Becoming overweight doesn’t happen quickly and the obesity epidemic didn’t happen overnight. Obesity has been on the rise since about 1980 and is now at epidemic proportions. How and why did obesity start; we didn’t suddenly become a country of overly hungry people eating and drinking every calorie in sight, or did we.
How Obesity Starts
You’re in a hurry and you need to get something to eat. So you go and get a fast food meal, day after day. It doesn’t have to be fast food; it can also be processed foods and junk foods.
And those fats and calories add up quickly. But when you are hungry and don’t have much time, you just want to eat. Obesity is eating too much of the wrong foods and that is how becoming overweight starts.
Has Fast Food Brainwashed Our Stomachs?
A lot of us grew up being told to finish everything that was on our plates, which isn’t bad depending on what and how much is on your plate.
These two new products were high corn fructose syrup (HFCS) and palm oil. The high corn fructose syrup reduced the amount of sugar that had to go into soft drinks, and about every other food that required any sugar.
One opponent testified at the Agriculture Committee hearings that palm oil has more saturated fat than hog lard.
These cheaper ingredients allowed fast-food places to start selling cheaper and larger drinks and meals, eventually to the point of the super-size meals.
A normal McDonald's meal that used to be 540 calories is now 1550 calories [1]. What was once a normal 12-ounce bottle of coke has now become the Big Gulp 64 ounce soda pop.
As the serving sizes increased, so did the number of calories, sodium, refined carbs, and saturated fat. As this increased, slowly over time we became used to these sizes, and we order, we sit and we eat and drink all of it, everything on our plates or in the bags.
We have just become used to the bigger-sized meals as being normal. Our stomachs became brainwashed.
Chemicals in Our Food
Many believe that the obesity epidemic starts around the same time the low-fat craze started. When fats were taken out of sweets and foods, much of the flavor disappeared.
To compensate, food companies started adding more and more chemicals and food enhancers to these low-fat foods.
Today, processed foods and many everyday foods have lists of ingredients most of us have no idea what they are.
Recent studies are finding that some of these chemical additives could possibly affect our hormones that are supposed to tell our brain when we are full and not hungry anymore.
These chemicals are called obesogens, and they can disrupt our hormones that regulate hunger and satiety, and cause obesity.
Below is a list that shows just how much more food we eat per person today as compared to 1900. Most of these foods are fattening.
Even though we keep hearing that certain oils are healthy for us, they are really not healthy. Vegetable oils are pure fat and fat has twice the calories than carbs or protein do.
Carbs and protein have 4 calories per gram, while fat has 9 calories per gram. Between 1900 and 2000, there has been an increase of 1,750% in the use of oil, and much of this since 1970.
Food
|
1900
|
2000
|
Sugar (lbs/year)
|
5
|
170
|
Soft drinks (gallons/year)
|
0
|
53
|
Oils (lbs/year)
|
4
|
74
|
Cheese (lbs/year)
|
2
|
30
|
Meat (lbs/year)
|
140
|
200
|
Homegrown produce (lbs/year)
|
131
|
11
|
Calories
|
2,100
|
2,757
|
More and More Calories
As a people, we certainly haven’t become hungrier, have we? Yet we sit down to feasts that 100 years ago would be as they say, “fit for a king”, every day at lunch, dinner, and snacks.
The USDA study found that most of the increased calories have come from snacking. Since 1984 the average weight of American men has increased from 168 to 180 pounds. In this same time period, the average weight of women increased from 142 to 152 pounds.
A survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that between 1978 and 1996, the consumption of calories increased by 268 calories for men and 143 calories for women per year.
The food supply in the United States has also increased. In 1978 the food supply was 3,200 calories per person.
By 1999 this had risen to 3,900 calories per person. We haven’t become more sedentary, really, since 1980 in our jobs--not by the percentage increase that obesity has climbed.
The obesity rate in children is climbing faster. According to the USDA, children today don’t work any more or less than they did in 1980.
Americans on average eat 374 calories more per day than they did in 1970. And few people are more active today than the average American was in 1970, so those extra calories are not being used up.
They are being accumulated as fat. Eating an extra 374 calories per day if not used equals approximately a 36 pound gain each year. [1] You cannot exercise
away an unhealthy diet, especially when you're eating hundreds or thousands of calories above the calories you need per day.
The Lack of Fiber
Fiber is important for our health and our waistline. Eating a high-fat diet with little fiber causes the bad gut bacteria to grow out of control, crowding out the good gut bacteria.
Good gut bacteria can help us from getting overweight, lose weight and boosts our immune system.
Getting Obese Is Too Easy
are tied together. It isn’t only fast-food where you drive up to a window, order, and park and eat your meal. It is also the processed foods that you can just pop into the microwave.
No preparation or cooking really. Processed foods have almost as much and sometimes as much fat, calories, and sodium as fast food does. If only Americans could learn how to say no to unhealthy foods,obesity might start to decline.
Obesity Spreads with Fast Food
Conclusion
Another problem cited is the fact that meals are not cooked at home as much. When you cook your own meals you are able to leave out much of the unhealthy fats, calories, oils, and additives that are found in the processed foods.
About the Author
Sam Montana is a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Forum Health Center and certified in optimal nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
© 2009-2019 Sam Montana
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