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Death By Diets
Are your diets helping or hurting you?
December 2021
Contributing Writers: Michael Ybarra, Riley Park, and Savannah Wirkus
More than 400,000 US deaths a year can be blamed on unhealthy eating habits, according to a study conducted
by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
With all the available resources and new knowledge of the importance of healthy eating, one would come to
believe that societies’ dietary habits have significantly improved overtime. However, this is not the case for
many households around the world. Statistically speaking, the lack of knowledge of proper dietary practices
is negatively affecting modern society.

Dietary Education
In the U.S, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 was a major part of American school systems. The
USDA allowed this act in 2010 to strengthen nutrition standards for food and beverages provided within
national school systems. Making efforts to provide all children with healthy foods in school and educating
people about the importance of understanding the proper types of food to put in our bodies.
Many people, although, believe that their own diets are incredibly healthy. But a modern problem has arisen,
people are becoming overly obsessive with how “healthy” their diet is and turning to social media for answers.
Misleading dietary information found within the media is causing serious harm. The main issue: eating
disorders. Most recently being Orthorexia Nervosa, a disorder involving an unhealthy obsession with healthy
eating.
The quality of one’s diet, additionally, is affected by location. Countless locations struggle to receive adequate
education, especially in the health and dietary department. According to the HANDLS study provided by the
Journal of the National Medical Association, many places as a result are struggling with concerning health
conditions such as obesity and malnutrition at a higher rate. Such observations have concluded that the diets
being taught within the school system are too restrictive, in consequence, people are easily influenced by the
media’s take on proper dietary habits, as well as the dietary teachings established by geographical location are
negatively affecting how people eat.

School Rules
Health programs in schools, like the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of
2010, were implemented to curb obesity in children, but the food provided
by the program is too restrictive. According to a New York Times article,
“Administration Rolling Back Rules for School Lunches”, “School
administrators have struggled to find food products that meet the standards
of the new health program, while also pleasing students” (Jacobs). Some
schools aren’t able to fulfil the requirements because the whole grain-rich
bread was too expensive for schools. Some students refused to eat the
food. In the article “Some School Districts Quit Healthier Lunch
Program", “After one year, some schools around the country are dropping out of the healthier programs,
complaining that so many students turned up their noses at meals with whole grains, fruits, and vegetables that

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the cafeterias were losing money.” (Carolyn) The food may be low quality if some children are refusing to eat
it.

Feed The Media

The reasons behind why many children were turning their backs to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act may not
all be the school’s fault. Additional research provided by The Spectator determined that dietary education being
promoted on social media is negatively influencing the way many young people are choosing to eat.
What on social media is having such an impactful influence on the way users are establishing their dietary
habits?
Undoubtedly, social media influencers - media users trust the social media stars they admire. As reported by
Anthony Warner, chef and author, “Fad diets are nothing new... But the rise of social media over the past 15
years has given such charlatans unprecedented reach. Their regimes and recipes, their coffee table books and
Instagram posts suck in the young, the gullible and the vulnerable” (Potts). Users who trust and admire
influencers who promote unhealthy food choices are going to be more likely to decide to follow and develop
poor dietary habits.
However, not all influencers promote unhealthy eating. Many are big promoters of
extremely healthy eating. According to a study provided by the Washington Post,
“Some of the latest diet trends focusing on... "clean eating” and attract approval in the
form of Instagram likes — can seem all-consuming... there is growing concern among
dietitians about a little-known eating disorder called orthorexia nervosa” (Birch). The
problem with trendy diets from social media is influencers fabricate their photos and
lifestyles, including their health regimens. Consequently, eating disorders, like the one
mentioned in the Washington Post article, are bound to become more common,
harming many social media users without warning.

