THE AMERICAN DIET MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH

Three facts may surprise you.

Past infancy, people have no "natural instinct" to help them distinguish between wholesome and unnourishing foods. So even without chemically concocted products and advertising that starts the saliva flowing for "empty" calories, we'd have to apply thought and intelligence to choosing a nutritious diet.

Most of the peoples of the world, including those in a number of developed countries, do not eat the way we do. Their diet is relatively rich in starches and vegetable sources of protein and low in meats, fats, and sugars. They also don't suffer from any chronic health problems. But as affluence increases, meat—the international status symbol— becomes a more prominent part of the diet, and deaths from heart disease rise along with its increased consumption. This is happening now in Japan, where postwar industrialization and affluence have permitted increased meat consumption. The traditional low-meat Japanese diet had contained only a quarter to a third the amount of fat found in typical American diets, and nearly all of that fat was artery-sparing unsaturated fat.

Nations that share our dietary habits, particularly the Scandinavian countries, industrialized Europe, and Canada, also share our diseases and deaths. And when persons from "protected" nations migrate to the United States and adopt our diet, they inherit our diseases. Genetic heritage and cultural background have little influence. Diet is nearly all.

Americans didn't always eat like this. Though we live longer now than at the turn of the century, the increase in life expectancy is almost entirely due to the conquest of infectious diseases through improved sanitation, antibiotics, and immunizations. Meanwhile, the death rates for chronic, diet-related diseases have increased dramatically.

Today we eat far more meat, fish, and poultry, drink much more alcohol and soft drinks, and use loads more sugar than we did in 1910, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture began keeping systematic track of the food supply. At the same time, consumption of milk, grain products, fresh fruit, and vegetables declined dramatically. Most of our protein—70 percent—comes from fat- and cholesterol-rich animal sources, whereas at the turn of the century half came from plants (grains, beans, and the like) that contained little fat and no cholesterol.

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer group, the net result of these dietary changes has been a 31-percent increase in fat consumption, from 32 percent of calories in 1910 to 42 percent by 1976; a 50-percent increase in consumption of sugar and other sweeteners, from 12 percent to 18 percent; and a 43 percent decrease in consumption of complex carbohydrates (starches), from 37 percent to 21 percent of calories. Thus, today 3 of every 5 calories Americans eat are from fats or added sugars. Because our modern diet is relatively low in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, it is also deficient in dietary fiber. And our generous intake of animal foods has overburdened our diet and blood vessels with cholesterol. Although consumption of eggs, our most common concentrated source of cholesterol, has dropped greatly since its peak in 1945, it is today only slightly below the per-capita consumption level of 1910. And processed foods—more than half of what we eat—are loaded with salt and other sodium-containing compounds.

Total calories have dropped slightly—by about 3 percent—since 1910, but Americans are now so sedentary that less is still far too much. Two in 5 Americans are overweight, even though the average adult American consumes fewer calories than is recommended for good nutritional health. In fact, since nutritionally empty fat and sugar calories comprise so large a share of our caloric total, some overweight Americans may actually be short on essential nutrients.

A few encouraging trends have recently emerged in American eating habits. For example, national food-consumption surveys conducted by the Department of Agriculture show that since 1965 average calorie intake has dropped among children and adults of all ages and both sexes. Per person, we are eating somewhat less fat now than in 1965, and more of it is polyunsaturated vegetable oil. But more than a third of the fat we eat is saturated. Compared to 1965, Americans today are eating more poultry, fish, and margarine—foods relatively low in saturated fats and cholesterol—and less butter, milk, cream, cheese, eggs, and ice cream, which are rich in these artery-clogging nutrients. Our passion for beef, which hit a peak in 1976, began dropping in 1977, but perhaps only because of prices.

Consumption of canned and frozen vegetables is up, but less fresh vegetables are eaten. We are actually eating more potatoes, but all the increase is due to frozen potatoes processed for frying, the least nutritious way to eat this otherwise low-fat vegetable. As with vegetables, total fruit consumption is up, but the proportion of fruit that we eat fresh—without added sugar and with natural fiber intact—is down.

Although we've cut back some on refined sugar, there's been a dramatic increase in food processors' use of corn sweeteners, leading to an overall rise in per-capita total sugar consumption since the mid-1960s. Those who satisfy their sweet tooth with honey instead of refined sugar should note that honey is 99.9 percent sugar. The amount of vitamins and minerals in honey is of no practical nutritional significance. (See page 122.)

In the "junk foods" department, consumption of soft drinks—both artificially sweetened and sugar-sweetened carbonated sodas and fruit-flavored drinks—is up dramatically since 1965. Per-capita consumption of alcoholic beverages, especially wine and beer, has also risen, along with pastries, potato chips, and their ilk. More Americans today are deriving more of their calories from nutritionally deficient foods than ever before.

*3\231\2*