America’s Health Crisis: How Diet, Lifestyle, and Faith Are The Real Key to Lasting Change

Dr. Casey Means has been on a crusade to change how America eats. She walked away from a promising career as a surgeon to tackle what she saw as a crisis in American health—a crisis in how the medical industry treats disease. Instead of a holistic approach focused on helping people live and eat well, the system is a tangled mess of specialties, insurance, and drug companies profiting from the endless problems of a population addicted to ultra-processed foods, sugar, and bad habits.

I recommend listening to her interview on Joe Rogan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0lTyhvOeJs). Your mind will be blown.

Here are some alarming statistics she shares about the state of America’s health. You can view the full list here: https://www.caseymeans.com/learn/newsletter-25.

• 74% of American adults are dealing with overweight or obesity.
• Nearly 40% of children are overweight or obese.
• 52% of American adults have prediabetes or type 2 diabetes.
• 30% of teens have prediabetes (this was 11% in 2002).
• 1 in 36 children are on the autism spectrum (up from 1 in 150 in 2000). In California, it’s 1 in 22.
• 34% of young adults have a mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder.
• Early-onset cancers have increased by 79% in recent years.
• Nearly 1 in 2 Americans is predicted to get cancer in their lifetime (41.6% chance). This year, the U.S. is expected to have over 2 million new cancer cases.
• 20-25% of women are on anti-depressant medication.
• Early-onset dementia and Alzheimer’s disease have tripled since 2013.
• American girls are starting puberty years earlier than in prior centuries, earlier than any other continent.
• Infertility is rising rapidly, with sperm counts dropping 1% annually and infertility rates climbing by 1% each year.
• The U.S. has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates of all high-income countries, despite spending the most.
• 77% of young Americans can’t qualify for military service due to health problems or drug use.

These numbers should alarm you. But what should concern you even more is that, according to Dr. Means and common sense, the main culprit is the American diet, filled with ultra-processed foods and sugar. Feed your kids fast food, soda, prepackaged meals, or anything from a box, and you’re setting them up for these very outcomes.

Of course, we avoid looking at the root causes. And we really don’t like changing our behavior. It’s easier to take Ozempic or another pill, or better yet, just bury our heads in the sand until the heart stops or cancer riddles our body.

And it’s not just physical health. As I mentioned a couple of articles ago, we’ve never spent more on mental health counseling and medication, yet all indicators are getting worse. Why? For the same reasons we face this health crisis: we ignore the root causes and look for quick fixes.

Eat healthy whole foods, exercise, drink water, and avoid sugar, and you’ll likely be fit, trim, healthy—and happy.

Add to that prioritizing family, friends, daily practicing your faith, forgiveness, and gratitude, and you probably won’t be depressed or want to kill yourself. You’ll be happy, joyous, and maybe even free.

That last part—free—that’s where faith comes in. It’s the glue that holds it all together, giving us a feeling of transcendence.

We are called to fast. Use fasting to discipline your body, mind, and soul. See eating right and exercising as tools—not just physical but mental and spiritual ones.

We are called to forgive. Hate and jealousy infect the soul and make the beauty of life seem ugly. Forgive those who don’t deserve it, and your revenge will be happiness.

We are called to repent. That means recognizing our missdeeds and vowing to make a turn for the better—to change our way.

We are called to love. And a part of love that can be overlooked: when you love someone, you tell them the truth. You want them to heal, to grow, to reach their potential. If you’re overweight, if you’re locked in a room glued to a screen, if you don’t live with purpose—there will be consequences. And I don’t want those consequences for anyone I love.