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Americans enjoy how a convenient pill can "fix" their micronutrient problems and make them "healthier." In reality, their macronutrients are so imbalanced that

Americans enjoy how a convenient pill can "fix" their micronutrient problems and make them "healthier." In reality, their macronutrients are so imbalanced that these little micronutrients do little to counterbalance overall bad dietary choices. Specifically - the carbohydrate-heavy diet in the USA is unequivocally contributing to skyrocketing rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Separately - I'm surprised that this article does not mention Vitamin D. Recent research seems to indicate that it is so important that it is closer to a hormone than a vitamin. [1] [1] https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/88/2/491S/4649916 https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/88/2/491S/4649916 Edit: For anybody interested in this topic, check out the product and blog of the startup Virta Health. They are using diet to cure type 2 diabetes. Raised $45M this week. (I'm not associated with them). https://www.virtahealth.com/ https://www.virtahealth.com/

namelost 9y ago
The American diet isn't carbohydrate-heavy, it's food-heavy. Americans eat a lot more of every macronutrient than the average person on this planet.
- gepi79 9y ago
  I guess a grey font means being downvoted. For those who tend to downvote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_macronutrients https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_macronutrients Regarding low carb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dj-Wmmt0FE&feature=youtu.be&t=303 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dj-Wmmt0FE&feature=youtu.be...
- philip1209 9y ago
  I disagree. I believe that the core of these problems are carbohydrates. Insulin spikes from carbohydrate consumption cause fat retention. Sugar doesn't create satiety, so it compounds eating. The "it's an over-eating problem" fallacy keeps getting introduced by sugar companies. It happened in the states, then moved to South America, and is currently hitting India [1]. It's a playbook by the sugar industry that echoes of the tobacco industry's old tactics. Suddenly, societies that have maintained healthy BMIs for thousands of years are having obesity problems as sugar gets introduced. They didn't develop gluttony overnight - it's a sugar problem. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/health/india-diabetes-junk-food.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/health/india-diabetes-jun... Edit: Sugar is basically weaponized carbohydrates.
  - gepi79 9y ago
    A high carb diet does not mean a high sugar diet. Besides, obesity means basically too many calories no matter the source. The worst case: fat + sugar.
    - Sargos 9y ago
      Obesity is caused by eating too much. Carbs and sugars are the primary drivers of people eating too much in the United States.
    - philip1209 9y ago
      "Dietary fat is not a major determinant of body fat." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12566139 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12566139 "Do calories matter?" https://peterattiamd.com/do-calories-matter/ https://peterattiamd.com/do-calories-matter/
    - base698 9y ago
      Try to eat 3000 calories of sugar or donuts one day then try to eat 3000 calories of steak. If I have even 1800 calories of steak I won't need to eat the rest of the day.
      - notheguyouthink 9y ago
        More specifically, you won't want to eat more. Sugar is so crazy energy dense without making you sated. It's sort of nuts.
        deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - gepi79 9y ago
        Try to eat 3000 calories in a vegan way without cheating by eating lots of processed vegan food like candy, fat or oil. Nobody eats only steak. People want fat and carbs for the taste.
- benpiper 9y ago
  Correct, and excess carbs only exacerbate the problem for people who can't process them properly. You can eat a high calorie, low carbohydrate diet and still gain weight and develop related health problems. Likewise, some people can eat a restricted calorie diet, but if they still eat a lot of carbs, will develop health issues.
  - benpiper 9y ago
    Gotta love it when people downvote proven scientific facts.
- nradov 9y ago
  Sure but it's not a uniquely American problem. Some other countries are even worse, and others are catching up fast. In a few decades this will be a worldwide issue.
CryoLogic 9y ago
Hormone just means any type of signaling molecule produced by your body. So no vitamins are in anyway similar to hormones. There are also hormones you can live without, so not all are required.
- LMYahooTFY 9y ago
  The research does seem to indicate that Vitamin D is in fact a hormone.
ojbyrne 9y ago
Perhaps it excludes Vitamin D on purpose because it isn’t being criticized. Though it actually does mention it near the end, in the context of a soon to be released study.
molloy 9y ago
