, salt, additives, preservatives, or other chemicals. Added sweeteners in particular, including high-fructose corn syrup, sucralose, and aspartame, are common in ultra-processed food.

They also often contain additives and preservatives, like food dyes (including Red 40, Yellow 5, and titanium dioxide), sodium benzoate, sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite, brominated vegetable oil (BVO), potassium bromate, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT).”

Nearly any processed food item you buy in the supermarket is likely to be chock-full of not one but dozens of these ingredients, a toxic slew of synthetic nonsense.

Continuing via U.S. Right to Know:

“Common ultra-processed groceries include cookies, sodas and energy drinks, fruit-flavored yogurts, margarine, packaged pastries, plant-based meats and milks, canned soups, frozen meals, sweetened breakfast cereals, granola and energy bars, hot dogs, deli meats, and potato chips.

Brands like Nestlé, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Frito-Lay, Kraft Heinz, and Kellogg’s are among the world’s largest manufacturers of ultra-processed foods.”

Over time — and this comes as no surprise in the ultra-impatient world that demands convenience at all costs, saturated with agri-business advertising — consumption of ultra-processed food increases. Eventually, Soylent Green will be all that’s left on the menu.

Via The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN)

“Adjusting for changes in population characteristics, the consumption of ultra-processed foods increased among all US adults from 2001-2002 to 2017-2018 (from 53.5 to 57.0 %kcal; P-trend < 0.001). The trend was consistent among all sociodemographic subgroups, except Hispanics, in stratified analyses. In contrast, the consumption of minimally processed foods decreased significantly over the study period (from 32.7 to 27.4 %kcal; P-trend < 0.001) and across all sociodemographic strata. The consumption of processed culinary ingredients increased from 3.9 to 5.4 %kcal (P-trend < 0.001), whereas the intake of processed foods remained stable at ∼10 %kcal throughout the study period (P-trend = 0.052).”

And here we arrive at the intersection of morbid obesity — a downright epidemic in the West if ever there one — and one of the worst offenders on the ultra-processed roster, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Via PLOS One:

“Obesity has increased dramatically in recent decades, a phenomenon widely associated with the so-called ‘western diet’: energy-dense, highly palatable foods with high fat and sugar content. More recently, there has been an interest in the possible contribution of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to the rise in obesity. Used widely in nearly all commercial foods, from bread to beverages, HFCS consumption has risen in parallel with increasing body weights and rates of obesity. While evidence suggests links between increased sugar consumption and the rising prevalence of obesity and metabolic disorder, the contribution of HFCS per se, because of its higher fructose content, has been controversial with arguments for and against HFCS constituting a specific liability beyond increased sugar consumption generally.

HFCS-55, containing 55% fructose, 42% glucose, and 3% other saccharides, is primarily used in liquid product. Fructose, including HFCS with its higher fructose content, is more lipogenic compared to other sugars and is metabolized differently. Where glucose can enter the cells through GLUT4 (various tissues), GLUT3 (neurons), GLUT2 (homeostasis though uptake in intestine), and GLUT1 (astrocytes and insulin-independent), fructose primarily uses GLUT5, which is not found in pancreatic beta cells, is specific for fructose, and not responsive to insulin. GLUT2 also transports fructose non-selectively, though this low-affinity transporter is involved in transport primarily in the liver, intestine and kidneys.”

Via Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior:

“Rats maintained on a diet rich in HFCS for 6 or 7 months show abnormal weight gain, increased circulating [triglycerides] and augmented fat deposition. All of these factors indicate obesity. Thus, over consumption of HFCS could very well be a major factor in the “obesity epidemic,” which correlates with the upsurge in the use of HFCS.”

And we’re just scraping the tip of the iceberg with HFCS.

What of Red 40, or aspartame, or brominated vegetable oil, or any of the others?

Those, boys and girls, are stories for another day at Armageddon Prose.

Ben Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.

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