America is a fast-food nation, for better and for worse. Consider the typical weekday. The alarm goes off and the family’s bare feet start hitting the floor immediately. Everyone’s probably running a little late because they didn’t get enough sleep. (Americans sleep an average of seven hours a night, down from nine hours a century ago.) Getting the kids ready for school requires a Herculean effort: brushing teeth, washing faces, and digging under the couch for overdue library books. Time for a quick bowl of cereal? Probably not. So you rush out the door with an empty stomach. Maybe you’ll snatch something on the way—or just do without anything to eat.
