Big Food Makes Big Americans

July 31, 2008

It’s not shocking that Americans eat too much. I just didn’t know how much.

“We’re eating 3,747 calories/day on average when the recommended average is somewhere around 2,000?!?!?!!!!” (source)

I’ll put that into perspective. I’m 5′10″, which is about 4 inches taller than the average American woman. I weigh around 170 pounds, which is about 10 pounds heavier than the average American woman. I eat about 1600 to 2600 calories a day depending on my activity, my weight loss goals, the food available, my mood, etc. I am right at the cusp of “healthy weight” and “overweight” according to US governmental guidelines.

The average American eats over 1000 more calories a day than I do and I’m sure they don’t burn it off at the gym or on the farm.

Since it’s the average, that means it’s a social problem. Certainly some people do manual labor and require 3000+ calories. Some people are athletes and require 3000+ calories. Some people have medical conditions that require 3000+ calories a day. But on average, 3747 calories a day is too many. On average, it’s wasteful, it’s unhealthy, and worse, it’s not being dealt with properly.

While the mainstream media is talking about “The Obesity Epidemic” and making individuals feel guilty, few are seriously tackling the root causes of this problem:

  1. School Cafeterias: unhealthy school lunches that are packed with meat, dairy, and junk food and light on fresh fruits and veggies, (read more regarding cafeteria lunches here)
  2. The Government: inadequate guidelines for nutrition and nutritional data for processed and fast foods,
  3. Big Food: misinformation and propaganda regarding nutrition in schools, on TV, and elsewhere.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Food, Health, big, calories, diet, excess, fat, nutrition 

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Comments

2 Responses to “Big Food Makes Big Americans”

  1. Judith on August 1st, 2008 7:08 am

    I am sure there are many days when I take in that much food. And yes, I am fat. But it isn’t fat that is unhealthy. It’s the nature of the food itself and the lack of physical activity that is unhealthy. There is absolutely NO correlation (proven, and heaven knows many huge studies have tried) simply between being heavy and having higher mortality rates - except for the extremely heavy, those who are nearly immobile.

    The problem with us is not that we’re fat but that we’re eating the wrong things and not active enough. I exclude myself from the first issue because my diet is very healthful even though I eat a lot. The main issues I have with being fat are:
    1. pain in my knees and hips so that I have trouble doing the things I want to do, like hike and bike; this pain would be less if I weighed less;
    2. flat-out discrimination. Or should I say fat-out? I have lived with being invisibly huge most of my life, so much so that although I now know I am not morally inferior to those who are thin a part of me still blames myself for what is a physiological problem. So I tend to “buy” the discrimination against me. Too long a subject for a blog response so I won’t take it longer. Wait for my review of The Obesity Myth, correlated to other reading.

  2. meerkat on August 29th, 2008 9:28 pm

    I read somewhere that over-3,000 number was not so accurate, but unfortunately I do not remember where so I have no convincing evidence.

    I would probably eat that much if there was a limited-time-only vegan pastry party down the street. Mm, pastry. I might eat that much when I go to a distant city and try to eat in all the veg restaurants I can fit into my sight-seeing schedule. At home, not so much. I have other priorities than slaving in the kitchen all day to produce something that will be disappointing due to my complete lack of cooking ability and be gone in ten minutes, so I don’t have that much novelty unless I make the effort to go to a local veg restaurant.

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