Although the US government appears to promote healthy eating, there is one extreme case of hypocrisy that is currently saying otherwise.
According to Harvard Health Publishing, the ranking of the top 10 sources of calories in the US diet consists of:
1. Grain-based desserts (cakes, cookies, donuts, pies, crisps, cobblers, and granola bars)
2. Yeast breads
3. Chicken and chicken-mixed dishes
4. Soda, energy drinks, and sports drinks
5. Pizza
6. Alcoholic beverages
7. Pasta and pasta dishes
8. Mexican mixed dishes
9. Beef and beef-mixed dishes
10. Dairy desserts
What is the issue with this list? They are all foods that mainly consist of seven crops that are heavily subsidized by the US government: corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, sorghum, milk, and meat. This means that although many government programs that are meant to promote healthy eating advocate for a diet mainly consisting of fruits and vegetables, the extreme agricultural subsidies distributed by the government say otherwise. These subsidies are meant to ensure that junk foods stay abundant and extremely inexpensive.
There are now increasing amounts of studies that show that federally subsidized foods are linked to metabolic diseases.
The lack of non-nutritional foods is a serious problem country wide. For every one organic grocery store or healthy restaurant, there are ten more fast food restaurants, and the price differences can be enough to drive a person to make poor food decisions. If the government truly wanted to promote health they would take action on fast food restaurants such as limiting the amount of fast food chains in a city, and strictly enforcing a healthy diet. Why wouldn't they want to help better their own people?
This will take decades or generations to change the mind set. Glad that kids of Matthew’s generations start to make a changes.
Sadly agribusiness long ago got rid of most small farms. The food is mass produced and has less nutrient density. They do genetic engineering to make crops bigger but most of it is cellulose with no added nutrients. Everyone should support local farms and avoid prepackaged food.
In the future, we should donate healthier food to the Food Bank. And government should do its job as well!
Not sure what the government can do?