The escalating health crisis in America is deeply rooted in lifestyle choices, particularly diet. Chronic diseases, the leading causes of illness and mortality, are often linked to unhealthy habits. It’s widely believed that a significant portion of heart attacks and strokes could be prevented through healthier lifestyles. Similarly, lifestyle factors, including diet, play a crucial role in the development of many cancers, especially those related to obesity, smoking, and exposure to toxins.
Over the past half-century, the overall health of Americans has declined. Alarmingly, current statistics reveal that 71% of adults are now overweight or obese, a significant increase from 66% just five years prior. This means over 100 million Americans are struggling with obesity. The modern diet, heavily reliant on processed and Fast Foods, is now considered by some experts to be a greater contributor to premature death than even cigarette smoking.
This concerning 71% statistic is based on the widely accepted Body Mass Index (BMI) threshold of 25 kg/m2 for overweight and obesity. However, research into long-lived populations in “Blue Zones” – regions like Ikaria, Greece; Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California – reveals a different picture. In these areas, and among centenarian populations globally, a healthy BMI is typically below 23 kg/m2. If we adopt this stricter BMI threshold, the percentage of overweight or obese Americans jumps to a staggering 88%. Furthermore, even among the seemingly “normal weight” 10%, many individuals are battling health issues such as smoking, alcoholism, addiction, autoimmune diseases, hidden cancers, inflammatory disorders, digestive problems, and irritable bowel syndrome, all of which can artificially lower body weight. This suggests that perhaps only a mere 5% of the American population truly maintains a healthy weight as a result of genuinely healthy eating and lifestyle habits. A recent study reinforces this grim outlook, indicating that only a tiny 2.7% of Americans adhere to a relatively healthy lifestyle that combines regular exercise with a nutritious diet. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is, unequivocally, not conducive to health.
The term “Fast Food Genocide” might seem extreme, but it underscores the profound and widespread damage caused by diets that are even worse than the already detrimental SAD. While many are aware that junk food, fast food, processed food, refined flour, sugar, and other unhealthy choices contribute to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, dementia, and cancer, the powerful link between poor diet and mental illness is often overlooked. Currently, a staggering 1 in 5 Americans experiences a psychiatric disorder. The detrimental impact of processed foods is particularly acute in urban “food deserts,” where access to fresh, whole foods is severely limited.
These “food deserts” leave vulnerable communities with reduced access to fresh produce, leading to a reliance on unhealthy fast and processed foods. This dietary disparity has devastating consequences, increasing the risk of early-life stroke (before age 45) by a shocking seven times. This results in individuals requiring nursing home care in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, drastically reducing their quality of life and lifespan.
Adding to this tragedy, those living in food deserts face double the risk of heart attack and diabetes, and a fourfold increased risk of renal failure. The disparity in life expectancy due to food inequality is a stark reality that demands greater attention. A significant portion of the population in these urban environments is either overweight, prediabetic, or fully diabetic. Research has revealed the devastating impact of this combination: compared to areas with easy supermarket access, the Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) for an overweight diabetic in a food desert is an astounding 45 years.
Emerging research even suggests a connection between fast food, processed food, commercial baked goods, and sweets, and the destruction of brain cells, potentially leading to lowered intelligence. Candy and sugary baked goods may even trigger addictive responses in the brain, paving the way for more serious health issues down the line.
The nutritional principles endorsed by the World Health Organization and most leading nutritional authorities emphasize a diet rich in vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and fruits. Conversely, excessive salt, saturated fat, and added sugar are identified as major contributors to disease. Furthermore, overconsumption of animal products is linked to premature aging, increased risk of chronic diseases, and higher all-cause mortality. Numerous studies, tracking hundreds of thousands of individuals over decades, consistently demonstrate a correlation between higher animal product consumption and increased mortality. Refined carbohydrates also pose significant health risks, potentially contributing not only to overweight and diabetes, but also to dementia, mental illness, and cancer. Mounting evidence suggests that heart disease is not solely driven by saturated fat and animal products, but also by refined carbohydrates, including white rice, white bread, sugar, honey, maple syrup, and agave nectar.
