Today I am going to discuss the epidemic that causes most of the health problems we encounter in modern society. What is it? It’s the Obesity Epidemic in America and the rest of the developed world. As a nation, we are FAT. Really fat. As a matter of fact, 36.2% of the US was obese in 2022 according to a quick Google machine search.
Why and how do we fix it?
Great questions Murph.
In this Log, I will give you my opinions which are based on a few things:
- My 3 decades of experience as a Nutritionist
- Common sense
- Paying attention to history and events
First up, why are we so fat?
Well, there are a lot of reasons but in my opinion, a short list is:
- We are no longer hunter/gatherers as a society
- We don’t move as much due to this
- We eat a metric shit ton of highly processed, low nutrient foods that are high in refined carbohydrates (poison)
- A massive misinformation campaign by the Government and food companies and the medical community (who I believe is well intentioned, but just wrong).
Let’s dig into The Obesity Epidemic in America and my ideas as to why we are here.
We are no longer hunter/gatherers as a society and we don’t move as much as we used to due to this.
This is pretty simple. In the near past, not too many of us had a sedentary lifestyle, a sedentary job or ultra easy access to food. People worked physical jobs, they lived on their feet, not their asses and food was not easily accessible.
I don’t feel the need to over explain this as it should be glaringly obvious. If we don’t move, we don’t burn calories. If we don’t burn enough calories, we get fat.
Next on the List of The Obesity Epidemic in America: We eat a metric shit ton of highly processed, low nutrient foods that are high in refined carbohydrates (poison)
Going back to the not so long ago, even when I was a kid 45 years or so ago, the food we ate was different. It was better. Go back 75 or 100 years and it was even better. The food we consumed was mostly real, whole food.
Delivery and take out, or fast food was a rare occasion and a treat. People cooked and shopped at local stores for fresh, nutritious food. This is very similar to other countries now like Italy.
They have a much higher quality of food there for many reasons including the the way they farm is different and the pesticides, chemicals and additives allowed in foods there are far more restrictive than they are here. This leads to more nutritious food and better health with lower obesity.
Highly processed foods and refined carbohydrates have little to no nutritional value.
They are truly empty calories and they make up a massive amount of the average American’s diet. I think I want to coin the term Trojan Horse calories because there ae not really empty. They are full calories, but not full of anything good. They are full of treachery and bad health.
More research comes out all the time showing the medical community got it all wrong and the Government did too (typical) when it comes to suggesting what foods we should eat over the last 3 or 5 decades. The original food pyramid is partially to blame because it suggested that Trojan Horse calories make up the foundation of our diet. Trojan Horse calories are refined carbs. The base of the food pyramid had cereal, bread and pasta as the highest percentage of food that you should eat.
Anyone with half a brain should be able to figure out that these foods are not your best choices in the amount and type listed.
Why?
As I said, they are Trojan Horse calories. Without getting into all of the bad they do like trigger insulin resistance, send signals to your brain to eat more of them, I am going to talk about one thing:
They raise your cholesterol and triglycerides.
Now without getting into a debate on cholesterol, let’s just say that in my opinion, high triglycerides are more of a concern than high cholesterol. Refined carbohydrates drastically raise both of these. I base my opinion on research by the way.
I’ll bet your doctor doesn’t even know this and tells you to avoid beef, eggs and fat. That is some piss poor medical advice kids. Look up studies on ingested cholesterol and raised levels of blood cholesterol. You’ll be surprised.
Then do the same for refined carbs.
And don’t do it on Google.
It will be filtered. Trust me, I did a side by side search for this log using Google and another engine. Google did not come back with any results to support my argument. The other came back with hundreds.
More discussion on The Obesity Epidemic in America:
A massive misinformation campaign by the Government, the poorly educated on nutrition medical community and food companies.
Yes, there is a big money misinformation campaign about food and what you should eat and what you should not.
Currently, there is a trend where “experts” are telling you to avoid beef and eggs or you’ll die early and have all sorts of bad shit happen (I’m exaggerating a little). This is odd because our ancestors have been eating the exact things they tell us to avoid for centuries and they did not have the health problems in frequency and type that we do.
And taking nutrition advice from a fat billionaire with 48DDD man boobs probably not the best thing you can do.
The most overt disinformation campaign started with the original guidelines in the 1970’s I think. And got worse in 1992 with the updated Food Pyramid. Your government told you to eat 6-11 servings of cereal, bread and pasta as the base of your caloric intake daily, but only 2-3 servings of protein.
And!
Research is manipulated to get the results the food companies want. I have always said that if you read a study, look at who funded it before you give it any validity. If you pay attention to any media, you will find a new study comes out telling you something ridiculous that defies common sense weekly. Chances are it was funded by the food lobby. Soy and sugar are two of the big ones.
Neither of those foods are good for us and may actually be toxic.
As a matter of FACT, as far back as 1965 we have evidence of this misinformation campaign!
The sugar industry funded studies to say the Coronary Heart Disease was caused by fat and ingested cholesterol when all of the legit research said it was sucrose. I’d argue that this was the case in the 90’s when low fat was all the rage too and they invented poison like Snackwells for your health.
Listen, if you think I sound like a lunatic conspiracy theorist, you are right because I am one. But, all of what I am telling you now is true and easily proven. Look it up.
The government, Big Food, Big Pharma have no interest in keeping you healthy, the need you dependent on them.
Why on Earth would you consider listening when they tell you that foods that come from the ground and trees, the sea and animals are far worse for us then the packaged “plant based” chemical and refined sugar bombs they throw at you?
They are lying.
More disinformation.
Instead of telling people the cause of The Obesity Epidemic in America is due to a low protein, high refined carb diet and a lack of movement, our government tells us that obesity is a disease and it is not solved through nutrition and exercise.
Yes, this was said.
We also have Doctors politicizing obesity by saying it is caused by racism and unjust food systems.
Yes, this is also true.
An article in the Boston Herald last week by Doctor Sarah Hampl stated this. And my head almost exploded when I read it.
Being fat is not racist. Being fat is not unjust.
Being fat is either a choice of yours, or your parents (if you are a kid). We get fat because we eat too many calories and don’t move enough. It really is as simple as that.
So, what do we do about it?
The old TV show Mad TV had a sketch Eat less, Move more.
And there is a misinformation campaign now to say that eating less and moving more does not help you get less fat. C’mon.
What do we do about the Obesity Epidemic in America?
Let’s do a few things and see what happens.
- First, eat protein from real animal sources. Chicken, beef, fish, eggs. Lot of it.
- Second, eat a moderate amount of wholesome and unprocessed carbohydrates.
- Next, eat healthy and natural whole fat like olive oil and nuts.
- Avoid processed and refined carbs.
- Run as fast and as far as you can from seed oils
- Eat fruit.
- Do not listen to the talking heads and billionaires that tell you to eat a plant based diet that comes from the food they process and make in their factories.
- Don’t listen to things that defy common sense and reason.
- Don’t fall for fads.
- Don’t eat things that are sent to you already prepared in a box from a delivery person.
- Move your body.
- Strength train.
- Move your body more.
- Stop eating before you are full.
- Shop a few times a week for fresh food.
- DO NOT FOLLOW THE FOOD PYRAMID.
- Use common sense.
- Finally, if you have kids, make them move and feed them real food, not juice boxes and froot strips. Teach them to love real, whole food.
Did you miss last week’s log?
Read it here.
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Vincere vel mori
C.J. Murphy
February 17, 2023
