If you wander through YouTube, you will videos offering many explanations for why Americans are obese today, when they were not in the 1950s. Certainly, my recollection is that in my elementary school classes (1963-1968) it was usually one kid in each class who was fat. (By junior high, that was me.) Pictures of 1950s and 1960s American seem healthily skinny. But did fat people not get photographed?
United States Long-Term Trends in Adult BMI (1959–2018): Unraveling the Roots of the Obesity Epidemic
. 2024 Jan 9;21(1):73. doi: 10.3390/ijerph21010073
As you will not be surprised to see, obesity in America has always been a poor people's problem. But look at the BMI in 1960 through 1980. What did Americans eat back then? Steak, potatoes, hamburgers, hot dogs, butter in and on everything, milk shakes, cookies, cakes, pancakes, sausage, bacon: You know, a really fattening diet. Care to throw your hypotheses into the comments?
The late 70s are about when the so-called 'healthy' prepared meals, low fat, weight watchers, slim meals, etc started being made. Also I recall that's when various exercise schemes like jane fonda's work out, Richard Simmons sweating to the oldies, etc, and 'destination' gyms with 'smoothie bars' also started. The running craze (Jimm Fixx, etc) started just before then.
ReplyDeleteSuch foods, and the bias they introduced into the food chain, are not healthy. Exercise programs where any gains are dismissed by the 1100 calorie fruit smoothy afterwards also didn't help.
Carbs are bad. There are NO essential (in the sense that your body MUST take them from exogenous sources) carbs. Any carbs (glucose, mostly) your body needs can be made from fats and proteins in a process called gluconeogenesis....but the food manufacturers like growing carbs (it's easy), shipping carbs, storing carbs, and making foods with them (cheap, easy to store and ship, and very, very fattening).
Fruits and fruit sugars (fructose) are just as bad. Eating an apple is healthy. Drinking a liter of synthetic apple flavored beverage, sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, is not - aside from being a LOT more calories, it provides no fiber, few minerals or vitamins and fructose is not healthy in any sense: It is the worst sort of carb to eat because unlike any other glucose source, there is no feedback loop to tell you you've had enough and stop eating/drinking it.
When People quit eating carbs they lose weight - the benefits of an Atkins, keto, or carnivore diet. Since carbs are a major part of most peoples diets, drugs like GLP-1s also work through carb avoidance.