The Western Diet: The Benefits Of The Western Diet

The western diet is best known for it’s Big Macs, Hot Cheetos, and Diet Coke. We are the kings of processed foods. Our cows have swollen udders, chickens are mass conceived, and some meats are no longer actual meat. In the United States, we have become an industry of twinkie eating and processed tea drinking zombies. Michael Pollan said it best in his article, The Elephant in the Room, from The Omnivore’s Dilemma that we would not be reading articles about our diet if it was “intact and healthy” (Pollan). As we keep adding more edible items in our diet every single day, more research is being conducted in western medicine. We have become an obese nation that relies on western medicine to make us feel better, despite it actually causes us to

Now, while this would include items such as organic peaches, organic kale, organic romaine, and organic tomatoes, twenty-five dollars is a smaller damage to a wallet than seventy-five. When I shopped at Whole Foods, it would cost me around eighty-five to ninety dollars for a week’s worth of food, most items being organic. After a while, I needed to budget and started to shop at other grocery stores, and relied on frozen foods. My ninety dollar budget for weekly groceries soon became forty. Although I knew these food items contained harsh chemicals and were not the best for my health, I needed a cheaper diet. I also had a tight schedule and never had time to exercise so this would also be a factor for my health. Sadly, in our society, so many processed foods are much cheaper than organic foods, so we go with the cheaper choice. With this being said, why spend seventy-five on organic food when twenty-five on Hydroxycut and thirty-five on groceries for the week saves more money. This would save the minimum of seven hours of exercise a week as well as five dollars. Since our economy moves so fast, we need fast and cheap alternatives. Some people do not have time to exercise, nor the money to buy organic or at least healthier food items. This is seen as normal in our society, to eat things an individual does not know and to take medicine to feel better.

In Pollan’s article, Bad Science, from The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollen admits that we “don 't need to fathom a carrot’s complexity to reap its benefits” (Pollan). When we eat our food as a whole, we reap their benefits such as the antioxidants contained in grapefruit or the calcium C that is contained in oranges. Pollan continues on with the fact that when we consume antioxidant supplements, “scientists have discovered that it actually increases the risk of certain cancers” (Pollan). This means that we cannot consume supplements, we cannot afford organic foods, and we do not have the time to exercise. This ultimately leads us to be sick. Which means we need medicine. One drug that is common in the United States, but not anywhere else is Avandia (Newsmax). Avandia is a prescription diabetes medicine. Although it works wonders, it also increases the chance of heart failure in a seven year span as well as increased chances of strokes and heart attacks (Newsmax). We rely on these medicines because our diet usually contains an abundance of chemicals we did not even knew existed and a great amount of corn syrup. Most of our fruits are engineered to be a certain way. Apples are waxed, corn is made to be bigger, and soybeans have several pesticides. With pesticides, wax, and acidic oils entering our bodies, we become prone to disease by our own doing. So we need several shots to make sure we do not contract diseases possible through these harmful layers hidden in our fruits