What Are We Eating?

Everyone knows that the “conventional” modern American diet is among the most unhealthy that the world has known.  Everything loaded up with sugar, salt, and fat, filled with toxic artificial sweeteners, flavors, and colors, covered in pesticides inside and out, more often than not containing unnatural and untested GMO ingredients.  Many things tainted with endocrine disruptors such as the all too common BPA, phthalates, and many herbicides and pesticides.  Looking from the outside, there’s no question why we have such health problems and such an incredibly bad obesity epidemic (obesity rates in many major metropolitan areas have approximately doubled since 1999, when GMO crops first started becoming common).  In 1999, there were few cities with obesity rates above 20% at most, now the average has climbed to be closer to 30% with the top ranking city at a staggering 38.8%; one need not wonder why we’ve begun to see Type II diabetes in preteens as societally acceptable with a food culture such as ours.

go-figure-obesity-111007 rates and diabetes

The Simple Numbers:

The average American is 36.6 years old and eats 1,996.3 lbs. of food per year. The average man is 5’9” and weighs 190 lbs. The average woman is 5’4” and weighs 164 lbs.

Each year, Americans eat 85.5 lbs. of fats and oils. They eat 110 lbs. of red meat, including 62.4 lbs. of beef and 46.5 lbs. of pork. Americans eat 73.6 lbs. of poultry, including 60.4 lbs. of chicken. They eat 16.1 lbs. of fish and shellfish and 32.7 lbs. of eggs.

Americans eat a whopping 35 lbs. of mercury tainted and neurotoxic HFCS linked to obesity, diabetes, and pancreatic cancer each year.  That’s in addition to the already excessive 47 lbs. of table sugar they eat which has recently been sourced primarily from GMO sugar beets that have outcompeted the healthier and more environmentally friendly cane sugar industry.

Americans eat 31.4 lbs. of cheese each year and 600.5 lbs. of non-cheese dairy products. They drink 181 lbs. of beverage milks. Americans eat 192.3 lbs. of flour and cereal products, including 134.1 lbs. of wheat flour. They eat 141.6 lbs. of caloric sweeteners, including 42 lbs. of corn syrup. Americans consume 56 lbs. of (mostly GMO) corn each year and eat 415.4 lbs. of vegetables. Every year, Americans eat 24 lbs. of coffee, cocoa and nuts. Americans eat 273.2 lbs. of fruit each year.

These foods include 29 lbs. of French fries, 23 lbs. of pizza and 24 lbs. of ice cream. Americans drink 53 gallons of soda each year, averaging about one gallon each week. Americans eat 24 lbs. of artificial sweeteners each year. They eat 2.736 lbs. of sodium, which is 47 percent more than recommended. Americans consume 0.2 lbs. of caffeine each year, about 90,700 mg. In total, Americans eat an average of 2,700 calories each day although the USDA recommends no more than 2,000.

american-average-food-consumption what are we eating infographic nutrition

We work more than ever before and more than most other countries in the world, often not having the time to do all our own cooking and turn to cheap and fast food restaurants; but at this point even most traditional chain restaurants often seem to be competing to see who can cook up the most addictive and unhealthy culinary delights.  While we may not be entirely to blame, it’s largely up to us to fix these problems.  Check out the ingredients and nutritional facts of what you eat, educate your friends and relatives, speak up and demand that companies offer healthier options for their customers and take the worst and most addictive offending foods off the market.  Stand up and speak out for all of us, write your government, uncover the truth and bare it for all to see.

Source Article from http://www.nationofchange.org/what-are-we-eating-1365088476

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