The 88% Blog
88% of us should read this.
Did you know that 88% of us in America have metabolic disease?!
The “Norm” in America is to be unhealthy. 88% of us are sick, right now, and maybe you don’t even know it. An alarmingly low 1 in 8 American Adults are healthy.
Drug and Oreos are not the answer to your happiness. See below for more on this.
How do you measure if you’re actually healthy today?
You probably even have Syndrome X. Welcome to the party!
88% is an unbelievably big number. If you’d like the small number first, only 12% of us are healthy.
We can’t blame the CDC or Gov’t officials for our poor health. (or we should stop)
On top of this epidemic is a pandemic: Covid-19. This year 2020 is absolutely pummeling us. We’re were in terrible health already, and now we’re getting decimated. Is this a big enough wake up call to get us thinking more about our health and nutrition?
"America fighting COVID is like a boxer who went into the ring, out-of-shape and is taking a beating for it... I think so many lives could have been saved at the very beginning of this crisis if the medical establishment had made a more concerted effort to tell Americans, 'while you're in lockdown, getting free money for not working, you need to do something, too... A national campaign to get in shape would have dramatically improved our chances against this disease..."
Are you looking for alternatives to sugary beverages and processed foods yet? Our case numbers and death rates are higher than in any other country in the world, because we’re the most unhealthy country in the world.
We’re working to knockout the bad stuff every day. Let’s fix this together. Let’s start with over-sugarfied sodas, artificial energy drinks and whipped cream lattes.
The “Norm” in American is to be unhealthy.
If you have at least 3/5 of these, you’re unhealthy:
- BMI >30 or your waistline is greater than 40” (men) or 35” (women)
- High Blood-Sugar Levels. Are you taking diabetes meds? A lot of people are, and their fasting plasma glucose levels are > 100 mg/dL. Here’s another giant number: 88 million American adults – more than 1 in 3 – have prediabetes!
- High Blood Pressure. 130/85 mmHg or higher. Hypertension Meds are a very common prescription.
- Low HDL (good) Cholesterol. Below 40 mg/dL (men) or below 50 mg/dL (women)
- High Blood Triglycerides. (type of fat in the blood) Above 150 mg/dL
If you can actually say you’re in the top 12% of the population who doesn’t fit into any one of those criteria, congratulations. You’re winning at life and you’re aging gracefully. But you’re not the norm. A lot of us still may have one or two of those issues.
If you’re in the 88% welcome to the party, you’re obviously not alone. Stop rationalizing that you’re doing ok and stop making excuses for why you need the junk. This is why you’re in this mess, you need change, and change makes us uncomfortable. It’s time to be uncomfortable, it’s time to change now.
No more excuses. 2020 has been a big wake up call.
As American’s, we are bombarded with ads for Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds, Dairy Queen. The sugar lifestyle is mainstream and glamorous, so it can’t be bad, right? It’s cheap, it’s fun and all the athletes and healthy people in the commercials are doing it. We all have the sugar craving, because sugar can be 8X more addictive than cocaine!
This has to stop. Change your mindset, change your routine. Skip the commercials.
We also have to stop blaming the CDC and government officials for our inability to deal with Covid-19 or any other virus that comes our way. Are you ready for the upcoming winter months and new strains? It’s not their fault that 88% of us cannot get healthy and stay healthy. We all have a choice. We have alternatives now.
Being healthy means we can fight disease, and if we do get sick we can recover quicker with less problems and complications. If we’re already sick to begin with, even the slightest cold becomes a compounded deadly monster. That’s what we’ve seen before our eyes over the last six months with a deadly virus.
Why can’t we stop the ads for Big Sugar & Big Soda?
Because they are too big to be told to stop killing us? For one, there’s way too much money involved. Some of these companies actually started out with reasonably good intentions, but then profit margin, massive distribution and total consumer domination happened. They own us, and we buy into it.
