Persuasive Essay On American Food

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Meriam-Webster Dictionary defines food as “material taken into an organism and used for growth, repair, and vital processes as a source of energy” (Mish). Food is simple, yet humans have made it very complex. In the United States of America, food has become more of a hobby than a nutritional need. Every family gathering, holiday, and birthday celebration contains food of some sort. Types of food are customary at different times, like birthday cake at a birthday party, or stuffing at Thanksgiving. There is an entire holiday dedicated to dressing up and giving children candy (Halloween). One of the popular holiday foods is meat. An average of 10 million land animals (not including fish or other water dwelling organisms) are brutally slaughtered …show more content…

It is no secret that the United States is in danger health-wise. When driving around a typical American town, it is obvious that Americans like restaurants. However, these are not always healthy. There are some pretty shocking statistics about American health in the Forks Over Knives documentary. For example, every minute, a person in the United States dies of heart disease; forty percent of Americans are obese; 1 in 5 four year olds in the United States in obese; and one in three people born in the United States today will develop diabetes at some point in their lives (Forks Over Knives). It is no coincidence that the American diet is made up of mostly animal protein and processed foods and Americans are extremely unhealthy. All this meat and processed food is greatly detrimental to the health of humans, and this is shown in several studies. Dr. Colin Campbell did two separate twelve-week studies on rats, detailed in the Forks Over Knives documentary. The first study had two groups of rats. One group was fed a diet of 20 percent casein (the main protein in dairy …show more content…

Vanessa Ha and Russell de Souza published a study they did over the health benefits of vegetarianism in the Journal of the American Heart Association. They found that switching to a vegetarian diet can cause healthy weight loss, lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, lower blood pressure. They also found that vegetarians eat lower amounts of total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. If the United States’ population could start to lose weight, there would be a multitude of benefits. People would have more energy, they would sleep better, and the nation would get back on track. Weight loss can also help to reverse Type 2 Diabetes. Many people would be able to get off their medication and be able to function without being dependent on their medicine. They would also save time because they would not have to go to doctor’s appointments so often. If the American people were all vegetarians, the obesity problem in the United States could practically be eradicated, as Ha and Souza proved that the vegetarian diet could cause weight loss. People could live normal, healthy

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