You’ve often heard me talk about the effect of global CPG companies on metabolic health. The moment a population shifts from a traditional, whole-food diet to a Western “CPG-heavy” (Consumer Packaged Goods) diet, diabetes rates skyrocket within one to two generations.
Honestly, when I hear myself talk about it I almost groan because it starts to sound like a conspiracy theory, and I should go put my tinfoil hat on before the zeta rays get me! 😄
But I want to tell you a story that provides cast-iron proof of this point.
This is the tale of the Akimel Oʼodham (Pima) people of Latin America. This was a single group of people who lived an agrarian farming life for centuries. They were fit, active, athletic people.
And then, a border was drawn. One group stayed in Arizona (USA), and the other stayed in the remote Sierra Madre mountains of Sonora, Mexico.
For nearly a century, they lived in total isolation from one another. Same blood, same ancestors, same “genetic risk” of various conditions, including type 2 diabetes. But their lives couldn’t have been more different.
In Arizona, the water supply was diverted by settlers, destroying the Pima’s ability to farm. To keep them from starving, the government stepped in with “commodity foods.” This was the ultimate Metabolic Trap: white flour, refined sugar, and tubs of lard. By the 1960s, these lean, healthy people were suffering from the highest rates of Type 2 diabetes ever recorded on Earth. We’re talking over 50% of the adult population!
The Smoking Gun in the Mountains
Now, look across the border. In the 1990s, researchers tracked down their “lost” cousins in Mexico. These Pima were still living the “traditional life”, same as they alwys had. They were farming, eating whole beans and corn, and moving their bodies every single day.
When the scientists compared the two groups, the results were a gut-punch to the medical establishment. The Mexican Pima – with the exact same genes – had almost no obesity and a diabetes rate of only 6%!
They weren’t “lucky.” They just hadn’t been introduced to the junk food of starch and sugar yet.
The Road to “Diabetic Hell”
The saddest part of the story? Around 15 years later, a paved road finally reached that remote Mexican village. Along with the road came the cheap sodas, the plastic-wrapped snack cakes, and the industrial seed oils. And like clockwork, their diabetes rates began to climb the moment the “modern” diet arrived.
The Lesson for Us
The Pima story tells us something that many people simply don’t want to hear. We are all victims of a global sales and marketing conspiracy. A conspiracy to replace healthy food and lifestyles with an environment destined to make us sick.
You cannot outrun a bad environment.
The US Pima didn’t develop a “genetic defect” in 1900. They were simply moved from the “Foundation” of metabolic health (natural whole foods and an active lifestyle) into a world of refined sugar triggers.
If you’re sitting there with an HbA1c that’s climbing, remember the Pima in the mountains. Like the Pima people, you may have a genetic potential for Type 2 Diabetes. Maybe it’s your genes that load the gun. But it’s the environment of addictive, unhealthy factory-produced food filled with sugar, starches and industrial byproducts that pulls the trigger.
The good news? If the environment caused the problem, changing your environment can fix it.
We aren’t victims of our DNA. We’re victims of big CPG companies that are laughing all the way to the bank as we pay them to make us ill.
It’s time to take back control. Change your lifestyle and you can write a different end to your story, one where your life isn’t ruined by the decisions of profiteering CPG companies.
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