Yes, I'll Have a Quarter Pounder With a Side of Empty Calories

Nearly one-third of the calories in the US diet come from junk food, researcher finds (emphasis added)

By Sarah Yang, Media Relations | 01 June 2004 BERKELEY – A new analysis of the foods Americans eat finds that sugary snacks and sodas reign supreme over healthier options such as vegetables and fruit. Gladys Block, professor of epidemiology and public health nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley, has quantified the types of foods the United States population eats and ranked them by the amount of calories they contribute. Her findings, published in the June issue of the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, reveal that three food groups - sweets and desserts, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages - comprise almost 25 percent of all calories consumed by Americans. Salty snacks and fruit-flavored drinks make up another five percent, bringing the total energy contributed by nutrient-poor foods to at least 30 percent of the total calorie intake. "What is really alarming is the major contribution of 'empty calories' in the American diet," said Block. "We know people are eating a lot of junk food, but to have almost one-third of Americans' calories coming from those categories is a shocker. It's no wonder there's an obesity epidemic in this country." For her analysis, Block used data from 4,760 adults who took part from 1999 to 2000 in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Participants in the survey were asked to report all the foods they ate in the prior 24 hours. For comparison, Block also analyzed NHANES III data collected between 1988 and 1994. Block categorized food codes from both of the NHANES surveys into 144 total food items. She then categorized those items into 23 food groups. Among the food items, soft drinks and pastries led the list of top 10 foods contributing the most calories to the American diet. As the leader of the pack, sodas alone contributed 7.1 percent of the total calories in the U.S. population. Foods such as hamburgers, pizza and potato chips rounded out the top five food items. When comparing the rankings from the NHANES III survey with the 1999-2000 data, Block did not find major changes. Under the food group category, bread, rolls and crackers contributed 10.7 percent of calories in the earlier survey but only 8.7 percent in the later one. Soft drink consumption was up slightly, from 6 percent of calories in 1988-1994 to 7.1 percent in 1999-2000. Block's calculations took into account the number of respondents who reported eating a particular food item, the portion sizes of the food, and the nutrient and energy content of the food. For example, the calories provided by sodas were summed up from individual reports and then divided by the total number of calories consumed by the entire population to get the proportion of energy provided. The foods then were ranked by their contribution to the total energy intake. "It's important to emphasize that sweets, desserts, snacks and alcohol are contributing calories without providing vitamins and minerals," said Block. "In contrast, such healthy foods as vegetables and fruit make up only 10 percent of the caloric intake in the U.S. diet. A large proportion of Americans are undernourished in terms of vitamins and minerals. You can actually be obese and still be undernourished with regard to important nutrients. We shouldn't be telling people to eat less, we should be telling people to eat differently." Block also published a recent analysis of physical activity among the U.S. population that found that Americans are primarily sedentary. "The combination of our sedentary lifestyle with our poor eating habits goes a long way to explain the current rise of overweight and obese Americans," said Block.

This is not unexpected news. But it's always good to have the facts available when you try to convince your kids that they are permanently screwing up their health with their bad eating habits. Having spent most of my career in the field of medicine, I can tell you that these figures are horrific and are a precursor to the inevitable health crisis that we are all going to face, one way or another, for the rest of this century.

Take just one indicator of our nation's faltering health: Diabetes. "Over 6% of Americans have diabetes. Approximately one in every 400 to 500 children and adolescents has type 1 diabetes. Although type 2 diabetes is a problem among youth, nationally representative data to monitor diabetes trends among youth are not available. Clinic-based reports and regional studies indicate that type 2 diabetes is becoming more common among children and adolescents, particularly in American Indians, African Americans, and Hispanic/Latinos."

Consider this Washington Post article from 6 years ago:

Obesity in children has emerged as a major health problem, particularly among African American girls, and Hispanic American and Native American children. One of the more worrisome trends is the sharp rise in the type of diabetes normally found only in adults. "Childhood obesity is at epidemic levels in the United States," said U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher. "We have been remiss in shedding light on this problem, which leads to so many other health problems, particularly when we consider the threats this disease imposes on our children. Today, we see a nation of young people seriously at risk of starting out obese and dooming themselves to the difficult task of overcoming a tough illness." The percentage of overweight children, aged 6 to 17 years, has doubled in the United States since 1968. The most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics from 1988 to 1994 found that one in five children in the United States was overweight. Studies show that 70 percent of overweight kids aged 10 to 13 years will be overweight and obese as adults, Goran said. There is also psychological and emotional fallout from being overweight in childhood, as youngsters struggle with self-esteem and often become the brunt of teasing from peers. Findings released at last week's meeting add to this troubling picture of the effects of obesity in childhood. In particular, researchers cited findings from a study of 1,000 schoolchildren in Cincinnati that showed an increasing incidence of type II, or adult onset, diabetes, the form of the disease that is closely linked to weight. In 1982, about 4 percent of children in the study had type II diabetes. By 1994, the rate had risen to 16 percent. Most children developed it between the ages of 10 and 14, researchers said, and the onset of the disease was directly linked to obesity. Other studies have found similar trends in other cities. "It's a very dramatic problem," Michael Goran, an obesity researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told the meeting last week. "And it's not just occurring in Cincinnati, it's occurring nationally." Obesity also puts overweight children at risk of other diseases. The Bogalusa (La.) Heart Study, an ongoing project funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, found, for example, that overweight children tend to have readings in the highest levels of the normal ranges for their blood sugar, blood pressure and blood fats. Each of these factors places them at increased risk of health problems.

If you've been following the news recently then you know that the rate of childhood diabetes is rising in proportion to the rate of rise in obesity. What has the Bush Administration done lately to funnel government $ into educating the public and fighting this increasingly pervasive problem? Not much, but we can rest assured that the oil refineries in Iraq will soon have the latest technology, courtesy Bush's no-bid multi-billion dollar contracts paid by you, me and every other suckered citizen.