What Is Westernized Diet?

Industrialization and advances in agriculture have contributed to the production of less-expensive and more abundant foods. Unfortunately, the same processes also have contributed to the increase in obesity and chronic diseases. A Westernized diet is linked to breast cancer, intestinal diseases, allergies, ADHD, obesity and heart disease, among other debilitating medical problems. Understanding the history of a Westernized diet and its relationship to human evolution may help you establish healthy alternatives.

History

The Westernized diet originated about 10,000 years ago with the advent of agriculture and animal husbandry, according to an article published in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition," or AJCN. The AJCN article further explains that the introduction of food processing and commodity crops altered food too quickly for the human body to evolve. Food expert Michael Pollan concurred, during a speech at Tufts University, and suggests that rather than wait for evolution, that humans abandon the Western diet.

Engineered Foods

Much of the "food" of a Westernized diet consists of engineered products made from commodity crops. Manufacturers break down and reconstitute this short list of crops into engineered food products. People who eat a Westernized diet consume an abundance of corn, soy, wheat and rice at the exclusion of vegetables, fruit and whole grains. Michael Pollan advises avoiding engineered foods and eating only what your ancestors would recognize as food.

Dairy

According to an AJCN article, no mammal consumed milk from other species before humans domesticated livestock, nor does any other mammal besides humans consume milk after weaning. By the time humans reach the age of 2, they produce less lactase, the enzyme that digests lactose in dairy. The heavy consumption of dairy in the Westernized diet, combined with evolutionary design, helps explain the prevalence of lactose intolerance in Western cultures.

Meat

The Westernized diet focuses on meat and relegates plant-based foods to side dishes. The meat of today does not resemble the meat your great-grandparents ate. The AJCN article estimates that 99 percent of cattle are raised on feedlots that produce meat consisting of greater unhealthy saturated fats and fewer healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Cattle are consistently slaughtered at their peak body fat percentages, which are artificially induced by unnatural feedlot conditions. In an NPR interview, Michael Pollan says chickens are raised with the same philosophy of speeding up lifespan and increasing size quickly.

Refined Sugars

The Western diet replaces healthy unrefined carbohydrates with unhealthy refined carbs that spike blood glucose levels, resulting in obesity and chronic illness. Refined sugars such as sucrose, glucose, honey and syrups supply 18.6 percent of energy in the Westernized diet, and refined grains supply 39 percent. The processing of refined sugars was only recently developed in Western cultures over the past 200 years and is cited by the AJCN article as a contributing factor to insulin resistance.