Peter Bregman and I spent 3 days last week working on the premise of our diet book. As eagle-eyed, elephant-memoried FitFam blog readers will recall, the title changes almost daily (I wish the blog changed daily!).

The concept we (well, all right, mostly Peter) came up with was the idea of "Eating Against the Odds." There's a giant system out there that makes it easy and OK for us to eat junk, and feed junk to our kids. 

To see this system at work, let's try a couple of thought experiments.

Experiment #1: You're a housebound Martian

You're a Martian who lands on earth with no knowledge of our culture, foods, or history. You can understand English because of some intergalactic earpiece translator. You are put into a house and given access to TV, radio, telephone, mail and Internet. You can order in whatever food you want, on a typical American budget.

Given your media experiences, what sorts of foods do you order?

Results #1: When I do this experiment, I end up buying the foods that are advertised most on TV: candy, breakfast cereals, packaged convenience meals, beer, etc. How about you?

Experiment #2: You're a fancy-free Martian

You're the same Martian, but instead of being housebound and given access to media, you're plopped down in various population centers in the US: suburbia, inner city, business district, etc. You know, where 90% of the population lives. You have no knowledge of our foods, our culture, our media - but you have access to all of the foods the rest of us do, on a typical American budget.

Based upon availability, convenience, packaging, price, and taste, what sorts of foods do you buy?

Results #2: Packaged foods, convenience foods, junk foods, sugary and alcoholic beverages, prepared foods - pretty much the same list as #1.

Hmmmm…

That's what we mean by "against the odds." The food industry is a game, and the food industry is winning and the people are losing, because we don't understand the rules or the strategy. Heck, we don't even realize it's a game, and our interests are fundamentally different from the people who stand to make a buck off our food choices.

For example: Marion Nestle reports that the US food industry produces 3900 calories per day for every man, woman and child in America. That's twice what we need. And the publicly traded food companies are required by law to maximize profits, which means coming up with ways to get the public to pay for and consume more and more of those calories.

Do you know how to "beat the odds"?