Article on Causes of Obesity

mandylooo

Just thought I'd share this. It's a summary of information that is already out there, and whilst I don't agree with everything in it, it's an interesting read with respect to some history of the food industry.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/11/why-our-food-is-making-us-fat?INTCMP=SRCH

Just a snippet:

"But another health issue was on the radar: heart disease, and in the mid-70s, a fierce debate was raging behind the closed doors of academia over what was causing it. An American nutritionist called Ancel Keys blamed fat, while a British researcher at the University of London Professor John Yudkin, blamed sugar. But Yudkin's work was rubbished by what many believe, including Professor Robert Lustig, one of the world's leading endocrinologists, was a concerted campaign to discredit Yudkin. Much of the criticism came from fellow academics, whose research was aligning far more closely with the direction the food industry was intending to take. Yudkin's colleague at the time, Dr Richard Bruckdorfer at UCL says: "There was a huge lobby from [the food] industry, particularly from the sugar industry, and Yudkin complained bitterly that they were subverting some of his ideas." Yudkin was, Lustig says simply, "thrown under the bus", because there was a huge financial gain to be made by fingering fat, not sugar, as the culprit of heart disease."

leeleeloulou

I read this yesterday and it actually makes a fair bit of sense...

It's just a pity we can't all go back to being self sustaining societies and have to live life as the food industry tells us to

I think it'll take a fair amount of pressure off larger people on a personal level though, it's refreshing to see a piece that doesn't blame individuals alone.


Leah
xxxx

Elizabeth_C34

HFCS has gotten a lot of blame recently for the obesity epidemic, but the flat out truth is that people are eating too much and not as active as they were before. The obesity problem is way too complex to put on the shoulders of just one "bad" culprit. The introduction of HFCS was one of the many contributors to this as it adds a ton of calories in a small volume of cheap food, but there are also serious problems with portion sizes that have just exploded to 3 or 4 times what they should be, the introduction of cheap fatty greasy food, and the development of a culture that is sedentary and relies on convenience food instead of home-cooked meals. This doesn't even go into the problem with activity-levels since the 1960's, which is another entire problem to deal with.

Thank you for sharing the article though. I think it's a worthwhile read, and definitely interesting for anyone concerned about the obesity epidemic worldwide.

lalapurple62

I know it is a very simplistic view, but the cause of obesity is that input is exceding output, if you eat to much and dont work it off we are going to get fat.....

roachhaley

Obesity happened when we stopped moving for our food and started growing and consuming grains for convenience. Oh, and that whole eating at Applebees and Chilis three times a week thing...

mandylooo

HFCS has gotten a lot of blame recently for the obesity epidemic, but the flat out truth is that people are eating too much and not as active as they were before. The obesity problem is way too complex to put on the shoulders of just one "bad" culprit. The introduction of HFCS was one of the many contributors to this as it adds a ton of calories in a small volume of cheap food, but there are also serious problems with portion sizes that have just exploded to 3 or 4 times what they should be, the introduction of cheap fatty greasy food, and the development of a culture that is sedentary and relies on convenience food instead of home-cooked meals. This doesn't even go into the problem with activity-levels since the 1960's, which is another entire problem to deal with.

Thank you for sharing the article though. I think it's a worthwhile read, and definitely interesting for anyone concerned about the obesity epidemic worldwide.

I agree actually. You can't pin the obesity crisis on just one factor. we need to look at why it has happened in some countries (eg the US and UK) more than others (e.g. Sweden, Japan).

mandylooo

I know it is a very simplistic view, but the cause of obesity is that input is exceding output, if you eat to much and dont work it off we are going to get fat.....

agreed, but (I know I'm repeating myself), why has it happened in some countries more than others? Do certain food industries hold more of a sway in those countries and if so why? Why did people start eating more and theoretically moving less (the article says the latter isn't true in the UK at least)? Unless we answer these questions we won't get to the root cause and can't solve the problem. I don't claim to know the answers.

litelight

Great article! I plan to share this with my diet buddies at work.

