Our Changing Diet

What does the typical American or Canadian usually eat? Most people think that typical North American diet consists of fast foods—hamburgers and French fries. It also includes convenience foods, usually frozen or canned, "junk food" without much food value—candy, potato chips, cereal with lots of sugar but no vitamins—and so on. This diet is very high in sugar, salt, fat, and cholesterol, and the choice of food does not provide much good nutrition.

However, eating habits are changing. North Americans are becoming more interested in good health, and nutrition is an important part of health. People are eating less red meat and fewer eggs, and they are eating more chicken and fish. They know that chicken and fish are better for their health than meat or eggs because these foods do not contain much fat or cholesterol. Some foods might cause health problems, and people want to stay away from them.

For health reasons, many people are also buying more fresh vegetables. They may eat them without cooking them first, or they might cook them quickly in very little water because they want to keep the vitamins.

The "typical" North American diet now includes food from many different countries. More ethnic restaurants are opening in big cities in the United States and Canada. Foods from Japan, Thailand, Mexico, West Africa, China, and India are very popular. At lunchtime, many people go to ethnic fast-food places for a Mexican taco, Middle Eastern falafel, or Philippine lumpia.

How are we going to eat in the future? We will probably continue to eat more fish and vegetables and less meat. We will still buy convenience foods, but frozen foods will be better for our health, and canned foods will have less salt and sugar. Our "junk food" in the future is not really going to be "junk" at all, because instead of candy bars we are going to eat "nutrition bars" with a lot of vitamins and protein. In the future, our diet will probably be even more interesting and healthful than it is now.