Dr. Weil has an interesting article today. Two things jumped out at me as being of particular concern: the amount of junk food we eat and the higher number of calories we consume.
One third of Americans get 47 percent of their calories from junk foods.
That’s amazing. Almost half of calories from food with very little or no nutritional value. No wonder so many of us are overweight.
As you know, I’ve been trying to eat healthy for a while, and I’ve noticed more and more how difficult it is to shop and avoid food that’s mostly junk. It’s not just the typical culprits either like candy, chips, cookies and so on. Walk up and down the aisles of your grocery store. Most of what we eat is heavily processed and packed with lots of simple starches, which aren’t much better than junk food really. From the white flour in your crackers to the sugar and salt in your soup, it’s tough to find food that’s really good for you.
To make matters worse, many foods that are touted as being healthy are really no more than junk food in disguise. I know many people eat protein bars, breakfast bars, granola, etc., thinking that they’re making a healthy choice. In many cases, these products are high in sugar and refined carbohydrates and low in fiber, not exactly what you were looking for, is it?
The average American is eating 300 more calories each day than he or she did in 1985. Added sweeteners account for 23 percent of those additional calories; added fats, 24 percent.
I worked with a woman a few years ago who would eat an entire PACK of fat free cookies for breakfast, and she couldn’t understand why she had trouble losing weight. This was during the low-fat craze; I remember reading and hearing the claim that only fat turned into fat. You could eat all you wanted of everything else as long as you avoided fat.
The problem is, fat free foods often have as many or more calories as their fatty counterparts. Manufacturers have to do SOMETHING to improve the taste, so often they add extra sugars to make up for it. That doesn’t sound like a wise trade-off, does it?
I don’t believe that there’s any “bad” category of food. The key is eating in moderation. I guess that’s too simple to ever make it as a fad.
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