USA Obesity Epidemic - how fast it happened!!! 25 years!

[Walt34]

Try eating a bag of potato chips, doritos, or any salty/sugary snack, and see how much you can eat before you body tells you to stop. It may never happen.

Doritos are my weakness and for that reason it is a rare day when I even go down that aisle in the store. When I fall off the wagon, which happens about twice a year, I am perfectly capable of eating all or most of a party size bag.

 

[MRG]

Yeah, unfortunately smoking vs obesity is pretty clear. Check this out:

Full article here (now 5 years old, but still...): https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...efits-of-less-smoking/?utm_term=.e3de0e069274

Yeah well.

Might be said people dying of smoking related disease are skinny?:thumbdown:

 

[audreyh1]

I think people crave the simple sugars in carbs, as well as gorge on bakery, sweets, candy, pop, etc. in my family those who have gained significant weight have major sweet tooths. I've lost weight myself by cutting sugar only, except for that naturally found in fruit. Sugar is highly addictive.

Plus we've had our optimal diet information so utterly wrong for so many years. I spent years avoiding healthy fats. Here's to the whole avocado I just ate!

Me too! A couple of decades! Sure enjoy my avocados, nuts and oils now!

I used to avoid those, yet eat big bowls of pasta with lots of veggies sauce. Limited meats, used only lean cuts, and trimmed every last bit of fat off it it - plus no chicken skin! Cooked with the minimum amount of oil.

Quite the opposite now.

 

[Hyperborea]

Well, it looks pretty clear to me that higher temperatures kill pirates!

Or the lack of pirates causes global warming.

 

[audreyh1]

I wonder if we have taken into account of the Costco effect. I know I resisted the membership of Costco for years and then I gave in. I think sometimes, I'm too lazy to shop at other shops, so Costco is the one stop for everything. I tend to over eat with Costco portion even for fruits and vegetables. And fish too. Can't find a small piece of Ling Cod from New Zealand but around here only Costco carries Ling Cod. So I'm sure this has an effect in the general population.

Nope - not for me. I buy mostly fresh seafood, meat, veggies, fruit, nuts and oils at Costco, and freeze what meat/seafood I won't cook immediately. The good quality produce lasts a long time, so I use it up over a week or two, not all at once. So for me Costco has made a great contribution to low-carb eating. It doesn't make me eat more.

 

[audreyh1]

Doritos are my weakness and for that reason it is a rare day when I even go down that aisle in the store. When I fall off the wagon, which happens about twice a year, I am perfectly capable of eating all or most of a party size bag.

There is a reason for that: Why Nacho Cheese Doritos Taste Like Heaven | Serious Eats

I once tried a store brand of tortilla chips. They had some tasty seasoning. It was very hard to stop eating them! Later I noticed that MSG was in the ingredient list. I didn't buy them again.

 

[Ready]

My weakness has always been dessert. I've never met a cookie I didn't like. I can easily eat 3 or more cookies and still want more. But each one has around 250 calories, so just 3 cookies adds 750 calories to my daily intake. Do that on a regular basis and I'll be a balloon! And I crave these even when I've had a very filling meal. It's a different part of the brain that craves these. Nothing to do with being hungry.

 

[audreyh1]

My weakness has always been dessert. I've never met a cookie I didn't like. I can easily eat 3 or more cookies and still want more. But each one has around 250 calories, so just 3 cookies adds 750 calories to my daily intake. Do that on a regular basis and I'll be a balloon! And I crave these even when I've had a very filling meal. It's a different part of the brain that craves these. Nothing to do with being hungry.

L-glutamine (an amino acid, available as a powder) can reduce cravings, making it much, much easier to cut down on snacking on whatever.

 

[AllDone]

My weakness is roasted, salted nuts. I keep a few raw nuts in the freezer for baking, but I know better than to eat even one salted nut, because that's going to lead to something ugly. And yes, it certainly has nothing to do with hunger or silly theories about insulin and glucose.

 

[Moemg]

I think the portion sizes not only at fast food places but at regular restaurants is huge . I went out with some friends for lunch and ordered a cup of soup and a half a crab salad croissant . When the croissant came it was so huge I took home most of it . The last time we went to a Mexican restaurant they had the calorie count of all the items listed . We ended up having an appetizer and even that was sky high calories .

 

[audreyh1]

My weakness is roasted, salted nuts. I keep a few raw nuts in the freezer for baking, but I know better than to eat even one salted nut, because that's going to lead to something ugly. And yes, it certainly has nothing to do with hunger or silly theories about insulin and glucose.

Why do you think theories about insulin and glucose are silly?

