To see what’s wrong with the American diet, look no farther than the local convenience store. There, punctuated by the occasional basket of bananas or apples, sit gleaming cases of soft drinks and beer, wide shelves of crackers and cookies, a panorama of muffins, doughnuts, brownies, ice cream, and candy bars. The marketers here are no fools—they know what scientists confirmed only this past spring: Americans eat this stuff up.
After crunching dietary data gathered from more than 4,700 adults, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley found that soft drinks provide more than 7 percent of the average daily adult intake of calories—the largest single source. Soft drinks, alcohol, and sweets, including pastries, account for more than 25 percent of adults’ calories. Add fruit drinks and salty snacks and the figure rises to 30 percent. Nearly one-third of our calories come from junk food and alcohol.
Even jaded ...
