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USDA research says Americans eat too much meat, not enough fruit

Harold Mandel's photo
Syracuse Natural Health Examiner

                                  

                                AP/PRNewsFoto/Food for Your Whole Life

Here in the Syracuse, New York region the citizens share a universal concern about the effects of dieting on our health. Tom Philpot has reported in Grist, www.grist.org, that USDA research shows that Americans eat too much meat and not enough fruit.

Tom Philpot has reported this research shows we eat about 30 percent more grain than we should--which appears to be mainly in the form of bread--and 20 percent too much meat. And, we're eating just 80 percent of the vegetables we should be, 60 percent of the dairy, and 40 percent of the fruit.

Therefore from a dietary perspective, we're overproducing (and consuming) wheat and meat, and underproducing (and consuming) fruits and vegetables. There are several ways to interpret this information. One is to take it as a pure reflection of consumer preference: Americans like bread and meat more than fruit and vegetables.

Excess meat consumption clearly is not good for you--particularly pork and beef. And yet Tom Philpot has commented that the government dietary recommendations aren't exactly skimpy on meat. Also, the federal government has facilitated the abundant availability of meat in a variety of ways--through massive subsidies of livestock feed crops like corn and soy, by looking the the other way as meat packers consolidated and drove down the price of meat, and by allowing meat packers to externalize public-health costs and environmental costs, and keep labor costs to a minimum at the expense of worker safety.

In essence, the net effect of the US federal policy has been to encourage the public's appetite for meat, by creating an environment in which cheap meat thrives.Tom Philpot feels perhaps the time has come to change that by creating policies that force food enterprises to pay for their messes; ensure that a few large entities don't wield sufficient market power to dictate conditions on farms; and encourage a diversity of crops--with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables.

Mandel Alternative Medicine News Service www.mandelnews.com
 

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, Syracuse Natural Health Examiner

After earning a medical degree (MD) Harold Mandel became interested in Natural Health Care when he discovered that orthodox medicine often does not offer people what they are searching for when they are interested in their optimal health potential. You may contact Harold with your comments and...

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