Actually, it's more likely that the issue is we're not eating a mostly whole foods, plant-based diet. It's not carbs that are the problem, but refined carbs certainly are a problem. They're not what our bodies evolved to thrive on. I highly recommend watching Dr. Greger's talk at Google[0] on the subject, or reading his book[1]. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rNY7xKyGCQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rNY7xKyGCQ [1] https://nutritionfacts.org/book/ https://nutritionfacts.org/book/
- philip1209 9y ago
  Seem like two sides of the same coin. It's replacing a good thing with a bad thing. Government agricultural subsidies benefit sugarcane and corn production, resulting in fewer vegetables and more sugar.
- scythe 9y ago
  There are lots of people with doctorates who give talks, many of which contradict each other. What we know is that: - the common dietary pattern isn't working - many more "primitive" diets show better results What we don't know is exactly which aspects of a primitive diet are so beneficial relative to modern diets. A general pattern is that foods which are digested quickly tend to be overrepresented in modern diets. Foods which are easy to digest tend to be more pleasurable than foods which are slow to digest because our bodies like to save energy whenever possible, but our body is also configured "with the expectation" that food will be sort of hard to digest. I bring this up not to propose my own dietary remedy but to suggest that there is likely to be a trade-off between pleasure and health, and while careful study of nutrition can help us reduce the hedonic cost of healthy eating, it is not likely to disappear. In fact, the neural pathways associated with hunger and satiety are implicated in the pathophysiology of diseases associated with overeating; this is discussed in one of my favorite reviews of the subject -- "Limitations in anti-obesity drug development: the critical role of hunger-promoting neurons" http://faculty.vet.upenn.edu/ngg/user_docs/DietrichandHirvathNatRevDrugDiscov2012Dietrich.pdf http://faculty.vet.upenn.edu/ngg/user_docs/DietrichandHirvat...
  - molloy 9y ago
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
bobcostas55 9y ago
The carbs hypothesis doesn't really hold up once you look around the world. There are groups of people such as the Hadza and the Mbuti who derive an enormous portion of their calories from carbs/sugar and show none of the issues Americans deal with: obesity, insulin resistance, etc.
- philip1209 9y ago
  From what I've read about these hunter-gatherer societies - they don't have a calorie surplus, and they experience periods of fasting that probably improve their health. In developed countries, I think that the availability of food combined with low satiety from carbohydrates creates a positive feedback loop.
  - itchyouch 9y ago
    There's also time-restricted eating. In mouse models, 2 mice with the same bad diet (high sugar, high fat), but one eating during a 12 hour window and another eating any time, the 12-hour window mice staved off conditions like diabetes much longer. So it's not only what we eat, but "when" we eat as well. https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/satchin-panda https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/satchin-panda
- toasterlovin 9y ago
  I would not underestimate the possibility that different human populations are worse/better adapted to particular diets.
- dominotw 9y ago
  I am going to hazard guess that they dont' spend their days in front of a computer and evenings on the couch.
- HillaryBriss 9y ago
  Yes, the long-lived Okinawans eat a pretty large quantity of carbs too. It comes largely from sweet potatoes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_diet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_diet
latch 9y ago
As other's have commented you've really fallen for it, yet despite your strong convictions, it's not clear that you understand basic biochemistry: > [Vitamin D] is so important that it is closer to a hormone than a vitamin. The difference between a vitamin and a hormone has nothing to do with importance. In fact, the article that you linked explains it so plainly that maybe you'll reconsider your authority on the subject and not present opinions so "unequivocally". > Vitamin D is not technically a vitamin, ie, it is not an essential dietary factor
perseusprime11 9y ago
VirtaHealth looks interesting. What are their key assumptions for reversing Type 2 Diabetes?
dbatten 9y ago
If you eat something that even remotely resembles a healthy diet, you probably don't have micro-nutrient problems anyway. You might be obese, but you're getting your vitamins. I used to wonder if I should take a daily multi-vitamin. For unrelated reasons (weight loss), I started tracking my food intake in MyFitnessPal. MFP reports on calories, macros, and micro-nutrients... and I was shocked to see that my regular, reasonably healthy (I'm not a health food enthusiast, but I don't just eat big macs either) diet gave me way more than 100% of my recommended daily allowance of pretty much all the vitamins and minerals tracked in MFP.

