Obesity, Diabetes, and Other Diseases vs Food Trends in Pictures
I think there is a saying that goes like “Tell me and I will forget but show me and I’ll remember”. Well we are always talking about the pressing issues such as obesity, diabetes and other diseases, and how our food/lifestyle effect them. Here are some interesting graphs on the trends that have been going on. Pictures make a bigger statement sometimes than words will ever do, so I’m hoping these make a lasting impact for those that may need it.
Who says fat makes you fat, excess calorie make you fat....and it looks like we have upped the carb intake.
I think we can all agree that we know over the last few decades the calories have gone up and our activity gone down (a recipe for fat gain). Proteins and fat lowered a bit % wise, but carb% increased dramatically (primarily thanks to the whole “low fat” movement that could turn out the be the worst advice ever given). We are not saying carbs are the enemy, but we know that quality matters…..so let’s see where we are getting our carbs from.
Carbs as a whole are not the evil force against us, but you still have to break down the quality of those sources. Our largest increases in carbs are coming from cereal grains and sugar.
While fruits and vegetables have marginally increased, cereal grains and sugars have skyrocketed. With the increase in cereal grains also comes the increase of potentially damaging proteins known as lectins, that are linked to increase insulin (and leptin) resistance.
Dietary interventions should compare effects of agrarian and non-agrarian diets on incidence of diseases of affluence, related risk factors and leptin resistance. A non-significant (p = 0.10) increase of cardiovascular mortality was noted in patients advised to eat more whole-grain cereals. Our lab conducted a study on 24 domestic pigs in which a cereal-free hunter-gatherer diet promoted significantly higher insulin sensitivity, lower diastolic blood pressure and lower C-reactive protein as compared to a cereal-based swine feed.
Lectins can also be transported through the gut wall into the blood circulation, where they directly influence peripheral tissues and body metabolism through the binding to glycosylated structures, such as the insulin receptor, the epidermal growth factor receptor and the interleukin 2 receptor.
Sugar and all it's hiding places are your worst enemy in the battle of weight loss.
The trend of replacing stable/healthy fats with processed destructive fats is not helping disease prevention
I’m hoping more people are getting over the whole “fat” paranoia out there (as we recently talked about in Butter vs Margarine in this post). Want stable and healthy cell membranes, then have healthy fats (not easily oxidized/damaged fats such as trans or polyunsaturated vegetable oils).
One other important factor coming up in all disease prevention is Vit D deficiency. Vit D, a FAT soluble vitamin.
Modern diets usually do not provide adequate amounts of vitamin D partly because of the trend to low fat foods and partly because we no longer eat vitamin-D-rich foods like naturally reared poultry and fatty fish such as kippers, and herring. Often we are advised to consume the egg white while the D is in the yolk or we eat the flesh of the fish avoiding the D containing skin, organs and fat. Sun avoidance combined with reduction in food sources contribute to escalating D deficiencies.
from: http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/vitamindmiracle.html
Replacing skim for whole milk is not a healthy move.
Again we are scared off fat (esp sat fat) by the mainstream, and replace it with low fat dairy. When it turns out that the skim/low fat versions are actually not as healthy as they are advertised:
Of further concern, one group of researchers found that up to 70% of milk containers sampled had less than the stated value of vitamin D. In addition, consumers are increasingly switching to lower fat versions of milk. In one report, three of 14 skim milk containers sampled had no measurable vitamin D, while another studyfound that up to 47% of skim milk samples contained 0% to 50% of the amount of vitamin D claimed on the label, underscoring the fact that skim milk may be an inadequate source of vitamin D.
Lastly, part of the problem is the continuos intake of feast....with no time for famine as the body was programmed to survive.
Simple case of too much energy, not enough expenditure will lead to an inefficient working energy system (metabolic system). Periodic lower periods of energy input help transition to better fat burning metabolism. Intermittent periods of fasting can even help improve insulin sensitivity (and lower insulin) and the overall efficiency of the glucose metabolism.
So what did we learn?
- We are eating too much and not active enough
- Carbs have increased, and we are getting too much of the wrong kinds (cereal grains and sugar)
- Ditch the margarine and get back whole butter
- If you are going to drink milk, drink whole (and preferably raw) not skim.
- Vit D deficiency is a real thing, so get some sun and healthy fats (especially some Cod Liver Oil)
- Your body wasn’t designed to feast all the time and never have a famine, take time off with lower intakes or some IF (intermittent fasting) to help improve your glucose metabolism (or increase your risk of diabetes and all other diseases in the process)
Photo sources: www.preventivecare.com, www.fao.org, www.ca.uky.edu, www.proteinpower.com, www.webexhibits.org
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19 Reader Comments
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Great article. Sometimes pictures speak louder than words! The lack of quality fats in our diet, and particularly the lack of fat-soluble vitamins like Vitamin D is leading us to a place most of us don’t want to go to…
Thanks for pulling all this data together in one place.
