The Standard American Diet focuses on convenience and what may seem like structure as opposed to healthy choices. With an increase in added fats, sugar, refined carbs, and a de-emphasis on whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, Americans are inundated with unhealthy food choices yielding a negative impact on their health. The Standard American diet alone isn’t the problem. The societal construct of breakfast, lunch, and dinner not only provides the foundation for overeating, it is one of the major marketing ploys by businesses attempting to push their food products. The standard American diet if uncontrolled leads to the necessity of pharmaceutical drugs. Most of the conditions that require the most popular prescription medications can be linked to an unhealthy lifestyle and a poor diet.
Some studies show that many organisms including humans were adapted to evolve in environments where food was limited. One study showed that when E. Coli are moved from a nutrient-rich environment to one that is nutrient-poor, their lifespans are extended 4x as long (1). This leads us into the once denounced ideology of fasting as a method of enabling us to promote longevity, improve cognition, and function at a higher and healthier state of being.
1. Gonidakis S, Finkel S, Longo V. Genome-wide screen identifies Escherichia coli TCA-cycle-related mutants with extended chronological lifespan dependent on acetate metabolism and the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor ArcA. Aging Cell. 2010;9(5):868-881.
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