So this is my first post at ATS. Have been a long-time lurker. If I posted this is the wrong forum, have the mods please move it.
With epidemic hunger in the world and the call for donations and humanitarianism, I often turn to just how much we Americans waste. Me included.
So, I thought I’d put into perspective just how much waster actually occurs. Correct my math by all means. My post has to do with food. A simple
commodity that we need daily. Here’s what I’ll talk about:
1. How much food we consume
2. How much food we waste
According to a 2007 Gallup Poll, the average American is 17 pounds overweight. If we take the accepted caloric amount that 1 pound of fat = 3500
calories we get the following:
www.gallup.com...
Average American overweight= 17 pounds
1 pound of fat = 3500 calories
Average American would have to burn = 3500x17 = 59,500 calories
Calories burned per day during one year to lose 17 pounds = 163 calores/day in one year off of their current maintenance diets.
Number of Americans between 16-64 years old = 194 million (rounded to nearest million)
If all Americans between the ages of 16-64 years old decided to lose weight over one year they would have to burn a total of 194 million * 163
calories/day = 31,622,000,000 calories/day for a year
If we took those saved calories in the form of food and gave them to needy people who eat 2000 calories/day we could feed 15,811,000 people.
Also, if people lost weight, they would purchase less food and become healthier. Annually, we spend 147 billion dollars a year on health related
problems stemming from obesity.
www.cnn.com...
But, there’s Americans waste a lot of food also. According to the EPA, annually, Americans throw away 34 millions tons of food waste.
www.epa.gov...
Daily, Americans are throwing away 93,150 tons of food waste a day. That is 186,300,000 pounds of food waste thrown away daily.
Let’s say that all of it is straight protein which has the lowest caloric count at 1500 calories/pound of protein. That is 279,450,000,000 calories
being thrown away every single day. Now, divide that by 2000 calories a day for a hungry person: 279,450,000,000/2000 = 139,250,000 people can be fed
daily.
Of course, not all of that food waste is edible. But, how much is being wasted in our homes, restaurants and food processing centers.
If we take a look at how much food we can save and give that to needy people, not only would we become healthier, but people could be helped.
Instead, the food companies want us to eat, and the medical industry has built an infrastructure around helping obese people and those suffering the
effects of obesity. It can stop, but people need to do better at eating more wisely, look into programs like calorie deficit dieting. Then, America
can become prosperous once again.
We need to move all the fat people around so we can balance the planet to keep the shift from happening.
