Welcome to the weekly weight loss update and sugar exposé series Road to 185! Before we begin diving into the sickeningly sweet world that is the sugar and foodservice industries, it’s probably worthwhile to go over who the main players are in this drama. While there are a LOT of companies and groups involved, a few organizations and companies stand out as the biggest players of them all. Since the series was just announced two days ago, this diary will be a shorter one to introduce who we’ll be talking about, as well as go into a bit more detail about how my weight loss efforts began.
Cast of Characters
USDA — The United States Department of Agriculture, currently responsible for providing federal dietary guidelines that are “the cornerstone for federal nutrition programs and a go-to resource for health professionals nationwide”. Suffice to say, what the USDA says we should and shouldn’t eat has a massive impact on what the nation chooses to eat.
FDA — The Food and Drug Administration, an agency within the Department of Health and Human services. Surprisingly, the agency that oversees the safety of “biological products” (which one would assume includes all foods, since all food is a biological product) and is part of the department responsible for our health is not in charge of telling us what is safe and healthy to eat.
Conagra Brands — One of the few processed food companies that make the majority of the convenience foods you find on your grocery store shelves and freezers.
Mondelez International — Big Candy, in a sense. Some of the biggest names in the candy and cookie aisles are all part of this Chicago-based multinational.
Unilever — An octopus of a company that sells everything from baby food to pregnancy tests, and has been implicated in price fixing scandals and using environmentally destructive palm oil harvested by slave labor and child labor.
General Mills — From humble origins in the flour milling industry in Minneapolis, this company has grown over the past 165 years to become a behemoth of the food industry. They are one of the major breakfast cereal companies in America, and also own several other popular processed food brands.
Nestle — Another company that could be called part of “Big Candy”, Nestle is synonymous with candy and chocolate, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. They own over 2,000 brands, covering everything from bottled water to pet food. They, like many other chocolate companies, have been accused of buying chocolate from plantations that use slave labor and child labor.
PepsiCo — One of the two beverage giants, they also own Frito-Lay, making them one of the biggest players in the junk food market overall.
Coca-Cola — A household name all over the globe, they’re unusual in comparison to the other titans on this list in that they’ve pretty much stayed with one single category of products: beverages. Of course, considering how many products they own, unless you only drink tap water you’ve probably drank something made by Coca-Cola recently. So, rather than diversify they’ve chosen to conquer, and at this point they’re nearly synonymous with “beverages”. They briefly owned Columbia Pictures, but sold it to Sony 5 years later for a massive profit.
Cargill Incorporated — Possibly the worst company you’ve never heard of. Those aren’t my words, it’s the assessment of former Congressman Henry A. Waxman and Mighty Earth (do yourself a favor and read that document, all 56 pages of it, but not after you just ate). Cargill is a massive family-owned business. How massive? If it were publicly traded it would rank higher than AT&T on the Fortune 500. It’s still owned by the descendants of the founder. It is the largest provider of corn syrup to the food and beverage industry. Just as chances are if you’ve had convenience food recently it had corn syrup in it, chances are if you’ve consumed corn syrup recently it came from Cargill.
American Beverage Association — The beverage lobby, in a nutshell. This trade association is the lobbying force for companies like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.
Sugar Association — Big Sugar’s “scientific voice”. Remember how the tobacco companies had all that “scientific” evidence to show that tobacco couldn’t be conclusively linked to cancer or other major health problems? This is the organization that provides “scientific” evidence to show that sugar isn’t linked to health problems.
Corn Refiners Association — The corn syrup lobby. They’ve worked hard to diminish the negative reputation of high fructose corn syrup, doing everything from ad campaigns to bribing bloggers to write positive pieces about it to petitioning the FDA to let them change the name of it altogether.
If you’re wondering why a specific brand you’re familiar with wasn’t listed here, the odds are it’s because one of the behemoths above actually owns it outright (Kellogg’s, for example, is one of the other big cereal manufacturers alongside General Mills, but they are owned by Unilever). The Food and Beverage industry is much, much smaller than you’d think: they take advantage of subsidiaries and a variety of brand names (as well as a history of constant and sometimes ruthless acquisition) to dominate the food market. Much like Koch Industries or Disney, boycotting them is much easier said than done.
Weight Loss Update
I wanted to thank everyone for all their helpful and supportive words from my first diary on this two days ago. I honestly didn’t expect that many of you to respond, and I’m truly blown away by the kindness, support, and advice I received. I’m still reading through all your comments, and the many things you linked in them. Anything you have to offer is welcome, though it might take me a while to read all the articles and books already suggest. Tips on foods to eat, companies and products to use, recipes, exercise regimens, and simple feedback and stories about what worked or didn’t work for you are always welcome.
Currently, I started this effort on 4/12/21. I’m weighing myself every Monday first thing in the morning, and I intend to take some Before* pictures soon (it’s very hard to willingly take pictures with your shirt off when you look this bad undressed, but I need to get them ASAP while I still look about as fat as I did at my heaviest if I want a comparison to the After pictures).
I’m not adhering to a specific diet per se: the biggest thing and strictest thing is no sugars or artificial/zero-calorie sweeteners. For now, I’m avoiding fruit just as a precautionary measure, though I will start phasing it back in once I get under 300 pounds (whole or unsweetened dried fruit only, no juices). The research I’ve been reading has conflicting information on whether or not stevia is linked to weight gain, so I’m not sure if I’ll use it in the future or not. I plan to use natural sugars in very limited amounts (honey, cane sugar, etc.) once I get to a healthy weight (mostly for sweetening coffee, though I intend to try and get as close to drinking black coffee as I can stomach). Once I hit 185 candy and desserts will be allowed again, but only as a very limited treat (special occasions and holidays only for the most part, and even then in moderation).
Since my wife is doing a keto diet (as a type II diabetic, she’s found it is a fantastic diet for her blood sugar and HbA1c levels), I’m trying to limit my carbohydrate consumption as much as possible so I’m not tempting her, but I’m not truly going keto or even low-carb at this time. If I plateau at some point in the future I might reconsider that, though.
I am also doing a very mild form of calorie restriction: I need approximately 3,200 calories a day to maintain a weight of 355 pounds. I am trying to eat less than 2,700 calories a day, with the plan to gradually decrease this amount until I’m under 2,000 calories a day. I’ve been mostly successful in this regard, as I’m currently averaging about 2,400 — 2,600 calories a day presently.
I intend to start adding in some mild exercise soon: just a brief daily walk until it becomes a habit, then gradually increase how often and how long. I’ve been advised to start taking yoga classes as well, and I’m looking into that also.
So far just cutting out sugar and eating a bit less each day than before has been a success, so I intend to stay the course until I stop seeing results.
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