The Standard American Diet (SAD) is making us sick. Learn which foods lead to obesity and a myriad of health problems, and which foods to choose instead.
The Standard American Diet is making us a nation of overweight and sick people. More than 2/3rds of our nation is considered overweight or obese, costing us a staggering $190 billion a year in obesity-related health care costs.
In my opinion, the economic cost is the least important factor here. Happiness. Life fulfilment. Freedom. Health is all of these things.
I’d love to live in a country that does more to encourage healthy eating habits and helps set us up for success, but the reality is, our government subsidizes farms that produce wheat, corn, soybeans and rice, foods that are genetically modified, and are most often processed into products that have proven to be detrimental to health. The subsidies make these foods (and their products, like high fructose corn syrup) cheaper, making them more accessible and more economically attractive.
If you’ve read My Road to Health, you know that I haven’t always been the picture of health. The two sides of my family are completely different when it comes to lifestyle choices. One side of my family suffers from serious health problems, related to obesity and the SAD. The other side of the family is active, and even before it was “cool” or called clean eating, were great examples to me of the power of healthy choices.
I was more than 50 pounds overweight as a teenager. My mom actually cooked a lot healthier than what is typical for an American family, but even so, through a combination of genetics and lots of illness due to my allergies and asthma, I found myself obese at a very young age.
I knew from the time I was a young teenager that I needed to be in control of my own health. I needed to make healthy food choices and stay active, because I refused to live my life restricted by my weight.
I broke free from the SAD, and if you’re ready to make this change, download a free copy of The Clean Eating Detox for tips to transform your diet to Clean Eating.
What is the SAD?
The Standard American Diet (SAD) is what a typical American eats. This diet is low in fiber, low in fruits and vegetables, high in animal fat, high in saturated and hydrogenated fats, and high in sugar.
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A day of eating the SAD looks something like this:
- Breakfast: A bowl of cereal with milk (processed grains and added sugar)
- Snacks: Cookies, muffins, chips or crackers (more processed grains, added sugar, and often times hydrogenated oils)
- Lunch: A sandwich with deli meats, cheese, and mayo, chips or french fries, maybe an apple (more processed wheat, saturated animals fats, and possibly more hydrogenated oils)
- Dinner: Pasta with meat sauce, cheese, and some bread (more processed wheat, animal fats, and if the pasta sauce is store bought, probably added sugar as well)
I have no issue with any of the meal suggestions on this list. All of these things CAN be healthy, if ingredient lists are paid attention to, or the items are made at home.
The problems with this diet are 1)., it relies too heavily on wheat (read more here about why too much wheat isn’t a good thing), 2) too many of the foods are processed, and not in their natural state, and 3)., there are barely any fruits or veggies!
The sad truth is that this sample diet is all too familiar for too many Americans. A whopping 63% of the calories consumed by Americans come from processed foods, while only 12% come from plant foods — and, yikes! — half of those calories are from french fries!
These scary stats mean that for the majority of us, only a small percentage of our diets come from the foods that heal our bodies and promote our health- fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and whole grains. It’s not a wonder that in the US, $1 billion a DAY is spent on cardiovascular disease, much of which can be prevented with diet and exercise.
Breaking the SAD with Homemade Meals
I like to eat out once in a while, but most of the time, I find myself disappointed — where are the vegetables? Why does my “salad” contain more cheese, meat and crispy toppers than veggies? And too often, I look at my meal and think, “I’d have made this taste so much better.”
Once you begin cooking homemade meals, and start centering your diet around fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts and seeds, and lean proteins and fish, you’ll find your body actually craves these things. I need them to feel satiated — my body expects nutrients at meal times, and feels unsatisfied when it gets processed junk instead.
Let’s look at the SAD day of meals above, and create a day of eating similar foods, but the Clean Eating way.
A day of Clean Eating looks something like this:
- Breakfast: A bowl of overnight oats with yogurt, fruit and nuts
- Snacks: Hummus and veggies, a Larabar, or a Toasted Coconut Protein Bar
- Lunch: A salad with tons of veggies, beans, eggs, quinoa, and a really tasty zippy dressing.
- Dinner: A gluten free, clean eating pasta, with a protein and veggie packed sauce.
If you’re just starting out on your clean eating journey, I’ve put together an eBook, The Clean Eating Detox, to give you some tips and tricks for cleaning out your kitchen, and setting yourself up for success with a Clean Eating Lifestyle.
