I'm probably in the minority here in saying that the changes in lifestyle and food availability are not the driving force; the argument that just because we have cheaper "fattening" food and don't get enough exercise doesn't cut it.
All that the stuff about more expensive and more difficult to prepare "healthy" food and watching too much TV, and not going outside to play as much, all of that might be true, but I just don't think those factors are the driving cause of the obesity epidemic. I don't think it has to do with having less self-control now than in the previous generation. Yes, I'm letting all the fat people off the hook...it's not their fault. It's not evil food companies that make food "too good" either. There was Coke, milkshakes, pancakes with syrup, all that stuff, before the obesity epidemic and after.
This is what convinces me that the people who suggest that something in our diet throws off homeostasis - just a bit - are right.
I'll generalize even further. Something in
or not in our diet throws off homeostasis.
It's all about appetite.
You can argue 'till you're blue in the face about what macro-nutrient profile should be, but if whatever you do doesn't satisfy you, you'll either struggle and quickly fail, or struggle and eventually fail. This is why you can't get a straight answer out of the human diet studies; if they are properly controlled, they're too short to be meaningful.
Which brings me back to my idea of what DID change, and change significantly, between before and after the obesity epidemic. Karen picked up on one of the studies that helps substantiate the idea:
... it also touched on the study I saw from the UK where they took gut bacteria from a skinny mouse and put it in a fat mouse, and the fat mouse lost weight.
There has been discussion of bowel bacteria transplants. (Assuming they can figure out which ones are the desired ones)
That's a huge question that needs answering. There's work being done at a company called uBiome where you can get your gut microbiome sequenced. You won't get back any actionable information, but you can optionally let them use your de-personalized / aggregated information to help figure out the puzzle. There's a thread I started a while back that talks about
what's in us and on us, and how it affects our well being. It's already a big topic in that prebiotics and probiotics are showing up everywhere, but mark my words, discoveries in the area of the human microflora are going to be the next big health revolution.