How Modern lifestyle Impacts our Nutrition and Exercise (Part 1)

Ever wondered why people were skinnier 40 years ago? Well, the Annual Review on public health, published through the University of Minnesota, has found many reasons. This post is a summary (in my own words) of all their interesting findings.

Introduction:

People are more overweight than ever before. The health implications of being fat are dire....blah, blah, blah.

We have heard all this before. Let me just get into the nitty-gritty.

Types of foods consumed:

The amount of ‘available food’ per capita has increased by 500kcal. In other words, there is more food at our disposal than ever before.

The types and ratios of different foods we consume have also changed.

We are eating twice the amount of added fats, such as those found in pastries, shortening, fried food, etc. Most of the fats originate from vegetable oils.

Supermarkets now keep all kinds of fruits and vegetables all year round. The ease of importing has made this possible. As a result, our fruit and veg consumption has gone up 24%!! So this is an excellent news then...?

Well, when french fries (vegetable) make up 17.5% of the total, then, perhaps not.

Milk consumption has gone down at the same rate as soda consumption has gone up. Cheese sales are up 146% as a result of pizza and other fast food becoming more popular. The ingestion of sugar has doubled to 20 teaspoons a day since the 70’s. Thanks, Coca-Cola!! (who uses High fructose Corn Syrup, a human Jet Fuel).

Eating Out:

Chef schools must be doing well because there is almost a three fold increase in public food joints. With an up-shift in eating out, at 200%, the Chef’s seem to cook better than our moms too. I knew I missed my calling!!

Just to give a clearer understanding of just how many people eat out.

On any given day, 21% of households are not eating at home.

The ironic thing is that, when they are at home, microwave and other processed meals are a favorite. Shit, moms cooking must Suck!!! But, I wouldn’t know, my mom never cooked.

All mom jokes aside; the average housewife would spend 44 hours per week on preparing meals for her family in the past. Nowadays, many women are part of the corporate world and just don’t have time. It’s only natural to find a more efficient method for food prep. Good thing there are two streams of income though, as more than the 40% of food expenses come from eating out.

From an energy standpoint, eating out adds an average of 197 calories per person/day, due to the types of foods and portion sizes! Extrapolated over a year, that’s 71 905 extra calories that we each consume!

“Ill have a Supersize Big Mac meal, please. Oh, and don’t forget my bottomless Coke!”

Brain Washing:

Ninety-eight percent of American households have televisions. Billions of dollars are spent each year on food advertising through this visual network. God forbid you to watch those crispy chicken wings fall through the monitor and your hungry at the same time. 1095 765 342... ringing, ringing: “Hey, can I please have 12 spicy wings, a large fries and throw in a side of coleslaw.”

Besides great advertising, modern foods are specially formulated by food scientists to be highly palatable. The artificial flavors work on our brains reward system. If you don’t believe me, pick up a book called: ‘The Dorito Effect.’

Since 1994, food manufacturers are required to provide the contents of their products on the label. The only issue is that the general population does not understand many of the ingredients.

Gluten, for example, is ‘hidden’ in all the ingredients listed on the right. Now, who would know that? Sneaky Bas&#r&@.

Food Cost:

There is a significant divide between the cost of different food types. The prices of producing grains and other energy-dense foods has decreased with the use of GMO and herbicide-resistant crops. Egyptian governments have even subsidized Wheat Flour, Sugar and Vegetable Oil, making these products even cheaper for their people. Egypt happens to be one of the most obese populations in the world by the way. Mmmmm......

The extended shelf life of processed foods also drives down prices. Fresh produce like meats, vegetable, nuts, seeds, and fruit is more expensive than ever.

People are also less willing to spend a significant portion of their salaries on nutrition. In 1924 people spent 38% of their income on food. Nowadays that percentage has dropped to 11%.

The ironic thing is that Apple, can’t keep up with sales of their $1000+ I-Phone 10. I guess people prefer spending 3000x more on a digital fruit than the real thing.

What no one thinks about, is the added expense of doctors bills and medication.

But that’s okay, Obama Care will sort it out.... Not.

Physical Activity:

You will have to wait for part two of the series to get this information! I’m sure it was a lot to digest anyway, especially with all those extra calories :)

---

Follow me @exercisinghealth to not miss out on the next one.

---

Sources:

[1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11274524

[2]https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a672/ecee974fe0bb2a5e33930ce68ec92b47cb89.pdf

[3]The Dorito Effect

• Images were created by @exercisinghealth