Nutrition

Obviously, there is something wrong with the food in US since the percentage of obese people has increased dramatically over the last 30 years. Currently, around 7 in 10 adult Americans are obese and overweight (see statistics here and here). That leaves only 3 in 10 adult Americans with normal weight. Increased weight leads to increased health problems from diabetes, high blood pressure to osteoarthritis. 

What can we do about this situation? I think everything starts with a healthy diet. But what is a healthy diet in the first place? You turn on the TV and there are tens of commercials about different products to help you lose weight. You go on the internet and there are all kind of diets promoted. We have to remember that the food industry is a business (for an interesting perspective watch this lecture). Most diets advertised on TV, on the internet and in stores are a business too. However, there are people around the world with different habits/environmental conditions that already proved that certain lifestyles are better than others. In my opinion (no business for me) there are a couple of diets worth considering. One is the Mediterranean diet. The other one is the Vegetarian diet. Basically, both of these diets involve eating vegetables and less or no meat.

For more information about the Mediterranean diet: Mayo clinic link and Healthline link. It is ok to skip the wine associated with this diet. The Mediterranean diet was shown to improve health in various studies (a good resource here).

For more information about the Vegetarian diet, you can look into talks by Colin Campbel (one example here) and John McDougall (one example here). Both of them seem to run businesses at this point but I think there is truth in what they promote. One population that has shown benefit from the mostly vegetarian diet is the Seventh day Adventist population in California (one of the articles here).

Another popular good source for information is Michael Pollan (one of his entertaining talks here)

A website I found useful is https://nutritionfacts.org/ - many resources: videos, articles, podcast. If you have diabetes talk with your primary care provider, maybe dietitian consult is needed.Losing weight is not easy. There is actually a concept of addiction to food. The thinking is that if you are addicted to alcohol/drugs/tobacco you can just give them up , but if you are addicted to food how can you give up food? You cannot survive without food. I would argue that actually the "addiction" is to junk/bad food.
The junk/bad food is engineered to be addictive (watch this interview with Mark Schatzker). All you have to give up is the bad food and get away from the storm of commercial flavors/ingredients that trick your senses. Eating real food will let your body adjust the intake. Another trick is to find satisfaction in other areas of your life, connect with family, friends and community. An entertaining talk on the food/obesity topic is this TEDx talk by Lisette Cifaldi.

Personally, I agree with what Michael Pollan said: eat food (real food, not processed food, not nutrients), not too much, mostly plants. For most people following these simple recommendations plus eating a variety of foods will bring all the necessary nutrients. More tips from Michael Pollan: here.

Most of the time changing your food habits is not enough, you have to implement lifestyle changes in other areas of your life and think about the reasons why you eat the bad food (listen to a podcast with Daniel Thomas Hind).