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low carb vs low fat new research says it doesnt really matter

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  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Hypsibius wrote: »
    Also @lemurcat12 saying I "completely disagree" with you is actually too strong. I agree that the problem isn't "carbs" and reject fanaticism on either side. It's about CICO -- but calorie-dense options and food deserts make it all the more difficult in America. People telling kids to "move more and eat less" when they actually do need better food choices is unfair, and there are countries doing this right that we can look to.

    On the carbs thing, I was merging a conversation from the unpopular thread about how the problem was the US carb percentage was too high, and thought you were making that argument.

    I don't disagree at all (as I said) that food choice is important for many people (although not carb % vs. fat % for the population overall).

    I think people want the problem to be easier to solve than it is so fixate on things that likely have nothing to do with it, or little to do with it. There's a pretty good thread in this section about food deserts, and I've been convinced by my reading and the research that they have nothing to do with the overall obesity rate (the percentage of people who actually live in them is pretty small, and most obese people do not). That does not mean that I don't think it's a problem worth addressing (in the other thread you will see debate on whether it exists or not, I think it does, to some degree, although I also think is IS being addressed, certainly there are various efforts where I live and I think other problems with poverty and the inner city are harder to address and related, such as crime and jobs).

    Calorie dense options are with us. Even if we wanted to (and I'm generally in favor of choice, so I do not), we could not get rid of them, and they existed when obesity was much lower, so the question is how to educate ourselves and the populace (two separate questions) about how to deal with a situation where we have food that is easily available, for many people hyperpalatable (it plays on our evolved desire for fat and sugar and salt), cheap, and where we lack social/cultural strictures (which they still have in Japan to a greater degree) on how to eat.

    I think socially it's a tough problem, and I don't have a lot of good ideas, sadly -- I'm pro education but skeptical about how effective it will be from schools, vs. parents/culture.

    Individually, however -- seeing that this may be a problem with live with and figuring out how to deal with it -- I am more hopeful. That's one reason I think it's better not to see this stuff as making us fat, but that on an individual level we all have control.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    theresejesu wrote: »
    stevencloser wrote: »
    accidentalpancake wrote: »
    mmapags wrote: »
    accidentalpancake wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    I have nothing against low fat (other than it's probably responsible for the obesity epidemic sweeping the world).
    Nothing to do with people eating too much and moving too little then?

    And not to minimize the issue, but the "epidemic" was created overnight by adopting WHO standards against the advice of the medical community...

    Unclear as to what you mean. Expand please?

    The BMI guidelines that the U.S. adopted in the late 1990s were derived from WHO standards, which instantly reclassified tens of millions of Americans as overweight/obese.

    And as research shows, that seems to be still lenient as there's way more people at "normal weight" BMI who have elevated amounts of bodyfat than there are "overweight" BMI people who don't. So for all intents and purposes, the amount of Americans who should count overweight/obese should be even HIGHER.

    According to who?

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4511447/

    These guys among others.
  • theresejesu
    theresejesu Posts: 120 Member
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    stevencloser wrote: »
    theresejesu wrote: »
    stevencloser wrote: »
    accidentalpancake wrote: »
    mmapags wrote: »
    accidentalpancake wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    I have nothing against low fat (other than it's probably responsible for the obesity epidemic sweeping the world).
    Nothing to do with people eating too much and moving too little then?

    And not to minimize the issue, but the "epidemic" was created overnight by adopting WHO standards against the advice of the medical community...

    Unclear as to what you mean. Expand please?

    The BMI guidelines that the U.S. adopted in the late 1990s were derived from WHO standards, which instantly reclassified tens of millions of Americans as overweight/obese.

    And as research shows, that seems to be still lenient as there's way more people at "normal weight" BMI who have elevated amounts of bodyfat than there are "overweight" BMI people who don't. So for all intents and purposes, the amount of Americans who should count overweight/obese should be even HIGHER.

    According to who?

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4511447/

    These guys among others.

    Thank you, I'll take a look at it later.

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