The changes in the American diet since 1950 have been dramatic and for the most part, NOT for the betterment of our health.
I was born in 1947 and am 63 years old. I can remember as a kid when one of the first McDonald's restaurants opened on Erie blvd in Syracuse, NY. My older brother and I and a friend from school who had just got his driver's license were headed to the NYS Fair. The three of us stopped and best as I can recall bought (24) cheese burgers to take to the fair. The price at that time was on the order of 10 or 15 cents each. I think we also got enough french fries to feed 1/2 the city of Syracuse and enough carbonated soda to clean the tires on a 1000 automobiles. We were kids, and excited about our friend having his driver's license and being able to get all those burgers and fries really FAST. We had NO clue that eating 8 cheese burgers and all those fries and washing it down with sugar laden cola was BAD for you. Well maybe we had some inkling, however we were at the age of perhaps being old enough to know better, but too young to care.
In any event, looking back now, I find it interesting to note that we were entering into the arena of FAST FOOD. Today in 2011, we have fast food places of every sort and description it seems on every street corner and in every plaza across the country. You can have your choice of SUPER SIZED cheese burgers, fries, gallons of carbonated sugar laden colas, pizza, Mexican, Chinese etc, in just about every exit off our major turn pikes and in every town across the country. Practically every gas station now has a mini mart attached where you can load up on donuts of every shape and size (cream filled, sugar and sprinkle coated, chocolate covered etc.) and a full isle of bags of every type of snack food known to man. You can have every type of high carbohydrate, sugar and salt laden corn chips, pretzels, potato chips of every size, texture and flavor imaginable and your full daily supply of indigestible, harmful fillers and food additives and colorings.
Me thinks there must be some correlation between the increase in obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and a host of other ailments including especially TYPE 2 DIABETES in this country and around the world.
It follows then, that I feel that most fast food is a fast track to Type 2 Diabetes. Is it just a coincidence that the fast food and bagged snacks and donuts and baked goods are full of too much salt, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, food additives and preservatives etc. had their beginnings about the time that Type 2 Diabetes started on the road of becoming an EPIDEMIC 40 TO 50 YEARS LATER? To be fair to the fast food industry, some of them have made strides to provide some menu items that are acceptable if you are watching what goes into your digestive track. For Mickey D's as an example, their Asian Salad and a zero calorie vitamin water is a much better choice than their double cheese burger, fries and a 70 plus grams of sugar fruit smoothie.
I was a business man for 30 years and owned my own insurance office, so do not take my input here as being heaped on "Evil Corporate America". I am a big supporter of American Ingenuity and the free enterprise system. I think that many of our fast food chains were simply ignorant of the evils of (hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup) when these places got off the ground back in the late 40's and early 1950's.
It is absolutely stunning to me that the medical community does not see a link between the rise of fast food restaurants, an explosion of the snack food industry and the rise of Pepsi and Coca Cola and the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in America and around the world. (OR DO THEY?) We spend probably BILLIONS on research and DRUGS while ignoring the evidence before us and the co-relation between a 500% rise in diabetes since 1950 and the foods we are eating and our lack of exercise.
LINK To History Of McDonalds
LINK To RISE Of Diabetes Since 1950
EXCERPT from article:
We need to approach preventing type 2 diabetes with three essential elements in mind. First, we must recognize that type 2 diabetes is the result of changes in lifestyle that have occurred gradually with technological advances. Second, we must acknowledge that the realities of changing a person's lifestyle are multidimensional and complicated. And third, we must accept that the Association, and particularly health professionals, must play the pivotal role in leading this effort.
The prevalence and incidence of diabetes has grown 500% in the United States since 1950. The incidence of type 2 diabetes is expected to nearly double worldwide by 2010, from 119 million to 213 million people.
Why is this happening? As we all know, diabetes develops as a result of a yet-to-be-understood interaction between genetics and lifestyle. (PERSONALLY I THINK LIFESTYLE IS 95% AND MAYBE 5% GENETICS) Specific lifestyle behaviors, such as changes in diet, reduced physical activity, and the alarming worldwide increase in obesity, have been implicated as responsible for the rise in type 2 diabetes. It has been termed "urbanization," "Westernization," and even "Coca-Colanization." Nonetheless, it is the good life: an abundance of food and the technology to decrease our physical work load. Outside of genetics, obesity is the number one risk factor for type 2 diabetes. If the trend toward gaining weight does not change, researchers estimate that 100% of the U.S. population will be obese by 2030. In considering this, our vision to prevent type 2 diabetes must include modifying lifestyles to prevent and treat obesity.
Dan
(Luke 8:47 NKJV) Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.
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