Dear Americans… What in the world?
Before I start this open letter, let me say that personally, I love Americans! An American was my best man at the wedding and I have many friends that come from the Land of the free. I love the music, literature, movies. In fact, all the great things that American popular culture gave us. That being said, when it comes to health and eating habits, I cannot stay silent anymore!
Dear Americans, you are killing yourselves, as much as you are killing the rest of the world with your food and sugar industry! Not only that, you are setting an example and keeping insisting on unhealthy habits. For you, everything is about the enhanced flavour. A large number of your population is struggling with some sort of diet-related condition, and still, you keep insisting on enhanced taste.
Let me tell you something about the taste
You don’t have the buds for it! I don’t mean taste in general, but the flavour of wholesome food. You lost it with decades of sugar, high-fructose cont syrup, monosodium glutamate. How about artificial sweeteners, colouring, additives and all sorts of stabilisers, emulsifiers and added aromas… Your preference to buy everything industrial, processed, semi-processed lead you to where you are today. I am constantly repeating to any American I meet – anything with a barcode requires triple effort in reading the labels.
Things are changing, but…
I know that many of you have awoken and keep achieving great results while struggling to find organic, grass-fed and biological ingredients. And then again, these things are way too expensive in your country. I had Americans complain that they cannot afford grass-fed products. I come from Greece (remember our economic crisis?) where the average family can afford grass-fed meat or fresh fish from the sea. How’s this possible?
The rest of the world is following
From one side we have our youth that likes to follow your trends. You are their role models. They would rather go to famous franchised American fast-food and eat those plastic-fantastic burgers, nuggets, breaded chicken, fries, sweets… Followed by loads of that poisonous brown soda. And when you come to your European vacations, you eat our “exotic” food. Then suddenly you report how you lost some pounds while on your Eurotrip. I wonder why?
What’s going on over the pond?
Even though many Americans are changing their habits and choosing organic food and other wholesomer options, the American diet, in overall, stays very unsanitary. Obesity and health difficulties such as diabetes are approaching pandemic dimensions. Why do Americans continue making bad options when it comes to food?
Lack of information? No way! In today’s Internet-oriented world, that’s not an excuse! While some people still remain largely ignorant when it comes to the dangers of GMO, most people keep choosing industrial, overprocessed, fast ready-meals and cheap empty calory foods.
Some say that it’s a matter of finance
The organic section of American supermarkets is the place for the rich. This could be part of the problem, but I am not Yanis Varoufakis, and I am not planning to talk about economics or politics. Some reputed sources have revealed that the average amount of money that typical American spends on eating is adequate for a healthy diet. Organic produce could be grown at home inexpensively, even on your balcony.
When I confront my American friends about it, they say – “Americans are too occupied with work to make a healthy meal at home. We just take prepackaged meals instead!”. While that might be true for some people, it doesn’t explain the tendency to overload themselves with carbs.
Addiction to enhanced taste
Sometimes it’s an issue of flavour. Americans cannot eat anything that doesn’t taste too sweet or too savoury. People favour the flavour of potato chips! They just don’t like salads or omelettes. There are countless delicious alternatives out there that do not put your health in jeopardy.
Obvious and naive
The tasty and flavour enhanced food in the States is highly addictive from an objective viewpoint. In particular, many studies have shown that rodents become addicted to junk food diet. They even rather starve than eat healthy versions after they get used to junk-food. I am not saying that we are rodents, but we seem to have the same addiction!
Masterminded to make people desire more
This is closely related to overeating and eating too often. I don’t know who came up with the word snacking in the first place? Ah, yes, our European friends – the Dutch. This gave me the idea to write another article. Why would you need snacking between good, nutrient-rich main meals? Why would you be hungry? Food industry hires crews of chemists and other scientists to get the ratio of sugar, salt and fat just right to keep people craving for more.
Over-processed industrial food in America contains a lot of sugar, even the savoury versions. Americans consume 152 pounds of white poison per year. Now, we know that sugar is almost ten times more addictive than cocaine…
I don’t want to sound negative
There are some great examples of people that are trying to teach and preach. I am not only talking about athletes and fitness oriented internet celebrities, but also some serious scientist, nutritionists and doctors. You have so many great gurus that put some serious scientific work out there. By learning, changing and staying open, you will most probably change the trend, and what’s most important – teach the new generations!
