WAKE UP, AMERICA!

America needs to wake up and realize we can prevent many of the ills that have been plaguing us!

Wake up, America! Did you know that we cause our own health problems as well as those of our children?

Here are some of the scary US disease statistics.

• Cancer

In spite of new advanced treatments, cancer deaths have increased by 48% since 1950.

Sadly, the number of American children receiving a cancer diagnosis is also rising.

• Diabetes 

Approximately 26 million Americans (9.8%) have diagnosed diabetes, 9.4 million (3.7%) have undiagnosed diabetes, and 91.8 million (37.6%) have prediabetes. Fully fifty-one percent of Americans have blood sugar problems!

As with cancer, doctors are diagnosing increasing numbers of children with diabetes.

• Heart Disease

This disease now kills 800,000 Americans every year, Unfortunately, it causes the same number of deaths in the United States each year as the total of cancer, lower respiratory diseases (including pneumonia), and accidents.

Our money pays for these health issues!

The health cost of cancer care was 157 billion dollars in 2018.  

Diabetes cost the US $327 billion in 2017, accounting for one in four dollars spent on health care. Direct medical care costs were $237 billion, and reduced productivity costs were $90 billion.

Heart disease currently costs the US $317 billion dollars annually or one in six health care dollars.

These diseases cost Americans 801 billion dollars each year!

Obesity is the common underlying cause.

In 1950, only 10% of Americans were obese. 

By 2016, 18.5% of children and

nearly 40% of adults were obese.

There is a direct connection between obesity and disease.  West Virginia, the state with the highest percentage of obesity in the country, has the highest percentage of diabetes. This state also has the highest percentage of heart disease as well as the highest percentage of cancer deaths in the US.

Why are Americans costing the US

so many health care dollars?

Before the 1940s, fast food and prepackaged foods generally did not exist.  Americans cooked at home and ate more wholesome foods.  But, after World War II, America became a country of people who demanded instant gratification.  People drove their cars to fast food restaurants and purchased foods often made with lower quality ingredients.

In the late 1960s, grocery stores began selling prepackaged foods. Over the past four decades, Americans’ have increasingly demanded convenience foods that save time in both preparation and clean-up.

Our instant gratification has caught up with us. Unfortunately, it has caused an increase in the health care woes that plague our country.

What is the solution?

My doctor explained that sugar and sugar substitutes cause chronic inflammation. This issue causes many of the diseases she diagnoses every day. Artificial sweeteners also cause insulin resistance and blood sugar problems that lead to diabetes. So, at her recommendation, I eliminated all sugar and sugar substitutes from my diet.

Few realize that artificial or zero calorie sweeteners are not good for us, either.

After I began to read the labels of every food item we purchased, I quickly became very disappointed with the US food industry.  Food producers add sugar and sugar substitutes to almost every food product sold in our grocery stores. They have done this because too many Americans are addicted to sugar and therefore sweeter foods make more money.

Americans might be too busy to cook meals at home, but they can improve their diet anyway! We need to wake up and demand that our food industry market foods with less or no sweetener.

How can we demand this? If we buy foods with less sugar most of the time, we will force food manufacturers to produce healthier foods.

WAKE UP, AMERICA!

 

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