Healthy Diet Vs. The United States

For most Americans, the word poverty means insufficient access to to housing, clothing and nutritious food that meet their needs for a healthy life. A consequence of poverty is a low socioeconomic status that leads to being exposed to poor nutrition. Since food and dietary choices are influenced by income, poverty and nutrition go hand in hand. There are many important factors that threaten the nutritional status of poor people. The number one factor is not having enough money to buy food of good quality and quantity. Not having enough money can have a profound impact on the diets of low-income people. Limited financial resources may force low income people to make difficult decisions about what kind and how much food to buy. Limited

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

It has become impossible for low-income families to provide healthy meals for their families. Government, Farm policies and the food industry itself are main reasons as to why the cost of healthy foods has become harder for American families, especially low-income families, to provide the healthy foods needed to fight the obesity epidemic. With low- income families being the main focus point on the problem of

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

Challenges of maintaining proper nutrition for the economically disadvantaged in the US. Studies show there is a clear difference in economic classes in regards to nutrition and food consumption. Low income groups find it very difficult to eat a healthy diet, and are experiencing food poverty or food insecurity. There are many reason for food poverty the main problems to eating a healthy diet are cost, accessibility, and education. The combination of these three problems creates areas in cities, counties and rural areas called food deserts.

In the articles “Gap In Diet Quality Between Wealthiest Poorest Americans Doubles” by Tracie McMillan, and “Is Junk Food Really Cheaper.” by Mark Bittman. We see that the overall diet quality in the United States remains poor.

In other words, processed foods don't even have probably 1/10 the original nutrients that were in the food in the native state” (Cross). Giving up fast food can be a challenge, especially when it’s much cheaper than eating healthy. But when you compare the costs of healthy groceries to the medical bills that come from a heart attack or other preventable health conditions, it’s incomparable. In the documentary, Forks Over Knives, it is explained that every year, America spends around $2,200,000,000.00 on healthcare and that the most widely prescribed medication across the world is Lipitor which is used for treating high cholesterol (Fulkerson). So many of these metabolic diseases are preventable, yet Americans are putting their health at risk

Foremost of all, like I had mentioned before, the rate of obesity, heart diseases and diabetes is growing than it ever had. There are over 29 million cases of diabetes last year, more than 700 thousands people died each year because of heart attacks, and about 3 million cases of obesity per year in the U.S. The causes of those problems are really simple yet complex, it's each person's taste, conditions and their way of thinking for themselves. Example, you go to McDonald, ordered a Big Mac, Coke and some French fries like a habit, because those are your favorite but not realize how bad the choices of food you just made, and just let’s them all slowly destroy your body afterwards. It's normal for Americans to eat fast foods, refined and processed food, sweets and high fat or carbohydrate foods since they're too popular and common in our culture, but these are food that needs to be limited instead of to be overeating.

It is also clear that there is evidence that shows a great need in improving people of low-socioeconomic status health because the government has been making efforts. However, what have not been addressed are the barriers that people in low-income communities still face even with government resources. Furthermore, it is also clear that the government saw the importance of making sure that low income families had access to health care when they created Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. While access to health care is also a very important piece to a healthy lifestyle, it also becomes counterproductive when people still continue to have a poor diet and end up having to seek medical help at some point. Giving people the chance to have a better nutrition would also help decrease the number of doctor visits for those who do seek medical attention, and for those who don’t seek medical attention it would at least keep them

The people in this country always tend to “bite off more than they can chew”, literally. Countless people every day throw out food either because it has gone bad because they bought too much of what they did not need. They never end up eating it in the first place leaving it to go bad. “But all food goes bad no matter where it’s from” you might say, well yes but more goes bad if over half sits there uneaten only purchased because of a sale or huge discount. To top it all off the country as a whole consumes in excess. Over half of the nation is obese and eats more than they should regularly. The over-eating concept comes into full view with the almost infamous concept of eating contests. People compete to see who could eat more literally gorging themselves while people are starving and making it by on what they can scrape up. People eat more than they need and all that they want when given the chance. Sometimes people eat when they are not even hungry, but simply as a means of distraction from something else. All-you-can-eat

The reality is that food (nutrition) is the primary factor in disease prevention and treatment, but America as a whole has forgotten that. We view food as a pleasure center, not a life giving substance. We value taste and presentation over content. We laugh at true free range pastured eggs being healthier than factory produced soy and corn fed egg products. Our recipes are full of psuedo foods that have been taken apart and recombined to please the pallet instead of feed the body.

Over the past 50 years, the way we eat has changed more than it had in the previous 10,000. Now, 60% of Americans over the age of 20 are overweight. The fast-food industry is highly responsible for today’s health epidemic. Some people choose to blame the government for not balancing individual rights, and the common good. However, the government is not forcing you to eat. You put yourself at risk of diet related health problems.

Wouldn’t it be reasonable to consider that people just might eat healthier if they simply had the money to do so? It would be interesting to consider that the people who usually have bad eating habits, are the ones who actually can’t afford to eat healthy. America has the highest obesity rate in the world, but who knows where we could be if the healthy food was more affordable and the junk food wasn’t reasonably cheap. Illnesses and diseases have become common too in people, many that come from just unhealthy eating that has taken a negative toll on the body. Not to mention, people living in low-income areas where in those areas, the main thing around them are fast food restaurants. The promotion of healthier eating and a healthier lifestyle, though, isn’t completely hidden from the public, though more ads about tasty junk food are on televisions, billboards, and so on, more than food that will benefit your body and general health. These things are all played into the fact that people already have a terrible diet, and the prices of foods that can make someone’s diet healthier are too high for most to even include them in their diet regularly. Healthier foods should cost less because it can help lower the high obesity rate in America, it will promote a healthier lifestyle to people to do things like exercise more, and it can help prevent life-threatening illnesses caused by unhealthy eating.

Do you know that it costs $1.50 more per day to shop for healthy foods? Studies prove that the expense of vegetables, fruits and organic products, have caused the obesity levels in the U.S. to increase dramatically. Healthy foods should be cheaper than junk foods because we shouldn 't be paying more to live a healthier lifestyle. In our society, healthy choices are sometimes a lot harder to make than unhealthy ones; going to the gym vs. staying home, ordering a salad vs. French fries or buying healthy groceries vs. unhealthy ones. Healthy foods in America being expensive is a leading factor to why many consumers don’t eat healthy anymore because unhealthy foods are cheaper, there are meals easy to cook, and the U.S. government is being

Americans’ current health habits lead to long-term consequences. Food is one of the major necessities for living. The body relies on its nutrients to operate properly, but if a person does not obtain the necessary substances from food, malfunctions in the body may occur. For example, the country suffers from numerous diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and even cancer, due to carelessness of the food they consume (Bittman par. 1). Many deaths and sufferings are caused by the damaging foods being eaten, which could all be easily avoided if Americans would make better decisions on the types of food they purchase. The country satisfies their hunger by frequently devouring great amounts of processed and modified foods that are extremely low in nutrients. This way of eating is influenced