 

[EastWest Gal]

It's just amazing his beginning of speech. It took millions of years of evolution to get to where man was in 1985. Of course, it could be argued it took billions of years.

Probably not billions of years. Eukaryotic cells made their appearance less than 2 billion years ago. The first multicellular organism may have appeared less than a billion years ago.

QUOTE=Elbata;1862647]Then less than a blink of the evolutionary eye, a mere 30 years, and 70% of US population is overweight. Incredible.

And what now is taught as the solution? Eat more fat. Oil, butter eggs. From my vantage point, we have no hope.[/QUOTE]

Absolutely eat more eggs, fish, olive oil. And leafy veggies. It doesn't mean eat 3000 calories. Eating this way leaves you less hungry, more energetic and alert as well. I find I'm satisfied on 1300-1400 calories eating this way. Also, it is much easier to get one's essential fatty acids from this way of eating.

The problem is we were told to eat low fat, and the food industry is making a killing with all the high carb and high sugar junk foods. This was codified by the U.S. government in 1977-78 in the development of the nutrition guidelines that may have had a lot of input from the food industry. Carbohydrates, grains, sugars, are cheap to produce and are shelf stable. Add a little salt and sugar and you have a really addicting food. Potato chips. Crackers are salty and sweet. Sweet cereals. The same thing happened in the UK at the same time. And they UK also has a big obesity problem. Wherever the western diet is adopted, obesity soon follows.

Delve into the subject and one realizes that Gary Taubes, Stephen Phinney MD, Andreas Eenfeldt MD, and others, may really be onto something.

Actually, the point is to basically stop eating so many carbs. If you don't get your energy from carbohydrates, you have to get it from the other macronutrients. Your choices are: fats and protein. You need protein, but if you take in enough to metabolize your protein for energy, there will be an increase in insulin levels. And excess protein does not turn into muscle, and it isn't very good for your kidneys. So that leaves fat. And some saturated fat isn't all bad, and we used to think that polyunsaturated fat was good fat, but omega-6 PUFAs are not, so it seems it's best to get most of your fat from monunsaturated fats--olive oil for example. We have essential fatty acids and essential amino acids. There are no essential carbohydrates.

 

[TrophyWife]

I just read about we are very iodine deficient in a book called The Iodine Crisis-good read. They take iodine out of our brad and replaced it with bromine that blocks iodine uptake. This could definitely be the link to the increase in obesity, cancers and mental health. I recently started and iodine protocol and the brain fog is gone! Happened to a friend of mine too.

 

[TrophyWife]

Doritos are my weakness and for that reason it is a rare day when I even go down that aisle in the store. When I fall off the wagon, which happens about twice a year, I am perfectly capable of eating all or most of a party size bag.

Funny you mention Doritos, just read a book called The Dorito Effect and the introduction of chemical flavorings.

 

[EastWest Gal]

It's just amazing his beginning of speech. It took millions of years of evolution to get to where man was in 1985. Of course, it could be argued it took billions of years.

Probably not billions of years. Eukaryotic cells made their appearance less than 2 billion years ago. The first multicellular organism may have appeared less than a billion years ago.

QUOTE=Elbata;1862647]Then less than a blink of the evolutionary eye, a mere 30 years, and 70% of US population is overweight. Incredible.

And what now is taught as the solution? Eat more fat. Oil, butter eggs. From my vantage point, we have no hope.[/QUOTE]

Absolutely eat more eggs, fish, olive oil. And leafy veggies. It doesn't mean eat 3000 calories. Eating this way leaves you less hungry, more energetic and alert as well. I find I'm satisfied on 1300-1400 calories eating this way. Also, it is much easier to get one's essential fatty acids from this way of eating.

The problem is we were told to eat low fat, and the food industry is making a killing with all the high carb and high sugar junk foods. This was codified by the U.S. government in 1977-78 in the development of the nutrition guidelines that may have had a lot of input from the food industry. Carbohydrates, grains, sugars, are cheap to produce and are shelf stable. Add a little salt and sugar and you have a really addicting food. Potato chips. Crackers are salty and sweet. Sweet cereals. The same thing happened in the UK at the same time. And they UK also has a big obesity problem. Wherever the western diet is adopted, obesity soon follows.

Delve into the subject and one realizes that Gary Taubes, Stephen Phinney MD, Andreas Eenfeldt MD, and others, may really be onto something.

