The United States Western diet could be summed up with the old beer commercial phrase “tastes great — less filling.”

Convenience and highly processed food is the backbone of the Western diet. The result is increased heart problems, cancer, diabetes, obesity and a number of diet-related issues. In countries where the Western diet is not eaten, and fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and other natural foods are eaten, the incidence of these health issues is a lot less.

Nutritionists have been trying to break down what we eat, re-evaluating and coming up with vitamins and minerals to replace what we’re not getting from our food — trying to break down each individual mineral, vitamin and protein and reform them to what we need. It has gotten to be big business.

The United States has become comfortable with the convenience of fast food. As of late, restaurants are trying to ad items to there menu that are actually good for you, but they’re still a long way off, and maybe convenience and eating healthy don’t go together. Someone once told me if you were to eat right you should take your great-grandma or great-great-grandma grocery shopping with you. Odds are, she would stick to the outside aisles (meat, produce, eggs, milk, fruits), and not even get to middle aisles (highly processed items — breakfast cereal, convenience items, etc.) and if she would read the ingredients of some of the basic foods, let’s say bread, she probably wouldn’t buy that either, since when she made bread it was mainly flour, milk, shortening (lard), water and a pinch of sugar, salt and yeast. I realize things have changed from the early part of 20th century, with two incomes a must, a much busier lifestyle and something has to give. According to our Western diet, it’s our health.

My wife hates it when I compare, but I have been raising livestock for years. Anyone else who has done the same will tell you with livestock if you keep the nutrition and environment right you won’t have much for health problems. The same can be said about us. I think the United States has done a pretty good job on our individual environments. We stay warm in winter, cool in summer and most can stay out of rain. Exercise is an issue, but where we have gone backward is our nutrition.

The meats, whole foods, vegetables, fruits, eggs, etc., are now eaten only if they are processed further, which sucks the nutrition out. With plants, most of the nutrition is in the leaves. There is energy in the seed, but as that is processed further it loses its nutritional value.

Agriculture has become a series of monocultures. Corn is king and is grown everywhere. Gone is the diversified farm where up to five crops were grown and rotated, keeping the soil healthy and fertilized with the same farm’s mix of livestock.

With corn as king, processors of corn are also king. You can find corn or some product of corn in just about everything. Every process the kernel takes down the processing road, the more nutrition it loses.

On the priority list, taste and convenience come out on top. Our meats are now microwavable, preserved to add shelf life. Are we headed in the right direction to eating healthy?

President Barack Obama is touring the country with his health-care plan, but maybe part of the plan should be what we have been doing all summer here in Albert Lea with the AARP/Blue Zone Vitality Project, focus on exercise (environment) and eating healthy (nutrition), get these things right and re-evaluate how we achieve these things in our daily life by eating fresh produce and meats. The preparation of these types of meals, the tip the farmers market vendor gave on how to prepare, or the trip to the farm to pick up can be a conversation all by itself.

Exercise — walk, run, kayak, whatever. Do some activity that can get the heart pumping.

These types of things would save more money on our health care, more than any drug plan — probably not what the insurance and drug companies want you to do.

If food was priced based on its nutritional value, all our eggs, meats, vegetables, fruits would be almost too expensive to purchase. All the highly processed foods — breakfast cereal, chips and convenience foods — could easily end up at the dollar store. I guess a lot can be said about good advertising.

Our farmers markets are an excellent start on eating healthy. Just about every kind of produce is available and it’s fresh. Consumers who are concerned about proper eating will use this time of year to can and freeze the abundant vegetables available, store them and have ready when they’re not in season.

Elk, chicken, chemical-free pork, grass-fed beef and Alaskan seafood are available. These are healthy options, produced at the right age, fed the right diet and housed naturally.

If vendors at the farmers market were to be paid based on the nutrional value of there products you would see a lot of Rolls Royces and Ferraris pulling those trailers.

Dan Matz is a member of the Albert Lea Farmers Market.