Obesity is perhaps one of the biggest problems society faces today. Public health advocates have argued that the condition not only carries serious health risks, but that America's swelling waist lines will drive up the cost of medical care and even affect our ability to compete in the global marketplace. Given these implications, it's important that we address the root cause of obesity. But we haven't.
While blaming lack of exercise, overeating, and (this week) poor parenting, the real culprit has been almost entirely overlooked: The awful dietary advice dispensed by mainstream medical science over the last 30 years. If we want a healthier, slimmer population, we have to stop eating the sugar-laden diet so many experts have recommended to us.
The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) dietary guidelines are the gold standard for healthy eating, according to most experts. The problem is that these recommendations promote a low-fat, calorie-restricted diet based on grains like bread and rice. These kinds of foods consist almost entirely of carbohydrates. When you digest carbohydrates, they are converted into sugar in your bloodstream, the same sugar found in ice cream, soda, potato chips, and all the other junk foods most people would recognize as unhealthy. Since high blood sugar is toxic, your body produces a hormone called insulin to bring it down to a reasonable level. The trouble with this, however, is that insulin brings down your blood sugar by converting it to fat and sending it into your fat cells to be stored. There are many problems with this process.
For More Analysis On The Government's Relationship With Obesity, Read "Why David Frum Is Wrong About Obesity"
When people eat a high-carbohydrate diet like this, not only do they unintentionally avoid the fats and proteins their bodies need to properly function, but they “starve at the cellular level,” as Dr. Michael Eades puts it, because what they are eating is stored as fat and doesn't provide the energy they need. The result over time is a steady increase in body weight. And as health writer and documentary film maker Tom Naughton explains, it shouldn't be surprising that “... the rise in obesity began around the same time the so-called experts began telling everyone to cut back on fat and eat more carbohydrates.”
Human evolution offers some interesting insights as well. While many experts today express skepticism when writers like Eades or Naughton suggest that low-carbohydrate diets can improve our health, those are the sorts of diets humans have maintained for most of our existence. And like the increase in obesity, rates of heart disease didn't shoot up until the push in the middle of the 20th century to remove saturated fat from our diets; the reason being that humans have not evolved to thrive on grains.
Overeating, little exercise, and poor parenting certainly have a role in all this, but in light of the above information, that role is not as significant as we have been told. People over-eat not because they lack self control, but because they've been told to eat a diet that promotes hunger. Similarly, the unwillingness of most Americans to exercise is not just due to laziness. One of the results of the cellular starvation described above is a massive decrease in energy levels. Parents certainly don't always feed their children healthy foods, but even when they feed them expert-approved diets, they are still giving their children foods that will eventually make them fat.
This is undoubtedly a controversial hypothesis, but that need not bother anybody because it is well-supported by the available evidence. A study published in 2007 looking at three different diets found that the low-carbohydrate diet tested led to twice as much weight loss and resulted in a greater reduction of risk factors for heart disease compared to the other diets. Another study found that low-carbohydrate diets are as effective as low-fat diets in helping people lose weight. Science writer Gary Taubes argues that the reason these oft-derided diets – Atkins, for example – work so well is because they address the root of the problem; they take into account the nutritional quality of what people eat, which ends of up reducing the quantity of calories they eat.
It's not good enough to say that fat people are fat because they eat too much, as everybody from the fast food lobby to the American Medical Association suggests. If we're going to reduce obesity in this country, we have to explain why people eat too much and specifically how they can stop. Dropping the federal government's misguided dietary recommendations would be a good start.
Photo Credit: malingering
The Discussion
There are LOTs of variables that contribute to the obesity epidemic in the US. You can either see it as a "Diet Matrix" or a Perfect Storm.
1. The upside down USDA food pyramid
2. Introduction of HFCS & aspartame
3. Proliferation of computers replacing "active" jobs/games
4. Increased STRESS
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The foundation of our diet needs to consist of foods that are called micro-nutrients. These are essentially fruits, vegetables, and nuts, and water.
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If anybody's interested, I'm making friends over at RealClearScience. http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2011/12/the-united-states-department-of.html
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You're right Brock.. I had not heard about the cocaine and Splenda. That is quite alarming. Thanks for the input.
Starchy carbohyrdrates make you fat?!? Quick, someone tell all those skinny Japanese people to stop eating so much rice! (Also, China, Vietnam and India).
Humans have been eating starches for ~500,000 years without suffering massive obesity. HFCS and vegetable oils were 20th Century inventions.