You’ll probably never see an article like this in the US, but here’s a good one that made the news. Some powerful words coming from Mexico’s Health Undersecretary Hugo López-Gatell: “Why do we need bottled poison in soft drinks?” López-Gatell asked. “Health in Mexico would be very different if we stopped being deceived by these lifestyles sold on television and heard on radio and which we see on adverts – as if this was happiness.”
Consuming just one can of regular soda gives you more sugar than your body can handle, sometimes 2-3 days worth in one sitting. Your body has no chance. Neither does your health.
It’s never just one can either, it’s more like 2 regular sodas and then 2-3 more diet sodas that we’re drinking all day long. The rationale is that 2-3 of those “don’t count” because they’re diet.
Try to pry a diet soda from someone’s hands.
The Diet Soda argument will never go away until we realize what is happening. Try to pry a diet soda from someone’s hands and offer them a regular soda or something else. Won’t happen. The word “Diet” should not be allowed on a label. Neither should the other sensationalized words like “Zero Sugar”, “No Calories”, “Sugar Free”. The concoction of aspartame and acesulfame potassium (or Ace-K) create that sweet sugar taste, and they get away with labeling loopholes to create their zero sugar and zero calories marketing hooks. Here’s the thing, you’re body is actually even worse off with these products. You can tell by just looking at that diet soda drinker, it shows in so many ways on and through the body, out of the skin and in hair.
Only 1 in 8 Americans are achieving optimal metabolic health, which carries serious implications for public health going forward. This is the other way to say that 88% of us are unhealthy.
The implications are astounding. The number “88%” is the biggest number we’ve seen to date. It’s the most updated report to date, by a very reputable source, the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Heath in Chapel Hill. Our vulnerability for Type 2 Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, strokes, liver disease, kidney disease and even more serious health issues is way up. We need to shout this from the rooftops, are you listening America?!
Stop prescribing Drugs & Oreos!
Doctors have to stop prescribing Drugs & Oreos as a short-term fix. Both hit the pleasure button and make us feel better near term, like when your Mom would give you a cookie for a boo-boo, but both are only prolonging the struggle. Our medical communities need to rally behind the long-term solutions involving the good intentioned part of the food and beverage industry. Doctors need to turn into nutrition specialists and educators to right this wrong. We all need to do better and offer better-for-you, clean label alternatives to turn this health crisis around.
We did a pretty good job of getting rid of cigarettes.
We need to do the same thing with these crappy food products. Start with soda. Quickly move to energy drinks. Get rid of them. Knock them out. Get Punch’d. Drink more water. Boost your immune system with C & D. Get real foods into your body.
The cheap and broken food system isn’t a good alternative today. Neither are gmo’s or horrible livestock conditions. We’re all responsible. We need to support local, support the clean label movement, pour your hard earned and sometimes scarce dollars into the right foods for your body. It’s not easy, and you’ll miss the sugar high, but your body will thank you and you won’t have to deal with the crash and subsequent problems later.
If you want to bookmark one thing from this blog, it’s this: The study, “Prevalence of Optimal Metabolic Health in American Adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2016,” which was published online Nov. 28 in the journal Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders.
Other related links:
10 tips for cutting processed sugar from your family’s diet
What is clean caffeine microdosing?
Superfood: Green Coffee Beans.
About the author:
John Pinelli Chief Energy Officer @ Punch’d Energy
He’s passionate about helping people understand how nutrition and exercise play a big part in overall wellbeing. John believes that eating within your body type and daily energy demands is the secret to a happy life. He originally created Punch’d Energy for himself and his family to address specific individual needs: a) eliminating the acidic reactions from coffee; b) a better-for-you alternative to artificial energy drinks for his son; c) eliminating sodas from the house; d) and replacing those unicorn whipped cream lattes his daughters were drinking. They’ve been eating Punch’d every day for 5+yrs and can’t live without it. This is truly the epitome of creating a quality product when you make it for yourself, your family and friends.