Commentary: Our unhealthy nation

Of the world population of adults, more than 43% are overweight but only 8.5% are obese. This includes the U.S. population of which 74% is overweight, including the 50% of people over age 18 considered obese. The world population age 65 or older is 19.3% diabetic and that aged U.S. population is 33.3% diabetic. Other chronic diseases also are higher in the U.S.

Robert F. Kenedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services under Donald Trump, links the nation’s poor diet to shorter lifespans and rising healthcare costs for chronic diseases. Statistics from various sources indicate the U.S. average life expectancy is five years shorter than for Europeans or those of other developed nations.

No pundit has offered genetic differences of our population in comparison to that of other nations as an explanation, but other differences mentioned by Kenedy’s cadre for the US population include: our comparative consumption of highly processed foods (50% to 70% of our diets), and the large number of food additives and ingredients used in the U.S. that are prohibited in Europe or other nations.

Examples of suspect ingredients include high-fructose corn syrup, low-cost sweeteners/fatteners, the various seed oils and food dyes.

The use of HFCS used in the USA is stronger in its percentage of fructose (increased sweetness at lower cost) and used more frequently and at higher amounts here than in Europe. Companies that produce HFCS provide trial data acceptable for the product but are these adequate and accurate?

Too, it is known that sugar replaced by HFCS is possibly as harmful to Americans as is HFCS. Both contribute to overweight/obesity and blood sugar content problems.

The increased use of HFCS coincides with the increase in obesity in our population, but is that proof of cause? Some studies have shown that rats are fattened more or faster by HFCS than by sugar and acquire diabetes and heart disease with greater frequency, but the study’s findings were not considered significant.

Sugar has the advantage of causing the consumer to acknowledge satiation. If HFCS were considered an additive rather than a replacement energy source, the testing would be adequate to possibly eliminate it from our diet.

Switching Americans from animal fats to vegetable oil was good to fight heart disease, but what about the probable linkage of vegetable oil use to cancer? The studies here are also not yet significantly conclusive. The processing and processing chemicals of seed oils’ safety are questioned as well as the total amount of oil (fat) we consume.

Several synthetic food dyes of various colors not used in other countries have been linked to cancer and behavior problems are under suspicion, being made from petroleum for low cost and durability. Butylated hydroxyanisole and butylated hydroxytoluene food preservative antioxidants (in baked goods) have some effect on immunity levels and are carcinogenic at certain levels. It is not yet clear that levels being used are dangerous, but this needs study.

Potassium bromate to improve volume/texture is also known to cause cancer in rats fed at certain levels. This does not necessarily mean that cooked food containing PB would be dangerous for humans.

Titanium dioxide could be classified as a food dye (white coloration) and is approved and used here but not in Europe. Azodicarbonamide, a bleaching agent in plastics and flour-based foods, has been studied (fed to rats) inconclusively but in some humans causes respiratory and skin reactions. Benzoyl peroxide, also a bleaching agent, could be a carcinogen when heated (cooked).

Pre-market safety reviews by our Food and Drug Administration are criticized for not requiring rigorous testing of all food and ingredient items regardless of their history in the market.

My own explanation for U.S. health and excess weight is our poor education system (especially parenting), which lacks proper emphasis on maintaining one’s health, developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle and body weight required for low health cost and longevity. This requires understanding why food nutrition and content labels are required, how to read them, what they mean, and developing the mental discipline to act accordingly.

Jim N. Taylor lives in Harlingen.

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