Actually, the point is to basically stop eating so many carbs. If you don't get your energy from carbohydrates, you have to get it from the other macronutrients. Your choices are: fats and protein. You need protein, but if you take in enough to metabolize your protein for energy, there will be an increase in insulin levels. And excess protein does not turn into muscle, and it isn't very good for your kidneys. So that leaves fat. And some saturated fat isn't all bad, and we used to think that polyunsaturated fat was good fat, but omega-6 PUFAs are not, so it seems it's best to get most of your fat from monunsaturated fats--olive oil for example. We have essential fatty acids and essential amino acids. There are no essential carbohydrates.

 

[donheff]

I read Taubes' books several years ago, then Wheat Belly and a few others. The studies they quoted seemed compelling and the insulin theory they proposed as a reason sounded sensible to my lay ear. I became fascinated with the topic because despite being a naturally skinny youth I slowly gained about a pound a year over my entire adult life. I still wasn't obese but I definitely was overweight despite being very active (gym, 30+ mile bike rides). I dumped the sugar and processed carbs and dropped 35 pounds (18% of body weight) in a flash despite never counting a calorie and cranking up my meat and fats. Since then I have effortlessly kept the weight off (4 years now).

From what I have read (and I read a lot on the topic) Taubes, et al cherry picked the evidence for insulin being the culprit and probably misunderstand the very complex science of metabolism. Their insulin theory likely gets it wrong, but that doesn't mean they were wrong about the problems with the macro-nutrients they target. What can't be denied is Audrey's observation that the obesity problem has become epidemic and almost has to be diet related. Pretty much everybody agrees that sugar and highly processed carbs are bad for you. My study of N=1 convinced me that you have to find a diet that minimizes those culprits without leading to constant hunger and frustration and then just stick to it. For people like me, that will include a lot of meats and fats (chicken wings anyone) but for others it will involve lots of vegetables and low fat. The important thing is to avoid sugar and processed carbs - that means watching labels for added sugars and carb counts in general. Often the low fat items on the shelves are loaded with those bad guys to increase palatability.

Just another anecdotal observation. I was eating breakfast at a Cracker Barrel a couple of years ago (yeah, I know) and saw a fascinating photo on the wall. It was a picture of about 100 workers outside a mill of some sort. They were all lean and healthy looking despite being a mix of ages. I looked in vain for a single obese individual. A similar photo taken today would almost be the reverse.

 

[athena53]

Does obesity decrease as income increases? I get the impression that obesity rates are highest among the lowest income groups. Which leads me to believe that the cheapest food is a culprit, and the cheapest food is usually the highest processed carb stuff. Buying good quality meat and vegetables is expensive.

Yes. I haven't read all the posts here but I'm passionate about this subject so I may repeat points already made. We all pay for obesity- the health problems it causes, the way it complicates other conditions (including Worker's Comp. claims), even the hard time obese people have getting jobs (yes, there is discrimination and there are some physical jobs they can't do, so they're unable to be as productive as the could be). When people on FB complain about the high cost of health care I try to remind them of things which can be prevented. They don't want to hear it.

OK, I'll list my to 5 factors.

1. Poverty- the working poor, especially, don't have time or money for gyms and may believe that the drive-through lane is easier and cheaper than cooking at home.

2. Culture- people who come from families that worked farms or construction may still chow down on the same old family recipes that worked for their ancestors who needed far more calories. Then there's the "show your love by feeding people" mentality, which can be taken to extremes.

3. Processed food. So cheap. So easy. My mother used to make doughnuts and french fries. Not very often- it was work. Now you can defrost Ore-Idas in the microwave any time you want. Big Food has also gotten very good at engineering food so that you want more- especially with added sugar. And sugar is in EVERYTHING. I'm borderline diabetic for no reason I can fathom and it's hard to find things without added sugar (unless they have aspartame in them- yuck.) High-fructose corn syrup is evil. I also believe that "real" food- including butter and other animal fats- can be far more satisfying than processed, so you eat less.

4. Many people don't know how to cook. Well, maybe Blue Apron will help. I get sad when I'm in line behind people at my grocery store who are buying with an EBT card (the "eligible" subtotal shows up on the monitor and sometimes they have to pay cash for items not covered). I'm buying cabbage and bananas and onions and they're buying energy drinks and processed foods.

5. As has been noted earlier, there's very little reason to get off the couch, even to change the channel or go shopping. Suburbia is made for people with cars. Parking lots of strip shopping centers are so big that even I tend to get back into the car to go to a store on the far end of the parking lot from the store I just left.

 

[Nemo2]

1. Poverty- the working poor, especially, don't have time or money for gyms

Reminds me of an old Shoe comic strip; Cosmo, (the 'Perfessor'), says "I'd like to exercise, but the track is a mile from here, and I've no way of getting there".......(or words to that effect).

