America's Poor Nutritional Habits

As you have heard, we are what we eat. The American diet consist of fast foods and processed foods. Americans have some of the poorest nutrional habits in the world. Our physical bodies are composed of the foods we eat. Highly processed foods are what we are: piles of saturated fat lacking viable nutrient. Since 1980, men's sperm counts have declined by 50 percent since 1980 worldwide, that Americans are fatter than ever before. Twenty percent of our chil­dren are experiencing health problems that only adults should be facing. Is it a coincidence that our immune sys­tems are breaking down or that diabetes and heart disease rates have risen dramatically over the past century?

Americans are the most overfed and undernourished people in the world, which has led to poor nutritional habits. When you add up the calories that we consume each day from high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods, nearly half of our caloric intake comes from nutritionally depleted foods. We get 18.6 percent of our calories each day from sugar, 21.4 percent from fats and oils, and 5 percent from sweetened soft drinks. Compare this to only 4.5 percent of our calories from vegetables and 3 per­cent from fruits. No wonder the standard American diet is "SAD." Current studies report that we are consuming more nutrients than ever before, but this is because of the alarming increase in total number of calories consumed daily. The result is that we are getting fat.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA):

• Americans each ate on average 147 pounds of caloric sweet­eners, which translates into nearly 6.5 ounces per day.

• Cane and beet sugar consumption was down to a mere 64.4 pounds, while hidden corn sweeteners rose substantially to 81.4 pounds per person. We each ate a little less than a pound each of syrups and honey.

• Americans drank 24.2 gallons or 258 cups of coffee.

• On average, Americans consumed 74.5 pounds of added fats and oils, which includes 23.1 pounds of hydrogenated veg­etable shortening.

• Average Americans each ate 26.9 quarts of ice cream, sher­bet, frozen yogurt, and ice milk.

These are some of the devastating effects of our poor nutritional habits in America. And we can't blame McDonald's. We need to blame ourselves - a lack of proper eating habits, stressful and over busy lives that lead to a decline in cooking food and has us running to the quickest fast food place or microwaving the easiest thing.. We are in control of what we eat - not any fast food restaurant. Instead of playing the blame game we need to step up to the plate and fill our plates with a string of healthy foods.