Drink Coffee- caffeine is good for you. Don’t drink coffee- caffeine is bad for you. Drink wine- it’s good for your heart. Don’t drink wine- alcohol is bad, and raisins are full of antioxidants. Eat three meals a day, no snacking. (I’m confused, what should I choose for my three meals?) Eat several small meals per day. (Bowl of marshmallow cereal, one donut, a small salad with a cup of dressing, 2 cookies, French fries smothered with pork-fed bacon grease, and only one scoop of ice cream for dessert —can do!) Fast for several days, and you’ll feel great. (Day three: I think I’m going to black ou…) Don’t eat fat. Eat fat. Don’t eat carbs. Eat carbs. Don’t eat protein. Eat protein. The food industries lead society around by a leash. “Dance puppets.” “Move my little pawns.”
Enter into a search engine most any food (not doughnuts, let’s be real) or supplement with the word “benefits” after it and you are sure to find many ways it’s supposed to be helpful to you. Enter the words “bad for you” and you may just find the same amount of reasons not to eat it. Also, there are so many trends and diets that we couldn’t get into all of them if I wanted to.
All of a sudden I can see it so clearly. I’m a lay person in the nutrition world. But I’ve done my share of research in health, and I believe I’ve come to a logical conclusion. “Diets” are all bunk. I say “diets”, because if you eat anything that’s your diet. And if you’re allergic to something or have a certain health issue, obviously you may have to cut some things out of your diet.
Our great grandparents and even our grandparents, are or were a hefty, strong bunch. They had less health issues, including food allergies. I have a friend who turned 99 this year. She still gardens and drives within a few miles of her home. She has a better memory than some of the 40 and 50 year-olds that I know. She grew up on a farm during the Great Depression. Her family didn’t have money to buy from a store. They lived off of the land. They ate fresh fruits and vegetables, “grass fed” meat, milk and butter. They weren’t afraid of fat, carbs or protein. Their parents worked for their food, they didn’t sit around on their phones and TVs half of the day. As children they worked and they ran around and played. They didn’t stress over whether they should skip breakfast or not, or have a snack or not. They just lived life. According to her, they never felt like they were deprived, while most of the world around them seemed to be lacking.
When I was growing up, fat was villainized. Especially saturated fat. That was the same time that trans fats made in labs were being put into everything. Marketers could make a lot of money by saying that the actually healthy natural fats were killing us, so ‘we can make something better than nature.’ Refined sugar was apparently one culprit that led to a lot of this belief. Then it was “discovered” that “good fats,” or fats found in nature, in appropriate moderation are a vital foundation to brain, skin and even energy functions. Trans fats were actually killing people. It’s now believed that fats in their natural states are very good for us. Coconut oil, avocados, olive oil, nuts and seeds contain these healthy fats. Grass fed milk and beef is better for us, because the cows are being fed what they would naturally eat.
It was at that same time when carbs were being processed and bleached beyond recognition from what was put into nature. Nutrients were thus taken out, and unnatural chemicals were being used to make grains “more appealing.” Again, it was “we can do better than what was put into nature.” Unknowingly, people started getting sick from these new products and whole grains became difficult to find. It later was found that whole grains are more healthy after all. But right about that time, celiac and gluten allergies became a trend. The majority of people don’t have a gluten allergy, though admittedly a lot of people do. However, it wouldn’t make the food industry much more money to just switch to whole grains. So they convinced society that ‘gluten is evil.’ Which was basically good for people with gluten allergies, but not so great for the rest of society. Carbs were also ‘evil.’ People have now started to realize that complex carbohydrates, carbs in their natural form, in appropriate moderation are good for us, they provide fiber and energy. They raise our blood sugar more slowly than refined carbohydrates. Unfortunately, uncomprehendingly, it is cheaper to buy and easier to find white flour products than whole grain products. And to replace the nutrients that they’ve taken out, they put some nutrients back in, in supplement forms. Makes sense…well, maybe not.
