An Obsession With Food

The American Diet Then and Now: How Snacking Is Expanding the Country's Waistline

Americans eat roughly 570 calories more per day than they did in the 1970s, according to a new study. While supersize portions are partly to blame, steady snacking is the bigger culprit.

"We're a generation of constant eaters," said Barry Popkin, distinguished professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Popkin used surveys to probe the American diet since 1977. Americans began eating more in the '80s and '90s, but in recent years, they've begun eating and drinking more often -- like almost all the time.

"It used to be you'd have three meals a day. And if you snacked, it was unsweetened tea or coffee," said Popkin. "Nowadays, everywhere you turn there's food. If you're driving, you have a big bag of Doritos next to you while you drive."

More than one-quarter of adults in the United States are obese , according to a 2010 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- a proportion that has steadily grown over the past 30 years as Americans tend to "eat more and do less," said Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center.

"We joke about the 'see food' diet. We see food and we eat it," said Katz, explaining how Americans have come to expect food at every turn. "People panic at the thought of spending a couple of hours somewhere where there might not be refreshments on hand."

Despite their growing obsession with food, fewer Americans are willing to sit down and enjoy it.

"We're no longer eating at a table with a knife and fork," said Keith Ayoob, director of the Rose R. Kennedy Center Nutrition Clinic at Albert Einstein College in New York City. "As a society, we think it takes too long to eat a bowl of cereal. We want a breakfast you can hold in one hand."

As a result, Americans choose foods that are loaded with flavor and calories for immediate gratification, only to feel hungry again an hour or two later.

But it's not just salty foods that are expanding the nation's waistline. Sugary drinks like soda, fruit juice and sweetened coffees pack on the pounds too.

"We're drinking ourselves to death," Popkin said. "Several hundred of these extra calories are coming just from drinks."

Popkin said he hopes the study will be an eye-opener for people who might not realize how many calories they're consuming.

"We have to focus a lot more attention on cutting down how often we eat if we're truly going to do something about this as a society," he said. But in a world where people are perpetually bombarded by food and drink advertising, it won't be easy.

Ravenous: A Food Lover's Journey from Obsession to Freedom by ...

Someone (I don’t remember who, thanks to whomever it was!) recommended this book to me and I grabbed a copy of it. I will admit I was a bit hesitant. I read half of Eat Pray Love, which it kind of sounded like. I really didn’t like that book, at all, not one bit.

This was similar, for sure, but also a little more realistic for the rest of us in the world that cannot take a year off and go off to points unknown. The author visits places she can drive to, during her off times at work or on the weekends. She visits with places she might actually be able to eat food from on a regular basis.

I loved the premise of this book. Understanding where your food comes. The good, the bad and the really ugly. I loved her bit about the olives. As a fellow olive freak, I feel her. The roughest part to read was the beef farm, but well, I mean, it happens and it was an important step in her journal. But it was tough.

I’m not sure if she really freed herself from anything and I’m not sure I would call this self help. So, if you’re reading this to lose weight, you’re reading the wrong book. But if you’re reading to learn about the author’s journey, you’re reading the right one. I really enjoyed that part of it.

I also liked that the author kept it real. There’s no BS in here that I saw. She isn’t perfect, she doesn’t know it all, she screws up. It also made me really think about where the food that I choose to eat comes from.

This book is great for those that love memoirs and for those that like to read foodie books. Well done!

Rather than head straight for the diet manuals, she chooses to change her relationship with food from the inside out. She delves deeper into the spiritual underpinnings of eating, examines what it means to be satisfied, and ultimately forges her own path to balance and freedom.

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