Research consistently demonstrates that excess calorie consumption shortens lifespan, while moderate calorie restriction can slow down the aging process and protect both body and brain. Americans, on average, consume more calories than any other population globally, often from foods with minimal or no nutritional value, such as soda and alcohol. Consider the long-term impact of consuming just 50 extra calories per day. Over a decade, this seemingly small excess can lead to a weight gain of approximately 50 pounds. This excess weight dramatically elevates the risk of numerous chronic illnesses, cancers, and significantly reduces lifespan, all from a mere 50 extra calories daily.
Conversely, what happens when an individual consumes 50 calories less than their daily metabolic needs? Does this lead to unhealthy thinness or anorexia? Would bones become brittle? Certainly not. Moderate calorie restriction, even by a small margin of 50 to 100 calories per day, results in a healthy, slim physique without being underweight. Body fat percentage decreases, while skeletal and muscle mass remain strong. Metabolic rate adjusts accordingly, slowing down, as does respiratory quotient, body temperature, and thyroid function. This overall metabolic slowdown may be a key mechanism in slowing the aging process. In fact, moderate calorie restriction is the only scientifically proven intervention to dramatically increase lifespan across various animal species, including primates. This benefit is maximized when coupled with micronutrient adequacy, ensuring intake of all essential micronutrients. The typical American diet is often deficient in antioxidants and phytochemicals, vital for immune function, brain health, protection against dementia, chronic diseases, cancer, and premature aging.
A nutritarian diet is specifically designed to achieve optimal micronutrient intake without excess calories. This dietary approach aims to extend human lifespan, reduce cancer risk, and maintain optimal brain function throughout life. This principle can be represented by the equation: H = N/C, where Healthy life expectancy (H) is proportional to Micronutrient density (N) per Calorie intake (C) over a lifetime. This equation encourages prioritizing nutrient-rich foods and limiting or eliminating empty-calorie foods and drinks, as well as calorie-dense options, and avoiding eating out of boredom or when not truly hungry.
A nutritarian diet is abundant in phytochemicals and antioxidants, emphasizing a wide variety of colorful and green vegetables, root vegetables, legumes, mushrooms, onions, nuts, seeds, and some intact whole grains. While the SAD and many traditional diets are grain-centric and lack sufficient antioxidant and phytochemical diversity (crucial for cancer prevention), it’s important to note that not all plant-based diets are equally protective. For example, a rice-heavy macrobiotic diet may limit phytochemical diversity, and brown rice in some regions can be contaminated with arsenic. White rice, being refined and high-glycemic, is also not a healthy starch choice.
In stark contrast, the SAD stands as almost the antithesis of a nutritarian diet. Over 55% of calories in the SAD come from processed foods, and approximately 33% from animal products. While food consumption data suggests about 10% of the SAD is fresh produce, this figure is misleading, potentially including items like French fries and ketchup in the definition of “produce,” making the actual fresh produce content likely less than 5%. Processed foods such as bread, pasta, salad oil, mayonnaise, doughnuts, cookies, rice cakes, breakfast bars, chips, soda, candy, and popcorn offer minimal micronutrient benefits. A piece of chicken, nutritionally, shares similarities with a bagel – both are primarily sources of macronutrients (calories) but lack the essential micronutrients, particularly antioxidants and phytochemicals, predominantly found in plants.
