The Truth About Why Americans are So Fat

Looking at the number of overweight Americans -- estimated to be 34 percent of adults and 17 percent of children -- it's clear that we don't always make the best choices when it comes to healthy eating.

Many people argue that the reason Americans choose not to eat more fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins is because these products are expensive, inaccessible, and simply don't measure up in flavor to high-fat foods.

This may all be true, but as Lee Zukor points out over at the Huffington Post, the real problem is that most Americans are simply unwilling to change their diets - even if their poor choices are killing them.

With one in three Americans expected to have developed diabetes by 2050, it's clear that the country's eating habits aren't working. And if our behaviors don't change, there will be some very widespread and severe health consequences in the near future.

Americans eat out more and cook less than previous generations, and they spend fewer than 10 percent of their disposable income on food, the least amount of money spent on food in the country's history. In fact, the percentage of household expenditures on food has declined every year since 1975.

Not only do our poor food choices adversely affect our health, but they help perpetuate the existence of the industrial agriculture model that values output and cost-savings above safety and sustainability (read: Monsanto and other Big Ag monsters). By demanding a steady supply of cheap food, we essentially license industrial farms to use any means necessary to get their products onto supermarket shelves.

So when will Americans stop blaming fast-food companies, Big Ag, and everyone else for the poor state our food system is in? It's our fault that the system is so broken. After all, we're the ones who continue to make poor, uneducated choices about what we put into our bodies.

Photo credit: FrenchSelfCatering.com