A friend of mine offers this explanation of society’s woes: “We are what we eat, but we don’t know what we’re eating, so we don’t know who we are.”

I cannot vouch for the entire sentiment, but he’s absolutely right that we don’t know what we’re eating. My friend Nancy Deville recently published a fascinating book called Death by Supermarket. Nancy describes in detail how certain chemical compounds – notably High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) – have infiltrated nearly every “food” available in the inner aisles of our supermarkets. (Thoughtful shoppers know that real foods – produce, meat and dairy – are on the perimeter of the store.)

Although most of us have no idea what we’re really eating, Americans today eat so much that we have an obesity epidemic. It seems like we’re always eating, so why are we always so hungry? Much of America’s excess weight– and remember, we live in a country where the number one health problem of the poor is obesity – can be traced to the addictive qualities of HFCS and MSG. These chemical compounds unnaturally boost blood sugar, which then drops quickly, leaving us moody, fuzzy-minded, and hungry. We’ve made calories so cheap and so addictive, factory foods are like colorful packages of crack cocaine in every pantry.

Some of Nancy’s readers see evidence of conspiracy. I believe that what we often mistake for conspiracy is just the cumulative effect of individual selfish acts. Factory food is more profitable than real food, so market forces encourage its production. Legendary investor and presidential advisor Bernard Baruch once pointed out that wars are started for a wide variety of reasons, but they last as long as they do because they’re so darn profitable. The war profiteers do not advocate war per se, but when the cash is rolling in, they support the status quo. No conspiracy; just selfishness. The net results are the same: wars drag on and poisons disguised as food keep rolling off the assembly line. Perhaps this is a necessary evil of liberty, but as individuals we also have liberty to rebel.

Government intervention in the fake food business is no more likely than government interference in the military-industrial complex, so the campaign for real food must be waged by individuals as a guerrilla offensive. Education is weapon one.

And education of the public is off to a good start. Recent bestselling books like In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, remind people that real food is healthier than processed foods and no less convenient once you straighten out your priorities. When we break our dependency on highly addictive substances like HFCS and MSG, we can again relish the flavors of natural foods, a pleasure that has motivated mankind from the beginning of time.

When I was a kid, school filmstrips showed astronauts of the future living on vitamin pills and protein paste from a tube. It actually looked pretty cool, certainly no worse than broccoli at home. But now we know that our bodies are not designed for manufactured food; we are designed for real food. Here in Santa Barbara, California, the Orfalea Fund is working to create better food options in our local schools. We’ve created the “s’Cool Food” initiative to help bring real food to cafeterias and better nutrition information to students. The program seeks to create sustainable “cook from scratch” school food service systems and to procure as many school foods and beverages as practicable from local growers and producers.

But the real goal is to improve the health and fitness of families, and to redeem the children’s relationship with food. If we are, in fact, what we eat, let us choose to be fit, healthy, and smart.