Have you ever wondered why obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related diseases are skyrocketing? Why our kids are suffering from adult illnesses? Why “dieting” feels like an endless struggle?
The hard truth is that we’ve been conditioned and brainwashed by society, culture, and the food industry to ignore what our bodies truly need – and instead eat masses of addictive processed junk.
In this article, we’ll reveal the 5 most influential forces that have programmed our mindset about food and healthy eating. It’s time to undo this brainwashing and take back control!
Hooked on Unhealthy Eating
First, consider these mind-boggling statistics:
- 42.4% of American adults were obese in 2018.
- 13% of adults now have type 2 diabetes – most tied to poor diet.
- 70% of American adults are overweight.
- Childhood obesity has tripled since the 1970s.
These shocking numbers illustrate that our approach to food and health in modern society is severely broken. Our population keeps getting sicker and more overweight with each generation.
Clearly, we have become conditioned to eat unhealthy processed foods riddled with sugar, fillers, and chemicals – while shunning the real whole foods our bodies crave. This article will reveal the most influential forces that brainwashed us into our current unhealthy mindset and habits around food.
1. Addictive Junk Food Marketing
The first major source of mind control is the aggressive marketing and advertising by the processed food and beverage industry. Corporations like Pepsi, McDonald’s, and General Mills spend billions annually to cram ads in our faces.
Their sole goal is to hook consumers on hyper-palatable junk food formulated to light up the pleasure sensors in our brain. Food scientists engineer the perfect amounts of fat, sugar, and salt to make their products irresistible.
Big food companies know that the younger they can attract consumers, the longer they’ll have loyal customers. That’s why kids’ programming is saturated with ads for hyper-sweet cereals, cheese-laden snack foods, and fast food happy meals.
This propaganda works frighteningly well. The average child sees around 10 food ads per day on TV alone. Is it any wonder kids plead with their parents for more junk food? From a young age, we’re brainwashed that heavily processed foods are fun, desired and completely normal to eat all the time.
2. The New Normal of Processed Food
And that brings us to the second major factor – the sheer normalization of packaged and heavily processed food in the Standard American Diet (SAD).
Walk into any grocery store and you’ll be surrounded by aisles of glorified science experiments masquerading as food. Popular meal choices like frozen pizzas, instant noodles, and drive-thru burgers are entirely artificial creations.
Yet over the decades, this has become the new normal. Meal time is now dominated by microwavable meals, sugary snacks, and food-like beverages. Home cooking from scratch using fresh whole ingredients has become almost unheard of.
Many parents today would rather cave to the pressure and buy processed snacks and meals than prepare real food for their families. The food industry now engineers products for maximum convenience – which the time-starved modern consumer now craves.
We have been brainwashed and conditioned to accept low quality processed food as the quick and easy option. Our connection to real food and its origins has been severed.
3. Demonizing Natural Fats, Glamorizing Carbs
For decades, dietary guidelines and “common knowledge” pushed the narrative that all fats were bad and should be avoided. Healthy natural fats found in foods like olive oil, avocados, nuts and full-fat dairy were vilified and blamed for weight gain and heart disease.
People were instructed to favor low-fat and fat-free varieties of foods. However, when the fat was stripped away, it left a poor-tasting product. So food scientists added heaping amounts of sugar and sodium to enhance flavor.
As a result, the grocery shelves filled up with low-fat cookies, cakes, frozen meals and other unhealthy sugar-laden products that quickly cause spikes and crashes in blood sugar.
This push towards excessive carbs and sugar while avoiding natural fats led people to gain even MORE weight due to this flawed approach. Only recently has mainstream nutrition guidance acknowledged the importance of healthy fats for balanced hormones, sustained energy and feeling satisfied from meals.
But for years, the low-fat craze brainwashed us into a potentially harmful low-fat, high-sugar diet.
4. The Great Labeling Deception
Another factor muddying the waters around healthy eating is deceptive packaging claims and food labels. Buzzwords like “low-fat” and “organic” are splashed across products to create the illusion of healthy food – when the reality may be very different.
