The Standard American Lifestyle

The world is kept alive only by heretics.

Yevgeny Zamyatin

By now, many of you are familiar with the term Standard American Diet (SAD) and the negative images it conjures.

These days, SAD is characterized by an abundance of nutrient-poor, calorie-dense foods like baked goods, salty snacks, refined grains, and sodas.

These are highly processed, colorfully packaged foods that have been designed and marketed by teams with deep pockets at large conglomerates. They are filled with added sugar and likely addictive, especially for those who are most susceptible.

The poor quality of SAD has contributed to the sharp rise in obesity rates over the last several years in the US.

From 2000 to 2018 the prevalence of obesity in the US increased by 39% from 31% to 42% among adults aged 20 and over, while the prevalence of severe obesity increased by 95% from 5% to 9%.

Severe obesity almost doubled in less than 20 years. This is an epidemic.

Yet extreme negative health changes do not occur across a population of 330 million people in a vacuum.

They are a part of a much broader constellation of factors.

So what if we back up the lens, broaden our profile, and consider the factors in addition to diet that might be negatively affecting our collective health and wellbeing.

Let’s call this cluster of factors The Standard American Lifestyle (SAL).

This is a first blush list based on my observations so please feel free to add evidence in the comments section below supporting or challenging these factors or reach out directly by replying to this email newsletter.

Standard American Lifestyle Factors

If we back up the lens to capture a broader perspective, we find a constellation of factors in addition to SAD that are negatively affecting US citizens. My preliminary list looks like this:

Disconnect from Nature - We do not spend enough time outside. We are animals no matter how much modern life tries to distance us from that fact. As such, connecting with nature is fundamental to thriving.

Lack of Sun - Related to the Disconnect from Nature cited above, we are not getting enough sun. 

Our need for sunlight hits on many levels, from promoting a healthy sleep-wake cycle, to fortifying our bodies with Vitamin D to enhancing mood to having fun.

Sleep - We are sleeping worse than we ever have, more distracted, and out of tune with our sleep-wake cycle. This wreaks havoc on our body, mind, mood, and spirit.

The US Government - Our government is not doing us any favors when it comes to promoting good health and wellbeing.

Influential officials get large contributions from lobbies representing multinational food conglomerates and pharmaceuticals to support their interests not ours.

For example, this is how a cereal with 12 grams of added sugar per 8 ounce serving can bury that lede to the bottom of the box while highlighting nonsense claims like 9 Vitamins and Minerals and Natural Fruit Flavors.

Media Spending - Advertising influences public perception. This is why Big Food spends billions annually across branding, paid media, and paid social media, and they do a great job making SAD foods appear healthy and cool.

In turn, traditional media outlets treat the SAD products with kid gloves, because these corporations are generous customers.

We consume this advertising often without even thinking about it.

Noise - There is so much noise coming at us these days from every direction whether it’s social media, news media, politics etc.

This breeds stress, imbalance, distraction, and the opposite of mindfulness or being in the moment.

(I wrote more about the Noise Age Here.)

Emotional Reactivity - We’ve become more emotionally reactive and even the smallest things set some of our tempers flaring. 

Only one example of this is the Karen who abuses a clerk in a store or sets off on a racist rant in the park.  

Emotional reactivity negatively affects those who have become more reactive as well as those who might randomly or regularly wind up on the receiving end.

Politicized Interactions - Related, this is an era of a highly charged political environment.  

Internet Addiction and Social Media - We spend an increasing amount of time consumed by our phones. This can negatively affect us in many ways including productivity, sleep quality, mood, agency, relationships, distraction, the things we pay attention to, and more.

Distraction - we are distracted more and living less in the present moment. This seems like a subtle one but affects our cognitive-emotional well-being and state of mind.

Social Isolation - Loneliness and Social Isolation appear to be rising in the US independent of COVID and despite having ever more social technologies in our pockets or possibly because of it.

People who are socially isolated tend to have higher rates of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. 

Sedentary Lifestyle - We are moving less which is comfortable but comes at a huge price in terms of physical health, creativity, vitality, healthspan, and longevity.

Sitting - Related, many of us sit hours per day on the job. This is bad and promotes obesity and high blood pressure. 

Mental Health - The prevalence of mental illness in the US is rising especially among people in their teens and twenties. Tragic.

Note: These next two factors were edits added on 08/23 after publication based on suggestions from readers. I appreciate your input you guys!

Alcohol Consumption - For the past 30 years, we’ve seen a steady increase in annual alcohol consumption per capita. The negative health effects of chronic alcohol use include sleep disruption, impaired stress tolerance, increased risks of diseases like cancer, heart disease and dementia, and more.

(Recently, I wrote about my own experiences with alcohol here.)

Deterioration of Family and Community - Related to social isolation mentioned above, it seems like family and community fabrics have been and continue to fray at great cost to support/resilience systems.

Even people who live in close proximity are less close and interdependent than they were in in the 1950s-80s so maybe we are looking out for each and the loved ones of each other less and less.

I’ll need to do some digging here to back this up with data and if anyone has good references in this regard, please let me know.

All this does not paint a good picture.

To make matters worse, SAL is unfolding during a period in which resource scarcity has decreased profoundly. We have been and remain the richest nation in the world, yet our collective wellbeing is deteriorating.

So there is something else going on here that can’t be explained by economics.

Something that is operating on the American psyche, something residing at a basic level of our collective unconscious.

There are many complex causes and I am not even going to try to thread them all here (nor could I, probably).

However, I do have two strong reasons to be optimistic that I can share.

I am optimistic we can counteract the strong SAL current pulling us towards poor health on a personal level and on a collective level. 

Personal Level: Agency, Constructivism, and Healthy Rebellion 

First, on the personal level, every individual reading this has the potential to reinvent oneself. This is true at any age.

We live in a constructivist universe where we can redefine our reality and redefine ourselves. 

We have within us the agency to swim against the SAL current, to visualize who we want to become and work towards that potential reality through a series of actions.

We just might not realize this yet.

It does take an action mindset, role models perhaps, and a willingness to face being misunderstood or even scorned by a majority who have fully bought into SAL.

(I wrote more about Healthy Defiance HERE and visualizing your future self HERE)

Here are some requirements to get started:

1. A rebellious streak.

2. A clear visualization of the future self you would like to become.

3. The knowledge required to make changes.

4. The willingness to embrace a new identity.

5. Role models.

6. Grit.

Collective Level: An Emerging Counterculture

Here is another strong optimistic note. This one is operating on a collective level. It is very early here but I am increasingly excited about it.

I am observing and even feel a part of a small but growing movement of rebellious leaders who are embracing health and wellbeing in the face of the strong SAL currents described above.

Most of us have an oppositional streak, because we have had to rebel as we push back against an unhealthy status quo.

We are people who committed to the personal rebellion, stepped out of the culture in some way, reconstructed our realities and, importantly, are now sharing what we’ve  learned with groups of people.

Presently, this band of healthy rebels are only loosely connected as our ideas are disparate to degrees.

This healthy counterculture movement is still early in its development, though make no mistake, if you look you can find it out there.