Here’s a list of TOP American KETO promoters that use some serious science to teach and heal Americans, and the world in general:
No#1 – Greekgoesketo.com (ok, just joking…)
Here we go:
- Dr Ken Berry
- Dominic D`Agostino, PhD.
- Dr Benjamin Bikman
- Dr Eric Berg
- Dr Jason Fung
- Thomas DeLaurer
- Dr Richard D. Feinman
And here is the link to worlds most resourceful website on Low-Carb science, whose founder, the Viking of Low-Carb movement, Dr Andreas Eenfeldt started the revolution in Sweden and then worldwide – www.dietdoctor.com.
A special recommendation interview with Dr David Unwin.
I love your articles, but, as an American, I wish people all over the globe wouldn’t blame this on Americans and, instead, place the blame where it actually belongs: on the greedy corporate government. I was born in 1967. I grew up surrounded by farmland and ranches. My mother, along with everyone else’s mothers and grandmothers and aunties, had gardens. They home canned, dehydrated, and pickled their home grown vegetables and fruit and traded them with each other, whether they had a little farm or just a little garden plot. I still do to this day and so does my mother and grandmother and aunties. Many Americans eat right from the the earth. Many Americans also raise or purchase their own grass fed beef, raise their own chickens, and hunting wild game is still a very common way to fill the freezer with healthy meat. How often does any article (or internet meme) talk about the actual traditional culture of American families being alive and well? Visit the rural areas, which still cover 97% of American land, and see what you see…. traditional ways, traditional eating, still going on every day. But what gets the press? Garbage food. Everyone all over the world talking about how Americans do nothing but eat garbage food. In the cities, most of this is impossible and most people are working way too much to live traditionally anymore. How could they? I also remember, as I was growing up, the lies we were told by commercialism and the wretched food pyramid propaganda the government came up with. My family knew not to take dietary or health advice from politicians, but they also flooded the lunches at all the schools and the homes of kids’ whose mothers had to go to work with chemical-filled fake foods and relentlessly told everyone they were healthy and “wholesome”–that was a buzzword that flooded the market–and what could be done? It was a greedy takeover of our diets. They blatantly lied to us and brainwashed the entire country, making it cool to eat fancy and convenient store bought food that fit in well with the increasing need for both parents to work full time and the skyrocketing divorce rate that left mothers with a full time job and hungry mouths to feed every day. They switched out our natural foods for GMO foods, took coconut oil out of baked goods and filled them with soy or canola oil. They stopped bottling real juices and subbed them with fake juices flavored with chemicals. They began giving hormones and increasing amounts of antibiotics to the dairy cows, polluting our milk–but it was still MILK and none of us knew what they were doing to us. When caught, they marketed all this crap to us as if it was GOOD for us. After all, why would the government allow the food industry to intentionally poison us and ruin our health for generations? No one thought there was a difference between grilling a hamburger at home, topping it with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and onions, and the one you could get from a McDonalds or Burger King–they thought it was still food. Because of the lies and intentional coverups and propaganda. It’s not at all because Americans are stupid, fat, and lazy; it’s because the entire food industry has been hijacked and their traditional lifestyle stolen from them. Some have no choice but to buy what they can afford and the good stuff is priced much higher. Most working families simply cannot afford to feed their kids meat with any sort of quality, organic bread, organic produce–those things have become exclusive to those who can afford them and know the differences in how they’re made. Instead, they must feed them inferior ground beef, cheap GMO pasta and rice, pesticide-ridden veggies and BPA and preservative filled canned foods. I don’t judge my fellow Americans for this anymore than I would judge the mothers in Venezuela who have to make dirt cookies to feed her children. In both cases, it’s mismanagement by wicked and greedy corporations and the lying government that is the downfall of the country, forcing families to do what they have to to get by. I still live in a rural community that largely cooks at home, grows what they are able, shops at farmers’ markets, hunts for meat, and does the best it can. And that is the more common “America” that no one talks about.
