American Bison

You can save money by cutting noodles, bread, cereal, corn, rice and potatoes from your grocery list. A family of four would probably save about $80.00 a month. A couple, like Stagg and I, would probably save about $45.00 a month.

Obesity is caused by eating starches. We eat large amounts of noodles and cereal and rice because there is NO NUTRITIONAL VALUE inherent in these Frankenfoods. Therefore, we crave larger servings because we are starving from eating empty nutrient products. The governemnt adds synthetic vitamins to bread and cereal and rice.

The body does not assimilate synthetic vitamins efficently, or at all.

Fifty years ago, food consumption in the U.S. was at its lowest point for the century. At that time, the
average American was consuming about 2,000 calories a day. Less than twenty years later (1970), this
figure had increased modestly to about 2,200 calories per day, which is about the what the USDA
recommends as an average for the total population. However, we have greatly expanded our
consumption passed this recommended point. The average American today consumes just under 2,700
calories per day. This is more than what is recommended healthy active males in their early 20’s, which
constitute the group with the highest caloric intake. When one considers that this figure also includes
children and inactive adults, it is easy to see why our obesity rate is what it is.

Looking at just calories, though, does not tell the whole story. During the same time span that our caloric
intake has increased, the types of foods that we have been eating has also changed. Over one third of
the increase in calories from 1970 to 2000 was accounted for by an increase in grain consumption. Most
of this was in the form of refined grain products, such as white bread and pastries. An equally large share
of the increase was due to added fats and oils, like that found in fried foods and white bread. Besides
these two categories, the remainder of the increase in calories was due mostly to added sugars (about
20% of the increase).

Together, these three things help to explain some of the increase in obesity. Refined grain products are
quickly broken down by the body, causing an almost immediate increase in blood glucose levels like that
of added sugars. If this extra sugar is not used immediately, it gets stored as fat. At the same time, the
spike in blood glucose levels is usually followed by an increase in insulin to handle the huge load. Once
the spike has been processed, blood glucose levels usually fall below their normal levels, causing
feelings of sluggishness and lethargy in the body. This leads to a lack of exercise, which exacerbates the
situation. The addition of the fats and oils on top of this just causes the system to go even further in the
direction of adding weight.

These increases in consumption have had more than just an impact on our waistlines; they have also had
an impact on the environment. The mere fact that more food is being consumed means that more
product has to be transported to market, resulting in higher fuel usage. More oil and natural gas are also
needed to create the artificial fertilizers used to grow the crops, and more energy is needed to plant, and
harvest the crops. Both plants and animals require water, which means that the increased foodstocks
correspond to increased water usage. And while there has been a “Green Revolution” over the past 50
years that has allowed for greater crop production on each acre of land, these increases in per capita
consumption have resulted in a net increase in the per capita land usage. This would mean that, even if
our population was not increasing, we would need more land to be converted to farmland as our caloric
consumption increases.

This increased land usage is especially true in the case of meat and animal product consumption. In
general, the amount of meat that can be raised on a piece of land is about one-tenth that of the amount of
plant matter that can be grown on the same land. Since meat is about twice as dense in calories as plant
material, this means that the number of calories per acre of land is about 5 times more for grain and
vegetables than for meat. On average, an acre of land can grow about 1,200 per day of meat or about
6,000 calories per day of grain and vegetables. These estimates correspond to conversion factors of
.00082 acres per calorie for meat and .00016 acres per calorie for grain and vegetables. Thus, just the
increase from 138 to 195 pounds of meat consumed per person per year in the U.S. means that about a
tenth of an acre of land more is required per person to meet our food consumption needs. Before we
even consider any other farmland increases, this corresponds to almost 30 million acres of land that must
be used for agriculture that could be used for other purposes or allowed to remain wild. from: Food Calories and Land

American Bison

European Bison