The Toll of the Western Diet on the American Population

Can you imagine your life without having a burger during the lunchtime? More than 80% of people in United States consume fast food every day and don’t even think about their health and consequences of eating it. According to the “Escape from the Western Diet” by Michael Pollan - Western diet is new diet, which is new and not traditional. It is unhealthy way of eating, which cause a lot of stomach diseases. Western Diet consists of processed food, which is very cheap and convenient. Thus Pollan thinks that this diet is wrong and it affects bad on people: it causes obesity due to the price and convenience of it, and Western Diet doesn’t include organic and natural food, which are really important for the body.

The Western Diet is the new historical way of diet. Basically it consists of food with high level of fat and cholesterol, thus it includes fast food, and all industrial food. According to Michael Pollan the Western diet;”…it is more the product of industry than of nature”. This diet is really convenient and available for everyone. It is really easy to get used to something, and that is why a lot of people choose it without thinking of the outcome of their “healthy” lifestyle. The quotation marks mean that this food is dangerous for our stomach and physical health. As this food is industrialized, it contains a lot of fat calories and does not include nutrients, vitamins and minerals, which are very essential to our body in order to be fit and healthy. As stated in the “Escape from the Western Diet”, this food leads a lot of Americans to be overweight and to be obese. People in the USA do not spend much time at cooking meals and making diners. It is easy for them to put on “soup to go” in to the microwave for 1 minute and give it to their children to school. The same Americans do with their dinners: “…they also spend less than a half hour a day preparing meals and enjoying them.” As everyone is busy, and do not have much time to cook meals, Americans prefer eat quickly and cheap, just to be full during the work time/school time.

Why is it better to buy ready food? Because it is super cheap and you can find it anywhere. To be more specific, there are much more places with fast food versus healthy restaurants/shops in the USA in every town, as it is cheap and quickly. From the reading there is a good evidence why they do so:” Americans spend less than 10 percent of their income on food”. That makes sense and logic. This food is really cheap, so everyone can afford to go to the fast food “restaurants”, even kids. It is fast so you don’t need to wait till it will be prepared, the waitress will give you your order once you paid, so it is convenient in the way that you are not late for your work, but also you are full. Nevertheless if you are able to afford it, you can easily overeat it. This food cost nothing for you, comparing with the healthy fish stake, for instance. So between the option of getting the fish steak at the restaurants plus the tips, and between the meal number 5 at McDonalds, which includes everything you want and in big size, you will choose the second option. As it more affordable and you will be full for all day/night. Also Pollan states that: ”People eating Western Diet are prone to a complex of chronic diseases…” The Western diet causes serious health problems, especially with the stomach. It leads to decrease of the speed of the metabolism, so that is why people not only get fat from it, but also get a lot of illnesses.

To sum up, the Western diet is new, affordable and unhealthy diet, which can cause obesity and vitamin deficiency. It is easy to get this food and it is convenient to be on Western Diet, as you do not spend time on cooking and preparing meals, you save your budget. But it is not worth it, as in the future you will have to pay for the doctors in order to be healthy and do not develop gastritis. And it is only one from the bunch of other different illnesses it may cause in the future. I think that healthy lifestyle does not only means that you eat only healthy food, it also depends on your personal responsibility. You can eat a hamburger, but in a few hours just go to the gym. So all the calories you consumed will burn and you will not gain any weight. So in order to be fit, people should control the time, quantity and the size of the food they eat.