On the 20th of February 2013 the New York Times published an article which spells out how the food industry is manufacturing food which is engineered to be addictive. Once you eat it you keep wanting more and the reality is it is bad for your health.

Why is there such a diabetes epidemic in the United States? Probably the same reason we have the diabetic epidemic in Australia. High energy food with no nutrition. In other words foods that produce a high sugar load. We are living off factory made foods.

The article is lengthy but it is worthwhile the read. It will open your eyes to what is sitting on our supermarket shelves. The article “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” goes to the heart of the obesity epidemic. In Australia over 60% of people are considered overweight or obese. The US figures show that one quarter of the population is defined as clinically obese. The question is who is at fault? The journalist Michael Moss has dug deep into the food industry and has discovered the ingredients, the feel and even the shape of the food is designed to keep you coming back for more. The food must be manufactured to get you hooked.

If you think about an addiction in the context of food, people today know that they should not be eating these foods but they have no idea why they just keep eating them.

To top it of the CEO of one of the large processed food manufacturers in the US stated in a meeting where CEO’s of major processed food companies were meeting that they they will keep pushing forward and urged his peers to do the same. This was right after they were compared to tobacco companies.

The journalist has gone all the way to discover the truth.

So why are the diabetes and obesity and hypertension numbers still spiralling out of control? It’s not just a matter of poor willpower on the part of the consumer and a give-the-people-what-they-want attitude on the part of the food manufacturers. What I found, over four years of research and reporting, was a conscious effort — taking place in labs and marketing meetings and grocery-store aisles — to get people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive. I talked to more than 300 people in or formerly employed by the processed-food industry, from scientists to marketers to C.E.O.’s. Some were willing whistle-blowers, while others spoke reluctantly when presented with some of the thousands of pages of secret memos that I obtained from inside the food industry’s operations.

This is a must read article before your next visit to the supermarket. To read the article “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” follow this link.