Flood of Junkfood Puts Greeks at Risk

I recently read the following article about the rise of junkfood in Greece, thus decreasing life span and increasing the risk for many health problems. The following is a synposis of an article I found incredibly interesting. I knew that junkfood and fastfood has been a major problem in America. (This article quotes a study done in 2004 that suggests that over 66% of Americans over 20 years old are overweight. And that was in 2004, can you imagine how much worse it is now?) This article truly opened my eyes to other countries and their battle of the bulge.

Most people have heard of the the Mediterranean diet. It has long been associated with longer life spans and lower rates of heart disease and cancer. Sadly, this diet is in retreat in its homeland.



The traditional diet, low in saturated fats and high in nutrients like flavonoids, was based on vegetables, fruit, unrefined grains, olive oil for cooking and for flavoring, and a bit of wine - all consumed on a daily basis. Fish, nuts, poultry, eggs, cheese and sweets were weekly additions. Red meat, refined sugar or flour, butter and other oils or fats were consumed rarely, if at all.

Research on the diet took off in the 1990s, as scientists noted that people in Mediterranean countries lived longer and had low rates of serious disease despite a penchant for patently unhealthy habits like smoking and drinking. But that protection is now seen as rapidly eroding.



A generation ago, the typical diet in all Mediterranean countries complied with nutritional recommendations by the World Health Organization that less than 10 percent of calories should come from saturated fats and that less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol should be consumed per day.

Today, the typical diet in all of the countries exceeds those limits significantly, Schmidhuber said. In Greece, average daily cholesterol consumption has risen to 400 milligrams from 190 in 1963.In 2002, England found that 31-34% of 12-year-olds in Greece were now overweight.

Unfortunately, many countries throughout Europe are following this same junk food trend!

Being overweight, particularly being obese, is associated with a wide variety of medical problems, like diabetes and liver disease. Many doctors throughout the Mediterranean (and the world) are finding more and more problems linked to this lack of proper diet and exercise.



All of this makes me think... what are we doing with your bodies? A few months ago I posted about the BBC show entitled "You Are What You Eat" (<-- Find post here). If you are what you eat, then is America a bunch of walking hamburgers, French fries, chocolate milk, and whatever other junkfood we choose to ingest? We know that what we eat does affect our bodies (including our MENTAL health) in a major way, but are we willing to follow what we know to be true about diet and exercise? Or, are we going to let our tastebuds determine our fat count? Sometimes I think I'm too lazy and I go with the latter.