Article+on+American+Food

One-third of the American diet is junk food and soft drinks: we're malnourished and obese at the same time By: Mike Adams Meaty Questions By: Boonsri Dickinson 20 Things You Didn't Know About Sugar By: Rebecca C. Vital Hot Dog Statistics By: American Meat Institute

These four articles are about Americans and their food consumption. As much as Americans eat it’s no wonder the obesity rate is skyrocketing, but also the number of malnourished people is very high too. This is because a large majority of the typical American's diet is filled with processed foods that contain little to none nutrition. Two of the articles were about hot dogs and what goes into them and the effects of those ingredients on humans. Experiments done on lab rodents have revealed that the nitrates and nitrites found in hot dogs can cause cancer. The other hot dog article was about fun facts on the quantity of hot dog consumption in the US in a year. One of the articles was about interesting information on sugar. Sugar, the building blocks of carbohydrates, can be made from chemicals in a lab, from beet juice, or from pure sugarcane. The amount of sugar consumed by an American yearly was startling, especially just on Halloween. What was even more alarming was the amount of sugar in a twenty ounce bottle of soda; almost 16 sugar cubes! These articles were all very knowledgeable and will make you think twice next time you reach for something to satisfy your hunger.

While reading these articles I was a little surprised at some of the information that was given, but not blown away. It is almost common knowledge that the obesity rate in America has gone up drastically in the past years and the food market is one of the places to place blame. Americans wouldn’t have the temptation to eat processed foods if they weren’t made in the first place. In the first article it talked about labeling junk food with warning labels and information about heart disease, diabetes, obesity, ect. but that may stop a few from consuming that particular food, but not everyone. I had never really thought of the other side that this article brought up. Since Americans are consuming processed foods that contain empty calories, they aren’t getting the nutrients and vitamins their body needs. While they are eating, the foods they are eating aren’t supplying their bodies with vitamins and minerals like those found in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. The other three articles contained facts on foods that Americans eat in large amounts. I knew that the nitrates and nitrites found in most hot dogs could cause cancer like the study they described proved. What I did learn from that article though is that the increase in percent of dying from eating hot dogs is very negligible to the increase of percent of dying from lung cancer if you smoked. The amount of hot dogs eaten each year here in the United States seemed sort of high, but when it was put into perspective with summer months, cookouts, and baseball games it made more sense. The sugar facts weren’t that surprising either because we have been hearing in health classes how much sugar is in a glass of soda or the amount of sugar in candy. I did find it interesting that sucralose, sold as Splenda, was discovered when a scientist was trying to create an insecticide and misread directions and thought he had to taste the compound instead of test it. This made me think twice about eating foods with artificial sweeteners. Overall, I found the articles good and full of information, but nothing really all that new.