A lot of Americans say they’re eating healthy, but are they really?

(TNND) — Make America Healthy Again? A lot of Americans think they’re healthy already, a new Gallup survey showed.

Gallup found that 84% of Americans viewed their diets as at least somewhat healthy.

That included around a quarter of people who described their diet as being very healthy.

Just 15% of people in the Gallup survey, published Monday, said their diet is not too healthy.

And responses have been remarkably steady for that question over the years, according to Gallup tracking.

But nearly three-quarters of Americans are overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A lot of folks are struggling with their weight. So, why are so many people also convinced that they’re eating healthy?

“I think that there’s a disconnect between people’s diet and what they think their diet is,” said Dr. Joshua Septimus, a primary care physician at Houston Methodist. “And I think there’s a disconnect between how people perceive reading nutrition levels and, very importantly, the way that nutrition labels advertise themselves to people.”

The Gallup survey also found that three-quarters of Americans read nutrition labels, including 33% of people who say they pay a “great deal” of attention to the labels.

Women (81%) are more likely than men (70%) to read nutrition labels, Gallup said.

Septimus said people sometimes look at the wrong things on nutrition labels. Sometimes people don’t know what to look for, he said.

And sometimes people are misled by food labels, Septimus said.

He said the food industry has invested heavily in marketing unhealthy foods to Americans.

“We really do need to put more pressure on the food industry to stop really doing this to consumers, because it’s affecting our health so badly,” Septimus said. “And this is the one place that I think all doctors agree with the (Make America Healthy Again) movement. We disagree with the MAHA movement on vaccines and on many other things. But the idea that our food is medicine and is also poison is very scary. And just like we addressed the way that cigarettes and alcohol are advertised, I think that we need to at least have a conversation about how the food industry advertises, particularly to children.”

Septimus said, for example, that a frozen meal featuring beef and broccoli might appear healthy. It might promote the protein content of the frozen meal.

But some consumers might not pay attention to the large amount of salt in the meal.

Bread marketed as 100% whole wheat might also have a lot of added sugar.

A 20-ounce bottled drink might say it’s 80 calories a serving, but the bottle might contain two servings.

“You have to be a really, really savvy consumer to really know what to look for on a label to determine if something is actually healthy,” Septimus said.

And so much of the food people think they’re eating to be healthy is processed, Septimus said.

Processed food, especially ultra-processed food, just is not healthy, he said.

“I see it every day in my office. They come into my office and (say), ‘Doc, I’m making better choices. I’m eating salads instead of a hamburger, and I’m not losing any weight.’ And then you dig into it, and what they’re putting on their salad are tons of croutons. And they’re using a salad dressing that’s loaded with sugar,” he said.

So, what should you look for on a nutrition label?

Septimus said the first stop is the “added sugar.”

Fruit is healthy, despite its natural sugar.

But Septimus said added sugar should be avoided.

That includes high-fructose corn syrup, which is just another sugar, he said.

“The lowest-hanging fruit that you can get is sugar-sweetened beverages,” Septimus said. “You basically should never drink calories.”

Sodas, juice, milk and alcohol are all less healthy choices for adults than water, black coffee, unsweetened tea, or seltzer waters without added salt, he said.

“If you want to taste an orange, eat an orange,” Septimus said. “All the nutritional value in the orange is in the rind and in all the chewable bits, not in the juice.”

Also, while looking at food labels, pay attention to serving size, salt and saturated fat.

A person should not get more than about 2,000 to 2,500 milligrams of salt a day, Septimus said. And some processed foods have over 1,000 milligrams of salt in a single serving.

“And I would look for ingredients that you don’t recognize the name of, because that means that it’s just got a bunch of added chemicals in it,” he said.

What’s his simple advice for eating a healthier diet?

Eat real food, mostly plants, and not too much of it, he said, referencing the Michael Pollan book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”

“Eat real food means that you can actually identify everything on the label,” Septimus said. “You recognize it. Your great-grandmother would recognize it. It’s shopping on the periphery of the store.”

By periphery of the store, he means avoiding the middle isles of the grocery store with packaged, processed foods.

Septimus said he’s not advocating for a plant-based diet. But he said a plate with a steak should be at least half-filled with vegetables and potatoes.