Last year alone, Americans spent about $115 billion on fast food, more than was spent on higher education, personal computers or new cars combined.

Eight Sobering Truths About Fast Food

Original post by Robin O'Brien

http://blogs.prevention.com/inspired-bites/2013/07/29/seven-truths-about-our-food-system/

She writes:

"Given how quickly the landscapes of both food and our health are changing, there are plenty of new resources to read.  Recently, I dove into a new book by Brittney Kara called “The Silent Scandal” and hit on a section that highlights some facts about our food supply.

The entire section made me pause, but these eight things stood out:

1. McDonald’s feeds more than 46 million people each day, more than the entire population of Spain.
2. You would have to walk seven hours straight to burn off the calories in a Supersized Coke, fries and Big Mac.
3. In the United States, we eat more than 1,000,000 animals per hour.
4. One in every three children born in the year 2000 (this year’s 7th and 8th graders) will develop diabetes in their lifetime.
5. The average child sees 10,000 TV advertisements per year.
6. McDonald’s distributes more toys per year than Toys R Us and calls people who eat a lot of their food “heavy users.”
7. 30 million children are obese.
8. Last year alone, Americans spent about $115 billion on fast food, more than was spent on higher education, personal computers or new cars combined.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States spends more on health care and disease management than any other country on the planet – seventeen cents of every dollar in our economy.
On top of that, this is the first generation of children that is expected to have a shorter lifespan than their parents.  The key word in that is “expected.”  It doesn’t have to be this way, it doesn’t have to happen on our watch.  Together, with a tenacity that only the heart knows, we can turn this around.
Our children, while only representing 30% of our population, are 100% of our future.  When it comes to restoring their health, the bottom line is that for the sake of our country, we have to."

To learn more about The Silent Scandal, http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935723936