Quick Hits

  • The prevalence of obesity for adults in the US is over40%, including both men and women. That’s 1 in 4 adults. (CDC Feb. 2020: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db360.htm)
  • The percent of US adults, aged 20+, who are overweight including obesity, is greater than 70% (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm)
  • Most deaths in the US are preventable and they are related to what we eat. Our diet is the number-one cause of premature death and the number-one cause of disability. (Dr. Michael Greger, How Not to Die)
  • Only a quarter of medical schools offer a single course in nutrition, down from 37% thirty years ago.
  • Six out of seven graduating doctors surveyed felt physicians are inadequately prepared to counsel patients about their diets.
  • Only 3% of Americans reach the minimum recommended daily intake of fiber, making it one of the most widespread nutrient deficiencies in the United States (How Not to Die, Greger)
  • The paramount goal of the modern food processing industry isn’t giving us healthy, life-sustaining food, but manufacturing lucrative products at the lowest possible production cost, using every trick in the book. (Joanna Blythman, Swallow This: Serving Up The Food Industry’s Darkest Secrets)
  • Physicians overprescribe antibiotics…but the FDA estimates that 80 percent of the antimicrobial drugs sold in the United States every year now go to the meat industry. Antibiotic residues can then end up in the meat you eat. (How Not To Die, Greger)
  • The CDC estimates that more than twenty-nine million Americans are living with diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes—that’s about 9 percent of the U.S. population.
  •  Over recent decades, the number of American children considered to be overweight has increased by more than 100 percent. Rocchini AP. Childhood obesity and a diabetes epidemic. N Engl J Med . 2002;346(11):854–5.
  • The incidence of leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma among those eating vegetarian diets is nearly half that of those eating meat. (Key TJ, Appleby PN, Spencer EA, et al. Cancer incidence in British vegetarians. Br J Cancer . 2009)
  • For the first time in human history, obesity is a bigger health crisis globally than hunger. (Danielle Dellorto, “Global Report: Obesity Bigger Health Crisis Than Hunger” CNN)
  • The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has published multiple articles supporting a high-carbohydrate diet (e.g. whole grain, whole fruits and vegetables, legumes, starchy vegetables, unprocessed foods) with plenty of fiber as not only safe but also actually the diet of choice for diabetics.
  • While many low-carb diets are promoted as a healthy means of losing weight, they are in fact associated with higher all-cause mortality in both men and women. (Teresa T. Fung, ScD, et al., “Low Carbohydrate Diets and All Cause and Cause Specific Mortality: Two Cohort Studies,” Annals of Internal Medicine 153 (5) (2010): 289 298)
  • The World Health Organization has categorized processed meats as a Group 1 carcinogen, alongside cigarettes and asbestos.