namelost 9y ago

The American diet isn't carbohydrate-heavy, it's food-heavy. Americans eat a lot more of every macronutrient than the average person on this planet.

gepi79 9y ago
I guess a grey font means being downvoted. For those who tend to downvote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_macronutrients https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_macronutrients Regarding low carb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dj-Wmmt0FE&feature=youtu.be&t=303 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dj-Wmmt0FE&feature=youtu.be...
philip1209 9y ago
I disagree. I believe that the core of these problems are carbohydrates. Insulin spikes from carbohydrate consumption cause fat retention. Sugar doesn't create satiety, so it compounds eating. The "it's an over-eating problem" fallacy keeps getting introduced by sugar companies. It happened in the states, then moved to South America, and is currently hitting India [1]. It's a playbook by the sugar industry that echoes of the tobacco industry's old tactics. Suddenly, societies that have maintained healthy BMIs for thousands of years are having obesity problems as sugar gets introduced. They didn't develop gluttony overnight - it's a sugar problem. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/health/india-diabetes-junk-food.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/health/india-diabetes-jun... Edit: Sugar is basically weaponized carbohydrates.
- gepi79 9y ago
  A high carb diet does not mean a high sugar diet. Besides, obesity means basically too many calories no matter the source. The worst case: fat + sugar.
  - Sargos 9y ago
    Obesity is caused by eating too much. Carbs and sugars are the primary drivers of people eating too much in the United States.
  - philip1209 9y ago
    "Dietary fat is not a major determinant of body fat." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12566139 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12566139 "Do calories matter?" https://peterattiamd.com/do-calories-matter/ https://peterattiamd.com/do-calories-matter/
  - base698 9y ago
    Try to eat 3000 calories of sugar or donuts one day then try to eat 3000 calories of steak. If I have even 1800 calories of steak I won't need to eat the rest of the day.
    - notheguyouthink 9y ago
      More specifically, you won't want to eat more. Sugar is so crazy energy dense without making you sated. It's sort of nuts.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
    - gepi79 9y ago
      Try to eat 3000 calories in a vegan way without cheating by eating lots of processed vegan food like candy, fat or oil. Nobody eats only steak. People want fat and carbs for the taste.
benpiper 9y ago
Correct, and excess carbs only exacerbate the problem for people who can't process them properly. You can eat a high calorie, low carbohydrate diet and still gain weight and develop related health problems. Likewise, some people can eat a restricted calorie diet, but if they still eat a lot of carbs, will develop health issues.
- benpiper 9y ago
  Gotta love it when people downvote proven scientific facts.
nradov 9y ago
Sure but it's not a uniquely American problem. Some other countries are even worse, and others are catching up fast. In a few decades this will be a worldwide issue.

CryoLogic 9y ago

Hormone just means any type of signaling molecule produced by your body. So no vitamins are in anyway similar to hormones. There are also hormones you can live without, so not all are required.

