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ON APRIL 15, 2024, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND ADOPTED HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 855, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 rewrites the resolution to, instead, provide that the voice of Tennesseans who understand the importance of sharing the following information with their brethren is heard through this resolution: (1) The health, wellbeing, and contentment of Tennessee families is of paramount importance; (2) The federal government reports that the metabolic health of our citizens is a growing concern: 65 percent are overweight or obese, 43.5 percent report feeling anxious, and 937,000 adults in Tennessee have a mental health condition according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness; (3) Metabolic syndrome is a clustering of at least three of the following five medical conditions: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, and low serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL); (4) In Tennessee, 761,000 individuals are currently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, with 51,000 new cases diagnosed annually; (5) Ample research exists to help Tennesseans understand how to improve physical, emotional, and mental health for a more healthful, peaceful, and contented life; (6) There is a growing awareness of the benefits of eating minimally processed foods, getting regular exercise, getting enough sleep, enjoying outdoor activities, and spending social time with friends and family to produce contentment, better health, and wellbeing; (7) There exists in today's modern American diet an unholy trinity of ultra-processed foods and food ingredients which produce cheap, prepared foods that are high in calorie content, chemical additives, and sugars; (8) The federal government has warned for years that a steady diet of such processed foods contributes to metabolic syndrome, and as recently hypothesized and demonstrated by Christopher M. Palmer, MD in his book Brain Energy, a poor diet may contribute to deterioration of the metabolic condition of the brain, all causing long-term damage to health and wellbeing; (9) This unholy trinity is the simple carbohydrate processed grains, refined sugars, and industrial vegetable and seed oils that dominate the ingredients in prepared foods and play a role in their preparation; (10) The first of this unholy trinity is simple carbohydrate grains, which are industrially processed grains like wheat and rice that are stripped of the healthful bran, often bleached, and sometimes refined into flour to make breads, pastas, cereals, chips, pretzels, crackers, waffles, pancakes, rolls, and pizzas that make up much of our caloric intake; (11) The body quickly converts simple carbohydrates to sugar, causing us to work hard to process and maintain blood glucose levels; (12) Highly processed grains are cheap and, therefore, consumed in abundance, and contribute to metabolic syndrome, weight gain, inflammatory diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, and connective tissue disease; (13) The second in the unholy trinity is sugar, including white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and "sugar free" sweeteners, which are found in abundance in processed prepared foods, food additives, and drinks producing an endless variety of simple carbohydrate foods highly attractive to children and adults; (14) Such sugars contribute to weight gain, acne, type 2 diabetes, and can increase your risk of several serious medical conditions such as metabolic syndrome; examples are candy, cakes, cookies, ice cream, fruit juices, sweetened coffee, coffee creamers, and soda pop; (15) The third member of the unholy trinity is industrial seed oils and vegetable oils such as corn, safflower, soybean, cotton seed, vegetable, and canola oil, which are ubiquitous on today's supermarket shelves and in today's processed and fast food, making up 20 percent of the American diet according to the UN; (16) Industrial seed oils are produced by a complicated manufacturing process to concentrate the oil; the process to produce these oils involves hydrogenation, bromine, and a chemical called hexane; (17) Studies show industrial seed oils with their high linoleic acid content have increased the level of linoleic acid in our fat cells and easily turn rancid, causing an oxidation chain reaction and free radical damage in the body along with inflammation in the arteries and organs, insulin resistance, chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and damage to the gut microbiome; (18) The overabundance of these high omega 6 fatty acids creates an imbalance due to the lesser quantity of omega 3 fatty acids we consume and are associated with the great increase of cardiovascular disease which started in the 20th century about the time of their advent as a food ingredient; (19) The great abundance of these simple carbohydrate grains, sugars, and vegetable seed oils have produced cheap, shelf stable, prepared processed foods but at what cost to the health of Tennesseans; (20) A sad reality, despite the fact that we enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world, and that most people are not starving, we have observed a continual decline in metabolic and mental health that has stressed our bodies and slowly kills over decades; and (21) It is difficult for Tennesseans to find prepared, processed food without a combination of this unholy trinity but through awareness, it is not impossible to find whole foods, free of chemical additives, added sugars, and vegetable seed oils.