The American diet: Voluntary action vs. government action.

Abstract

The customary purpose of food for millennia has been to sustain life, but in the past few centuries, due to technological developments and other factors, Homo sapiens has gotten off track. While technologically advanced nations have largely solved the problem of hunger, many, including the United States, have come to treat food as entertainment, rather than as something that should be keeping our bodies running optimally. Our food is contributing in a major way to diet-related diseases. Two thirds of American adults are overweight, which increases the risks of developing many diseases estimated to have medical costs around $150 billion annually.