American Obesity

      In America today over 35.7 percent of adults are obese, over 68.8 percent of adults are overweight, and over 75 percent of all Americans including children take some form of prescription drug to treat health. Many foreign country's like to poke fun at Americas obesity problem, Sadly it's no longer a joke. America is one of the only countries in the world that is as dedicated to eating fast food, processed food, and candy in extreme amounts as it could be and in fact many of us today are guilty of that quick lunchtime meal from Wendys, Mcdonalds, or even places that claim to be healthy such as Subway. But just because they say we can eat it, does it mean we should? Many studies today say no and those same studies are also showing that the American youth of today may pay the ultimate price if we do not put an end to our unhealthy eating habits. Today i am talking to you about obese America, and especially our teenage generation. Everything from processed meats, processed fruits, processed vegetables, carbonated beverages, saturated fats, trans fats, syrups, etc, can be found in almost any meal from any fast food restaurant menu or in some cases, upper scale restaurant menu's. Along with extremely unhealthy food items, many Americans eat portions far larger than but the human body can withstand. With such a high amount of diseases, cancers, and illnesses amongst Americans today perhaps its time we put down the food and began analyzing what our body are digesting.

     Did you know that meat is packaged with carbon monoxide? Did you know that the carbon monoxide gives meat the "healthy red color" that it needs to appeal to its consumer. Did you know that the same carbon monoxide has also been linked to major diseases? Well, that's just the least of it. With major food poisoning break outs such as e-coli, norovirus , and salmonella you would almost wonder how meat like this gets into fast food chains, grocery stores, and peoples stomachs when American food is supposed to meet all these "health standards" by the FDA. Well, let me tell you, money speaks louder than actions, and in a billion dollar industry, you can bet on money being the winner over safety every time. As written by ABC news, and many other well connected sources, many of the meats we eat today might not be as healthy as we think. In one ABC article, the author wrote "during the hearings some Congress members couldn't be swayed and grilled the companies about the practice. They called the practice unsafe and misleading, and to make their point, they displayed a 2-year-old package of meat that still looked pink and fresh, thanks to carbon monoxide injection." (ABC news) When you read that little bit of text from the ABC article, you begin to think back to all of the meat you have consumed in the last two years,  you wonder how old, safe, or even edible that meat was. Typically, you would judge a meat by its color. A fresh meat should display a nice pinkish red color, while an old meat should portray something that you flush down the toilet. Now, not only can red meat be tainted without a single visible sign, but red meat is an unhealthy option all together. It is now known that red meat can also lead to cancers, most commonly bowel cancer. In red meat, the problems seem to start when a chemical called haem – part of the red pigment in the blood, haemoglobin, is broken down in our gut to form a family of chemicals called N-nitroso compounds. These have been found to damage the cells that line the bowel, so other cells in the bowel lining have to replicate more in order to heal. And it’s this ‘extra’ replication that can increase the chance of errors developing in the cells’ DNA, Ultimately leading to cancer. So now we know that red meat is A) probably tainted B) Cancerous. But what about C)? Well, C) is the obesity problem.  As best said by a Harvard research team "a number of studies have found no relationship. (40,48,53,54) Fast-food restaurants are more likely to locate near schools, however, and close proximity of fast-food restaurants to schools has been linked to increased risk of obesity in schoolchildren." (HARVARD, school of public health, obesity prevention / toxic food environment)

So, now that we know that red meat is unhealthy and fast food can be linked to obesity, lets tie this into culture. In America today, 34.3 percent of American teens eat fast food everyday, 70 percent of Americans eat processed food everyday, and about 68.8 percent of adults are overweight (not including other serious health problems). Now i know i only gave you one example of food processing (which was meat), but seeing how unhealthy meat processing is, you can only imagine how unhealthy processed foods with sugar, fat, carbs, and other artificial ingredients are. Now think about how unhealthy fast food is. Every meat, bun, pickle, tomato, potato, etc on a Mcdonalds burger is processed, and quite literally artificial food. Seeing as 70 percent of Americans eat processed foods daily, it's not hard to understand why america has such a bad obesity problem. The reason why these artificial foods are so dangerous is because inside of our stomachs, we have little sensors that can detect when a stomach is full. When we eat healthy whole foods, our stomachs fill up completely and the sensors detect that and we finish our meal, However, with artificial foods, our senors in our stomach are thrown off and we don't feel full when we are finished eating, quite literally because our brain doesn't recognize that we are full. so we keep on eating, and eating, and eating stretching our stomachs out while also loading our bodies with artificial ingredients that our body cannot digest. Fake sugars and other fake ingredients often lead to blockage in coronary arteries in the heart, which can lead to heart disease,  and heart attacks. Other health issues include Diabetes, Liver Cancer, gallbladder problems, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and many other major health problems. 9.3 percent of Americans under twenty have diabetes, 41 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, 48 percent of women and 46 percent of men have heart disease, and these numbers are only a small portion of how bad american health truly is.  This affects our teenage generation and our adult generation aggressively. You make think it won't affect you, but i promise you that it will. So with this all being said, as a respectable human being, i urge you to stop eating processed foods, and switch to organic whole foods because one day, it might save your life. If you do not know where to start, here are some links to help you make the switch to a healthier life style.

Obesity Prevention

Whole foods diet

Heart.org