 

[MRG]

Lot of good information in this thread.

I am amazed by walking through a Walmart. How many isles of chips, cookies and non-nutritious food are there? Processed meals laden with sugar and sodium is the majority of the grocery sections.

When DW and I started to diet we changed everything. I cleaned out the pantry and threw out everything. The things we ate resembled what our parents and grandparents ate. We did count calories after a month, found we could eat more. Bring on the eggs and butter, fats keep me fuller, longer.

I do spend a little time on the MFP boards. It's sad to see young people posting they have no cooking ability! None, zero. Like boiled water has a recipe!

There was a recent poster who was asking for help as she was pre-diabetic and her doc told her what to avoid. Now she's admitted she had never cooked an egg and has no idea where to start. The person is lower income and didn't have any idea of how to buy food or prepare a real meal. Sadly there's a whole bunch of people who appear to be in the same situation.

 

[ERD50]

I will skip this video. The reason is, when I see data being tortured like this, I have no faith in the remaining presentation:

USA Obesity Epidemic - how fast it happened!!! 25 years!

1985 - many states didn't collect data as obesity wasn't a serious health concern, and <10 states has obesity rates >10%.

1987 - More states have data. More have obesity rates >10%

Of course more states are reporting higher obesity rates, because more states are reporting data! Note that the 1985 data is an absolute number (<10). I bet you could also say more states reported normal weights as well!

It might mean something if they said a higher percentage of states reported high obesity rates. But the numbers are probably too low to make meaningful comparisons.

This whole health and weight and diet and exercise arena is a complicated thing, and bad data doesn't help.

-ERD50

 

[REWahoo]

I am amazed by walking through a Walmart. How many isles of chips, cookies and non-nutritious food are there? Processed meals laden with sugar and sodium is the majority of the grocery sections.

I don't have a dog in this fight but overheard my daughter last night talking about her company's declining sales and struggle to keep up with the changing food preferences of the American public.

She works for a private company that produces, among other food-related products, flour and other baking ingredients. Sales of those products have declined steeply over the past few years - apparently no one cooks any more. The company also makes a number of "just add water" mixes and sales of those are way down, too. Apparently even that's too much trouble.

Maybe laziness leads to weight gain on multiple levels...

 

[Amethyst]

Just like inferior coffee made with an expensive one-use pod is preferred over grinding a few beans (20 seconds), putting it in a filter and adding a carafe of water (another 60 seconds, max) and then waiting another 120 seconds for far richer, more delicious (and much cheaper) coffee. Those 3.5 minutes are just too precious to waste!

I The company also makes a number of "just add water" mixes and sales of those are way down, too. Apparently even that's too much trouble.

Maybe laziness leads to weight gain on multiple levels...

 

[Music Lover]

Just like inferior coffee made with an expensive one-use pod is preferred over grinding a few beans (20 seconds), putting it in a filter and adding a carafe of water (another 60 seconds, max) and then waiting another 120 seconds for far richer, more delicious (and much cheaper) coffee. Those 3.5 minutes are just too precious to waste!

Pre-retirement, I used to grind beans and take a thermos of coffee to the office. One other person came in with a travel mug of coffee, but all the other coffee drinkers in the group (30 or so people) used to buy take out coffee. It never made sense to me...

 

[brett]

We have bought coffee beans, ground them to order, and used a Melita filter for the past years or so.

Server in Starbucks last year started to tell us that this 'pour over' was something new and implied that it was exclusive to Starbucks. She just gave my spouse a look when DW told her that we have been doing it for years. Wonder if they tell anyone that a french press is a Starbucks innovation?

 

[audreyh1]

I will skip this video. The reason is, when I see data being tortured like this, I have no faith in the remaining presentation:

USA Obesity Epidemic - how fast it happened!!! 25 years!



Of course more states are reporting higher obesity rates, because more states are reporting data! Note that the 1985 data is an absolute number (<10). I bet you could also say more states reported normal weights as well!

It might mean something if they said a higher percentage of states reported high obesity rates. But the numbers are probably too low to make meaningful comparisons.

This whole health and weight and diet and exercise arena is a complicated thing, and bad data doesn't help.

-ERD50

This is a really minor objection, IMO. So just track the states that DID have data from 1985, and you still see the explosion. By 1991 all but three states had data, so you still see the explosion from 1991 to 2010. I tried to summarize this part of the video in my bullets, poorly worded perhaps, but the data are clear in the CDC maps.

It might be better to watch the video before complaining about bad data based on my amateur summary.