Americas Unhealthy Eating Habits - Essay Example

America’s Unhealthy Eating Habits Suppose you are on a busy sidewalk on any street in America. If you take a look around, you are bound to notice that almost every other person is obese. The American nation today is certainly not the same as it was fifteen years ago. I am not talking about the technological advancements but my focus is rather on the deteriorating health of Americans in the form of obesity. One of the main reasons for this is their unhealthy eating habits. Such eating habits are extremely harmful to individuals as they lead to numerous ailments that result in morbidity or sometimes even death. Do Americans really want to continue an unhealthy diet, knowing how serious its consequences might be? From my point of view, America should overcome this diet due to the various reasons-one of them being the colon cancer that my father had developed as a result of following this diet. I also highly suggest that proper action should be taken to prevent Americans from consuming such an unhealthy diet. An experience from my childhood played a major role in shaping my view of the American diet. My father was the only obese member of my family. I can still remember the numerous amounts of time when, on our way to my school, he used to stop the car at a fast food joint and order two enormous ‘hamburgers with fries’. His breakfast was not the only meal of his day which was greasy but the lunch he used to buy at his workplace was dripping with oil as well. You can say that he followed the Standard American Diet. However, none of us realized exactly how harmful his diet was and what it would do to him, until we received the alarming news from his office colleague. My father was in a hospital due to acute pain in his abdomen (Bittman; Medline Plus). At the hospital, a colonoscopy of my father revealed that he was at the brink of stage four of colon cancer which is a very dangerous stage. My family received an unimaginable shock after getting this news. The reason for the colon cancer was the high-fat intake in my father’s diet and the lack of exercise. Although colon cancer is a common disease but the diet followed by my father increased its risk of spreading. My father was full of guilt and kept repeating the same sentence over and over again, “If only I had eaten healthier foods, I would never have had this problem”. Moreover, the cancer had started to spread to the other organs outside the colon and his chances of surviving were very scanty. Consequently, my father was scheduled for a colectomy that day itself. I will never forget those hours waiting outside the operation theatre and cursing all the red meats and fatty foods of the world. Though the colectomy was successful but still my father was near the mouth of death. However, after improving his diet and lifestyle, he recovered over time (Bub et al 18; Medline Plus). Ever since this incident, my prospective of our diet has become a focal point in my life and studies. My father is one of those lucky people who have survived colon cancer when it was at such a critical stage. If my father would have kept on with his high-fat diet without his colon cancer being discovered, he might never have made it through the colectomy. Thus, it is essential for Americans to realize that all those red and processed meats, along with all the other foods containing a high amount of fat, are extremely damaging towards their health. Instead, they should adopt a diet high in plants and low in fats. Not only will such a diet improve our health, but it will also save billions of dollars which are spent by the America government to cover the health care costs (Medline Plus; Bittman). Another consequence of the unhealthy American diet which has caused an epidemic throughout the nation is obesity. Over-consumption of food and especially the wrong kind of food has eventually caused a majority of the American population to become overweight. According to recent surveys, two-thirds of the people in America are obese. Obesity is the root cause of many other pathological conditions. Overweight people are at a high risk of getting various physical illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, heart-related disorders, cancers and many others. Is over-consumption of fatty foods really worth getting these diseases? The worst part is that majority of these diseases result in morbidity or sometimes even death. Moreover, Americans will have to cope with mortality costs. Due to the inherent health hazards and escalating number of overweight individuals, obesity has now become the number two cause of death in America which is preventable. Yes, obesity is preventable as it is not a health disorder everyone one is ‘born with’ because studies prove that only a few obese people have the gene causing obesity. This makes the rest of the overweight population of America calling trouble in the form of various obesity-related health disorders for their own selves (Furci). In today’s world, high-fat food is readily available within our homes as well as outside. As this food is mostly processed, I suggest that Americans should stop using it and instead switch to healthier alternatives. Moreover, the food industry should start marketing healthier foods. An important step that the Government can take is to start taxing health-damaging food like French fries, doughnuts and other forms of unhealthy foods. This would ensure a proper diet for Americans by making unhealthy food costlier and less available (Popkin, 106; Bittman). The Standard American Diet is extremely unhealthy and leads to many physical ailments. The biggest example of this is when my father developed colon cancer as a result of following this diet. This incident has made me realize that foods containing high amounts of fats are harmful to health and lead to a higher amount of money being spent on healthcare. Another adverse result of the American diet and over consumption is obesity which has now become the second highest cause of preventable deaths in America. As a result, certain steps should be taken by the citizens and the Government in order to encourage a healthier diet and thus reduce disability and mortality in America. Works Cited Bittman, Mark. “Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables.” The New York Times. 23 Jul. 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. Bub, David S, Susannah Rose, and W D. Wong. 100 Questions & Answers About Colorectal Cancer. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2008. Print. Furci, Michael. Evolution of the Unhealthy American. Sarasota: First Edition Design Publishing, Inc, 2012. Print. Medline Plus. “Colon Cancer.” National Institutes of Health. 17 Nov. 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. Medline Plus. “Colon Cancer.” National Institutes of Health. 17 Nov. 2012. Web. 26 Feb. 2013. Popkin, Barry M, and Colleen M. Doak. "The Obesity Epidemic Is a Worldwide Phenomenon." Nutrition Reviews. 56.4 (2009): 106-114. Print. Read More