• Sugar

In America, sugar is in just about everything. Obviously, it’s in soda and candy, but it’s even in foods like ketchup, yogurt, granola and even bread. The United States Department of Agriculture reports that America eats anywhere from 150 to 170 pounds of sugar each year. Canada on the other hand only consumes about 88 pounds of sugar in a year. According to the Washington Post, Americans ingest the most sugar out of any other country; consuming about 126 grams of sugar a day, which is more than twice the recommended amount by the World Health Organization as the daily intake.

 

• Processed Food

American’s aren’t exactly the best example to follow about what to eat. A study led by scientist Carlos Moneiro found that nearly 60 percent of American’s diets come from processed food. Many American’s don’t cook anymore, a study released by the Huffington Post said that 28 percent of Americans said they don’t know how to cook. Excuses from people for not cooking were, “not having enough time,” which 21 percent of people said, and “not wanting to clean up afterwards,” which was 25 percent.

 

• Machines

Most of our food is now being grown by machines; farms are disappearing left and right. In a five year span from 2007 to 2012 America lost 90,000 farms, according to Vox. We are turning from small farms to large farms that produce a lot of food along with factories. While we are losing farms, the production of food as risen. This is because of the rise of machines over the years, using machines is faster and cheaper.

 

• Corn

Corn is in almost everything. According to Forbes, salad dressing, gum, make-up, diapers, milk and toothpaste all contain a form of corn in the product. It is a highly productive crop, corn is usually brought in at about 140 to 160 bushels per acre according to Scientific America. The crop takes up a lot of space; from 2006 to 2011 the amount of land taken up by corn grew by 13 million acres, and the people are paying for it. Corn has the most subsides than any other crop.

 

• Meat

According to The Telegraph, American’s eat about 265 pounds of meat per person a year. In 2013, the meat industry processed 8.6 billion chickens, 33.2 million cattle, 239.4 turkeys, 2,3 million sheep and lambs, 112 million hogs, as reported by NBC. Also, red meat has been linked to an increasing risk of cancer. In 2012, the average American consumed 71.2 pounds of red meat.

 

• Milk

Humans are the only mammals that drink milk into adulthood. Many cows that produce the milk people drink are sick, one in six dairy cows suffer from clinical mastitis according to NutritionFacts.org. This is shown in the milk supply we have in America. When a cow is infected by more than 90 percent of the somatic cell of in the milk contain neutrophils, which are the inflammatory immune cells that from pus. The average somatic cell count in milk is about 1,120,000 cells per spoonful. That would equal out to a drop of pus for every glass of milk drank according to data released by United States Department of Agriculture.

 

• Bottled Water

The EPA found that 55 percent of bottled water comes from spring water. The other 45 percent of water is mostly treated tap water. Bottled water is no safer for someone than tap water according to a study done by the NRDA. One in five tested bottles of water found more bacteria than the “allowed guidelines.” According to sciencemag.org, 15 percent to 40 percent of plastic bottles enters the ocean. About four to 12 millions metric tons of plastic washed off shore in 2010.