They are in every supermarket and most local shops. I'm not talking about the obvious candidates, cigarettes and alcohol, but something much more insidious. It's part of what we accept as modern life. I'm talking about processed food. I'm talking about 'convenience' foods, snacks, candy, fizzy drinks and ice-cream. Apparently harmless substances such as sugar and artificial sweeteners. We are addicted to them and the processed food manufacturers feed our addiction.

French scientist have recently discovered that the sweet taste of sugar and artificial sweeteners is more addictive than cocaine. Further research may prove that other flavors are just as addictive. Why should this be? The clue is in our genes. To our ancestors a sweet food such as honey was a high energy source and much sought after. High nutritional value was to be found in foods with a high flavor. Salt was scarce, but essential to life. Pleasurable reactions evolved, which ensured that we always found the best nutrition in our surroundings. Those reactions are so strong because they were vital to life, but are used against by food manufacturers toady. Those manufacturers load their 'foods' with sweet taste, salt and flavor enhancers to make us eat more.

In recent years massive industries have grown up around the hype of low fat, anti-cholesterol, low sugar and so on. In the quest for profit, inadequately tested chemicals are now used as additives in our food to make unpalatable rubbish taste good. A bean, previously rejected as a food because it is poisonous, is now the number one 'health' food - even though it is recognised to be carcinogenic and the processing cannot remove all the poison. Margarine, more akin to plastic than real food, has been hyped and marketed as a healthy alternative to butter - the profit margins make that easy.

Major food and drugs companies work in harmony to ensure maximum profits for both. The administration of drugs is geared more to the protection of the companies' profits than to public safety. Obesity or illness resulting from adverse reaction to chemicals in our food can always be treated with the latest drug - whose side effects can be treated with another. A healthy population offers little profit to either the food or drugs manufacturers.

No wonder we have an obesity epidemic. 90% of the American food budget is spent on processed food. The manufacturers have learned that as long as it tastes good they can sell us practically anything because we are addicted to taste. The result is that, a short time after eating one of their tasty, calorie-filled, but nutritionally valueless meals, we feel hungry and seek out another.

Have you experienced the diet yo-yo? You get your weight down, then suddenly put it all back on. Dieting is not just about willpower, that's a recipe for failure. The Caveman diet is much more than just a diet, more a new, healthier lifestyle. To do that it's essential to get off those addictive foods and start eating natural products. Diet programs that allow you to have reward days are only setting you up for failure. Just the same as giving up smoking, it only takes one cigarette to get you started again. It's time for a fresh start.