Thursday, October 23: Now comes information about how our diets have changed since John F. Kennedy was elected president.
First, let’s deal with the weight issue. The National Center for Health Statistics says that adult men and women are nearly 25 pounds heavier on average than they were nearly 50 years ago. The average weight for men aged 20 to 74 years rose dramatically from 166.3 pounds in 1960 to 191 pounds in 2002, while the average weight for women the same age increased from 140.2 pounds in 1960 to 164.3 pounds in 2002.
Okay, we’re a whole lot heavier as a nation than when my father and mother were growing up. You’d have to be living in a cloistered monastery not to know that we have an obesity crisis in this country.
Although we lead much more sedentary lives these days, our eating habits have also changed a great deal since 1960. Back in 1961, according to U.S. government statistics, Americans consumed 2,883 calories per person. That figure increased to 3,817 calories by 2000. So why are we consuming nearly a third more in calories than what our parents consumed a generation ago?
A breakdown of the U.S. statistics shows we’re receiving pretty much the same amount of calories from proteins, fat and carbohydrates, so there haven’t been any big changes there. But a closer look reveals that we’re getting fewer calories per day from butter (65 calories in 1961 compared to 40 calories today) and eating fewer eggs and less red meat. But we do love our chicken: calories from chicken have nearly tripled from 64 calories a day to 186 calories per day. Must be all those Panini chicken sandwiches and KFC drumsticks.
So if we’re eating less butter, eggs and red meat and more chicken, where are all 935 extra calories coming from?
Answer: cereal grains, added sugars, and vegetables oils (shortening)—the classic ingredients of processed foods and snack treats. Think about what most Americans eat each day. Grapefruit-sized blueberry muffins and bagels for breakfast, a glazed doughnut in the break room for morning break, a hamburger bun (with a meat patty) for lunch, fries fried in oil, pizza for dinner . . . all the grab ‘n’ go foods. We’re eating many more refined grains than we did in 1961 . . . the refined grains found in breads, bagels, muffins, cakes, pies, buns, pizza crust, and pasta. And all those foodstuffs have tons of vegetables oils.
According to government statistics, we used to receive 267 calories from vegetable oils; now that figure is 634 calories per day. We used to eat 627 calories a day in cereal grains; now that figure is 869. And we used to get 515 calories from added sugars in foods; now that figure is 665 calories.
We are clearly reaping what we’re sowing. By consuming more grains, more vegetable oils, and more sugar (especially in our drinks), we’re consuming 32 percent more calories per day, which has translated into all sorts of health problems and as well as obesity problems. We’re already a country where two-thirds of American adults over the age of 20 are overweight, and the number of those who are extremely obese—at least 100 pounds overweight—has quadrupled just since the 1980s.
If you’ve ever flown on an airplane and been scrunched by a heavyset person sitting next to you, then you should know that this is becoming more and more common. Twenty years ago, one in 200 adults were candidates to purchase two seats when traveling on Southwest Airlines; today that number is one in 50.
Remember, the answer is to eat what nature created for food and eat foods in a form healthy for the body. Eating foods that nature created means shopping for foods as close to the natural source as possible. I’m talking about:
• a wide array of organically grown fruits and vegetables
• healthy dairy products like yogurt, cheese, and butter
• healthy red meats like organic grass-fed beef, lamb, venison, and bison
• cold-water fish caught in the wild
• whole grains like wheat and barley
• nuts and seeds
Fill your grocery cart with these fresh foods, and you’ll lower your daily caloric intake, which will help you weigh less and be less prone to modern scourges like cardiovascular disease and diabetes.