LMYahooTFY 9y ago
The research does seem to indicate that Vitamin D is in fact a hormone.

ojbyrne 9y ago

Perhaps it excludes Vitamin D on purpose because it isn’t being criticized. Though it actually does mention it near the end, in the context of a soon to be released study.

molloy 9y ago

Actually, it's more likely that the issue is we're not eating a mostly whole foods, plant-based diet. It's not carbs that are the problem, but refined carbs certainly are a problem. They're not what our bodies evolved to thrive on. I highly recommend watching Dr. Greger's talk at Google[0] on the subject, or reading his book[1]. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rNY7xKyGCQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rNY7xKyGCQ [1] https://nutritionfacts.org/book/ https://nutritionfacts.org/book/

philip1209 9y ago
Seem like two sides of the same coin. It's replacing a good thing with a bad thing. Government agricultural subsidies benefit sugarcane and corn production, resulting in fewer vegetables and more sugar.
scythe 9y ago
There are lots of people with doctorates who give talks, many of which contradict each other. What we know is that: - the common dietary pattern isn't working - many more "primitive" diets show better results What we don't know is exactly which aspects of a primitive diet are so beneficial relative to modern diets. A general pattern is that foods which are digested quickly tend to be overrepresented in modern diets. Foods which are easy to digest tend to be more pleasurable than foods which are slow to digest because our bodies like to save energy whenever possible, but our body is also configured "with the expectation" that food will be sort of hard to digest. I bring this up not to propose my own dietary remedy but to suggest that there is likely to be a trade-off between pleasure and health, and while careful study of nutrition can help us reduce the hedonic cost of healthy eating, it is not likely to disappear. In fact, the neural pathways associated with hunger and satiety are implicated in the pathophysiology of diseases associated with overeating; this is discussed in one of my favorite reviews of the subject -- "Limitations in anti-obesity drug development: the critical role of hunger-promoting neurons" http://faculty.vet.upenn.edu/ngg/user_docs/DietrichandHirvathNatRevDrugDiscov2012Dietrich.pdf http://faculty.vet.upenn.edu/ngg/user_docs/DietrichandHirvat...
- molloy 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

bobcostas55 9y ago

The carbs hypothesis doesn't really hold up once you look around the world. There are groups of people such as the Hadza and the Mbuti who derive an enormous portion of their calories from carbs/sugar and show none of the issues Americans deal with: obesity, insulin resistance, etc.

philip1209 9y ago
From what I've read about these hunter-gatherer societies - they don't have a calorie surplus, and they experience periods of fasting that probably improve their health. In developed countries, I think that the availability of food combined with low satiety from carbohydrates creates a positive feedback loop.
- itchyouch 9y ago
  There's also time-restricted eating. In mouse models, 2 mice with the same bad diet (high sugar, high fat), but one eating during a 12 hour window and another eating any time, the 12-hour window mice staved off conditions like diabetes much longer. So it's not only what we eat, but "when" we eat as well. https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/satchin-panda https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/satchin-panda
toasterlovin 9y ago
I would not underestimate the possibility that different human populations are worse/better adapted to particular diets.
dominotw 9y ago
I am going to hazard guess that they dont' spend their days in front of a computer and evenings on the couch.
HillaryBriss 9y ago
Yes, the long-lived Okinawans eat a pretty large quantity of carbs too. It comes largely from sweet potatoes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_diet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_diet

latch 9y ago

As other's have commented you've really fallen for it, yet despite your strong convictions, it's not clear that you understand basic biochemistry: > [Vitamin D] is so important that it is closer to a hormone than a vitamin. The difference between a vitamin and a hormone has nothing to do with importance. In fact, the article that you linked explains it so plainly that maybe you'll reconsider your authority on the subject and not present opinions so "unequivocally". > Vitamin D is not technically a vitamin, ie, it is not an essential dietary factor

perseusprime11 9y ago

VirtaHealth looks interesting. What are their key assumptions for reversing Type 2 Diabetes?

dbatten 9y ago

If you eat something that even remotely resembles a healthy diet, you probably don't have micro-nutrient problems anyway. You might be obese, but you're getting your vitamins. I used to wonder if I should take a daily multi-vitamin. For unrelated reasons (weight loss), I started tracking my food intake in MyFitnessPal. MFP reports on calories, macros, and micro-nutrients... and I was shocked to see that my regular, reasonably healthy (I'm not a health food enthusiast, but I don't just eat big macs either) diet gave me way more than 100% of my recommended daily allowance of pretty much all the vitamins and minerals tracked in MFP.