Transcript The Modern Western Diet

 Please
read the
board!
 Test on
Wed/Thursday!
 Write
note.
a question/comment on the sticky
 Peter
Menzel (2005)
 How many people in the family?
 Food types:



Fresh? Processed? Preserved? Variety?
What types of technologies were used to produce
these foods?
What are the chances these food items were
grown locally?
 Meat-centered:
meat is main course of every meal
 processed foods!
 Refined grains and sugars
 Over-cooked vegetables
 Many convenience foods or “fast food”
 High fat, salt and sugar contents
 Lacking in whole vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains
 Packaged
 Chopped
 Precooked
 Preserved
 Flavors
added
 Whole
food  processed
 Example:
 Your
example:
The less healthy it is!
 More
calories
 Bigger portion sizes
– Check the label!
 More sugar – Check
the label!
 More dietary fat
 Increase in eating
out – How many
times did you eat
cooked food from
home last week?
In
these areas,
people may get
their food from:



Gas stations
Convenience stores
Fast food outlets
 Hypertension-
high-blood pressure, can be
worsened by over-intake of salt
 Heart Disease- gradual malfunctioning of heart due
to accumulation of cholesterol from animal and
vegetable fats in arteries
 Leading cause of death in U.S. and U.K.
 Diabetes-
high blood sugar, malfunctioning of
pancreas . Can lead to blindness, loss of
feet/limbs.
 Obesity- excess body that may have an adverse
effect on health, reduced life expectancy and/or
increased health problems
Why is the unhealthy stuff so much
cheaper???
 assistance
paid to a business or economic
sector
 Most subsidies are made by the government
to producers or distributors to prevent the
decline of that industry
 Crops
subsidized in the U.S.:
 Corn, rice, wheat, milk, soybeans, sugar,
tobacco, cotton
 Corn,
wheat, soy and rice…60% of human food supply
 Cheap
corn = lots
of corn!
 Broken down in lab
into lots of
chemicals used in
food.
 Subsidies
make the
unhealthy food
cheap.
 Mexico
– 32.8%
obesity (US 31.8%)
 Mexicans drink an
average of 43 gal
coke/person/year
 9.2% of Mexican
children have
diabetes
 New tax on junk
food and soda– 1
peso/L coke
 Describe
the modern Western (American)
diet.
 Name two heath effects of the Western diet.
 Why is the unhealthy food so cheap?