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Hi, Cameron. I think you're off-base in suggesting that Gary Taubes thinks Atkins-like diets work because they ultimately reduce caloric intake. On the contrary, Taubes strenuously debunks the calories-in, calories-out theory of weight loss and gain in his book Why We Get Fat and elsewhere.
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Sorry Cameron, I forgot to credit you with a timely & necessary article. Opening sentence is perfect. Toward the end you write ..we have to explain why people eat too much.. I believe stories came to light several years ago commenting on how the food industry was adding ingredients that have an addictive quality. I remember a few years back when a co-worker brought in some snack - I think smores - well I took one and kept going back for more. It was rather unsettling that I felt so drawn to eat them. I decided to walk to another office in hopes they would be gone when I got back. Fortunately, when I returned they were gone. That experience was weird & I never ate smores again. Organic pies are really great!
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I think that it's not necessarily the governments fault that they endorsed what nutrition experts advised them to, but it's the experts fault for suggesting that the government endorse a diet that is not actually that healthy. If we are going to point fingers, it most certainly should not be here.
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I agree that the food pyramid and how it's ingrained into our society, especially in schools, has helped cause obesity, but we need to also consider how our fast-paced convenience-based society today makes obtaining healthy food such a struggle. Even if the government promoted a healthy diet, obesity would still persist the the availability of fast food (and other overly processed food).
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The government doesn't actually promote a high-carb diet. The old pyramid is dead and gone, but even that wasn't a bad approach if people actually ate well and in appropriate proportions (which doesn't happen as much as it should). The new MyPlate program advocates a diet high in fruits and vegetables, and only a small portion is dedicated to grains. And of those grains, the government recommends that at least half come from whole grains. MyPlate also provides resources for weight management and physical activity. What America needs is more people who follow this common-sense approach.
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Your entire premise is ridiculous. People should not (and most often do not) take their cues from the government when it comes to personal choices such as diet. The root cause of obesity is mass urbanization of the work force, increase in leisure time, and commercialization of food.
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As soon as I ditched the government recommended low-fat, high-carb, high grain diet my pre-diabetes went away, my high blood pressure went down to normal, and I lost 80 pounds. Yes, people do follow government recommended diet advice and yes, it is harmful. Ignoring it was a life saver.
Another 'blame game'. Gov't is responsible for a considerable amount of problems in this country. However, most of us do have the ability to think & make choices in our life. These abilities are gifts. How about assuming responsibility for choices we make in our lives. Yes-some people do have physical reasons for obesity. Yes-the gov't portrays false information to the public; strongly rooted in the lobbying groups of the day. Blaming others for choices we make is personally irresponsible. Fast food places also have salads & yogurt choices or - chose not to eat there. Food stores that sell junk food also sell fruits&vegetables. Health food stores have FREE info, receipies, & staff willing to help. Health is largely based on our choices.
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Mr. English- Very informative article. I have another take on the issue of obesity. Many people become obese starting in their childhood. Children develop bad habits because their parents allow them to do so. Given that so many adults are overweight themselves, it isn't surprising that their children follow suit. Moreover, parents are the ones who interpret the recommendations of the AMA and the USDA for their progeny. So, if they don't care or don't understand or can't afford to follow directions, the little ones will gain too much weight. This problem is a very big deal that is going to result in more and more hardship, excessive medical costs and substandard lifestyles. The key is to educate parents and their children in elementary school.
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A huge problem is many Americans don't put in the necessary time and effort to work out and eat correctly. Preparing food correctly can take time but it will result in much better health. This country would be much better off if more people completely stop drinking soda and eating fast food.
This article is premised on the false assumption that people actually pay attention to government dietary guidelines, which I'd be willing to bet they do not. Most Americans can't name a single Supreme Court justice, so I doubt they're going to know what's in the USDA's official dietary guidelines.
Also, the government doesn't recommend ingesting fast food on a regular basis, but many (or most) Americans do. And the very guidelines you criticize actually recommend regular amounts of aerobic exercise, but many Americans do not do that. So the argument that Americans are obese because their government promulgates the wrong dietary guidelines seems pretty weak.
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I'm actually a Certified Personal Trainer as well as I have my ISSA Diet Accred. (which is worthless) I'm not going to go too in depth here and I will add my two cents.
While everything in this article is correct, from the hundreds of clients I had while working at a Golds Gym in Washington D.C. , a very fast paced environment, the combination of fast food being readily available, cheap, and extraordinarily delicious to most, was a huge obstacle to overcome. I can only help you burn x amount of calories in a half hour to hour.
Like stated though "It's not good enough to say that fat people are fat because they eat too much."