We Eat In America

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.

America is a great country; with high emphasis on freedom, education, acceptance, and philanthropy, there is a strong basis to create a diverse, successful country. However, there is one aspect that America lacks: nutrition. The average American’s diets exceeds the recommended intake of solid fats and added sugars, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fats, and the average amount of calories consumed per American has increased approximately 600 calories per day. Clearly, America struggles to keep citizens’ diets nutritious. In fact, recent studies have projected that by 2030, half of all American adults will be obese (US Dept. of Health). At this rate, Americans will struggle

Understanding the effects of poor and efficient eating habits and how to manage your health is crucial to the existence of a healthy population in the America. To understand these approaches, one has to understand some of the poor eating habits witnessed on most people in the United States. Paula (2015) states that only ten percent of the entire American population follow a daily diet consistent with the federal nutrient recommendations. Other than following the required nutrition, most people prefer meals rich in trans-fats, salt, saturated fat, and sugar and ignore fruits, vegetables, and fiber. The increased preference of poor nutrition contributes a total of four out of six in

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Michael Pollan, one of Time magazine’s top 100 Most Influential People in 2010 and author of “Escape from the Western Diet”, proposes these three rules to live a healthier life. Pollan strongly believes that the Western diet is responsible for Western Diseases. Throughout the excerpt, he explains how the epidemic of obesity is caused by the business of food and medical industries, the degree of food that is processed, and how much time and effort is put into developing a well-balanced diet.

American daily life has changed quite a bit throughout the last couple of centuries. The average American added between 160 and 310 extra calories a day from eating out and 62% of adult Americans were overweight in 2000(Healthline,2014)(Profiling Food Consumption in America). In 1980, it was

The choices American’s make about their eating habits has drastically changed over time. Today America is an obese nation, because food is everywhere: at the grocery store, on billboard signs, or even at the hardware store. There are statistics that prove America is an obese nation, the public just has to go search for those. Many diets and experts have tips to give to help American’s and others lose weight. This is the point that Susan Brink and Elizabeth Querna are trying to get across in their article, “Eat this Now.” Within the article, the two go in to detail about how Americans eat all the time. Brink and Querna’s article really bring to light the problems that American’s have by showing how American’s eat to

“We’re the only nation in the world where all of our poor people are fat”’ (Herbert 323). The truth is that Americans are worried about not having enough food and rather buy food that is much cheaper and that is very unhealthy, the least of their concerns is making sure if the food they buy is healthy or not. ‘The 12 million families represent 11.2 percent of all U.S households. “At some time during the year,” the report said, “ these holds were uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food for all their members because they had insufficient money.” (Herbert 323). Low income families cope with not being able to afford healthy food by buying food that are high in calories, low in nutritional values and low in cost. People that have low incomes are more obese than those with high income because people with higher income are able to afford fresh and healthy ingredients without concern of quantity or quality of

Soul food was born out of necessity and continued as a result of poverty. Slaves had no choice but to make the left over undesirable pork parts like pig feet and intestines edible. The fat married to limited seasonings and whatever else was overgrown or surplus in the field was cooked with love for nourishment to provide energy to endure the long hot days performing labor intensive tasks in the element. African Americans were freed from slavery and now even multiple generations away from that period in time as a population the struggle continues in many parts of the country to locate healthy food. This is because ” food insecurity” prevails event today (Walker & Cunningham, 2014 p. 165).

In the book Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, he talks about our national eating disorders started and the impact it has on the world. Pollan argues with the nature of its supermarket and how it is linked to our food production. In saying this where do these foods come from? What are they made of? And who produces it? His self-discoveries covers the ins and out of our food systems through industrials corn, pastoral grass (organic food), and the forest (hunting-gathering). In the Chapter “Our National Eating Disorder”, Pollan points out how we Americans supermarket seems to be artificial and does not progress towards nature; plants and animals. Pollan gives the surprising fact that most of the world eats a fifth of its meals in the car, that fact is absolutely amazing (Pollan 11). The astonishing fact shows that America’s food industry has indeed changed. The debate is whether the change is good or bad. The book entails that the food industry that we currently have tries to keep up with the vastly growing population of the United States. The population of the United States has grown significantly since the 1970s. The industrial food production is designed for all Americans to view our food system as the best food system, but an average consumers lack knowledge of the food they eat which is genetically modified that been taken from nature and created by mankind.

Furthermore, As families grow, to feed everyone, we many think about relying on other food source. We need to start relying on other

American Obesity Eating Fast food,is the American culture.A lot of average Americans eat Fast food almost every day.But somehow a lot of people Worldwide donnot know what’s in the food.Consumers from time to time don’t care to read the food labels.Consequently,Obesity is becoming the #1 threat,plaguing America and Everywhere Nationwide.

Obesity has become a symbol of our American culture and ways of life. Across the U.S. Americans are eating for a multitude of reasons; socially, emotionally, and nutritional. Becoming overweight does not happen overnight, it’s a gradual process that’s ignored. It is estimated sixty-eight percent of Americans are overweight, with thirty-four percent obese. Eating comes easy when the meals prepared are delicious; whether baked or fried, simmered over a heated grill. A large amount of people does not take time out to read the packaging labels for nutritional values in a lot of the foods that’s purchase; the ingredients on most labels are not that hard to understand concerning the calories, sugar, or saturated fat, which is not good. However,

“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.

Everyone knows eating in Europe isn’t the same as eating in America, different foods, different cultural habits but when it comes to eating habits, it’s completely different. Not only are the ingredients are different, but the entire lifestyles differ because of the eating habits. Now everything is known to be bigger in America, the country, the cars, the highways, and the portions are no exception. French can spend hours having lunch, when in the U.S, we prefer fast food and big chains where you are fed in 10 minutes.

Pollan starkly contrasts American eating habits with those of other cultures, particularly the French. He performs this because, while countless Americans alter their diets to match current recommendations by scientists, a large amount of the U.S. population remains obese, and more and more of the population is growing obese. Those of other countries, however, decide what to eat simply on the basis of what they want to eat yet still remain “...healthier and happier in their eating than we are,” (Pollan, 3).