Most Americans do not care enough to take a look at the nutritional values of the food that he or she is consuming. That is why America has the highest percentage of obesity in the world. This is a serious problem because one in every three adults is obese, and one in every six children is obese. There are many factors that go into the regular American diet, but most of those factors are not appealing nor is it healthy. Americans put way too much processed food into their daily diet. Some would say that other countries diets superior the American diet because of nutritional values that it carries. Other countries have proven that an active lifestyle is a huge element in the average weight of the country. There are many things that …show more content…
Farmers need their cows to be tremendously obese because the cows would produce more meat for the farmers to sell. Therefore, the meat that is sold at the supermarket is not one hundred percent natural. Another manufactured substance is sugar also referred to as high-fructose corn syrup. Man has made a whole new variation of sugar that is cheaper to produce but also completely artificial. “Using a glucose isomerase, the starch in corn can be efficiently converted to glucose and then to various amounts of fructose. The hydrolysis of sucrose produces a 50:50 molar mixture of fructose and glucose. The development of these inexpensive, sweet corn- based syrups made it profitable to replace sucrose (sugar) and simple sugars with HFCS in our diet, and they now represent 40% of all added caloric sweeteners. (Bray, Nielsen, and Popkin)” The United States farmer produces approximately twelve billion bushels of corn every year, but only exports about twenty percent of the total, and the rest is made into products, such as high-fructose corn syrup. All of the processed food is extremely bad for our health, but since it is the cheapest in the supermarket it would take a lot to have a healthier diet. Other countries, such as Asia, have proven that their diet is healthier than that of an American. “The structure of South Korea’s economy, along with the country’s dietary and disease patterns, began an accelerated shift in the 1970s. Major dietary
The traditional American diet was simple, it was homemade, it was composed primarily of minimally refined ingredients, it was low in added sugars and fats, with the fats coming primarily from animal sources, and required effort to produce, by comparison, the contemporary American diet is much more diverse it's composed a lot of “palatable” sometimes artificial materials, its commercially engineered and sold, it's composed of refined ingredients, it's high in added sugars and fats with the fat coming primarily from seed oils, and requires minimal effort to procure(Pillsbury). At the same time as modern medicine is conquered the leading killers of the 19 century such as infectious diseases modern culture has created a whole new set of epidemics that we must now cure.
The world’s dietary functionality differs from region to region, but a consensus remains constant; americans have an unfulfilling diet overall. In other countries the have their diet scheduled for three structured meals for each day, whereas americans eat whenever their minds tell them that they are hungry. The problem with the american way is when americans eat, they eat food that is filling to the brain but not to the stomach. Americans are always on the run, therefore there is not sufficient time to prepare a structured meals; instead americans rely on fast food. This method of nourishment comes with its own set of issues, food is of a lower quality than that of a home-cooked meal. Along with that comes poor beverage quality instituted
The problem with a lot of Americans is that, what they don't realize is it's not how much you eat it's what you eat and if you exercise. People these days will eat unhealthy and don't know what they are putting in their
The health of both overweight and obese people lies in jeopardy due to the extra stress placed on the body, especially the heart, due to the high amount of excess fat they carry with themiv. Being overweight or obese increases a person’s risk for diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, some types of cancer, stroke, and several other devastating ailments. The percentage of the obese population in the United States has risen from 23% to its present day rate of 30% in only eight yearsv. This skyrocketing trend is most likely related to the increase in portion sizes and calories at many American restaurants, the rising level of stress and expectation during the average workday, and the logarithmic increase in fast food restaurant options over the last 20 years. To understand how the Japanese diet supersedes the typical American diet in numerous health issues, several aspects of the diets must be evaluated.
Apart from healthcare issue, the country has adopted the fast-moving life style, which has pushed most of our citizens to succumb to obesity as a result of fast foods. In fact, a recent report by the UN has ranked the United States as the most obese country in the world. Parramore (2012) outlines that, “Obesity is currently being considered as a national crisis in the United States and that it contributes 100,000 to 400,000 deaths per year. Statistics at the CDC and Prevention in 2010 indicate that 35.7% of the American adult is obese.” Many input trends exist in the American society, “First and foremost, people are highly used to fried foods, sugary drinks, and processed meats among others. There is also the sedentary lifestyle that has been adopted by many,” (Huffington Post, 2013). In fact, most of us love relaxing without exercise and too much television watching. These are some of the factors that contribute to obesity. The result is health complications problems such as diabetes, stroke, and heart disease just to mention but a few. These affect the longevity of life.
