Image by WikiImages from Pixabay
Welcome back to the Evolution of Eating: Part Two! In this week’s article, I plan on shedding more light on why we eat what we eat. Grab a cup of coffee, and a cookie (yep, I just said cookie, cause you’ll only eat one), find a nice chair, and settle in. We are headed to the 19th century.
Fast forward with me from the dawn of time; through wars, famine, plagues, and inventions till we hit the 19th century. We have arrived at the age of Industrialization and Urbanization. This is where we will get off and watch food revolutionize. Some advancements are for the better, others… not so much.
Farming
Just as a refresher, humans spent the greater part of history as hunter-gather/farmers, living in rural areas. Some lived in small communities for protection and trading. As time passed, population and invention grew. Towns and cities were formed. And more people began to be urbanized.
Urbanization led to more folks using less of their farming skills. Relying more on the food preservation inventions of canning, and chemical preservatives. Which led to more jobs in the new and booming food system industries. Raising your chickens, a cow or two for milk and meat, slowly became a thing of the past. Rural family farming removed homesteading philosophies.
This ain’t your caveman body anymore
So here we all are in the 20th century. We still have the same body, with the same programming to eat, store fat, and efficiently burn calories. We no longer live in the environment humans did thousands of years ago.
Today food is around every corner. We don’t have to walk for hours to find it. Pick or dig to retrieve it. Nor hunt our quarry down and then immediately devour it.
With the vast variety and availability of food, you can have whatever you want. Americans a very blessed with this bounty of food. Many people around the world are starving, and we have an abundance. This abundance is nothing we should be ashamed of. People have been blessed with the knowledge to invent and the ability to sell their products. Those ideals are all a part of the American Dream; capitalism.
Being able to choose whatever we want has its consequences. Obesity is one of those consequences. According to the CDC,https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html, here are the stats:
- The US obesity prevalence was 42.4% in 2017 – 2018.
- From 1999 –2000 through 2017 –2018, US obesity prevalence increased from 30.5% to 42.4%. During the same time, the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%.
- Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. These are among the leading causes of preventable, premature death.
- The estimated annual medical cost of obesityexternal icon in the United States was $147 billion in 2008. Medical costs for people who had obesity were $1,429 higher than medical costs for people with a healthy weight.
-www.cdc.gov
Obese Equity
The latest woke mantra of “equity” has reached nearly every profession and industry, and the CDC is not immune. Take a trip over to their website and do some reading. The Obesity Prevalence Map, https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html, has Minnesota in the 30%-<35% category. The CDC used the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. This amounted to collecting data by phone. US residents self-reported their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and the use of preventive services.
Minnesota, according to this Obesity Prevalence Map, is doing much better than Iowa, but don’t tell Iowa that! And, you would have never guessed that California ranks within the same percentage as Minnesota. I guess all that sun and sand didn’t do much for their health. Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia fell in the 20%-<25% category.
The CDC breaks down their data by ethnic groups as well. That’s where “healthy equity” comes into play.
Who is to blame?
Blame is a popular psychological go-to ever since Eve took a bite of the forbidden fruit. Eve chose to take a bite, and she found it good. Eve told Adam it was good, and he chose to take a bite.
Were there factors that lead to their choices? Yes. And we will pick up there next week. Till then friends. Here is to good healthy food, good friends and healthy life.
Resources:
- https://foodsystemhistory.wordpress.com/timeline/
- https://humanhistorytimeline.com/
- https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
Michele Bruxvoort is sure to draw you in with her delightful sense of humor and love for living life. She enjoys reading, repurposing, as well as remodeling the family home with her husband. Drawing from her life experience as wife, mom, and follower of Jesus, Michele brings you a very honest and real perspective on life. When you don’t find her writing, you can find her mowing lawns, stocking shelves, taking care of her grandbaby and tackling her latest life adventure.
Wisconsin native and empty-nester, she now makes her home with her husband of 27 years in the South West Prairie plains of Minnesota.
