What Rapid Diet Change Has Caused

Our bodies were not built to live off of the processed, refined foods that are easily accessible in mass to us today. Our bodies simply have not adapted to this type of eating. Diets high in these readily available, quick, and empty calorie foods are leading to serious health issues.  According to the CDC (2015) the leading causes of death in 2015 were heart disease and cancer.  These two chronic illnesses can be directly linked to the way we fuel our bodies.

Chronic illnesses are still on the rise due to eating habits. Heart disease and cancer, the top two killers, are taking lives and not just in the elderly, but in middle-aged Americans.

Next, take a long look at our youth.

These statistics from the Center for Disease Control (2015) are staggering:

• Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years (CDC, 2015).
• The percentage of children aged 6-11 in the US who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012 and the percentage of adolescents aged 12-19 years increased 5% to nearly 21% over the same period (CDC, 2015).
• In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese (CDC, 2015).

If that was 2012, and I have seen no changes for the better over the past 5 years, what will today’s youth look like as adults? The outlook is not good. They are living out what may be the worst part of the obesity epidemic due to the fact that they were born into the poor eating lifestyle provided by their parents. Their health will suffer as a result. We have to reverse how we think about food or else life expectancy for American’s will continue to drop. We will actually kill ourselves with food.

Today too many people think of food as a comfort, for celebration, and people indulge unnecessarily every day.

Eating Healthy Is Odd??

I have noticed that people who eat healthfully are looked at as “odd,” or people say, “I don’t know how you eat that.” It actually seems abnormal for people to eat healthy meals. I can’t even tell you all of the ridiculous comments that I heard when I was bodybuilding and eating clean all day every day. People would even try to taunt me with junk food they brought to eat. Sometimes it was humor; sometimes I think it was to test my willpower.

There is a problem when society does not take eating healthfully seriously. Healthy eating should be normalized again. Food is fuel for your body. Period!

Conclusion

Bottom line: Stop choosing convenience over your own health!

Longevity is important in everyone’s life. We want to raise a family, watch our grandchildren grow and prosper in health, and it’s all possible by taking care of one simple thing – your diet. There is no magic diet plan.

It’s really quite simple. Eat unprocessed foods, which means shopping on the external aisles of your local grocery store. Eat foods grown from Mother Earth. Leave pre-packaged foods on the shelves, and limit fast food. Take the time to prepare healthful, naturally delicious meals from home. Use portion control. Your body will look and function better than ever, and you won’t have to worry about death coming early for you due to your diet.

Let’s change the life expectancy trend and get it moving back in the right direction!