The American Diet – Designed For Disease
There are clear reasons why heart attacks and cancer prevail as our number one and number two killers.
Let’s examine them.
Americans currently consume about 42 percent of their calories from fiberless animal foods and another 51 percent from highly processed refined carbohydrates and extracted oils. Almost half of all vegetables consumed are potatoes, and half of the potatoes consumed are in the form of fries or chips. Furthermore, potatoes are one of the least nutritious vegetables.
Studies continue to show the anti-cancer effects of green leafy vegetables and fruits and beans but suggest that potato-heavy diets are not healthy and show a positive association with colon cancer. Possibly this association exists because of the way potatoes are consumed — fried or with butter or other dangerous fats. Excluding potatoes, Americans consume a mere 5 percent of their calories from fruits, vegetables, and legumes.
Cheese consumption increased 140 percent between 1970 and 1996, and cheese is the primary source of saturated fat in our diet. Convenience foods have probably been the driving force behind this increase. In fact, two-thirds of our nation’s cheese production is for commercially prepared foods, such as pizza, tacos, nachos, fast-food meals, spreads, sauces, and packaged snacks.
From convenience foods to fast-food restaurants, our fast-paced society has divorced itself from healthful eating. It may be convenient to pick up soda, burgers, fries, or pizza, but that convenience is not without its price; the result is that we are sicker than ever, and our medical costs are skyrocketing out of control.
Our low consumption of unrefined plant foods is largely responsible for our dismal mortality statistics. Most of us perish prematurely as a result of our dietary folly.
Populations with low death rates from the major killer diseases, populations that almost never have overweight members, consume more than 75 percent of their calories from unrefined plant substances. This is at least ten times more than what the average American consumes.
So why is this the case? Why do we see so much heart disease and cancer in wealthier societies? Is it animal products that are so deadly? Are refined carbohydrates solely to blame? Or is it just that plant foods are so miraculously wonderful at protecting us against disease? Or is it all three?
Obviously, the economically poorer regions of the world have significant public health problems: poor sanitation; poverty and malnutrition; high infant-mortality rates; high rates of infectious disease, including AIDS, parasitic diseases, and even tuberculosis. However, in spite of all these things that cause an early death, if we look at the cause-of-death statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) for people between the ages of fifty-five and seventy-five, we find very few cancer deaths and heart attack deaths in those poor societies.
The diseases of poverty are mostly infectious diseases and are found in areas of the world with compromised nutrition. Heart attacks and the most common cancers (breast, colon, prostate) are found in rich societies where nutritional extravagance is the rule. Nowhere in the world today can we find a society that combines economic wealth with a high intake and variety of unrefined plant foods.
Can you imagine the health potential of a society that would be able to enjoy excellent sanitation, emergency medical care, refrigeration, clean water, flush toilets, and availability of fresh produce year-round and yet avoid nutritional ignorance and nutritional extravagance? We have this opportunity today, an unprecedented opportunity in human history, the opportunity to live a long and healthy life without the fear of disease.
This opportunity can be yours if you carefully manage the food you eat.
