America is dealing with a major health crisis, but we can help stop that

September 1, 2023

America is dealing with a major health crisis, but we can help stop that

The amount of processed food our nation consumes daily is unfathomable. The average American’s daily calories come from around 60% of junk food. While I am still in high school, I have witnessed this firsthand. I’ve seen so many people snack on absolute junk: cookies, bags of chips, and sugary beverages. From what I have seen, eating junk food has turned into an addiction – People can’t stop. Falling deep into that addiction has its consequences.

Studies show that an Average American diet consists of more than 50% processed/junk food. Obesity rates have increased because of this as in 2020, 41.9% of US adults were obese and 19.7% of kids and adolescents were obese, both all-time highs. In addition, almost 50% of deaths in America stem from cardiovascular disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes – all caused by overconsumption of processed, sugary food.

With this, we can confidently say that junk food addictions are the root of the leading causes of death in America. We need to ask how can we better American nutrition to make our nation healthy.

Making healthy food more accessible and affordable is one way. On average, unhealthy diets are $1.50 less expensive than healthy diets. Making nutritious fruits and veggies more affordable will give people, especially those of low income, more options for their diets, allowing them to eat healthily. Researchers at Tufts University concluded that if the prices of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds were increased and if prices of red meat and sugary drinks were taxed by 30%, then 63,000 deaths would be prevented, which is around 9.2% of all cardiometabolic deaths. Strengthening the impact of federal nutrition programs like SNAP and making school meals free will also make nutritious food affordable and accessible to more people.

Another intervention would be to treat food as medicine. Food as medicine is the integration of proper nutrition into healthcare through medically tailored groceries, meals, and nutrition programs to improve the well-being of those suffering. A study in Current Developments in Nutrition focused on the effects of culturally tailored nutrition education classes that made people create better dietary choices and have better diet patterns. Another study in Advances in Nutrition on healthy food prescriptions revealed that food as medicine increased fruit and vegetable consumption while decreasing BMI and glycated hemoglobin. However, meaningful conclusions can’t be drawn yet due to the amount of bias in the studies. More studies with detailed plans need to be conducted to better decide the effect of food as medicine.

Did you know that 1/3 of Americans are not educated about nutrition and healthy eating? This startling statistic proves that nutrition education needs to be addressed, especially with the ongoing chronic disease epidemic. Nutrition education and healthy eating classes revolve around learning the principles of good nutrition, cooking nutritious meals, and teaching people how to shop for high-quality produce on a budget. Nutrition education should also be further implemented in schools. If more kids can learn about nutrition and healthy eating, they will be less likely to eat junk since they know about its effects. These proper eating habits kids create from a young age will stick with them throughout their lives, making them less likely to become obese or develop a chronic disease.

Finding strategies to limit processed food consumption and increase whole food consumption is key to improving our nutrition. Remember, falling into the junk food addiction has substantial consequences on health, but we can change that!