Vice Buster!

One interesting book I went back to in order to get some facts on sweet consumption is, The Vice-Busting Diet. I remembered from a couple of years ago, when I read the book and took a group of ladies through the steps, it had some very fascinating facts on sweets that would be worth sharing.

However once I read through the parts that interest me, I quickly remembered it's not all about sweets...even though sweets is the number one vice in America! Hi Sweet-a-Week friends...we might not have gotten it wrong after all!

The book is based on the top twelve vices that Americans have that contribute to weight problems. The top three vices are:
1. Soft Drinks
2. Fast Food
3. Television

I'll briefly give some facts on the top three vices. They are very interesting, so keep on reading.

Soft Drinks
1. Soda drinks that aren't "diet" is the single most important factor in making our nation obese. (This doesn't mean Mandy wants you to grab a "diet" soda though!)
2. In the 1950's the typical soft drink order at a fast-good chain contained about 8ounces of soda. Today a "large" at McD's is 32ounces!
3. The USDA recommends the average person on a 2,000-calorie/day diet include no more than 40grams of added sugars. In the year 2000 the average American consumed an average of 152 pounds of caloric sweeteners.
4. In the 1950's Hi Fructos.e Corn Syru.p was practically negligible, while in the year 2000 it accounted for almost 64pounds per person (based on dry weight). And they say it's not bad for us?!
5. Calories from liquids don't seem to register the same way as solid foods with the same "bad"calories like candy. Our bodies processes liquids much more quickly than solids, so a soft drink or high-calorie beverage won't fill you up the same way food can. Also, these types of sugars dehydrate your body.

Those five reasons above confirmed my life-long quest of living without sweet drinks but rather learning to love water as my sole daily drink two years ago. I haven't looked back since.

Fast Food
1. The most commonly consumed item at a fast-food restaurant is beef. Our consumptions of beef over the last 50 years has steadily increased. In the 1950's we consumed an annual average of 53 pounds per person. While in the year 2000 the annual average was 65 pounds per person. The number continues to rise today from all viable evidence.
2. Cheese has also increased. It went from 7.7 pounds in the 50's to 29.8 pounds-average in 2000. That's an increase of 287%
3. Consumption of milk and eggs is down. Milk has gone from 37 gallons to 23 gallons per person. The egg consumption is down from 374 per person in the 50's to 250 eggs per person in 2000.
4. The book also suggests that we eat more bad stuff now because we have things like light beer, low-fat crackers, low-carb cookies and 100 cal paks, which seem to give us permission to have more.

Television
1. The average American watches 4 hours of TV per day. That's 1460 hours! That's 25% of our waking hours. It keeps us from things we always wanted or dreamed of doing.
2. TV can also be a brain-washing tool. In 1999, more than $40 billion was spent on advertising, and the commercials we're watching encourage us to eat at fast-food restaurants and indulge ourselves. So we sit doing nothing and the only motivation we get is to put high-calorie, high-fat foods into our mouths.

Hopefully this is just as fascinating to you as it was for me. A good reminder of how NOT to live life, along with some fun facts!