The Full Plate Diet PDF eBook Free Download Slim Down - Look Great - Be Healthy eBook PDF | Page 17

Twinkies, Twinkies Everywhere The State of American Nutrition 1. Americans eat more than 500 million Twinkies per year. Chicago is the Twinkie Capital of the World, gobbling down 27 million Twinkies annually. There is no fiber in a Twinkie. 2. 3. Americans drink an average of eight hundred 8-ounce servings of soft drinks each year. There’s almost ¼ cup of sugar in a can of cola, but no fiber. 8. 34% of Americans are obese, with 33% being “overweight” and only 33% at normal weight. Only 5% of persons 12 to 19 were obese in 1976. Today it’s 18%. 9. 4. In the 1800s, the average American consumed only 10 pounds of sugar per year. Today it’s 158 pounds. 5. 6. The U.S. is the fattest country in the world. Mexico is second, the U.K. third. Obesity can shorten your life by 10 years. In 2000, obesity accounted for 400,000 American deaths, up from 300,000 in 1990. 14 7. Obesity will soon surpass tobacco as the leading cause of death in America. American health care expenditures totaled $2.4 trillion in 2007, equal to 17% of the gross domestic product (GDP), rising at twice the rate of inflation. The number of children who took pills for type 2 diabetes more than doubled from 2002 to 2005. Type 2 diabetes is closely linked to obesity. An estimated one out of every three children born in 2000 will develop type 2 diabetes. 10. Texas is the least healthy state, with Tennessee and South Carolina not far behind. Vermont is the healthiest state, with Hawaii and New Hampshire following. For the sources of this information and other interesting facts about the American diet, go to www.FullPlateDietBeta.org.