I became curious about the history of obesity and came across two papers that seemed to disagree with each other in a single but I think important way:
A trip through the history of obesity
And,
The Origins of the Obesity Epidemic in the USA–Lessons for Today
I decided to write to the author of the latter paper, and then decided to make it a blog post:
Greetings,
I hope you don't mind comments from the public. I am writing to question your thesis that fat and carbs had little to do with obesity in the USA. I'll get right to the point, the history of obesity goes way back:
Of course there was no gluttony among hunter gatherer populations, it began with civilization and wealth. The basic instincts of hunter gatherers are still with us (biological evolution is gradual), and then as now are to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and conserve energy. The couch potato set-up. The basic problem is the profusion of calories (fats and carbs both) that occurred with the technologies of modern farming, refrigeration, and transportation, combined with modern "conveniences" that allow unconscious free reign to the instincts.
However I agree that modern ultra processed diets are additionally very health destructive caused by adding high levels of toxicity to the standard diet and lifestyle of too many calories per unit of work. How could anyone not agree with that? Yes obesity is a disease that degrades and shortens life, but it is primarily the toxins in ultra processed food-like substances that have created the epidemic of chronic diseases in young and old, obese and non-obese alike.
So the many modern metabolic diseases are an overdetermined problem, caused by the proliferation of calories, the technologies of convenience and comfort, and the addition of high levels of the extreme toxicities of ultra processed foods.
How did I come to this perspective? I'm 71 years old. At age 50 I was told by two cardiologists I had advanced CVD and the odds of near term heart attack were high. Instead of modern medical interventions I began consuming the literature of what might be called "the cause of health". The first eye opener was Caldwell Esselstyne's book "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease ''.
Following that were the hundreds of published works of the increasing number of MDs who were regularly reversing chronic diseases, primarily with a simple change of diet to whole foods, with additional lifestyle changes. They raise their voices to the extent possible, but are not promoted by the powerful healthcare industry that profits from chronic diseases, and is the biggest part of GDP by a large margin. It's mostly unconscious turf war biases that cause pharmacology to even go so far as to sabotage these health promoting voices.
I'll mention one other book that was helpful to this layman, "The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health & Happiness" written by Doug Lisle and Alan Goldhamer of "True North" fasting clinic in Santa Rosa, CA, which has been saving and changing lives since 1984. Alan Goldhamer probably knows more about medically supervised fasting than any human in history.
We agree on the essential piece, whole foods are critically important for health. We may disagree however in that I feel the current chronic disease epidemic is an overdetermined problem.
Best regards and keep up the good work!
Dave King
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