Elizabeth_C34

HFCS has gotten a lot of blame recently for the obesity epidemic, but the flat out truth is that people are eating too much and not as active as they were before. The obesity problem is way too complex to put on the shoulders of just one "bad" culprit. The introduction of HFCS was one of the many contributors to this as it adds a ton of calories in a small volume of cheap food, but there are also serious problems with portion sizes that have just exploded to 3 or 4 times what they should be, the introduction of cheap fatty greasy food, and the development of a culture that is sedentary and relies on convenience food instead of home-cooked meals. This doesn't even go into the problem with activity-levels since the 1960's, which is another entire problem to deal with.

Thank you for sharing the article though. I think it's a worthwhile read, and definitely interesting for anyone concerned about the obesity epidemic worldwide.

I agree actually. You can't pin the obesity crisis on just one factor. we need to look at why it has happened in some countries (eg the US and UK) more than others (e.g. Sweden, Japan).

Exactly. This is why this problem is really complex. The American obesity epidemic is also regionally variant, so it's not just us, as a nation, but where in the nation you are. Some states are far more obese than others. On top of that, some counties and cities are far more obese than others even within the same state. Some cities have ordinances banning trans fat usage and limiting fast food restaurants. Some others don't. It's a big huge convoluted mess.

That being said, I think the basic solutions are universal: regulate portion sizes and eliminate trans fats and place limits on sugar and sodium in restaurant foods, improve childhood and adult education on health and nutrition, offer free or low-cost cooking classes for people who want to learn how to cook (it's shocking how few adults my age know how to prepare a home-cooked meal from scratch), and start working on transforming ourselves from a nation of couch potatoes into a nation of active people. Easier said that done, obviously, but I've seen these things work on the local level. No reason that it can't work on a larger scale.

yarwell

why has it happened in some countries more than others?

The HFCS thing is mainly a US issue, most other countries protected their sugar industry (and didn't have an industrial corn industry) so there simply wasn't an escalation of HFCS intake elsewhere.

One trend that may be relevant is the "eating out" and convenience food trends. Some of the diaries on here from our US friends are informative in that regard. One lady struggling to lose weight had all three meals one day at fast food joints, which they prefer to call "restaurants".

Amy911Gray

I heard a news piece over the weekend that said the military is turning down more recruits until they can pass their physical fitness test. It's the first gamer generation that has not had physical education all through high school and the results are incredibly horrible.

mandylooo

Exactly. This is why this problem is really complex. The American obesity epidemic is also regionally variant, so it's not just us, as a nation, but where in the nation you are. Some states are far more obese than others. On top of that, some counties and cities are far more obese than others even within the same state. Some cities have ordinances banning trans fat usage and limiting fast food restaurants. Some others don't. It's a big huge convoluted mess.

That being said, I think the basic solutions are universal: regulate portion sizes and eliminate trans fats and place limits on sugar and sodium in restaurant foods, improve childhood and adult education on health and nutrition, offer free or low-cost cooking classes for people who want to learn how to cook (it's shocking how few adults my age know how to prepare a home-cooked meal from scratch), and start working on transforming ourselves from a nation of couch potatoes into a nation of active people. Easier said that done, obviously, but I've seen these things work on the local level. No reason that it can't work on a larger scale.

It's funny that you actually get the same correlation between US States and between developed nations. Countries and US States with higher levels of income equality tend to have lower levels of obesity and vice versa. Correlation isn't of course causation.

Sidesteal

I know it is a very simplistic view, but the cause of obesity is that input is exceding output, if you eat to much and dont work it off we are going to get fat.....

^ It might be simplistic, but it's also correct. Unfortunately this theory doesn't sell books. It's more profitable to demonize a singular food item and blame obesity on it.

Elizabeth_C34

I know it is a very simplistic view, but the cause of obesity is that input is exceding output, if you eat to much and dont work it off we are going to get fat.....

^ It might be simplistic, but it's also correct. Unfortunately this theory doesn't sell books. It's more profitable to demonize a singular food item and blame obesity on it.

Yup.

In the 80's and 90's it was "fat makes you fat." Now, it's sugar.

Elizabeth_C34

Exactly. This is why this problem is really complex. The American obesity epidemic is also regionally variant, so it's not just us, as a nation, but where in the nation you are. Some states are far more obese than others. On top of that, some counties and cities are far more obese than others even within the same state. Some cities have ordinances banning trans fat usage and limiting fast food restaurants. Some others don't. It's a big huge convoluted mess.

