It is very distressing American society has chosen an unhealthy lifestyle. The fast food and processed food industry is a booming business and that is a very said situation. The long line of cars at the drive thru lanes at fast food restaurants should be an indication why this is happening
The trouble with this type of processed food is it's overloaded with hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and trans fat. The ensuing outcome is America has become a factory of wide spread obesity and chronic disease. These people usually end up as frequent customers of the pharmaceutical industry.
In 2007 John Hopkins Bloomberg School of public health warned: if not halted, the ever increasing obesity crisis will explode by 2015 to 24 children and adolescents being overweight or obese, and 75% of adults being overweight with 41% being obese.
Currently over fifty percent of people with severe weight problems have diabetes alone. At this time the CDC and NIH have estimated over 7% of our population has a form of diabetes for a total of over 21 million people but nearly a third are undiagnosed.
In 2007 indirect and direct medical cost of diabetes was estimated at over $ 174 billion. Presently these numbers are exploding daily and tangible statistics are difficult to obtain to keep up with the reality of a diabetes epidemic. It's very surprising that our society has chosen this morbid way of life in view of the fact that 1970's nutritional experts researched data revealed patterns of eating has a direct influence on illnesses.
Here's an interesting note that might interest you. It's been revealed that a month of fast food can wreck your liver. If you realize how important that organ is, this should get your attention especially if you are a frequent customer of the fast food industry. While all fast food doesn't necessarily cause liver damage, the problem is a diet containing too many calories with too much fat and sugar (typical in fast food meals consisting of burgers, fries and sodas).
What is even more disturbing is we are starting to see liver damage in kids who are not physically active. I don't know what percentage of patients have knowledge of this report but I bet it's not a very high percentage. Since we have three decades worth of proven research on the benefits of a healthy diet, but are not applying this knowledge, one has to wonder just what our goals are as a society.
We sure can't expect any assistance from government agencies to correct this serious problem. American politicians continue to be influenced by lobbied interest and subsidize the processed food industries. By doing this they are disregarding the health and well being of American citizens.
It seems to me the only way we will ever change this terrible health situation in our country is by having massive appeal by our citizens to get politicians to drastically improve regulation of our food industry. There is some indication, to some degree, that this is happening but apparently it's not enough yet to influence government to make any drastic changes.
So let me encourage everyone to not only speak out more about this situation to everyone you can but also start boycotting the fast food industry and quit buying processed food at your grocery store. If we can get enough people to take this sort of action.we will eventually get this problem solved.
To your health,
Sonny Julius
Sonny, you are so right. People are choosing to eat junk that makes them look and feel bad. And it tastes bad to boot! But people think it's too hard.
You and I have to do a better job of educating people on how easy it really is to eat healthy. I promise to post more quick and easy recipes.
Who wouldn't rather be thin and healthy and full of energy for many years to come? And do it by eating food that tastes great?
Sonny is absolutely right - skip the fast food, throw out the packaged garbage, and eat some good food. Once you start, you'll never go back. It's really that good.