We are eating to our death from the modern-day diet. Why?
The clash between our genetic make up of our body with the nutritional qualities of the modern-day diet underline many chronic diseases of Western Civilization.
Osteoporosis, heart diseases, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and cancer are the chronic diseases and health problems that are attributed to the modern-day diets. You can see from the following statistics how prevalent these diseases have developed in the American population:
- 65% of adult more than 20 years are overweight or obese.
- 64 million of American have cardiovascular diseases contributing to 38.5% of death.
- 50 million have high blood pressure.
- 37 million have high cholesterol.
- 7.2% of post menopausal women develop osteoporosis.
- Cancer is the second leading cause of death (25% of death) and one-third of the cancer is attributed to nutrition factor including obesity.
Development of agriculture, industrialization and advance technology leads to the introduction of dairy products, refines sugars, refined vegetable oil, refined grains, alcohol and salt. They contributed to 72% of the total daily energy consumed by an average American today. These types of food are not found in the typical early man diet.
1) Dairy products
The dairy industry lobbied with the US government, created the prevalent message that we need input of milk and dairy products to boost calcium requirement in the body for bone health.
2) Refined sugars
The efficient production of high fructose corn syrup leads to a very cheap and effective form of sweetener that is readily used in most processed foods.
3) Refined vegetables oil
Increased worldwide vegetable oil production leads to hydrogenation of vegetable oil into margarine producing trans fats.
4) Refined grains
The mechanization of milling flour cause it to be void of gem, bran, endosperm, which are important in providing the minerals, vitamins and fiber that is needed in a healthy diet.
5) Alcohol
Industrialization leads to efficient production of whisky, brandy and wine, making alcohol readily available.
6) Salt
The total intake of salt has increase to 9.6g/day and 75% are derived from processed food. 15% of the salt is contributed from cooking and 10% from the actual food.
The introduction of these modern-day food components altered the nutritional characteristics of the modern-day diet. This have ramification on our health. How? Stay tuned to my next post.
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