High-glycemic white flour products, often laden with added sweeteners, cause rapid glucose spikes in the bloodstream, devoid of fiber, nutrients, and phytochemicals. These baked goods are also high in acrylamides and advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), further increasing harmful glycoproteins in tissues. The resulting glucose surge triggers excessive insulin release, which promotes angiogenesis, fueling fat cell growth, cellular replication, and tumor development. The generous amounts of animal protein, including chicken (often mistakenly perceived as a healthier meat option), consumed in the SAD, promotes excessive insulin-like growth factor–1 (IGF-1). This creates a dangerous “sandwich” effect of elevated insulin and IGF-1, potentially accelerating brain aging, impairing cellular detoxification and repair, and promoting cancer. The SAD has cultivated a nutritional catastrophe and a significant health crisis that cannot be resolved solely through governmental healthcare reform.
When we discuss “fast food,” we are not solely referring to restaurant chains. Fast foods encompass a broader category including chips, soda, cookies, candy, breakfast cereals, snack bars, French fries, burgers, pizza, white flour baked goods, and any high-calorie, low-nutrient foods frequently consumed. These are essentially processed foods that form the primary calorie source for many. Fast foods share common characteristics: easy and quick accessibility, no preparation needed, readily available in bags or boxes for immediate consumption, rapid eating, and quick absorption into the bloodstream. They often contain numerous chemicals and synthetic ingredients, are calorie-dense, intensely flavored, and nutritionally deficient. Common additives include corn syrup, sugar, artificial sweeteners, salt, coloring agents, and other potentially harmful chemicals.
The rapid influx of calories from fast foods into the bloodstream has profound biological effects. Consider the difference between 200 calories of white bread versus 200 calories of beans. White bread is quickly metabolized into simple sugars (glucose), entering the bloodstream within 5-10 minutes, triggering a rapid and prolonged insulin response that can last for hours. Conversely, the complex carbohydrates in beans take significantly longer to digest, resulting in a gradual release of calories into the bloodstream over hours. This slow release of glucose from beans necessitates a minimal insulin response. As previously mentioned, the accumulation of AGEs accelerates aging and chronic diseases. In diabetic complications like kidney failure, blindness, or amputation, AGE buildup is a major contributing factor. Notably, these same AGEs accumulate in the tissues of non-diabetics who consistently consume excessive sugar and refined flour products.
It’s also crucial to recognize oils as processed foods. When consumed, oil, similar to high-glycemic carbohydrates, rapidly enters the bloodstream. Therefore, anything cooked in oil should be considered fast food. In contrast, whole foods like beans, nuts, and seeds release their calories gradually over hours. Oil calories are absorbed quickly, are largely empty (negligible micronutrients, no fiber), a combination promoting obesity, disease, and premature aging.
Imagine a buffet with two lines. Guests in the right line receive a tablespoon of olive oil while those in the left receive an apple before approaching the buffet. Those who consumed the 65-calorie apple will generally eat about 65 fewer calories from the buffet. However, those who had the 120-calorie tablespoon of oil will not typically reduce their buffet intake by 120 calories. Oil lacks fiber and micronutrients and does not trigger satiety. In fact, oil can actually increase appetite. Consequently, individuals consuming oil not only fail to compensate for its caloric content but often overeat beyond the 120 calories from the oil itself. Adding oil to food promotes overeating.
Nutrients and fiber are essential for regulating appetite and ensuring healthy calorie consumption. Clinical experience with numerous patients demonstrates a clear correlation: the more nutrient-dense and fiber-rich the diet, the lower the urge to overeat. This is critical because even a modest amount of excess body fat accelerates aging and increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Moderate calorie restriction becomes comfortable and achievable with a diet high in micronutrients and fiber, naturally reducing cravings and overeating tendencies. Conversely, a diet lacking in micronutrients and fiber can turn individuals into food-craving, overeating machines.
Frying food in oil poses even greater risks, potentially generating carcinogenic and mutagenic aldehydes. Fast food restaurants often use oil that has been repeatedly heated and reused. A single serving of French fries or fried chicken from such establishments can contain aldehyde levels 100 times higher than the World Health Organization’s safe limit. Even the fumes from frying oil are toxic and increase cancer risk. Restaurant workers who fry food or movie theater employees making popcorn have a heightened risk of lung and other cancers, even without consuming the fried foods themselves.
