The U.S. uses the most modern farming tech, stores carrry all types of food. wjy are americans malnourished?

Question

Think about cost, marketing and distribution. (science question of the week).

~And yes I konw I asked this recently, please bear with me.

Thanks

Answer 1

There's a big difference between being malnourished and having poor eating habits.  In general, I think you refer to the latter except in the cases of aneroxics and that is self inflicted.

Answer 2

I don't think Americans are malnourished as a group.  You rarely see vitamin deficiencies in the US.  We are so well nourished that we have an obesity problem which is just the opposite.

Answer 3

because everybody is looking for the fast cheap way these days to cook food. therefore they are not worried about this nurishment u speak of, and just worried bout eating something.  also they are looking at the cheapest items as well.  and seems like most organic and healthly stuff is a little more expensive than the cheap knock off brand that isn't healthy

Answer 4

It really comes down to the "free market capitalist system" in which nothing happens unless someone makes a profit. Thus food goes to waste, or is destroyed, because those who are unable to find employment cannot afford to buy the food. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

Answer 5

Having so many choices doesn't insure they will be GOOD choices. And often, less nutritive foods are less expensive and more convenient to prepare.

Answer 6

There are 2 reasons, but first you must also realize just because some one is overweight or average weight does not mean they are properly nourished.

1.  People often opt for what tastes good or is easy or convenient.  Most convenience foods, fast foods, or real tasty foods are junk- not having good nutritional value.

2.  Economics- better food often costs more than less healthy food.  A person on limited income may buy something that is cheap with empty calories over something more expensive but more nutritious.  Another thing is in many inner cities- the lower income folk are unable to get around to go shopping in nicer supermarkets which are few and far in between in those neighborhoods- many of them rely on corner stores/bodegas and buy empty filler food- chips, candy, hoagies made of cheap cuts/cheeses, pretzels, danishes, soda or order out at cheap take-out places- mostly order through the window Chinese take-out or pizza shops or maybe in some neighborhoods Spanish/Caribbean take-outs- all of which serve overly caloric and fattening food made with cheap ingredients.

Answer 7

it is NOT because things are unavailable in some areas.. it is more often because of bad choices..

too many Americans are becoming lazy, opting for fast food instead of health meals...  

the biggest problem in USA is obesity...most Americans simply eat too much , and too much fatty/sugary foods

if you are so fat you need to drink DIET soda.. you shouldnt be drinking soda AT ALL!!!

did you know the size of a peice of steak in USA for 1 person would feed a family of 4 in Japan?

Answer 8

because they don't eat right and take advantage of our fabulous food supply.  They buy into the "organic" thing which produces low volumes of poorly produced foods with short shelf lives.  They have no basic training from our vaunted "educational" system in Nutrition.  Think about this.  When you get up from your midday meal on New Years Day you have earned enough on your paid holiday to pay the farm sector their profit on your total food purchases for the year.  This will not last.

Answer 9

I read an article about this very thing not long ago. The gist of it was that high fructose (sugar) and high fat foods are much cheaper than healthy foods. Fresh produce costs more per calorie than twinkies. High fat hot dogs are cheap up side of lean beef or fish. Another thing is fat and sugar tastes good and it is packaged in a convenient way. Raw fish or beef cost more and must be prepared. Raw vegetables have little appeal upside twinkies to a child. Did you ever drive inot a McDonalds becasue you savored the thought of a sack of carrots? No, how about a big juicy burger with fries and a milk shake to wash it down? The carrots would probably cost more if they were available.

Answer 10

because the over fertalization of farm land robs the soil of the nutrients that we need .. a tomatoe 30 years ago had more nurtients probably 8 folds then one grown today.

Answer 11

Americans, like a lot of the rest of the world, use their disposable income to indulge in heavily processed, high saturated fat, high sugar, over-salted, disposable foods which makes many of them massively obese but means their diets' lack genuine organic nutrients. The American' advanced high tech food processing is the root cause of the problem. Production costs are next to nothing, although the massive cost of marketing what is essentially greasy starch polymers and protein conglomerates does offset this somewhat. The fod (short for fodder as I hesitate to call it food) needs added fats to help it survive the lengthy distribution from the central processing plants to the happy plastic shacks where many people eat. High sugar and salt contents then make it palatable enough to ingest, although the hypoglycemia brought on by going 'cold turkey' from the last meal means that these people would probably eat anything, and having personally witnessed a McDonald's restaurant, probably do.

But seriously though, Big Macs are lush.

p.s. don't worry about asking this again, I didn't see it the first time so I don't mind.

Answer 12

"The U.S. uses the most modern farming tech" - in other words the US has more corporate farms where food prices are kept artificially low to supply a few, abundant and very marketable but less nutritious products; where profits are the sole motivator and the free market is bypassed by government subsidies. Compounding the issue is that many of the seed producers, food growers, food processors and food distributors belong to the same few corporations.

Mostly Americans eat corn - a highly subsidized, over-grown crop that is easily converted to flour, starch, sugar, food additives, and industrial products, or force fed to cattle to make beef, or fermented into alcohol to use as an environmentally damaging fuel (the subsidized corporations love it!)

Answer 13

From The UK, it's not about quantity , In the last war number two there was a shortage of food in UK and there was rationing but the population was healthier? with less food no ready meals

Answer 14

We are a nation of 300 million individuals, individuals with both free will and free choice.  Consequently, we will have individuals that are malnourished because they choose to spend the income on things other than food (drugs commonly).  The drug abuser's children are often malnourished.  This is obviously due to poor parenting (choosing to spend money on drugs not food, etc).  As many other said, we have many, many people that make poor food choices that leads to becoming obese.  Obesity isn't malnourishment.  Most obese people in the US have excellent growth rates and developed properly.  They are just fat and this is due, in part, to a sedentary lifestyle.

In sum, I believe, most Americans are "malnourished" because they chose to be.