Saturday, December 11, 2010

Why Are So Many People Sick, Overweight and Obese?


When I speak of the typical diet in this post I am speaking of the typical diet of most Americans or even most North Americans, which includes Canada and Mexico. Although Mexicans consume a very different diet from Americans and Canadians, they do not consume a diet that is compatible with a human digestive system.

I live in the southwestern part of the United States now. This area is close to the state of Texas. Most people know Texas as the state which includes lots of cowboys. There are ranches and cattle farms everywhere in Texas.

One of the typical restaurants in Texas is known as Rudy's. Their web site is www.rudys.com There are branches of this restaurant in other states such as Colorado, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.

They have their menu available on the web site. Most of the items available are heavy on the animal flesh. In fact most of the dishes are predominantly meat from a cow. They have a couple of chicken, turkey and pork dishes listed on the menu but most of their specialty is the good old cowboy favorite, beef.

Most of the items on the menu are listed as 1/2 pound of meat.

I decided to check their nutritional information to see what the average customer of this restaurant is getting when they eat one of the meals there. I am really only interested in the percentage of fat. Fat is probably the most important nutrient for human health. Once a human's diet includes more than 10% of it's calories from fat the person will start seeing predictable declines in health.

Here is a breakdown of the items on the menu:

Brisket, moist (1/2 pound) 641.4 calories 454.95 from fat: 70.93% calories from fat

Brisket, lean (1/2 pound) 614.16 calories 431.01 from fat: 70.18% calories from fat (really lean!)

Turkey breast (1/2 pound) 212.83 calories 22.59 from fat: 10.61% calories from fat (almost 80/10/10)

Pork loin (1/2 pound) 465.9 calories 289.17 from fat: 62.07% calories from fat

Chopped beef (1/2 pound) 617.13 calories 416.43 from fat: 67.48% calories from fat

Pork spare ribs (1/2 pound) 458.03 calories 329.49 from fat: 71.94% calories from fat

Baby back ribs (1/2 pound) 383.37 calories 329.49 from fat: 85.95% calories from fat

Half chicken (1/2 chicken) 730.31 calories 454.95 from fat: 62.29% calories from fat

Regular sausage (whole link) 640.00 calories 468.09 from fat: 73.14% calories from fat

Only the turkey breast is anywhere near the 10% or less of calories from fat which is necessary to stay healthy. Of course the overall diet should have less than 10% of it's calories from fat and not just one meal so if one eats a meal like this only once in a long while and all of the rest of their meals are extremely low in fat then they would still be living a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately this is rarely the case and most people eat a diet that averages way higher than 10% of it's calories from fat.

Even the lean brisket is only .75% less fat than the regular brisket. Not much of a savings in fat there at all.

Besides all of the other negative health consequences of eating foods like these such as hormones in the meat, antibiotics, diseases, possibility of food borne contaminations like e-coli and salmonella, low vitamin and mineral and other micronutrient values, the percentages of fat by calories are as much as 9 times the recommended values.

If you or someone you know still desires to eat foods like these, please educate yourself and understand the consequences. Being healthy and consuming foods like these are mutually exclusive.

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