|
Junk Food is now One-Third of our Diets...
In a recent study more than one third of the daily calorie intake
of the typical American diet now is derived from junk food. These
foods produce “empty calories” because of their low nutritional
value yet were at the top of the list of most calories consumed.
Statistics showed that these “empty calorie foods” accounted for
almost 25 percent of all the calories eaten by Americans. Salty
snacks and sugary fruit juices made up an additional 5 percent.
The other highly consumed calorie was soda, which made up for 7.1
percent of all the calories consumed for a total of 37.1% of our
daily diets….
The typical fast food meal, burger, fries and a soft drink contain
1350 to 1600 calories... Check this out... Pepsi Cola contains 1.2
teaspoons of sugar per oz., that’s totals over 14 teaspoons in a
typical 12 oz can... Wonder why we are having an obesity epidemic?
An
amazing 63% of adults are overweight (overweight is classified as
least 20 % above their ideal weight) and worse… over 68% of our
children meet the overweight criteria….When will we wake up?
Results of the study revealed that sweets were the number one
calorie consumed followed by hamburgers, pizza and potato chips.
The other highly consumed calorie was soda, which made up for 7.1
percent of all the calories consumed.
Sadly on the other hand, nutritious foods such as fruits and
vegetables only accounted for 10 percent of the total calories
consumed by Americans.
Experts stressed that a significant portion of American diets were
severely lacking essential vitamins and minerals and recommended
that people focus on the kind of food they ate, not necessarily on
eating smaller portions.
It’s like the old saying, “You are what you eat,” and if that
means mostly junk food, you are setting yourself or you children
up for some major long-term health complications.
|