By Dean L. Jones, CPM

A friend shared how his blood pressure was up in the dangerous stage-1 range of 140-159 over 90-99 (normal is 115-120 over 75-80).  Once a healthy Grambling State University football running back, he now struggles with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other ailments, where his doctor recently warned him that his high blood pressure was at a serious health risk.  High blood pressure, also called hypertension, is no joke as it makes the heart work harder to pump blood to the body.  It also contributes to hardening of the arteries, and to the development of heart failure. 

Unfortunately, this particular condition is similarly shared too often by our co-workers, family members as well as friends.  Aside from being overweight and lacking physical activity that adds to the high blood pressure, stress can be a recurrent source of hypertension.  Even so, an improper diet is considered the leading cause of hypertension, such as, but not limited to, consuming processed sugar, smoking cigarettes, and unjustifiable amounts of alcohol.  It should be noted that the most commonly talked about culprit for high blood pressure was omitted, which is the old restrictions to limit and/or avoid too salt/sodium food items.

Too much salt was the standard reason given by doctors for having high blood pressure, but more modern evidence has shifted to a much more harmful food ingredient — processed sugar.  Historically, sugar cane plantations were worked by people who were enslaved to produce the final product.  This free labor served to bring about a highly profitable industry, where at about the same time when the masses began devouring processed sugar diabetes became a rising disease.

Industrial modernization has increased the availability of processed sugar so much that it is added to just about every eatable product.  Consequently, the addictive nature of this ingredient has consumers obsessed with eating it, thereby increasing the likelihood of more people subjected to type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, as these diseases are so readily manifested as the body stores excess processed sugar as fat.

Businesses are constantly seeking out products that lure consumers (refashioned enslavement) to make repetitive purchases to gain greater profits.  Which is undoubtedly why Lay’s introduced their new Wavy Potato Chips Dipped in Milk Chocolate.  Combining tastes is commonly referred to as a mash-up and this product epitomizes the highest exploitative use of the three addictive food ingredients — salt, sugar, and fat.

Moreover, Lay’s appears to be explicitly targeting women to buy this sweet and salty combo novelty while it is placed only into Target stores for a limited-time this holiday season.  Lay’s is asking $3 and 49¢ a bag to seduce the 43% of consumers who snack three to four times a day, a growing percentage that far exceeds the 24% of consumers who snacked like this just five years ago.

www.SugarAlert.com
Dean Jones, Ethics Advocate, Southland Partnership Corporation (a public benefit organization), contributes his view on health attributes derived from processed foodstuff items.