That being said, I think the basic solutions are universal: regulate portion sizes and eliminate trans fats and place limits on sugar and sodium in restaurant foods, improve childhood and adult education on health and nutrition, offer free or low-cost cooking classes for people who want to learn how to cook (it's shocking how few adults my age know how to prepare a home-cooked meal from scratch), and start working on transforming ourselves from a nation of couch potatoes into a nation of active people. Easier said that done, obviously, but I've seen these things work on the local level. No reason that it can't work on a larger scale.

It's funny that you actually get the same correlation between US States and between developed nations. Countries and US States with higher levels of income equality tend to have lower levels of obesity and vice versa. Correlation isn't of course causation.

My view, after traveling around the US extensively, is that states like California and New York (metropolitan areas especially) where people are crammed in tighter tend to be much leaner and fitter. You see a remarkable difference in the physical fitness of people in these places versus rural southern communities. Places like Corpus Christi, Texas and most of the deep south where people have to drive everywhere tend be much fatter and much less active. There are less parks, fast food on every single corner, and just a lifestyle that surrounds eating greasy fatty food every Sunday after church. My grandparents lived in rural Tennessee in a town that had about 4,000 people. Of those 4,000 people, approximately 70% were obese. They had McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Krystal, and Taco Bell on a single street corner in a town that small. I spend a week and a half in San Diego about a month ago, and I didn't even see a fast food joint. All the restaurants we ate at had grilled options with vegetables and fruit on the menu. Finding a cheeseburger was actually difficult. There were overweight people there, but nothing like back home.

macylbrock

HFCS is a terrible thing, for our entire body, not just our weight. I have omitted it from my diet, but I still put on weight when I eat too much.
While I think it is a huge contributor to obesity, so is the huge availability of other high calorie, processed foods, and the portion sizes. We like food with too much butter, too much sugar, too much salt, too many hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated oils.... the list goes on. These are all contributors to obesity. Even food without HFCS has become addictive, I think it is easier to place the blame on one thing though, than to say that our diet as a whole has become seriously flawed, then step back and fix it all.
I would love to HFCS banned from our food, but I don't think that that alone with fix our obesity epidemic..

ishtar13

I heard a news piece over the weekend that said the military is turning down more recruits until they can pass their physical fitness test. It's the first gamer generation that has not had physical education all through high school and the results are incredibly horrible.

That must depend on the area.

My kid (16) was required to have 2 years PE in HS, which is the same requirement I had in the 80s.

ishtar13

Of those 4,000 people, approximately 70% were obese. They had McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Krystal, and Taco Bell on a single street corner in a town that small. I spend a week and a half in San Diego about a month ago, and I didn't even see a fast food joint. All the restaurants we ate at had grilled options with vegetables and fruit on the menu. Finding a cheeseburger was actually difficult. There were overweight people there, but nothing like back home.

Um, I've lived in San Diego three separate times. Believe me there are both obese people and fast food in SD.

Elizabeth_C34

Of those 4,000 people, approximately 70% were obese. They had McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Krystal, and Taco Bell on a single street corner in a town that small. I spend a week and a half in San Diego about a month ago, and I didn't even see a fast food joint. All the restaurants we ate at had grilled options with vegetables and fruit on the menu. Finding a cheeseburger was actually difficult. There were overweight people there, but nothing like back home.

Um, I've lived in San Diego three separate times. Believe me there are both obese people and fast food in SD.

I'm not saying there aren't but there's an astounding difference in the people I saw there and the people I see that are 100-300 lbs obese in Tennessee. I never saw someone that large in SD. Then again, I was only there for a short time.

carld256

HFCS has gotten a lot of blame recently for the obesity epidemic

Deservedly so in my opinion. HFCS beverages are the only food directly linked to obesity. Obviously that's not the only culprit, but it's a big one. They're the cheapest source of calories in the grocery store and contain nothing but calories.

Edited to add: I think unnaturally cheap food in general is the source of our obesity problem. The corn, soy, and cattle subsidies in this country are enormous, but there's almost nothing being done to promote getting fresh fruits and vegetables into the stores and onto our plates. If HFCS and soybean oil weren't so incredibly cheap we'd see a lot less fat and sugar in everything.