You eat all the right, nutritious foods in a healthy, balanced diet, right? Whether you do or not, you probably don’t eat as well as you think. While similar statistics for Canadians are scarce.
The numbers for our American cousins tell the tale.
- 75% of Americans believe they eat healthily
- 2% of Americans are considered obese (29.4% in Canada)
- 80% of Americans do not eat the recommended daily amounts of fruits and vegetables.
But it’s not like we don’t want to eat healthily. The fact that 75% of Americans believe they eat healthily tells us two things. First, we all want to eat healthier diets. Two, the food manufacturing industry wants us to feel like we’re eating healthily.
One of the sad facts about everyone’s desire to eat more nutritious foods is that many processes and packaged foods marketers prey on that desire. Without getting into too much detail.
Here are two more numbers that show our understanding of what’s good for us can be warped by food marketing.
- 71% of people feel that granola bars are healthy
- 72% of nutritionists don’t consider granola bars to be healthy
Part of the problem is that we don’t have a real appreciation for the importance of nutrition for our overall health, both mentally and physically. That lack of understanding means, even if we’re making a good effort to eat well, we see nothing wrong with going crazy on our ‘cheat’ days or rewarding a workout with ‘just one’ at the pub.
No one says we need to live on nothing but nuts and root vegetables, but, even if our stats are somewhat better than the American numbers, we’re still kidding ourselves about how healthily we’re eating.
Here at PinPoint Health, just looking at the role nutrition plays in many of our treatment services helps us have a deeper appreciation of it. If you need chiropractic treatments, your chiropractor may well offer advice on nutrition to complement other specific treatments.