The proliferation of fast food restaurants has dramatically increased fried food intake. Soybean oil consumption, a common frying oil, is now 1000 times higher than in the early 1900s. Humans are not designed to consume 400 calories of oil daily, as is common in America, particularly in Southern states known for the highest stroke and heart attack rates globally. Using nuts and seeds as fat sources, instead of oils, yields the opposite health effects.
Extensive studies like the Physician’s Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study, Iowa Women’s Health Study, and Adventist Health Study, involving large populations followed for decades, consistently demonstrate a link between regular nut and seed consumption and increased lifespan. Clinical research with large participant numbers and objective endpoints like mortality carries significant weight. Such studies reveal that regular nut and seed consumption is associated with lower cancer rates, reduced cardiovascular and sudden cardiac death rates, fewer irregular heartbeats, and increased longevity.
A 2015 meta-analysis encompassing over 44,000 deaths showed an almost 40% reduction in cardiovascular mortality for individuals who regularly consumed nuts and seeds (one serving daily). The European PreviMed study, randomizing 7216 participants to either nut or olive oil supplementation within a Mediterranean diet, revealed a 39% decrease in all-cause mortality among the nut consumers.
When considering protein sources for individuals with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, or cancer, plant-based proteins from beans, nuts, seeds, and greens are significantly advantageous compared to animal protein. Plant proteins are more gradually assimilated, providing a complete array of amino acids for functional protein and hormone synthesis while maintaining lower IGF-1 production. Adequate plant protein intake keeps IGF-1 levels within the optimal range of 100-175. The average American’s IGF-1 level is around 225, a level linked to cancer promotion. A diverse plant-based diet provides a balanced amino acid profile that is slowly released into the bloodstream. Additionally, digestion of gut bacteria and sloughed-off cells in the digestive tract allows for the utilization of partially incomplete plant proteins, effectively making them complete. Conversely, consuming large portions of meat, eggs, or cheese leads to faster amino acid absorption and, being already biologically complete, stimulates excessive IGF-1 production, increasing cancer risk.
The average American consumes 10 to 20 ounces of animal products daily, while a safer level is likely less than 10 ounces per week. Even 10% of calories from animal products, considered an upper safe limit for individuals with favorable genetics, might still be excessive for optimal health in non-elderly adults. For maximizing lifespan and disease reversal, an even lower intake, perhaps under 5% of calories from animal products, may be more ideal. Any health-optimized diet should prioritize a wide spectrum of colorful plants rich in phytochemicals and antioxidants, proven to enhance lifespan and prevent cancer.
Animal products served in fast food establishments significantly worsen public health, generating dangerous carcinogens through grilling, barbecuing, and frying at high temperatures. The World Health Organization classifies processed meats (hot dogs, sausage, bacon, and lunch meats) as Class 1 carcinogens. AGEs are also most concentrated in barbecued and fried animal products, which also contain cancer-causing chemicals like heterocyclic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and mutagenic lipid peroxidases.
The digestive cycle comprises two phases: the anabolic phase during eating and digestion, and the catabolic phase after digestion ceases. During the anabolic phase, the body converts calories into stored glycogen and fat, also storing waste. Growth and fat storage hormones are activated in this phase.
The catabolic phase begins after digestion, where stored glycogen and fat are utilized for energy. This is when the body most effectively detoxifies and enhances cellular repair. The liver and kidneys work in tandem to remove aldehydes, AGEs, and other toxic metabolites. Repair and healing are amplified during the catabolic phase, when food is not being digested.