Americans eat far too much fat and protein in a day when they should be eating more whole grains, fruits and vegetables. He explored how people in poorer countries do not suffer from the same diseases that Americans suffer from because of their diet. Animal protein has been shown to contribute to Osteoporosis in people whose calcium supply is depleted by excreting more calcium than normal through their kidneys as a result of diets that are rich in animal protein. This depletion of calcium increases their risk of osteoporosis. Poor countries have other leading causes of death like malaria and bacterial infections as a result of unclean drinking water and the way they dispose of human waste unlike Americans who are more prone to diseases caused by too much fat in their diets. (Robbins, Diet For A New America)
The state of the American Health in the U.S has become an increasing concern of many Americans. An article entitled “11 Facts about American Eating Habits,” addresses the state of food in the U.S by stating, “Healthiness of the food we eat decreases by 1.7 percent for every hour that passes in the day.” Experts and scientists in the U.S has raised questions about regarding the different ways food is now being produced. While individuals are usually not aware of the ingredients that food contains, many people continue to have unhealthy eating habits. In the past few decades, food production has included numerous artificial ingredients that are said to be the cause of various health problems. Various artificial ingredients that are commonly
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is an inexpensive syrup created by changing about half of the particles comprising corn starch into fructose. Due to the cheapness of HFCS it has replaced natural sugars in most of the food consumed in America. Resulting in HFCS being found in just about all processed foods made today. Consuming any kind of sweetener has shown to greatly increase the chances of obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and metabolic syndrome (Zeratsky, 2015). Since the invention of HFCS American obesity rates went from fifteen percent of the population to around one third of the population suggesting a strong
I chose to address the questions what are the strengths and weaknesses of the American diet, as well as, what is distinctive about American food. I chose these questions to focus my research paper on because of the relationship between the American diet and health care. The United States is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, due to immigration, which is what makes it so distinctive. The diet also has many flaws including the cause for rising medical issues. I have a pre-nursing major, so diet plays a big role in the medical field. My purpose for researching the American diet is to be able to…. With the Industrial Revolution, the inventions of many new products such as processed foods, refrigerators, and fast food chains.
One of the most unhealthy diets in the world is that of an American. It is made up of processed foods and a good amount of television. America easily has the most fast food restaurants in the entire world. Leave it to McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King or any other fast-food restaurant to serve extremely cheap and even unhealthier food at any time during the day or night. ”It tastes good so why not?” That seems to be the question many people are asking now-a-days. Because it is so easily accessible and processed, it is made to be very tasty and extremely unhealthy. Many Americans find his or herself indulging on the these fatty foods of America on a day-to-day basis. While it may taste good at the time, it has a terrible effect on your body
Omnivore’s Dilemma Essay I believe that changing food policies would influence people's food choices more than just educating people about them. The choices we make with our dollar greatly affect the way we live our lives and the lives of the people around us. By creating stricter guidelines for food policy, you would ultimately be giving people more informed choices and hopefully access to healthier food options.
Pollan states, “In the United States most of the corn we consume is invisible, having been heavily processed or passed through food animals before it reaches us. Most of the animals we eat (chickens, pigs and cows) today subsist on a diet of corn, regardless of whether it is good for them” (pollan 1). Food companies hide all of these corn products in the food and drinks as sweeteners and syrups. The livestock eat a corn diet, which isn’t good for them, forcing us to give them antibiotics so they don’t get sick. We then eat these livestock that are drugged and full of corn. The most successful way we’ve found to sneak it into our food and drinks is through high-fructose corn syrup. This is a substitute for sugars and is extremely cheap. It’s so cheap that majority of snack and drink companies use it to save money and increase profit. Pollan says, “Nearly 10 percent of the calories Americans consume now come from corn sweeteners; the figure is 20 percent for many children” (Pollan 2). We eat these foods and drink these drinks and expect us to be fine. “A recent study at the University of Minnesota found that a diet high in fructose (as compared to glucose) elevates triglyceride levels in men shortly after eating, a phenomenon that has been linked to an increased risk of obesity and heart disease” (Pollan 2). The food companies are feeding
“Dietary patterns of Americans differ widely, but most Americans eat a diet that could best be described as in need of improvement”. Compared to other countries, the American diet is very different. I have first hand experienced how much different Americans eat from other countries. For a brief, but very beneficial and productive time, I lived in Barcelona, Spain with my host family. Over in Spain, they eat much more fresh, organic food. There was a lot more seafood in the average diet. The meal configuration over there is also different than ours. Lunch is the largest meal eaten every day; different than America, where dinner is the largest.
The Western Diet mainly consists of fried foods, refined grains, sugar, high carbohydrate and fats, and meats (3). It has been hypothesized that having a Western Diet increases one’s chances for developing depression. There has been a great deal of research into why the western diet increase’s one chance of having depression. A common sense reason maybe that the Western Diet consisted of large amounts carbohydrates, fats and sugars which promotes obesity and then causes depression (1). More scientific evidence suggest that having a improper diet like the Western Diet negatively affects peripheral and central dopamine, which are neurotransmitters (chemical which transmit signals across the synapse from the nerve cell to the target cell)
High fructose corn syrup has taken over the modern American diet in a detrimental way. High fructose corn syrup is used all over the world, as a sweetener because it is the easiest to work with plus the materials to make it is cheap. In America, high fructose corn syrup has replaced table sugar in the food making industry because of the subsidies of corn, which makes high fructose corn syrup the cheapest.