The Standard American Diet Plan Essay

Throughout the Dietary Guideline for Americans, 2010, emphasizes are fixed on concerns about American’s health. In this day and age, the American people as a nation are experiencing a pandemic of overweight and obesity which is linked to poor diet and lack of physical activity resulting in illness that can become terminal. Unfortunately, this has affected many of our love ones first hand. However, such problems can be corrected through developing better eating habits and lifestyles. Following the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 is a start. It is significant in aiding Americans to live longer and healthier lives.

The staples of a typical Japanese diet differ dramatically from the centerpieces of the average American diet. In Japan, the main dietary staple is rice, which only has approximately 100 calories per half-cup serving, a negligible amount of fat, and a very low amount of sodium. Since rice serves as the nutritional core of almost every meal, this diet offers consistency and balance to its users. Many Japanese people eat twice as much fish as red meat, and since fish is high in protein while low in saturated fat, fish is a healthier

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

The main aim of the policy is to shape individuals ' eating methodologies, as Americans ought to give more attention to the sustainability of the food they eat. Though there are many guidelines published on Dietary issues, people couldn’t find much information on the type of foods, which keeps them healthy. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans: 2015-2020, eighth edition, which was released on January 7, 2016, was very resourceful.

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

Okinawa, on the other hand, has the longest living women. There are five blue zones in present day, however. The others are Loma Linda, California, the Nicoya peninsula of Costa Rica, and the Greek island of Ikaria. One of the common denominators in the blue zones are their diet. To Americans, especially our community in Northern Virginia, a diet is skipping the lines of McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Chik-Fil-A if you’re feeling particularly motivated. A diet might mean paleo, no carb, Jenny Craig, or Weight Watchers. But if we are to adopt the lifestyles of the blue zones, we have to understand that diet is not a fad or something you stop when you reach your desired weight, but the type of consumables in your daily life. Blue zone diets encompass a plant-based meal selection. In Okinawa, the community consumes eighty percent more tofu than Americans and meat is not the entrée, but an occasional addition to your meals. Essentially, there should be no packaging on your food and you should cook your meals at home. This is the first step to a healthier life that will give you more precious days on this planet, but it doesn’t end with changing your eating

This was a pilot program, which was community based. This health program decided to come up with an idea that would help in reducing this threat amongst the native Hawaiians. The process had to apply eight main procedures especially in theories in clinical intervention, health promotion and health education. The eight processes included role modeling, community-wide intervention, transition diet, whole-person approach, cultural sensitivity, group ohana support, dietary clinical intervention and non-calorie restricted obesity protocol. This idea was introduced to the Hawaiians to help them learn the appropriate healthy culture amongst the natives. The measures to solve problems with obesity were revealed. Among the processes to curb these issues were to find a way of reducing weight without calorie limitations in the body, therefore adding low energy density foods using traditional Hawaiian food such as taro, poi, fern shoots, seaweed, yams, breadfruit, chicken and fish. The Waianae Diet Program received support mainly from the WCCHC, the Honolulu Poi Company and the Kahumana Farm and Community Center. It introduced basic innovations, which were concerned with improving the cultural sensitivity of the people on matters of health through education and promotions (Beckham et al.,

America today is in the middle of a nutritional crisis. Throughout the country, the obesity epidemic has struck every population demographic. According to recent projections made by the United States Government, 63.9 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese. That is over half of the population! What exactly is the culprit behind this crisis? How can someone fix this issue? The answers lie in the average American Diet. The diet consumed by Americans is one of, if not the worst diet in terms of saturated fat, trans fats, lack of carbohydrates, over consumption of protein, and overall malnutrition. Recommended Dietary Allowances adopted by nutritionists around the globe and countries such as the

“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.

Using the standard Western Diet, Americans tend to stay in Level 1: Not Ready to Change.” Several factors develop our food habits. Comfort food is a standard diet for older Americans. They grew up in an era of bland and overcooked food, especially canned vegetables. Hypertension and Hypercholesterolemia are two results of 1950’s era food. Concurrently, Baby Boomers tend to discard elevated or new versions of such items as Macaroni and Cheese.

In 1982, government officials told Americans to reduce their daily fat intake from 40% to 30%, and they embraced this suggestion. Instead of fats, Americans began to eat more carbohydrates, an increase of 57 grams per person from 1989 to today, according to Dr. Robert Lustig, the professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. Today, the typical American diet consists of 50% carbohydrates, 15% protein and 35% fat.

Gardner, C.D., Kiazand, A., Alhassan, S., Kim, S., Stafford, R.S., Balise, R.R., Kraemer, H.C., and King, A.C. (2007, March). Abstract: Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and Learn diets for change in weight and related risk factors among overweight premenopausal women. JAMA, 297 (9), 969. Retrieved March 24, 2007, from http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/297/9/969

Food has evolved far from the traditional oriental diet in Japan, and has started to eat away at the Japanese people. Westerns have not adjusted to the natural diet, which doesn’t contain as many starches and fats. Healthy foods can’t be preserved because that would make them inedible. Facts show that the diets usually start more problems than solving them. Japanese-American men who lived in Japan for ten years or longer and those who consumed an Oriental diet had the lowest prevalence of diabetes. (Serafica. Pg. 1-2)

One topic that has been talked about for many years within Kinesiology is the debate on whether exercise or diet is more important for losing weight and maintaining weight loss. While both or important for a person's individual health, a person's diet is essentially the foundation for a healthy lifestyle and an important factor in losing weight and gaining nutrients that can help the body develop. Many studies and experiments have shown that a healthy diet goes a long way in helping people lose more weight, but more importantly teaches them how to continue to treat their bodies in a healthy manner. Dieting has been shown to have a bigger impact on weight loss than exercise has. For this reason, it can be said that a good diet is more effective for weight loss as compared to exercise alone.

Making health conscious food decisions is a constant battle for Hawaii locals, especially with staples of white rice and spam. Almost every main dish is accompanied by rice; this can be attributed to the heavy Asian influence present here. Conspicuously, rice is an important food source because in virtually any home you walk into you will find a rice cooker, holding anywhere from five to 25 cups of rice. Not only does white rice go well with all types of food, but it also is enjoyed in different ways. Here, we enjoy rice fried together with