The spread (no pun intended ) of a homogenous, “Westernized” diet is making the world more fat and unhealthy.

People’s diets around the world have become too similar over the last 50 years, to the point where 90 percent of people get their calories, protein and fat from the same 50 crops (according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).

Our growing dependance on a smaller number of crops will accelerate a worldwide rise in obesity, heart disease, high cholesterol and diabetes, particularly in developing countries.

“In 2002 Americans were about an inch taller and 24 pounds heavier than they were in the 1960s, and more than a third are now classified as obese. Of course, diet and lifestyle are prime culprits. But some scientists wonder whether there could be other reasons for this staggering transformation of the American body. Antibiotics might be the X factor—or one of them.” ~ New York Times

Listen to the Green Divas myEARTH360 Report for more about this and other environmental goings on (including some encouraging news about climate change politics).

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Editor: Renée Picard

Photo: courtesy Lynn Hasselberger