What America Really Eats

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What America Really Eats

 

Are we really the 'pigs at the trough' the diet experts say we are?

 

http://www.breadandmoney.com/docs/eats2005.html

 

Soda has replaced milk as the drink, or drug, of choice among children

and teenagers. Given the amount they consume, it's a wonder they don't

slosh when they walk. "

 

For years we've been scolded, like errant children, for not exercising

enough, eating enough fruits and vegetables and for getting fat. The

diet experts berate us with the disapproving scowl of a parent who's

caught her child sneaking candy. We humbly accept responsibility for

our personal failings and vow that the next diet, the next fad, will

be the one that we finally stick to. For most of my life, I believed

the message that we are all nutritional sinners, wallowing in a

hedonistic orgy of junk food and sloth, but more recently a closer

look at the eating habits of Americans tells a different story. The

following statistics come from the USDA Food Consumption, Prices, and

Expenditures report. Except where noted, the report covers the period

between 1970 and 1997.

 

Meat, Poultry and Eggs

Although per capita consumption of meat reached near record high

levels in 1994, the proportion of fat in the American diet, from meat,

declined from 35 percent in 1970 to 25 percent in 1994. Saturated fat

consumption fell from 37 percent to 26 percent. In 1960, beef

producers began raising leaner beef by moving away from the

traditionally fatter and tastier breeds, like Herefords and Angus.

Pork consumption was changing too. While overall consumption increased

slightly, from 1970 to 1998, the meat was much leaner, reflecting the

consumer trend toward low fat eating. In total, per capita meat

consumption, including red meat, poultry, and fish was up about 13

pounds, but this change was due mostly to an increase in poultry

consumption while consumption of red meat, which was significantly

leaner and contained much less saturated fat, declined.

 

Shell eggs, once considered a perfect food, saw a per capita decline

from 276 to 173 eggs from 1970 to 1997. This decline was driven by an

unnecessary fear of cholesterol and the dietary fat. Curiously,

between 1970 and 1994, per person consumption of cholesterol declined

13 percent, from 470 to 410 milligrams.

 

Dairy

In the dairy category, whole milk consumption decreased by two-thirds

between 1970 and 1997. This decrease was offset by America's love

affair with cheese and fluid cream products. Average consumption of

cheese increased 146 percent! Lest you think Americans inexplicably

evolved into connoisseurs of fine gourmet cheeses, think again. Most

of that cheese, up to two-thirds, came packaged as convenience food in

the form of pizza, snack foods, fast food sandwiches, chips, bagel

spreads, etc. While cheese is a high fat item, it should be noted that

when it comes as convenience food, it comes accompanied by prodigious

amounts of starches and sugars. Even with the increase in cheese

consumption, overall milkfat consumption declined by 37 percent.

 

Fruits and Vegetable

In 1997, Americans, on average, consumed 57 pounds more fruit and 87

pounds more vegetables than they did in 1970. Given all the finger

wagging from health experts, you would never guess that produce

consumption has been on the increase.

 

Grains and Sugar

The most startling figures in the report come in the grain, sugar and

fat categories. Americans went from 136 pounds of flour and cereal

products in 1970 to a whopping 200 pounds in 1997. That's a lot of

dough. Much of it came in the form of fast food and snack food such as

pizza, pasta, crackers, chips and the mother of all grain foods, ready

to eat cereals. Breakfast cereal consumption between 1980 and 1997

increased by 41 percent to 17 pounds per person! Much of that cereal

was consumed with mounds of sugar. In fact, in 1997, our consumption

of sugars, table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), rose 28

percent, equaling 34 pounds, for a total of 154 pounds of the sweet

stuff on average. That's 53 teaspoons per day! A far cry from the 6 to

18 teaspoons (based on 1,600 to 2,800 calories) recommended by the

last Food Guide Pyramid. The use of corn sweeteners like HFCS,

skyrocketed due to favorable government agricultural policies toward

corn growers and an overabundant supply. One place this sugar wound up

was in beverages. In 1986, the average American swilled 28 gallons of

carbonated soda. By 1997, that number had increased to 41 gallons, a

47 percent increase. Soda has replaced milk as the drink, or drug, of

choice among children and teenagers. Given the amount they consume,

it's a wonder they don't slosh when they walk.

 

Fat

Finally, lets look at fats and oils. Unless you live in a whole foods

commune, it's unlikely that you know anyone who cooks with lard,

coconut or palm oil. Even the use of butter is a rarity today. Between

1970 and 1997, consumption of animal fats declined by a fourth while

consumption of polyunsaturated vegetable fats increased by two-fifths.

During this same period, consumption of polyunsaturated salad and

cooking oils jumped from 15 to 29 pounds per capita! It should be

noted that polyunsaturated vegetable oils can become oxidized quite

easily, contributing to atherosclerosis in humans. Unfortunately,

health experts have been advising us to consume polyunsaturated oils

as a preventative measure against heart disease for some time. These

rancid oils, are in fact, more likely to create health problems than

prevent them. We are also advised to eat the fabricated vegetable

fats, engineered to behave like saturated fat. These fats, in the form

of margarine and shortening, are practically brimming with harmful

hydrogenated trans-fats. Trans-fats were found in a variety of baked

goods, including cookies, cakes, crackers and peanut butter, as well

as in fried foods, soups and cereals. Salad dressings are another

source of harmful fat. A USDA survey showed that between 1989 and

1991, the average woman between the ages of 19 and 50 obtained more

vegetable fat from salad dressing than anything else she was eating.

 

Obesity and Heart Disease

It is interesting to note the changes in the health of Americans over

the same time period as the food consumption survey. According to the

1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted

by a division of the Centers for Disease Control, rates of obesity

increased more than 50 percent between 1976 and 2000. On another

health front, heart disease continues as the number one killer in

America, racking up 945,836 lives in the year 2000, according to the

American Heart Association. While deaths from heart disease have

declined, due to improvements in treating the disease, Americans

continue to be stricken by this killer in astounding numbers.

 

If the consumption of dietary animal fat leads to obesity and causes

heart disease, how is it possible that even after reducing the amount

of animal fat in our diet, and even after increasing the amount of

fruits and vegetables we consume, our levels of obesity have increased

and heart disease has not abated?

 

It should be clear, by the above statistics, that it is the increase

in the consumption of sugar (from soda to pineapples), refined grains,

and non-animal fats that have contributed most to our health problems.

A casual stroll through any grocery store where 75 - 85 percent of the

foods feature sugar, grain or both as primary ingredients proves this.

 

What about exercise? Isn't the reason so many of us are fat and sick

is because we're all basically lazy and don't get enough exercise?

Exercise is very important for good health, but in today's politically

charged, economically driven healthcare marketplace, exercise is a

distraction from the root cause of the problem: poor diet.

 

The belief promoted by the healthcare industry that we should get fit

so we can eat whatever we want is wrong, wrong, wrong. You can't get

fit without the right food. What we should be doing is eating right

first, so that we can get fit. Exercise is secondary to diet just as

driving your car is secondary to fueling up.

 

As a people, Americans really do believe in sensible eating, good

health, exercise and the work ethic, but we live in a world overrun by

commercial interests at the expense of individual health. Those we

look to for guidance, our government and the health experts, have for

the most part, failed us. We have become the victims of our own

success, through excess.

 

Read, think and learn, so that you may eat will and live a more

fruitful life.