Processed And Refined Foods example essay topic

Obesity in America America is one of the richest, most progressive countries in the world. Shouldn't it be one of the healthiest too? Maybe it should be, but the sad truth is that Americans are some of the unhealthiest people in the world. Even though we are living in a country with great economic power and technological advancement, we are also living in a country with the smallest fund of practical nutritional knowledge. We are living in a land plagued with obesity.

America is one of the richest, most progressive countries in the world. According to CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), obesity in adults has increased by 60% within the past twenty years and obesity in children has tripled in the past thirty years. A staggering 33% of American adults are obese and obesity-related deaths have climbed to more than 300,000 a year. The American diet and lifestyle is different than all the healthier countries. Living a life on the go, eating fast-food and microwave dinners, the health of the American people has been sacrificed. Instead of eating a diet of pure, wholesome foods coming directly from the land, Americans eat a diet of packaged, processed, and refined foods.

Through technological advancement we have found ways to produce food in mass quantities, make it last longer and taste better. Unfortunately, during this processing somewhere along the line, we seemed to have lost the food. The highly processed and refined products that pack our supermarket shelves are loaded with sugar, hydrogenated oils, and plenty more ingredients that we can't even pronounce. Fast-food restaurants have become mainstream in the past 30 years and practically all of America takes advantage of the cheap prices, quick service and tasty meals. Convenient as they may be, these meals contain practically no nutrients. They are comprised mostly of saturated fats and highly refined carbohydrates and are loaded with sodium and sugar.

The average adult shouldn't have more than 65 grams of fat or 2000 calories a day. One meal from Burger King, a hamburger and French fries, has 50 grams of fat and 2000 calories, which is almost enough to fill someone's fat and calorie quota for the day! he average child sees more than 10,000 food ads on TV each year, most for high-calorie, high-fat, and high-sugar meals. Not only does the fast food industry spend billions per year on marketing, but also they have infiltrated our schools, signing contracts with them. Our children are bombarded from every angle with these toxic foods making it virtually impossible for them to eat anything else. It is no wonder that we have an increasingly obese population of children (who in time will become an obese population of adults).

Americans have re-defined the word food. In the Webster's dictionary food is any nourishing substance eaten, drunk, or otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy, promote growth, etc. In American society food is that which is fatty, tasty, processed, refined and contains no nutrients; a substance detrimental to the body's functions, creating disease, and resulting in death. At no time in history have humans eaten such refined, processed and fatty food and at no time in history have humans had such an obesity epidemic. Since before anyone can remember, our ancestors, and our ancestors' ancestors ate a diet coming directly from the land. In those days obesity wasn't even a word.

With modern technology much has been gained but some things have been lost. Will the world one day down size? Will we be thin like our ancestors? Don't loose a life.