The Millbank Quarterly (a multidisciplinary journal of health and health policy) published an article on 2 February 2026 entitled “From Tobacco to Ultraprocessed Food: How Industry Engineering Fuels the Epidemic of Preventable Disease“. The authors explain how ultra processed foods (UPFs) and beverages are specifically designed to heighten chemical rewards in order to develop addictive eating behaviours among consumers that bypass the constraints of our normal appetites. They point to parallels with tobacco industry strategies to develop compulsive addiction, including dose optimisation of the so-called sugar rush and other hedonistic taste triggers. As a result, many individuals report difficulty moderating their intake of UPFs.
According to the article, multiple studies show that UPFs, which have come to dominate the global food supply, are strongly associated with increased risks of heart disease, cancers, metabolic disease, diabetes, and obesity. They are also likely associated with higher rates of neurological disease including dementia and Parkinson’s, and their consumption is a known predictor of premature death. Rather than healthy nutrition, the overall thrust of the global UPF industry is to maintain and increase market share and profit by processing shelf-stable ready foods to include a very wide range of ingredients capable of encouraging compulsive consumption.
UPFs include refined carbohydrates and fats in precisely calibrated doses which are rapidly digested along with multiple additives designed to speed absorption. This sets up a rapid satisfaction hit which drives a craving for more and cements repeat preferences. As a result, most modern parents have witnessed the development of damaging preferential food behaviours in their home as their children grow. It is not just the taste but also the marketing strategies designed to increase peer pressure and deceptively associate unhealthy UPFs with images of healthy lifestyles and enjoyment. Among these strategies is the employment of ‘health washing’ deceptive labelling, misusing terms such as vitamin-enhanced, low-fat, sugar-free, natural, additive-free, etc.
In contrast, minimally processed natural foods like whole grains, beans, fruit and vegetables have higher concentrations of fibre, protein, water, vitamins and minerals contained in their intact food matrices which are accessible to a sustained and nourishing digestive process. These foods have varying nutrient and energy densities which our human digestive system has been attuned to absorb efficiently during millennia. Their consumption is associated with lower incidence of chronic disease and longer life expectancy. The article suggests that there needs to be a revised regulatory approach to industrial food processing and consumer education.
Step back from the processed food landscape for a moment and consider what we are losing. Naturally grown food is part of a mutually beneficial interdependent ecosystem of organisms ranging in size and variety from those that are invisible to the naked eye to plants and animals. This ecosystem is essentially a nourishing global food producer capable of turning mud into healthy food. A sort of giant filter or protective shield operating automatically on a global scale to create a huge variety of healthy food options, benefits and tastes which no industrial food producer could ever mimic or improve upon.
Looking deeper and further into the matter, our human mind-body complex is protected by numerous naturally created shields and filters which ensure our stability, well being and health. Our body is enveloped by skin, a partially porous but robust self healing material. Our brain is protected by the skull, the heart and lungs by the rib cage, the eyes by the eyelids, the mouth by the lips. Food taken by mouth must pass through the stomach and colon which are lined. All of these protective physiological layers, and the others too many to mention here, are not just shields, they are also filters which allow the passage of useful materials but exclude and eject those that are harmful. Mostly these function automatically, but we exercise choice over some of these like the mouth.
Across the entire spectrum of life, modern industrial technology is seeking to bypass natural physiological and environmental protective barriers, creating products and processes which can be sold and/or used to control human life. The scale is immense, ranging from mood altering chemicals to wires inserted into the brain to manipulate thought, from advertising images designed to deceive the eyes, to water loaded with fluoride, from nanoparticles, microscopic machines that can swim in our blood to microwave radiation directed at embassies to drive diplomats insane, from air laced with fly spray to soil dosed with herbicide.
Reflect: fly spray targets an organism which relies on DNA, the same DNA structure that we rely on; plants and herbs are grown in soil, which is often polluted with residual herbicides. We are under attack on all sides. Our body and our brain relies on electromagnetic fields and currents to channel communication and initiate action, yet we are saturating the airwaves with a massive range of EMF frequencies.
Vaccines and anaesthetics are injected, as are many prescribed and non-prescribed drugs. They bypass digestion breaching the protective envelope of our skin. They can enter the bloodstream. As a result they have powerful system wide actions and they can also have powerful adverse effects.
mRNA vaccines were designed to bypass one more protective barrier—the cell membrane. Crossing over into the cellular cytoplasm to repurpose genetic expression and functions, the work horses of health. The more protective barriers are crossed, the more damaging the consequences for health. As we have reported ,studies show mRNA vaccines have created an unprecedented array of proximate adverse effects including excess deaths.
There are more powerful genetic technologies on the way, some are already in use, that are designed to cross the nuclear lamina and the cytoskeleton which protect our DNA in the cell nucleus. These can assume control of the inner sanctum of the entire physiology and forever change who we are. Methods of air-borne and plant-based delivery are being tested to ensure universal adoption. These are the ultimate attack weapons designed to breach the last defensive wall of our humanity.
All of this mad industrial technological onslaught is being undertaken in complete ignorance of life’s essential nature—universal consciousness. As we reported in our article “Has the Age of Devolution Begun?“, we have a short window of opportunity left to protect ourselves from the accumulation of toxins and poisons in our environment and our bodies. Fresh air, pure unadulterated water and natural whole foods, are our first line of defence. Adequate exercise and rest are essential. Alert assessment of food habits and ingredient labels is required including understanding the technical terms and abbreviations as well as the deceptive advertising terminology.
Quiet reflection and space is needed. Time for meditation, yoga, and prayer is strengthening. Natural clothing and furnishing is a goal. Go easy in the rush, don’t waste time being upset with things you can’t change. Sometimes things appear to be going backwards but like the ship that turns back to avoid an iceberg, know that ultimately life is evolving. The apparent backward step is for the sake of reorganisation to go forward. Realise that there are all types of people. Keep the company of the wise. Where is the time for the unwanted? Practice what you preach. Do what you know to be right. Other people take note of what we do. We all have power at the supermarket till. Sensible purchasing choices have an influence on the supply chain. Don’t be afraid to ask for better choices from shops, they do listen if enough people speak up. Shop around. Network locally.
Take action now to raise the alarm and suggest solutions. The industrial technology juggernaut will not change course if we do nothing and say nothing. It will come knocking on our door. We have to maintain all the doors of our physiology, the five senses, the mind, the intellect and consciousness itself. Time is running out to decide to take matters back into our own hands. No one else will do it for us. We have to be alert to look out for our health and happiness. Now is the time.