According to the some of the diet market ‘starch is bad.’ However, apparently “Starchy foods are a good source of energy and the main source of a range of nutrients in our diet. As well as starch, they contain fibre, calcium, iron and B vitamins. Some people think starchy foods are fattening, but gram for gram they contain fewer than half the calories of fat.” —NHS-UK
Now, the Autophagy proponents are telling us to fast for at least 16-28 hours on a regular basis to allow our bodies to use their own cell renewal and disposal. Along with the Keto diet proponents, they say that carbs even complex carbohydrates are basically bad except in really small doses, and protein should be kept to a minimum. That fats are healthier in high amounts. And if you think no one is making money off of this idea, check into this trend yourself. You can’t make money from telling people to fast. So, ‘let’s sell them that products, some of which that they don’t normally have easy access to, and charge them an arm and a leg.’ ‘If you want to be healthy you have to shell out the dough. But, at least it’s mostly promoting eating more whole-foods, foods in their natural form. But there’s sure to be problems found with this no-diet, ‘lifestyle’ diet, ten years from now. Since, it isn’t really a fully balanced way of eating, in my mind. As we’ve learned carbs in moderation are good. Also, protein, is another important building block in our bodies, in appropriate moderation. Also, I’m not saying fasting is good or bad, we all fast…hopefully. I generally fast naturally for 12 hours, half a day, most of which I’m asleep. This is not actually fasting for a full 12 hours though, since it takes time for the body to digest your last meal. We fast between meals, when we’re not hungry. I do think it’s reasonable not to be snacking on most nights, all the way up until I go to bed. But it’s also not a hard and fast rule. An occasional later evening snack can be enjoyable. -Balance and moderation.
We all know that the sugar and the high fructose corn syrup industries have got people locked into a viscous cycle. It’s found every where you look, even places that you wouldn’t suspect if you didn’t know better. The low cal sweetener manufacturers aren’t any better. A lot of us recognize that sugars found in their natural state, like from honey and maple syrup, are better for us. If for no other reason than that they don’t cause the same viscous cravings and addiction. Which, I can attest to from my first hand experiences. They also have a very small dose of nutritional value, not found in table sugar and HFCS. We know that whole fruits and their sugars are good for us in moderation. Because they have nutrients and fiber in tact. But fruit juice is like eating the sugar from a bunch of fruit while it’s also depleted of a lot of the good stuff.
Pesticides. All of us realize that these poisons, ideally, would be better left out of our foods. Even organic food is not untainted though, all food is polluted by the air and/or water. At one point farmers were paid to grow less, so produce became more expensive. There’s less farm land and farmers. Where do people think we get our food? A lab? And food is now at times genetically modified- again, unnatural.
It’s impossible to eat completely truly healthy anymore. Mankind has done this to itself. Greed and misinformation reigns. If they had just left the food alone and we learned to live in moderation with food -as well as exercise- we probably wouldn’t have as many health problems and food allergies. Obviously, everything was put in place on our home, earth, to sustain us in a perfectly balanced way. We just keep messing it up. And to top it off, gluttony is now the main-stream sell in the majority of restaurants in our society, with their huge portion sizes. Wouldn’t it make more sense to be able to have smaller portions and not have to pay so much at a meal out? They also fill our plates with cheap unhealthy fillers, like French fries and gouge us for the rest of the meal. Ever notice how easy it is to get a ton of fries or tortilla chips (I happen to love those chips, so it’s a struggle not to over do it) practically free, then try to order extra tomato or avocado, and again, your checkbook gets dented?
No person or foundation can change these things around them enough to make a significant difference. No man’s discovery will make me live forever or become perfectly healthy. For every “solution” they come up with they leave us with a number of problems. In my opinion the best we can do is, as individuals and families, to eat foods as close to their natural form as we can, and eat -and exercise, and rest- in balanced moderation. We may still need some supplements, since food is no longer pure, that’s up to your personal choice, and everyone’s body is a little different. But I don’t believe that all or any one supplement is the key to youth, health and happiness. No one food or food group is going to lead to perfect health and vitality. Let the food and supplement industries lead their blind cattle around by a chain.
And don’t experiment on yourself, you’re not a rat.
Boy was that an essay!
What a shameful response to this “essay”! I found Amie’s comment right on point. She gets it…I’m actually pretty convinced you didnt even read all of it.
You lost me at “homemade.” Why I eat SAD is because it’s what’s conveniently available. I work long, stressful hours, and by the time I get home, I’m exhausted. Having to spend MORE time on meal prep is a non-starter.
A myth! SAD is convenient — but so are apples and sweet potatoes and eggs. You don’t have to make complex meals to eat real foods! Plus, think about what you can accomplish with the extra energy you’ll gain from lowering the stress and inflammation caused by eating processed foods.
I’m glad to see that you’re breaking away from the Standard American Diet. I’ve been trying to do the same for a while now.