Why are Americans so sick these days?
It seems that although we Americans are living longer than ever before, we’re not thriving. Autoimmune diseases, heart disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes rates are all up. Why is that? If we’re living longer, why are disease rates going up?
Because we’re surviving, not thriving. We’re avoiding death, but we’re not living our lives as well as we could.
To thrive you must have your nutrient requirements covered. In the land of plenty, we should have no problem getting our nutrients, and yet the typical American diet is deficient in many vitamins, including vitamin D, iron, magnesium, vitamin B12, vitamin C, calcium, and vitamin A, to name a few.
We’re eating more food than ever, but still malnourished. How is that possible?
Visual Capitalist posted a visual of what Americans eat in a year and I can’t get it out of my head. First of all, it says that Americans spent about $10k on food in 2023 (about 13% of household spending), which is fascinating in itself to consider since I feel like I spend way more on groceries than that…inflation, amiright? But what freaked me out the most was how those numbers broke down.
We’re spending more money on the least nutrient-dense foods by stupid-high rates (8-17% more, depending on the item). That’s not a small growth! If you owned a business and Americans were spending 8% more money on your product, you would be ECSTATIC because you’d be raking it in. That’s massive.
So if we’re buying more nutrient-sad foods, where are we taking that money from? Meats and produce. Do you see how big of a problem this is? Meats and produce are our most nutrient-dense foods and we’re swapping them out with low-nutrient foods. We were missing nutrients to start with…this isn’t gonna help.
My prediction for the American ability to thrive, let alone survive, is that we’re screwed if these trends keep up.
If you’re looking for a resolution for 2025 that will make you feel better, I got some for you, and they all “add” and not “remove” foods from your plate, so fear not:
Eat more produce—fruits AND vegetables. Just eat more of them.
Shop by what calls to you in the produce section. Buy that beautiful head of cauliflower that you felt strangely drawn to and figure out how to get it on your plate.
Start small and build. Try to eat something green every day. Then build on it.
Try out new recipes where in-season produce plays the largest role.
Try to find a veggie side that is a hit at any party.
Eat the rainbow. Try to get all the colors of the rainbow on your plate by the end of the day.
Why am I focusing on vegetables? Because in all the research I’ve done on nutrition and health, NOWHERE have I seen studies say that we need to eat fewer vegetables. NEVER. So eat your damn veggies, people!
If you eat vegetables already but want to level up, consider adding more herbs. Yes, cilantro and parsley are great, but have you ever eaten nettles or dandelions? Talk about nutritional powerhouses! Explore your herbs, folks. They are food AND medicine.
Get your nutrients, people! You’ll feel better, I promise.
