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PRAYER NEED: FOOD SUPPLY IN MODERN COUNTRIES CAUSING AN EVIL THAT LEADS TO MILLIONS OF DEATHS

When, a short while back, the Pope, in his verbal exuberance (he doesn't prepare texts as his predecessors did), raised a great stir about what he sees as too much focus on issues such as homosexual marriage and abortion, it seemed not that he was diminishing the gravity of those evils -- we have to believe -- but simply indicating, in his unusual way of expressing himself, that there are other transgressions that go by the wayside.

Certainly, there are many manifestations of evil that cut across societal strata.

One long neglected has been what is going on in the food industry.

Incredible it is how our largest food conglomerates, hell-bent on profits, pressured at each turn by stockholders and CEOs, have basically lured us with and addicted us to sugar, fat, and salt in processed food that is now widely blamed for the epidemic of obesity as well as artery blockages, joint problems, diabetes, and other now-widespread ailments (including in our young, who now demonstrate fatty build-up in the blood vessels before they reach their teen years).

How many die each year, one might ask, from the stuff they place artificially in what we eat? We might be shocked at the number (which might well be in the hundreds of thousands, if not the millions).

Few realize the extent to which our major food companies -- those names that dominate the middle aisles of the supermarket, between the meats and vegetables -- have researched ways of luring ever-more consumers no matter the health consequences, aware down to the molecule of how our taste buds are excited and at precisely which levels. (They call this the "bliss point" and their profession "food technology").

There are cereals that are really candy. There is the juice that is not really juice. There are frozen pizzas with "triple cheese." One is touted as an "extreme cheese explosion." Many cheese products are not even real cheese, formulated in a matter of days by technologically altering milk and milk whey, instead of letting it age over a period of time, as in the olden and more natural days.

Note that some "American cheese" is now described (after protests from legitimate cheese-makers) as "American cheese food" or "American cheese product."

We are in the age of imitation food.

How many realize that they use ammonia on meat?

How many have stopped to wonder how we can have that gorgeous imitation "crab" meat and perfect steaks (both held together with a product of pig blood known as "meat glue")? How many realize that the average person eats 22 teaspoons of sugar and two teaspoons of salt (the vast majority from processed foods) each day?

These things matter to our health and they matter to God (Whose products needed no alteration).

It is a shame of our time. It is a "pro-life" matter. Where are the protests? Where is the government? Is causing the death of a fellow human due to greed any less grave than causing death in a direct criminal action?

Our kids -- and our own health -- have been jeopardized.

Fat. Sugar. Salt.

It's just poured into everything.

Few realize how much salt there is in something like -- cereal.

Nor that peanuts are coated with corn syrup.

Nor that ketchup is laden with high-fructose sugar (always check the ingredient for that).

If you want a briefing, read the expose, Salt Sugar Fat.

As the book points out, the latest estimates, published in 2010, were that 24 million Americans had type-two diabetes, with another 79 million with pre-diabetic symptoms. These are huge numbers! "Even more disturbing, a small but growing number of kids -- many of them obese -- were getting type-2 diabetes, with 3,600 new cases diagnosed each year," notes the book.

Nor can we always blame ourselves.

Far too often, we have no idea what's in what we're eating.

Go put some margarine on your driveway and see if the ants will eat it. (Chemically, it's a short step away from plastic.)

Every 1.7 ounces of processed meats consumed per day increases the risk of colon cancer by 21 percent.

Perhaps it's no wonder that for long periods many famous food companies have been owned by tobacco companies.

That, in itself, should give us pause.

How many knew that Kraft has been owned by Philip Morris?

We don't like to be negative. But we do like to be truthful. The average adult in 2003 was 24 pounds heavier than in 1960 -- most of it due to that sugar, fat, and salt, the latter which addicts the taste buds while causing the body to retain water.

"As scientists poked at and measured the obesity crisis, one fact emerged from their studies that shocked people more than any other," says the book. "Obesity is a lasting, seemingly incurable affliction. Kids who were overweight tended to stay that way for life."

A life sentence.

It's not so much how much we eat as what we eat (though by scientific design what we eat makes us want to eat more and more).

This isn't "good business."

It is evil.

It goes way beyond trans-fats.

"In truth," says the author, Pulitzer-prize-winner Michael Moss, "Kraft's own websites were riddled with tricks that lured young kids to their sweetest and fattiest products" -- while proclaiming concern over their effect on the health of our youth.

It is a matter not just for the nutritionist but for the pulpit.

Did you ever notice how deceptive ingredient labels are -- giving you calorie and sodium levels, but in the fine print indicating that it's not for the whole can or bottle or box but for a "serving" (a can of juice can be as many three "servings")?

Sugar, fat, and salt, it seems, are nearly as addictive (or more so?) than nicotine.

And to some degree, we're all addicted.

Consider that 143 million people in the U.S. -- nearly half the population -- are now being urged by health officials to keep sodium intake below 1,500 milligrams a day.

Now, consider that a "Hungry Man" TV dinner has 5,400 milligrams of sodium (one meal comprises the quota for half a week).

Are you surprised by all the high blood pressure?

Does it seem strange, all the joint replacements?

Take a look at TV shows from the 1950s and 1960s and even the 1970s and compare waistlines.

The examples are endless.

Let us call on God.

Let us call on the Holy Spirit -- not only to guide us in what we should eat each day, but also to deliver those few who control our supply of "food," which is now more artificial than actual and far from God's Creation.