Sharon, Thank you for this emotional and honest comment. I am glad you gave us this perspective. But, please note that I never said: “Americans are stupid or lazy”. I wouldn’t even think that way! My point was that in the conversations throughout the internet and when I meet Americans live, they always insist on buying industrial products and ask me to explain the ingredients on the label. When I explain to them that most of the ingredients are poisonous, they usually say: “It will not kill me in moderation”. But what about the years of using these products and getting addicted to their flavours and aromas? Let’s take an example: How many Americans make their own coconut milk or dark chocolate at home? The ingredients and time to make it are quite affordable. As I said, there are many of you that are waking up and giving their best to change their lifestyles and teach the new generations. As I indicated, I love the culture and people in general, but I believe an honest letter from a Greek (Mediterranean) should be understood as a friendly poke, not an attack. I also gave the links to the best advocates of Keto and LCHF lifestyle that are Americans. I believe that articles like this should be considered as positive criticism. Wishing you all the best!
Thank you for your response, Apollonas. I know you didn’t say Americans are stupid or lazy; I didn’t mean you personally. I feel the subject is a sore spot with a lot of Americans because so many OTHER people do actually say that very often. Many from other countries judge us very harshly without really knowing us or our way of life and upbringing at all. Your article was respectful and I don’t argue with your points. What you are seeing when you see Americans saying “it won’t kill me in moderation” is the very successful brainwashing of the people that the food industry had perpetuated–and continues to push via the media constantly. It’s incredibly frustrating. Some still have faith that the government would never allow truly harmful ingredients in our food. But a look at what they allow in baby formula shows the kind of criminals we are dealing with. Baby formula isn’t even sacred to them! As Random commented below, it’s all about money and we citizens have been thrown under the bus. We’ve got everyone against us: the enormous food conglomerates, the medical industry, the government itself, and comments from Europeans, Canadians, and others who look down on us rather than understanding what’s really been happening in this country. You continue your work though and I hope you can help open the eyes of some who’ve been totally snowed by the propaganda. Many of us know better and are working with you on this. Thank you for your efforts.
You are right on. Unfortunately, our government is dominated by lobbyists who pay off politicians to implement their agendas. The sugar and industrialized food industries make sure that the official government guidelines favor their products, at the expense of Americans’ health. The pharmaceutical industry doesn’t want the guidelines to change, as sick Americans are more profitable for them, so their lobbyist dollars feed into this system as well. Unfortunately, keto and fat don’t have lobbyists with enough money to buy off our politicians. It’s all about following the money.
Thank you for this excellent comment.
Sorry I don’t buy it ! Stop blaming everyone else for your eating habits. The government doesn’t tell you what to wear do they?? It’s so easy to blame everyone else for your problems. No one looks after you but you! As the old saying goes “you are what you eat”and if you choose to eat Big Macs and large sodas all the time then you have no one to blame but yourself. \r\nI am Canadian and I too grew up in farm country grew our own veggies, canned etc but everything was made with sugar!!! My uncle couldn’t have a fresh sliced tomato from the garden with out putting a scoop of sour cream and brown sugar on it. Why hide the taste of a fresh tomato?? As a wife and working mother I too fell into the well of time saving processed foods and fast food. I will say though that I always instilled in my children the value and benefits of fresh Whole Foods and as a parent I was very fortunate to have two children who actually lived vegetables but there was also slit of homemade desserts at the dinner table too. \r\nAbout 2 years ago I was diagnosed with a very rare c
condition. It was at this moment that I really took charge of things. Although I was eating well I still loved to bake and that meant sugar almost everyday in our diet. One year ago exactly I decided to go Keto and I have not looked back. I have lost 60 lbs & my husband has lost 55 and we do not miss the sugar or the processed meats that we use to have in our sandwiches for lunch everyday. It has been a rebirth for us. \r\nAmericans , Canadians need to stop blaming others for their unhealthy food choices and take charge for themselves. Cancers, diabetes and childhood cancers are out of control and it’s time for change !!!!