The 12 most shocking nutrition facts, at a glance
Dr. Martin flagged an article over a weekend. He knew it would be bad. He did not think it would be this bad. These are the numbers he read out from that study of American eating habits:
- 20% of all meals are eaten in a car.
- 10 billion donuts are eaten every year in the United States.
- The average person eats about one ton of food a year, 1,996 pounds.
- Close to 250 pounds of that is straight sugar.
- Only 183 pounds of it is eggs, meat and cheese.
- Only 31 pounds of it is cheese.
- 450 pounds is corn and potatoes.
- 273 pounds is fruit.
- Americans eat 31% more packaged goods than fresh food.
- Americans spend 10% of their disposable income on fast food.
- A quarter of the population eats at least one fast food meal every day.
- 52% said doing their taxes was easier than figuring out how to eat healthy.
Here is what each one means to him.
Fact 1: one in five meals is eaten in a car
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 739In the United States, 20% of all meals are eaten in a car.
He gets it if you are driving to and from work. But he thinks it is far more than that. People are weaned on fast food because it is convenient, and most of it, he says, is processed, cooked in the wrong oil, and loaded with carbohydrates and simple sugars that spike blood sugar.
Fact 2: 10 billion donuts a year, and the healthy muffin
It would be comical, he says, if it were not so sad. He has a name for donuts at the clinic.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 739You know what we call donuts at Martin Clinic? Rat chow. Because if you want to fatten up mice for studies, you give them a donut.
Sugar, the wrong fat, and loaded carbohydrates. And a plain donut is no escape. Neither is the muffin people order instead, thinking it is the healthy choice. He once checked a coffee shop menu for a raisin bran muffin.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 739Eight teaspoons of sugar in one muffin. Eight.
A few carrots in a carrot muffin, he says, do not make it good for you. The same goes for the whole wheat bagel. Multigrain or not, he says it turns to sugar in five nanoseconds. For where that sugar goes, see where does bread go in your body.
Fact 3: a ton of food a year, close to 250 pounds of it sugar
The study put the average American's food at 1,996 pounds a year. Nobody thinks of eating a ton. Then he broke it down.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 739Straight sugar, like a dump-truck load of sugar we're consuming every year.
No wonder there is so much obesity, he says, so much diabetes, so much heart disease. His own habit is simple. He reads labels and looks for any added sugar.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 739Don't fool yourself. Be a label reader.
If sugar keeps calling you back, he goes into that in sugar cravings after 60.
Facts 4 to 8: what that ton is actually made of
Out of nearly 2,000 pounds a year, only 183 pounds were eggs, meat and cheese, and only 31 pounds were cheese. Corn and potatoes came to 450 pounds and fruit to 273. A lot of what gets counted as dairy, he points out, is ice cream.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 739I'm not saying they're bad for you, I'm just saying that we got it upside down.
He blames the food pyramid. The pyramid is wrong, he says, and it is making us sick. On dairy he has a line he repeats often.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 739Don't ditch the dairy, switch the dairy.
Cheese yes, ice cream no. Keep the cheese slice on your burger, he says, but leave the bun.
Fact 9: packaged food and the middle aisles
Americans eat 31% more packaged goods than fresh food. He has a simple picture for it.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 739If we only lived on the outside aisles of the grocery store, the produce section, and the meat section, and the dairy section, we don't do that. We live in the middle aisles of the grocery stores.
The outside aisles are the real food. The middle aisles are the boxes and bags.
Facts 10 and 11: fast food every day
Americans spend 10% of their disposable income on fast food. And a quarter of the population, he read, eats at least one meal a day at a fast food restaurant, seven days a week. In his view it is not just convenience. It is what people have been taught.
The bagel, the muffin, the drive-through: each one sends sugar into the blood, the pancreas pumps out insulin, and over time, he says, the cells get so sick of insulin knocking that they stop answering. That is insulin resistance, and he ties it to 40 to 50 years of eating this way. More in why did obesity increase in 1980.
Fact 12: why eating healthy feels harder than doing your taxes
52% of people polled said doing their taxes was easier than figuring out how to eat healthy. He does not find taxes easy, he says, so that one stopped him. His explanation is the noise: dairy causes cancer, fat is bad, don't eat butter, eat your cereal, lay off the bacon, red meat is acidic. No wonder people are confused.
He believes the low fat, eat cereal advice of the last 40 to 50 years was a failed experiment, and that the results are in: more heart disease, more cancer and more diabetes than ever, in his words.
What Dr. Martin says to do about it
He does not want to be negative. He wants you to be the exception to those numbers. His list from this episode is short:
- Eat at a table, not in the car. Fewer meals from a bag.
- Shop the outside aisles. Produce, meat and dairy.
- Read every label. Look for added sugar, including in the healthy-sounding muffin.
- Make eggs, meat and cheese the base. Fruit and vegetables are fine, just not the foundation.
- Switch the dairy. Cheese and butter, not ice cream.
He tells his audience they deserve an honorary nutrition degree for knowing all this. The numbers say most people do not.
Common questions
What are some shocking nutrition facts?
From the study Dr. Martin read: 20% of US meals are eaten in a car, 10 billion donuts are eaten a year, and the average American eats about a ton of food a year, close to 250 pounds of it sugar.
How much sugar does the average American eat in a year?
The study he quoted put it at close to 250 pounds a year, out of about 2,000 pounds of food in total.
How many meals do Americans eat in the car?
One in five. 20% of all meals in the United States are eaten in a car, according to the study he read.
Is a muffin healthier than a donut?
Not in Dr. Martin's view. He found eight teaspoons of sugar in one raisin bran muffin on a coffee shop menu.
Why is eating healthy so confusing?
He puts it down to mixed messages about fat, dairy, cereal and red meat. 52% in the study said their taxes were easier.
Keeping an eye on your blood sugar?
For Dr. Martin, the plate comes first: less sugar, more real food. Blood Sugar Support Formula is the clinic's blend of seven botanicals and nutrients, made to support healthy blood sugar levels as part of that.
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