Staying Healthy in the Fast Lane

staying healthy in the fast lane

Our Diet and Lifestyle Cause Inflammation

We are not only consuming excess calories but also a diet that
promotes inflammation and leads to all chronic inflammatory dis-
eases. This means that the foods we eat—and the portions and
combinations in which we eat them—are causing our bodies to ex-
ist in a constant state of inflammation that leads to the symptoms
and diseases from which we suffer needlessly. The changes that
negatively impact our health and well-being are not random or
mysterious. They can be traced directly to changes in lifestyles—
specifically diet and physical activity choices we have adopted over
the course of the last fifty to one hundred years.
These critical U.S. lifestyle changes over the last century men-
tioned in Chapter 1 are worth repeating. They include:

• An increase in total meat consumption^13


• A dramatic increase in added fats and oils^14


• Increases in calorie sweeteners (sugar from beet or cane and
  high fructose corn sweeteners)^15


• A dramatic increase in cheese consumption^16


• A decrease in total cereal grains and increase in refined
  grains^17


• Reduced physical activity^18

We simply reverse these diet and lifestyle patterns and we dra-
matically improve America’s health (and prosperity!). At the same
time we make these changes, we will create real healthcare reform
and this current political debate regarding healthcare becomes
non-existent.

Does an Anti-inflammatory Diet and Lifestyle Exist?

We have a problem with chronic diseases that are caused by
inflammation. Inflammation is a natural response to stress, infec-
tion, injury, and trauma and is a needed response. If inflammation