Obesity only began appearing above the radar in the 1980s and every year since then it has become worse and worse. This animation shows its progression over the last two decades. As you’ll realise, it’s only just started and probably has a long, long way to go.

Coincidentally the 1980s saw many new artificial foods and additives introduced into our diets, including Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO) and Aspartame.

HVO is a man-made substance created by passing hydrogen through vegetable oil until it’s rancid – then the rancid smell is chemically removed. It is also a substance the human body cannot easily deal with and so it just makes us fatter.

Aspartame was discovered by accident and was rushed through the FDA with very dubious testing, and many members of the FDA went on later to highly lucrative jobs in companies directly related to Searle, the Aspartame creator’s company.

The ‘honest’ regulators realised that Aspartame causes high incidences of brain cancer and other neurological problems but were overruled. In the UK there were never even any clinical trials, Aspartame was rubber stamped. The world then assumed that the US and UK had rigorously tested it and followed suit.

Tests now indicate that people who take Aspartame put on more weight than those who don’t – as well as encountering many other unpleasant side effects.

Believe me Aspartame is not and should never be considered part of a diet plan. If you need sweetness look into the natural alternative Stevia, which has been used in countries like Brazil and Japan for decades but has been successfully blocked by Searle in most other countries.

Stevia is fully natural and many, many times more sweet than regular sugar. The trouble is that it is un-patentable so there’s no billions of dollars to be made from it.

There are other additives that we should be concerned about but avoiding these two substances will go a long way towards improving your health.