How do Americans Eat?
The average american consumes 3770 calories a day, nearly 1000 calories over the global average. In addition to our astounding caloric intake, Americans also take in 4500 mg of sodium a day and 142 pounds of sugar every year. this link provides a visual representation of how Americans are eating compared to the rest of the world. Looking at the pictures, healthy portions of vegetables can be seen at nearly all of the countries' tables. However, the Americans table is filled with Lays potato chips, pizza, and burger king. From this picture it is easy to see how one third of American children and between 20 percent and 30 percent of adult Americans are considered obese. It does not take a stretch of the imagination to realize that eating junk food can be detrimental to overall health. Obesity is associated with multiple diseases including type 2 diabetes, cancer, stroke, and osteoarthritis. As obesity rates continue to rise, so will the rates of these medical maladies. It is clear that our current eating trends cannot support a healthy population. Recognizing the problem is the first step to coming up with a solution. What comes next is identifying where the problem began.
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4 comments:
I agree that America's eating habits are atrocious. Even I cannot pretend that I eat as healthy as I should. Most individuals in America are apathetic to America's medical problems related to food because it hasn't happened to them. It isn't until they start having health problems that they realize they need to change their diets.
My point of view sometimes is that my metabolism is fast and my intake of food is small, therefore I feel like I can eat whatever types of food I want to. A lot of people have this attitude ALL THE TIME. We need a way to scientifically show teenagers how their metabolism and health changes as they get older. Also, if we just exercised a little bit more, it would make a huge difference.
I definitely agree that our eating habits in the United States are bad. Personally I don't eat as healthy as I wish I did. I think most of the time I eat what I do out of convenience. Especially if your a person who is constantly traveling or just someone who is busy with lots of work, then taking time to prepare a well cooked, nutritional meal. If only they could make something like a salad bar (like cereal bars) then maybe we would be a little healthier. Also, sometimes healthy food just doesn't taste as good as non-healthy food. Overall I think if people actually took a little extra time and had recipes for some healthy meals, they would enjoy the food and slowly become healthier.
From personal experience I've found that healthy food totally tastes just as good as unhealthy food if not more so; it just takes a little while to get used to. I can see how this wouldn't be the case for many people. Some people just don't enjoy raw vegetables. You're right though, it is quite difficult to take the time to prepare meals and it is always easier to go for pizza rather than a salad. Tarheel5 is also correct in saying that if we exercised a little more, it would make a huge difference for America's obesity problem.
I'd like to add that my sources for this entry came from the book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" and the website
http://www.cdc.gov/PDF/Facts_About_Obesity_in_the_United_States.pdf
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