[Health] Shocker, Americans Are Unhealthy!

Last Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control released a report saying that less than a third of Americans eat the proper amount of fruits and vegetables, a trend that has been steady for over a decade.

You mean the culture of instant gratification isn't getting the necessary vitamins and minerals to maintain a healthy diet? I hope no one is surprised. Unfortunately, it seems everytime reports like this come out, the people commenting in them act shocked by the results. Yahoo! News has the report.

Since reports like this are so bogged down in political correctness and refuse to point toward the cycle of unhealthy habits that make these statistics true, I am going to cut through some of the crap to tell you why these unhealthy habits continue.

For one thing, many Americans have a tendency to think certain quantities of "vegetables" are adaquate. This is perpetuated by a system that, for example, allows ketchup as one of the two vegetables that every school cafeteria must offer students. Ketchup is NOT a vegetable. I hope that is obvious. Additionally, the pickle and onions on a McDonald's cheeseburger should not be considered vegetables. Strawberry PopTarts are not a source of fruit, and neither is orange soda. Once fruits and vegetables are processed like this, they lose most, if not all, of their nutritional value.

More importantly than that, because I hope the above is obvious, Americans are trying to substitute food with supplements. Instead of eating healthy foods, many people think it is adaquate to use energy bars and pills for their vitamins and minerals. This is so detrimental to our health I cannot begin to describe. First, it makes us dependent upon an expensive industry of supplement manufacturers, and, additionally, it does not give our bodies the optimum method for receiving necessary vitamins, minerals and fibers. Vitamins and minerals are most effectively used when they come from natural sources, not synthetic ones. In other words, VitaminWater is not a substitute for the fruits and vegeatbles with those same vitamins. My feeling is that many Americans think they are, that they don't have to worry about what they eat as long as they have a Power Bar that says it has 100% of the daily value of every vitamin and mineral. That is an unhealthy choice.

I also think Americans are lazy. So lazy that even thinking about what we eat, have eaten or are about to eat is considered too much work. This is a real problem. I am sure that there are days when I do not eat my proper share of fruits and vegetables. But instead of saying that it is too difficult to monitor, I simply make up for what I don't eat one day by making a conscious effort to eat more of it the next day. That should be an easy thing to do, but, of course, that would require thinking, planning and foresight, which does not fit well with the culture of instant gratification.

The other problem is, fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive. It sounds absurd to say it (though the CDC obviously won't), but to a certain extent, eating healthy is not necessarily affordable for all Americans. This is no secret. But, before we start setting goals about the number of people consuming the proper number of fruit and vegetable servings per day, we need to be sure that access to healthy foods is equal across economic lines. Currently, it is not. With only one stop to a grocery store in the 'hood you will see how much corporate America is willing to offer underpriviledged classes in terms of healthy food options. This may be the most unfortunate fact of them all.

Adding to that is the packaged (read synthetic) food industry's kung-fu like grip on our culture, particularly children. Many parents would rather please their children than raise them to lead healthy lifestyles. Let me tell you, kids hate being forced to eat their vegetables, but doing so will lead them to proper eating habits when they are older, and not doing so will lead them to considering it an unnecessary concern. I promise, if you force them to eat vegetables, they will thank you for it someday.

If we want to create healthier eating habits in this country, these are the issues that need addressing. The CDC cannot simply show us a food pyrmid and expect that to create awareness. The discussion must start with the contents of our products, the products on our shelves and the way in which those products are marketed. It must reach into the health care industry, and show once and for all how our system is more interested in treating disease than preventing it. It must reach into the very fabric of our thinking and the malaise with which we make the daily choices whose future implications do not concern us. These too are matters of our health as a society.