Cheers,
KristenM
(AKA FoodRenegade)
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Nice one. That’s a good collection of graphs you’ve put together. It’s not hard to see where we went wrong.
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Excellent article and graphs!
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FoodRenegade – I like pictures, it sinks better into my own head….as we can talk about something day in and out…and then people see a graph and get the “Ah-Hah” moment of understanding. Once we truly understand something, then it’s with us forever (a zen thing).
Stephan – thanks….just saw your PUFA (Poly Unsaturated Fats) chart in your post here, that is scary!
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Wow – good stuff!
I have been trying to convince my medical colleagues of this but they need to see it in a study. But it ain’t gonna happen. There is no money to be made unless you can sell someone on some packaged food, cereal, or high-fructose corn syrup.
Look how skinny everyone was in the 1970s (look at a sitcom from that period). And no, it wasn’t doing drugs. We were eating “junk food”: whole milk, butter, fatty foods, bacon, cheeseburgers.
Now the fattest people are doing seconds and thirds at the salad bar and they look at my steak and eggs like I am doing something wrong. And the biggest aisle in the supermarket is the cereal aisle – we won’t even get started on the evils of wheat products.
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As others have said, pictures speak lower than words.
Thank you!
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“We are eating too much and not active enough”
And I just finished reading through the GCBC excerpts on the posted site.
Taubes comes to these conclusions about the time-honored advise to ‘eat less, move more’.
“5. Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating, and not sedentary behavior. ”
“6. Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter, any more than it causes a child to grow taller. Expending more energy than we consume does not lead to long-term weight loss; it leads to hunger. ”
(copied from site; list of 10 important points of discussion on diet/nutrition research)
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What is the acronym IF that you used at the end?
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IF = Intermittent Fasting
Mike – I would suggest that in future articles, ALL of the Life Spotlight writers define all acronyms when they are first used, and also provide a helpful link to a Life Spotlight article that expands in detail that particular term.
This is a great website! However – if one of your goals is to attract and retain new readers who are unfamiliar with other-than-mainstream health news, I would suggest that you will need to assume your average reader does not know all the jargon. It’s been my observation that many of the articles here seem to be written for like-minded people in the know, rather than new readers. It falls to you and the other writers to define that jargon in a user-friendly fashion, if you wish to expand your educational scope. Just my two cents.
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Peter – Funny you should say that, as I was walking through the bookstore and saw a book called “skinny women don’t eat salads”.
Micki – IF is Intermittent Fasting, that you can read more about here:
http://lifespotlight.com/health/2008/02/27/intermittent-fasting-101-how-to-start-part-i/
Angel – thanks for the feedback. I actually did link to the IF 101 in the post above under the words “intermittent periods of fasting”. The last “IF” mentioning must of slipped by me, and will go clarify it above. We are also working on a free report for all new (and current) subscribers to give them background on most of the core values we talk about and terms…that should be done shortly as well and available for everyone.
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Great – Thank you so much
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Excellent article. History, facts, recommendations. All in one. Congratulations!
Cheers.
Raúl.
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Did you really mean to say increase (in the paranthasis below), or am I missing something? Should it not be “decrease your risk of diabetes and all other diseases in the process??”
“Your body wasn’t designed to feast all the time and never have a famine, take time off with lower intakes or some IF (intermittent fasting) to help improve your glucose metabolism (or increase your risk of diabetes and all other diseases in the process)”
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Dave – Yes, but it probably is coming across wrong….the message being is to take steps to improve your glucose metabolism OR ELSE you may end up increasing your risk of diabetes and other diseases…..if that makes more sense.
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[...] height and times to comments. Food Trends in Pictures – [...]
The carbohydrate increase only happen in the last 30 years or so. You you look further back, in the beginning of last century, people were eating the same amount of carbs they eat today and there was not an obesity epidemic. So you can’t blaim the amount of carbs for the current obesity epidemic. But no doubt the total calorie ammount is important, as well as the types of carbs and possibly the types of fats. But food is not everything, physical activity and lifestyle is also very important. Health is multifactorial and one can’t blaim a single nutrient of lack of it as being the sole responsible for modern conditions like obesity and others. Here are some US nutritional statistics of the last 100 years: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/publications/foodsupply/FoodSupply1909-2000.pdf and http://ers.usda.gov/Data/FoodConsumption/spreadsheets/nutrients07.xls
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Here’s another interesting site with more graphs on consumption breakdown as well: http://www.thecooksden.com/calories/
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Iam just alittle concerned about wheat bread being one of our evils.
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