Why can it be so hard to find nutritious food in restaurants? When going out to eat it can be difficult to decide which meals are actually beneficial to your health. The food that seems good can actually be loaded with the amount of calories that are some people’s limit for the entire day. Restaurants have been traced back “as far back as the Roman Empire and Ancient China” where they were mainly used by those taking large journeys and needed meals while “stopping at roadside inns along the way” (Mealey). During the Medieval times stayed relatively similar but the meals served became more tailored to where the restaurant was. For example, in England mainly “sausage and shepherd’s pie” was served, whereas soups and stews were offered in France (Mealy). During the French Revolution came the “rise of fine dining” (Mealy). Tourism had become more prevalent and “eating well away from home” grew with it (Mealy). With the twentieth century came chain restaurants and today restaurants are more specifically for middle class families. Over the years, restaurants and food companies have been gradually increasing the portion sizes— and prices— while decreasing the quality, causing a misrepresentation of what we should be eating. This is more commonly known as portion distortion and acts as a way for companies to charge more for things with less nutritional value. Leading then to people feeling satisfied for shorter periods of time and buying more food to consume, obesity rates are increasing and no one seems to be doing anything about it. According to “The State of Obesity” website, the lowest obesity rate in America is Colorado with a rate of 22.3% and the highest being West Virginia with 37.7%. The United States government and food industries care more about money than people’s health and well-being. 

Whether the government is involved or not, people make their own decisions on what to eat. There are many different things that go into deciding what to eat such as, “for most people, taste, cost and convenience” (Bowerman). Healthy food has been given a reputation of not being as appealing as the unhealthy alternate. The less nutrient dense foods actually have a chemical makeup that is “designed to convince your brain that it is getting nutrition, but to not fill you up” (Clear). This is what causes people to feel satisfied in the moment but are hungry a few hours later. However, everyone has the choice to make the healthy decision and many people actually do. A study was done that found cities and counties that have abnormally low obesity rates and what they did to achieve that. They stated that, “county leaders focused on establishing a county-wide structure to connect and support community-led initiatives to promote healthy living, reduce obesity, and foster sustainability” (Canavan). This shows that change is possible and things are being done in a local way to better people’s wellness. 

Aside from the food tasting better, it is also much more affordable. As the quality of the food or meal increases, the price does the same. Harvard’s School of Public Health posted an article saying, “the healthiest diets cost about $1.50 more per day than the least healthy diets.” With the economy always fluctuating and America’s poverty rate being 12.7%, it is difficult to see the point of spending more on food. For those with less money food is seen only as a necessity so they don’t care as much whether it’s healthy or not, they will just get it in order to survive. Also, with the government being over $20 trillion in debt, they do not have time to worry about keeping the people of America healthy. They need to take in whatever money they can get from any sources so they can attempt to start paying back other countries and people that have loaned us money. With owing China alone $1.2 trillion, it is more important that the government think about how to save money rather then other ways to spend it down. 

The government does have some current projects in effect that are trying to help people make better health decisions and they have been in place for over 30 years now. In the beginning, they started off with a goal for Americans to “consume only as much energy as you expend, eat more naturally occurring sugars, consume more fruits and vegetables and go easy on eggs and butter” (Sifferlin). That was back in 1977. Then, in 1980, came out the “seven ways to have a good diet” (Sifferlin). The 1985 release also contained seven recommendations to help eat better. These continue to be released every five years and each edition consists of very similar goals listed. Another food guide was put in place in the 1940s that included number of servings from each food group but “lacked specific serving sizes” (A Brief History of USDA Food Guides). From 1956 to 1970 the USDA took a more foundational approach and mainly focused on the amounts of each food group that should be consumed. By 1992, they had changed from a food wheel to a food pyramid which focused more on a “total diet approach” that  included daily amounts of food as well as which foods from each group should be eaten. Another major shift occurred in 2011 where the pyramid then became the plate. The plate showed the servings in relations to an actual plate that the food would be served on. This was intended to help users portion out the food better in any situation. While this was a very good start to helping the people understand nutrition, it lacks the personalization. It is simply a baseline for people just getting started with healthy eating, not all require the exact same foods and portions. Although the government has attempted to help, enough is still not being done to show a significant improvement in the nations health. 

Nutrition is not the only thing needed to be in good health. Regular physical activity is also very important to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It is recommended that people work out at least five days a week for at least 30 minutes each time. It is important to do a variety of different exercises such as vigorous and moderate exercise. Within vigorous exercise, there are things such as running and act type of cardio. Moderate physical activity involves walks and activities of daily life. Lifting weights and other types of resistance training is another type of exercise that can be done to help trim fat and build muscle. All of these methods of exercise can help lead to a lower resting heart rate and allow a way to burn the calories that have been consumed. However, nutrition is the most important part of a good diet and for regulating weight. It is so much easier to consume calories than it is to lose them. An experiment was performed by the people of “Make Your Body Work” and the called the experiment “Food vs. Exercise” They showed that in the three minutes that it took their one participant to consume 800 calories worth of pizza and root beer, their other participant on the tread mill—running at ten and a half miles per hour— only burned 40 calories. This shows that a high quality diet is the main factor in a better life; people should be eating foods that are nutrient dense and high in healthy vitamins and minerals. 

The government should be more interested in the health of their citizens. The food choices that are being made are strongly influence by what the government and what society is saying is “healthy.” Billboards and commercials are telling people to go out and order a Mac Jr. because it is “80 calories less than the original” Big Mac (Zavoral). When in reality there is no nutritional benefit to the sandwich at all. It is considered empty calories and also is a part of food groups that are known to lead to diseases that if not caught and treated, can be deadly. Society portrays a false representation of what foods are actually healthy. 

