Americans are Digging Their Graves with Their Teeth: Junk Food Nation

Americans have a love affair with food. There’s nothing wrong with that.  Good food should provide both pleasure and good health at the same time. The problem is, most American’s love affair with refined, devitalized, fast foods served in super-sized portions provokes illness. America has become a junk food nation. Consequently, 65% of Americans are overweight and are riddled with illness. According to a study of over 1,500 people conducted by the University of Rochester in New York, Americans consume approximately 27% of their calories from junk food. Additionally, the study discovered that one-third of Americans consume 47% of their calories from junk food.

Americans live in the fast lane. We love fast cars, we race from one task to another throughout the day, and of course eat plenty of fast food along the way. Let’s face it: Americans are addicted to fast food.  In 1972, Americans spent 3 billion dollars on fast food—in 2005, we spent more than 110 billion on fast food.  Currently 40% of American meals are eaten outside the home. Every day, 1 in 4 Americans eats at a fast food restaurant. And interestingly, french fries have become the #1 vegetable eaten in America. Fast food meals have become a way of life for millions of Americans. And even though most people feel guilty when they eat it, they indulge anyway. Finally, keeping with our quick-fix mentality, when it comes time to pay for living in the fast lane, almost everyone looks for quick cures for what ails them.

How did we become a fast food nation? You may be surprised to know that restaurants, supermarkets and gas stations were not the first places to serve fast food. Actually nature was the originator of fast food. Consider the banana, apple or an orange. Brilliant packaging: convenient, simple, affordable, and no preparation time. Just peel and eat. It’s the perfect fast food.  Whether it is a vegetable, piece of fresh fruit, or raw nuts or seeds, nature’s fast foods provide life giving satisfaction and nourishment that promote wellness. These fast foods taste great and you can enjoy them anytime without the guilt. For thousands of years, people found great pleasure and nourishment in these simple fast foods.

Yet over time, specifically after industrialization, the food industry replaced nature’s fast foods with their own version of fast foods. Baked potatoes were replaced with french fries and potato chips, vibrant colored fresh fruit gave way to bright colored packages filled with sugar laden candy bars, cookies, and cakes, and water and 100% fruit juice were exchanged for soda pop. Natural foods were quickly replaced with processed foods that came with a great price—Americans sacrificed their health for them. 

Since the beginning of recorded history humans have relied upon fresh, unprocessed foods for sustenance and pleasure. Yet it’s hard to imagine that in less than a hundred years the food industry has turned the nutrition profile of the modern world upside down. McDonald's operates more than 30,000 restaurants worldwide, in over 100 countries on 6 continents. It’s also mind boggling that McDonald’s feeds more than 46 million people everyday—that’s more than the entire population of Spain. How did the shift away from nature’s fast foods to the food industries version happen so fast? Advertising. The food industry crafted advertising campaigns that convinced Americans convenience foods taste better than what nature had to offer.

The former United States Surgeon General David Satcher declared that, "Fast food is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic." Obesity has been linked to: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, insulin resistance and diabetes, gall bladder disease, liver disease, arthritis, sleep apnea, lung disorders (asthma, breathlessness, bronchitis, etc.) digestive disorders (constipation, Irritable bowel syndrome, etc.), endometrial, breast, prostate and colon cancers, hormone abnormalities, infertility, polycystic ovarian syndrome and lower back pain.  One in every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime.  Diabetes can cut your life short by as many as 27 years. The truth is, fast food is largely responsible for creating what many health experts are now calling the “sickness industry.” I don’t think the fast food industry or anyone else ever imagined that processed convenience foods would have such a devastating effect on the health of the world.

Now don’t despair. Before you personally go through junk food withdrawals, I promise I’m going to show you how you can continue to enjoy many of your favorite foods without compromising your health. The only thing you’ll have to do is to change the ingredients you use in preparing them. And even if you’re not into cooking, I’ll show you how to simply change your brand loyalty when you go shopping for groceries, so you can enjoy fast foods that are good for you. And the best part of it all is that you won’t have the guilt that tags along with the usual junk food fare. Before I reveal what treats you can eat to beat father time, let’s take a look how most people are digging their graves with their teeth. I’m sure you don’t want to be one of them.

Studies reveal that 38% of calories Americans consume are empty calories, severely deficient in vitamins and minerals. These “dead calories” are found in sugar rich beverages, candy, chips and high fat snacks. Empty calories are high in hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats, saturated fats, and refined carbohydrates while extremely low in dietary fiber. The following chart illustrates the outrageous amount of junk food the average American eats every year.

Table 1

Amount of empty calories consumed by the average American every year:

• 18 lbs. of sweets and candy
• 55 lbs. of fats and oils
• 7 lbs. of corn chips, popcorn
• 200 sticks of gum
• 500 lbs. of cakes and biscuits
• 63 dozen doughnuts
• 20 gallons of ice cream
• 5 lbs. of potato chips
• 150 lbs. of refined sugar
• 300 cans of soda pop

Standard American Diet (S.A.D.)

The average American’s digestive system takes a beating every day. Junk food triggers grumbling stomachs and hands reaching for a glass full of  “plop, plop, fizz, fizz.” The sale of antacids and over-the-counter medications for digestive disorders is a multi-billion-dollar business. Indigestion, gas, constipation and other digestive disorders make some people rich and set up millions of others for chronic disease. Eventually, it’s time for a visit to the doctor. What will you get? You guessed it! More medications. This time it’s prescription drugs. Is it any surprise that in recent years Zantac (a prescription antacid) has become the number one selling prescription drug?

But has your doctor ever told you that the mumbling-grumbling sounds of poor digestion and incomplete absorption of nutrients are a major cause of common illnesses? Fatigue, depression, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, infection, and even cancers are just a few of the diseases that have been linked to inadequate breakdown and absorption of food. Poor digestion and assimilation of nutrients are the starting point for many diseases. The ill effects are far reaching, spreading throughout the entire body.

The former U.S. Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, stated that two-thirds of all diseases can be linked to diet. The nation’s major chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are linked to poor nutrition. Many health experts believe that in the future, these conditions will be considered nutrient deficiency diseases. Right now, millions of Americans unknowingly suffer from diseases caused by nutritional deficiencies even though their doctors insist that food has little or nothing to do with their condition. Nine times out of ten they will tell them that all they need to do is eat a balanced diet. Yet everyone knows that the standard American diet is about as balanced as our national budget. It would either take a good magician with a slight of hand or a crooked politician to balance the numbers found in Table 1.

Part 2: Americans Are Digging Their Graves With Their Teeth: You Are What You Eat and Assimilate

References

Bader, Myles. 4001 Food Facts and Chef's Secrets. Auburn, CA: Mylin Enterprises, 1993.

McDougall, J. ”Americans are Getting Fatter-and Dying from It,“ EarthSave (2000). www.earthsave.org/news/hiprotein.htm

Root, Marty. “Obesity and Health: A Hard Look at the Data," New Century Nutrition, 2000.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. Houghton Mifflin 2001.

Spurlock, M. (Director). 2004. Super Size Me [Motion Picture]. United States