Many Americans have accumulated such high levels of toxins that the catabolic phase triggers discomfort, manifesting as fatigue, headache, stomach cramps, anxiety, or other unpleasant symptoms when digestion stops and the body begins waste mobilization and repair. These symptoms are often misinterpreted as hunger or low blood sugar, leading to further eating for relief, despite no biological need for calories. This perpetuates a cycle of unhealthy eating, weight gain, and illness. Every addiction has a “high” during consumption and a “low” during withdrawal and repair from the disease-causing diet and accumulated metabolic wastes and toxins. The American diet fosters withdrawal symptoms and discomfort, driving overeating and frequent eating patterns. Lower quality food intensifies discomfort during non-eating periods, making healthy weight maintenance challenging.
In contrast, a healthy individual consuming nutritious food experiences no discomfort during the catabolic phase, feeling no hunger until glycogen stores are nearly depleted. True hunger is a mild sensation in the throat and neck base, enhancing taste sensitivity and making eating more pleasurable. True hunger is a reliable guide for eating timing, making overweight less likely when heeding the body’s signals. Overweight typically results from eating outside of true hunger cues, either for recreational purposes or to alleviate withdrawal symptoms from improper eating, leading to excess calorie consumption.
Enhanced detoxification and waste reduction, including metabolic waste, aldehydes, and AGEs, are most efficient during the catabolic phase. Extending the catabolic phase contributes to longevity. Finishing dinner earlier or having a lighter dinner, creating a 13-hour window between dinner and breakfast, promotes longer lifespan. A study of women with breast cancer followed for 10 years showed that those with a 13-hour nighttime fasting window had a 26% reduction in death or recurrence risk. This extended nighttime window was also linked to improved glycemic control and lower HbA1c levels (glycated hemoglobin), independent of diet quality or calorie intake. Simply finishing dinner earlier yielded significant health benefits.
Optimal health is promoted by eating as infrequently as possible. The common belief of frequent small meals is misguided, potentially increasing endothelial dysfunction and raising the risk of arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. Many fad diets encourage frequent high-protein meals, masking the effects of normal detoxification. Continuous digestive activity accelerates aging.
Processed and fast foods are also excessively high in salt. Manufacturers not only add salt to the food surface but also incorporate it into batters and ground meats. High fructose corn syrup is also ubiquitous. Added fat, sugar, and salt create highly palatable, addictive tastes, often described as food addiction. Both sugar and salt intake elevate stroke risk, especially with daily consumption over years. Furthermore, regular consumption of artificially sweetened sodas, often perceived as healthier alternatives, paradoxically increases stroke risk. High salt intake not only raises blood pressure but also causes microvascular hemorrhaging, damaging brain blood vessel walls, increasing permeability and hemorrhagic stroke susceptibility.
Over the past 30 years, Japan, Korea, and China have witnessed a diabetes epidemic, occurring at lower body weights compared to America, likely due to the cumulative effects of increased fast food, oil, and sugar consumption, alongside pre-existing high white rice intake (a refined, high-glycemic food).
People possess the capacity for change when provided with adequate information, emotional support, food access, and cooking instruction. Individuals readily understand the tragic dangers of fast food when they witness obesity, diabetes, amputations, strokes, and blindness around them. However, without proper information, choice is limited. Lack of access to affordable, healthy food and cooking knowledge further hinders change.
The goal for healthcare professionals is to transform urban centers into zones of nutritional excellence. The American dream of prosperity and happiness is rooted in equal opportunity. Disseminating critical nutritional information and translating it into action through community activists, teachers, educators, celebrities, health professionals, athletes, and politicians is crucial. Widespread awareness and collective action regarding healthy eating’s importance will profoundly impact the health of all Americans. Working together, we can save millions of lives.
Acknowledgments
This work was presented at Lifestyle Medicine 2017, October 22-25; Tucson, AZ.
Footnotes
Authors’ Note: The opinions presented in this article are those of the author and may not represent those of the Guest Editor, Editor, or the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Ethical Approval: Not applicable, because this article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects.
Informed Consent: Not applicable, because this article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects.
Trial Registration: Not applicable, because this article does not contain any clinical trials.
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