For example, a popular yogurt line markets itself as the healthy choice with claims of “non-fat” and “no high fructose corn syrup.” But looking closer at the ingredient list, the first 2 ingredients are sugar in various forms.
This yogurt is being marketed as guilt-free, when really it’s just a candy bar with probiotics sprinkled in. We have been tricked into overlooking the real contents of a product because of dishonest claims on the label.
The next time you’re in the grocery store pay attention to how many items shout out claims of “gluten-free!” “All natural!” “Good source of fiber!” Even ice cream and soda now make claims about being fair trade or non-GMO.
Clever marketing on the front is meant to convince us these are smart choices – even when the ingredients tell a different story. To avoid being brainwashed by labels, always read the actual ingredient list, not just the front claims.
5. The Culture of Food Abundance
The final factor programming us towards unhealthy eating is the culture of indulgence, instant gratification and abundance that emerged in the late 20th century.
Portion sizes began expanding rapidly in restaurants and fast food chains – training customers to expect massive amounts of food and to finish it all. The days when fast food meant a small burger, fries and a shake are long gone.
Brands like 7-Eleven now sell buckets of soda equivalent to 18 regular cans for one person. Meals at chains like The Cheesecake Factory clock in around 2,000 calories – often double or triple what one person needs.
Snacking was also rebranded as trendy – ads conveyed that you “deserved” to eat whenever cravings struck. Home pantries overflowed with chips, cookies, candy and other junk foods; grazing throughout the day on empty calories became normal.
We became programmed to equate food with immediate pleasure and reward. Saying no to cravings or limiting portions seemed unreasonable when food was constantly available. We have been brainwashed into feeling entitled to eat whatever we want in limitless amounts – ignoring what our body really needs.
The Mindset Shifts Necessary for Change
Recognizing all these areas where we’ve been brainwashed is the first step. But to truly regain control overeating, real change requires mindset shifts at the individual level. Here are some of the key perspectives we must embrace:
- Becoming more mindful of what we put in our bodies – listening to our body’s real needs rather than cravings created by marketing.
- Having the discipline to read labels carefully and not buy into misleading health claims.
- Re-connecting with traditional whole foods and ancestral diets suited for our bodies.
- Learning to enjoy the natural flavors of real food again without excessive salt, sugar and fat.
- Portion control and stopping eating just because food is available or we’ve been conditioned to overeat.
- Finding other outlets for enjoyment besides food.
- Being less influenced by the latest fad diets and paying more attention to proven long-term healthy eating habits.
- Having the patience to undo years of bad habits. Lasting change takes time.
Conclusion
We have uncovered the 5 most influential forces that programmed our brains around food and eating over the years – from addictive junk food marketing to the demonization of natural fats.
While the processed food industry spends billions to keep consumers trapped in unhealthy patterns, we have the power to fight back.
By becoming aware of this brainwashing agenda, adopting a healthy mindset about real food, and making small changes each day, we can undo years of bad conditioning. Our health and waistlines will thank us.
The choice is ours – continue being manipulated by profit-hungry corporations, or take control and choose real food that nourishes us. This decision affects not just us, but future generations. It’s time to break free from the brainwashing once and for all!
Looking for Help Breaking Free?
If you feel overwhelmed trying to overcome a lifetime of brainwashing around food and are looking for support, check out SuccessWithHypnosis.com.
This program takes a holistic approach to true and lasting weight loss that goes beyond just telling you what to eat. They understand that real change requires re-programming your mindset and unconscious beliefs around food.
SuccessWithHypnosis.com offers customized hypnosis sessions to help clients adopt a mindful, empowered approach to nutrition. Their holistic weight loss program provides mentorship and tools to form healthy new habits that support your body’s needs.
If you feel trapped in the vicious cycle of unhealthy eating that’s harming your body and want expert guidance tailored to your unique situation, visit SuccessWithHypnosis.com. You have the power to break free from brainwashing – you don’t have to do it alone.