Sociological Eating
While both peer and media influence can drastically alter one's perspective on personal
health, another determining factor of education's influence on our dietary choices may be something far more
innate.
In 2004, designed by the National Institute on Aging, a new analytical study known as the Healthy Aging in
Neighborhoods of Diversity Across the Life Span (HANDLS) study began. The HANDLS study evaluated the
effects of sex, age, race, income, income-poverty ratio, employment status, education, and smoking status on
the participant’s diet quality at varying ages. What this study discovered was: “African Americans had lower
mean adequacy ratio scores than whites (76.4 vs 79.1).” (Raffensperger). What can be surmised from this
conclusion is that lower income, extensively racially diverse areas are subject to a lesser quality education due
to a lack of adequately provided funding. Due to this, individuals who are born and raised in these areas are far
more likely to have diet qualities that struggle to be on par with their gentrified, high-income, predominantly
white counterparts - those of which struggle more so with sex, lack of food-specific education rather than a lack
of well-funded education, and smoking status.

Your Kids Are Watching You

Societally, parents have a greater impact on children’s eating habits. According to the Associated Press, a study
found that “Children aged 1-2 years require 950 calories per day, the study found that the median intake for that
age group is 1,220 nearly 30 percent over the minimum.” Kids need to see adults eating healthily if their diets
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are to improve. “‘Your children are watching you-they see what you do,’ said Chicago-area dietician Jodie
Shield.” If more Americans ate healthier, more children would see that and follow their lead. (Badger) National
food programs are ineffective and aren’t producing satisfactory results when it comes to reducing obesity. Even
after low sugar beverage regulations have been implemented students still have access to sugary drinks. An
article by the Daily Register stated that students would refuse to eat the food given and go across the street to
buy junk food.
Despite the validity of the problem, U.S. public schools are and have been involved in the attempt to curb the
rising rates of obesity since the early 2000s; to claim that public education has done nothing is simply wrong.
To prove this, U.S. Schools, Lawmakers Working To Curb
Obesity Among Children, an article written by Stephen
Kaufmen in 2005, attempted to shed light on the subject amid
the obesity problem in America. In the article, Kaufman
informs the audience of the many legislative acts that have been
passed aiming to curb the rise. One example of these legislative
acts was the enacting of new state laws that required public
schools to replace unhealthy food or beverage choices with
nutrient-rich, healthy alternatives - as well as setting new
physical education requirements for students. “[...]legislators in
38 states considered proposals on school nutrition, and 17 of
those states enacted new laws, ranging from the prohibition of
all deep-fried foods to setting new requirements for students to have a certain amount of physical activity every
week.” (Kaufman). While it is true that public schools may not provide adequate programs to result in long-
term diet improvement, there really isn’t much more they can do. With guidelines in place to ensure that all
students receive nutritional lunches while at school, the choice to be health-conscious rests in the student’s
hands. Even if schools were to begin offering more food- and health-oriented classes, the nonexistent demand
for said classes clearly dictates how few people would enroll in them.

Food Renewed
If our communities are failing to promote health-conscious diets through education, how do we take
responsibility to educate ourselves?
To begin with, we can raise awareness in our communities. Actively partaking in community activities and
efforts in promotion of healthy eating will help to educate more people. Community activities including creating
and tending to community gardens or shopping from and supporting your local farmer's markets. While perhaps
not pertaining to education, this method not only supports the producers of locally grown goods, but it also
utilizes your power as a consumer to indicate that there is a demand for fresh produce in your area.
That is not to say that the fight for stricter health-related guidelines in our public education system is not a
worthwhile one, of course. Yet, for individuals who do not have a direct say in the matter, this may not seem to
be the case. However, direct change is possible. The solution is simple: being an active, voting member of your
community. When a proposal is made to alter your community’s school district or its guidelines, just vote.
While not yielding the short-term results of the first solution, this method enables community members to
directly implement the change they wish to see on a system that is failing to teach their youth the importance of
a healthy diet.
Of the 400,000 U.S deaths caused by unhealthy eating habits; all were preventable. The deaths were based on
individuals' poor choices rather than biological issues. Ultimately, education greatly impacts the food choices
we make. However, the way nutritional health is being taught in schools and throughout different aspects of our
society is adversely affecting the dietary futures of many individuals.
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Whether or not it’s overly restrictive school lunch programs, social media influence, or human
geography, the way we are improperly educated on quality dietary practices is negatively impacting our
overall health. If Americans don’t wake up to the reality of this major health issue many lives will continue to
unnecessarily suffer. As a country we need to come together to find solutions to better educate the entire
American population to move forward towards a promising and healthier future.

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For The Love of Food