High Fat Diets And Western Eating Habits

Shifts in the “Food Marketplace” have greatly affected our food choices and habits in the last 40-50 years. As one woman stated in the film The Weight of the Nation, “It’s so hard to combat with what the tv is telling you to feed your kids”. Advertising has come to a whole new level in our generation; you can’t turn on the television without seeing an advertisement for fast food or something equally as unhealthy. As another woman put it, “you are taught that you can eat anywhere, anytime of day, and that eating is a glorious thing”. Another shift that has occurred is an economic one. If you go into a poor neighborhood corner store like they did in the film, you would see chips, sugar, sweets, etc. All of these unhealthy foods are cheap, incredibly cheaper than fresh fruits and vegetables. Obesity rates in these poor areas are much higher than in areas with a higher average income. Culturally, our country is changing to one that is always moving; we don’t have time to prepare a meal for the whole family. It’s much quicker to buy unhealthy fast food that you know your family will enjoy than to prepare a healthy meal that they will grudgingly consume. The film mentioned that our bodies were originally built for scarcity. We are wired to react to things that are sweet and contain a lot of fat because when an animal was killed we had to be able to eat as much of it as possible. The signals telling us to stop eating had to be overridden. Now, we consume so much fat and sugar not

Hasting, Thiel and Thomas (2003) published The Deadly Noodle in Newsweek, which demonstrates the proliferation of American food. They illustrate that a substantial number of countries, especially France, are under the adverse impact of the fast food originated from the USA. And one of the most conspicuous reasons is the rapid growth of technology. People are getting used to sedentary lifestyle. Another big issue is correlated with excessive calories intake. Surprisingly, some main ingredients from traditional dishes are the culprits, including cooking oil, sugar, and noodles. As a result, the expenditure on health maintenance is rocketing. One important viewpoint that I would like to discuss is unhealthy food origins. (把不重要的删去)

Today, more people suffer from weight and health problems than people from twenty years ago. You may ask why is that, and what is the difference between us today and the people of the last generation? Well, one main difference is the high-fat and low fat foods that we eat. High-fat and low-fat diets can be the cause of half our problems. People today; choose some sort of diet to help their weight problems. But many people do not know what the bad intake of some foods can do to you.

Over the last several decades, the diet of society has been continually changing. This has resulted in different formulas for nutrition and the proper portions of foods that must be consumed. To fully understand the various arguments requires looking at numerous viewpoints. This will be accomplished by focusing on Michael Pollan's Escape from the Western Diet in contrast with Mary Maxfield's Food as thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating. These views will highlight how diet and nutrition is based upon individual opinions. This is the focus of the thesis.

The United States has progressed from a rural, agricultural nation to an urbanized industrial one in just the last two centuries. Through this the transformation of the American lifestyles have changed drastically. Other countries focus on eating well, excercise, and taking enough time to eat and enjoying what they are eating. One lifestyle that many Americans have adapted to is the Western Diet, but today around the world the Western Diet is not viewed as the most nutritious or beneficial diet for humans. The nutritional patterns of high-fat and cholesterol, high protein, high sugar, and excessive salt intake, as well as the excessive consumption of processed fast foods has collectively defined the Western Diet. Even though this type of

The nutrition transition and the increasing westernization, urbanization and mechanization occurring in most countries around the world is associated with changes in the diet towards one of high fat, high energy-dense foods and a sedentary lifestyle (Popkin, 2001). This shift is also associated with the current rapid changes in childhood and adult obesity. Even in many low income countries, obesity is now rapidly increasing, and often coexists in the same population with chronic under nutrition.

The progress of obesity has developed over the course of four decades has many contributing factors that can not be ignored. Such as cultural beliefs, attitudes and personal preferences towards certain food

The western diet exists as a way of life for most Americans. The typical western diet is full of chemicals and unknown ingredients. Today it is not viewed as the most beneficial diet for humans to consume. Those who live on the western diet are exploding with health concerns. Some major health problems range from type two diabetes, high cholesterol, to being overweight. These health concerns are growing. Today, foods have many unknown ingredients and just really are not food. Michael Pollan discusses these issues in his book titled In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Pollans’ goal from this book is to inform people, mainly the eaters of the western diet, what this diet is and what it contains. He furthers his argument on

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)

Lack of physical activity,Unhealthy eating patterns, or a combination of these cause America to be one of the most obese nation.Over-sized portions of fat rich food which is common in america increases the total calorie intake greatly not only are the eating fattening foods they are eating them in great quantity. Processed foods are some of the most popular in america but they do have highs in sugar. Fructose corn syrup and all sorts of artificial ingredient.Also probably very unhealthy for a notation hooked on it’s cell phone.Again addiction to these can be very dangerous not only be case these food are in large quantity and unhealthy makes eating them repeatedly extremely dangerous. These problems take a critical condition and turn it into a disaster.

(2003), likewise point out that the fact of not being physically active plays a crucial in doubling cases of obesity. According to Hastings et al. (2003), people in 1st, 2nd and 3rd world countries are doing less physical activities such as riding bikes, working in the fields. Instead, people spend more time sitting in cars, in factories, in offices, in front of the TV, developing “Couch-potato” syndrome, only eating and drinking. In addition, the authors comment that wage-labor patterns are other contributing factors in culture-bound

During the Neolithic and Industrial periods, food staples and food-processing procedures were introduced. Furthermore, it was also during this period, that several alterations were made to essential nutritional characteristics, of our ancestral diet. Changes in lifestyles and activity, in combination with the nutritional quality of recently introduced foods, may underlie many of the chronic diseases and prevalence of Obesity in Western Culture (Cordain et al., 2017). Initially, the changes impacting diet and lifestyle conditions,

Obesity is growing at epidemic proportions in developed nations. Over 1.4 billion adults are currently considered to be overweight or obese (Haskell, 2007). Individuals in developed nations average daily caloric consumption has increased by 200kcal while their energy expenditure has decreased by 800kcal. On average caloric consumption is in excess compared to energy expenditure. Individuals in developed nations have been progressively making a switch to a more

The human body does not operate properly when there isn’t adequate nutrition. The severe inadequacy of nutrition may contribute to a disease or even death. The typical diet is lacking in many ways ranging from lack of being speedily consumed to lack of proper nutrition. The factors that have led to food choice among many people include, the texture taste and appearance of the food. Different people have a different range of taste for food, and this affects their choice of food. Due to economic issues, access to fresh fruits and vegetable is limited to some groups especially those who are socially disadvantaged and live in extremes regions. The people who were not exposed to early food after they were born also find themselves with limited choices of food when they grow old. “The culture also affects the choice of food, the geographical area, media publicity through deceiving and genuine adverts, the health concern of an individual especially when prescribed by the doctor and finally the habitat in which an individual has been brought up”(Lesley, 2008 pp 351).

Growing up in the United States, there are many things that I had just accepted as the norm. Eating a diet heavy in meat and dairy are staples in the diet of the average American that those who differ are considered strange. Interestingly, the United States is also referred to as one of the unhealthiest nations in the world. How could we be so unhealthy, when we are such a developed country that has access to the best medical care and information. The documentary “Forks Over Knives” focuses on exactly this point. It claims that there is a fundamental problem with the diet of Americans, particularly our heavy consumption of meat and dairy. This documentary asserts that the cure for all of our health related problems is to switch to a whole