Brandon Giltz

Low Happiness Rates in the American Community

2/24/15

Free, diverse, and unhappy: unfortunately, these are all words that describe the
United States. According to the Happy Planet Index, The United States ranks as the
150th happiest country in the world, a sad statistic for a country who's founding
documents proclaim the value of a right to joy and the pursuit of a better life. Even
more saddening is the fact that while the US's economic worth rises, so do our rates
of depression and suicide, which claims the lives of more than thirty thousand
American's each year. We would like to think that the high and rapidly rising rates
of suicide in the United States would make us happier, but that simply isn't the
case. This issue must raise concern and many questions, including inquisitive
feelings on how this came to be. My firm belief rests in the knowledge that the
origin of these problems lie in the faults of our nation's diet, educational system,
and failure to properly teach our children healthy coping mechanisms.

The diet of most Americans is better compared to a heroin addiction than to an

actual system of feeding. We are a nation attached to value meals, clinging to fats
and selling our health for convenience and a lower price. Often, we make these
choices without giving thought to our health, especially our mental health.
According to research conducted by the Society for the Study of Ingestive behavior,
high fat diets alter crucial aspects of dopamine signaling in the brain. High fat diets

actually affect the way we think, and the way the reward center of the brain is
stimulated. A decreased ability to produce and release dopamine into the brain
creates high depression rates in people with high fat diets. Many people might use
the argument that they generally associate these meals with positive feelings.
While any sort of food is temporarily fulfilling, most of the people who support this
counter argument have never reaped the benefits of mentally stimulating foods,
such as fruit and fish.

Perhaps the strongest factor working against the well-being of Americans is the
shortcoming of our educational system. Over the last few decades, the American
educational system has encountered a shift from existence for the promotion of
knowledge and creativity, to a purpose of operating only to teach to a test. The
current educational system is based off a model created during the industrial
revolution: a 9-5-type schedule designed to make students adjust to working, not
learning. Instead of allowing kids to follow a path based on their own calling,
desires, and talents, we throw children into a cookie-cutter system where instead of
being an individual mind with an immense capacity for creativity, they are a lunch
number and a report card. We teach these children that the way to success is not a
path that they can pave on their own, that it can only be achieved by continuing to
give into this system of educational oppression, and go to college, and continue to
work a 9-5 schedule in a job regardless of whether they like it or not. Instead of
teaching the value of knowledge, we teach the value of money; bringing the child a
sense that they must buy their success, and leaving them on a never-ending hunt
for fulfillment that's always a dollar, a promotion, a car, or a house away.

Stress management methods are seldom taught. You hardly ever see a class
whether in preschool or college that exists solely for the purpose of teaching people
how to enjoy their lives, which is strange. After all, isn't happiness supposed to be
your first priority? It is incredibly rare that people are given much advice on how to
deal with stress, enjoy the moment, or create goals that are fulfilling for the
individual, and the sad fact is that many people have to spend considerable time
and effort seeking wisdom on how to be happy while they are regularly taught
useless knowledge necessary only in obscure fields.
The rate of Happiness in Americans would greatly increase if we shifted the
general focus of our society away from greed and separation and towards a caring
and respect for individuals, their talents, their beliefs, and their choices. Changes in
our diets, educational system, and the way we treat each other would greatly
improve our ability to enjoy life and once again send us into the pursuit of
happiness.

Biliography:
"The Data | Happy Planet Index." The Data | Happy Planet Index. New Economics Foundation,
n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.

The data collected by the New Economics foundation was the source of my
statement in the first paragraph. This was the data that displayed the United States
as the world's 105th happiest country.

Rubin, Eugene, MD. "Large Increase in Suicide Rates Among 35 to 64 Year Olds."
Psychology Today. Psychology Today, 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.
This is an article from Psychology Today, which gathers data on the rising rates of
suicide of people aged 35 to 64. This was also referenced in my first paragraph.

"A High-fat Diet Alters Crucial Aspects of Brain Dopamine Signaling."

ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 July 2010. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.
This was where I discovered a study conducted by the Society for the Study of
Ingestive Behavior, which I refered to in my second paragraph. The study was
conducted on rats, and they found that long-term exposure to a high-fat diet altered
the brain's reward complex.

"Is Our Educational System, Designed Primarily Based on Industrialization,

Outdated?" Quora. Quora, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.

This website sites many talks given by one of my favorite educational

philosophers, Ken Robinson. He discusses the origins of the modern educational
system and its many faults and served as the inspiration for much of my final
paragraphs.