Along with the physical effects of poor diets there is also psychological. All food actually effects the happiness of people. Studies have shown that diets of food with low nutritional value “have increased levels of depression, anxiety, mood swings, hyperactivity, and a wide variety of other mental and emotional problems” (Ramsey). Different foods correlate to different neurological side effects. For example, people are “79 percent more likely” to develop depression if they consume foods considered junk foods whereas eating healthy omega-3 fats allow to lower people’s risk for depression (Ramsey). Happiness in America is diminishing on a worldly scale. It was “ranked 3rd among the OECD countries” in 2007 and by 2016 it had lowered to 19 (World Happiness Report). Such a huge decline can be due to many reasons but the government should be actively treating the possible cause of diet in order to help repair psychological disorders.

Large corporations have also lost interest in people and focused more on making a profit. The movie “What the Health” noticed that large foundations such as American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, Susan G. Komen and American Heart Association all have websites with recommended meals that will help reduce the risk for that illness, however there is a catch. Also found on each website was that in the suggested meals, were the exact food that caused the particular disease. For example, American Diabetes Association promotes the consumption of diary which has actually found to be a precursor to Type II Diabetes. The American Heart Association has articles on their website promoting beef—the leading cause for heart disease and a group 2 carcinogen and processed meat being group 1. American Cancer Society also promotes meat which has been proven to have a positive correlation with cancer. And lastly, Susan G. Komen allowed Yoplait to put their pink ribbon symbol on their cups when studies have shown that the consumption of dairy could lead to prostate, testicular, ovarian and breast cancer. Why would a group promote things that hurt that same people they say they are trying to help? Further investigation showed that all these foundations are sponsored by groups with foods that cause their exact disease. They are purposely contradicting themselves in order to gain more money. If these kind of decisions continue to be made, people will become sick without any reason as to why. 

People living in lower income communities may also experience health issues not because of eating poorly but due to factories violating geographical laws for how close to neighborhoods they can be. There are over 3000 people dying every year from salmonella and other things that they eat. Jaydee Hanson, a Senior Policy Analyst for the Center for Food Safety spoke in the documentary “What the Health” and says that “if we had some terrorist organization killing 3000 people a year, we would be all over it.” In North Carolina, hogs are bred for meat and are dangerously close to civilization. Their waste is deposited into the water and not treated and before it is used throughout the cities. There is documentation of entire families having the same disease such as sarcoidosis— a type of bacterial disease and children as young as three years old have already developed asthma due to the lack of enforcement of laws by the government. Without situations such as these being put to a stop, America runs the risk of large outbreaks of diseases such as the swine flu making a return to our cities and states leading to thousands of deaths each year.

Companies add extra preservatives and additives knowing that they can lead to deadly diseases. A woman named Amy Resnic has fallen victim to an unhealthy diet and is now suffering the consequences. One day, she went to the doctor for asthma and through blood tests she found that she was on the path to have a heart attack within the thirty days after that appointment. On a scale of one to three with three being very high risk for a cardiac event, Resnic was a 10.82. Poor diet and unknown additives has led her to now be on seven different medications all helping her with pain, stress and relaxation. She also has to use a C-PAP machine to help her breath. Even with all this help, Amy still is constantly feeling tired even when she wakes up in the morning and naps during the day. She is just one of the many people experiencing the effects of poor eating habits and government shows no mercy to people having to live in these conditions. A resident in North Carolina lives by a pig plant and he states, “They say they’re in the business to feed the world but they’re in it to make money” (What the Health). Things that are being done are clearly wrong and people are catching on but nothing and no one is stopping it.

The government continues to allow extra drugs and ingredients to be added yet they possess little nutritional benefits. “What the Health” mentions that over 450 drugs are given to animals however, very little actually help humans. Some of these drugs are used to change the taste and make people want to eat more of it. In attempt to limit the amount of excess ingredients added to food, a law was passed limiting how much pus that can be added to dairy. Pus serves no benefit to anybody yet it is added for reasons that only will increase the revenue from the sales and decrease the money required to produce it. As kids we were told to drink our milk so we can get strong bones. However, studies on milk and bone fractures have shown that kids who drink milk do not have any more protection against breaks than one who does not drink milk. Dairy is considered an additive yet our food guidelines tell us to have it as part of our daily calories. With new information being posted every day, the government is doing nothing with it and eliciting no change in the manufacturing of foods.

Knowing that the government cannot afford to spends millions of dollars on nutrition campaigns, there are little implications that can be made to help the community without spending too much. Enforcing restaurants to include the calorie amount on all menu items would allow people to be more aware of what they’re eating and how much. If restaurants wanted to go a step further, they could also include the amount of carbohydrates, fats, sodium and other nutrition facts. Along with that, companies can stop looking for ways to get cheap food and start emphasizing the quality. If people can become more satisfied for less food, they should be willing to pay a slightly higher price. Encouraging children to make healthy decisions and teaching them what is nutritious and what is not could naturally help the population move towards a healthier lifestyle. Implicating health classes at an earlier age and encouraging kids to go home and talk to their parents about it could lead to faster change and a decrease in childhood obesity. It is important that America take this topic very seriously because it cannot be here without its people there to support it. Without learning and actually using healthy eating habits,  the people may not be here to keep The United States alive and active.
