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It really is the food. America was as car dependent in the 70s as they were in today, but if you look at photos then, you'll notice how uncannily THIN everyone
by novok 6y ago
It really is the food. America was as car dependent in the 70s as they were in today, but if you look at photos then, you'll notice how uncannily THIN everyone was.
If you dig more into it, you'll find the obesity crisis started around the late 70s with a change in dietary guidelines and medical guidelines saying basically 'fat & meat bad' and 'carbs good' along with the widespread introduction of vegetable oils, leading to too much insulin and other hormonal effects slowly increasing diabetes & obesity in our population. Also food companies honing on what obesogenic combos of food lead to people to eat more, buy more and thus get better sales.
Read "The Obesity Code" if you want a more detailed description with a lot of links to papers and studies for more info. [0]
[0] I said this yesterday too in another article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25767604 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25767604
- coredog64 6y agoWhat’s the percentage of food spend in the 70s vs today? If I read the USDA charts, it’s about 13% for the decade of the 70s, declining to under 10% today. So I would expect that as food gets significantly cheaper, people consume more of it.
- jt2190 6y agoPortions are now massive. McDonalds, once upon a time, had small and large sizes of french fries; the little white paper pouch or the red cardboard sleeve. Today I believe they have two even larger sizes. The smallest size of soda doesn’t even exist any more. Other restaurants have retired round plates and serve meals on platters.
- lostcolony 6y agoAre rich people on average fatter than thin people? After all, they can afford more food, so presumably they consume more of it. Spending has dropped because there are such large subsidies to cheap carbs, and that is the bulk of many people's diets. A steak and veggies is no cheaper than it was 40-50 years ago, but we're eating far more refined junk with additives because it is cheap and convenient.
- yodelshady 6y agoI'm not quite sure what your first point is? Infamously, rich poor are on average thinner (the "poverty obesity" paradox). I believe the leading hypothesis is that being rich absolves you of the stressors that make junk food attractive. Others are, as you mentioned, the ability to buy more expensive food with more nourishment/satiation per calorie ("protein leverage hypothesis"), or access to nature and refuge from pollution (it's certainly the rich people where I live who ride bicycles.). Regardless, a poor person from 50 years ago couldn't buy the cheap sugary crap even if they wanted to.
- lostcolony 6y agoMy post was in response to the parent's statements "If I read the USDA charts, it’s about 13% for the decade of the 70s, declining to under 10% today." and "So I would expect that as food gets significantly cheaper, people consume more of it." That is, the point of the parent's post was not obviously "crap food is so much cheaper than high quality food", but as most naturally read as "because we can afford more food, we're buying and eating more" My point was "if that logic holds, I would expect the rich to be significantly fatter than the poor". Which, as you note, is not the case. Nothing more.
- tlrobinson 6y agoI also think cheap food tends to be worse for you on average.
- presentation 6y agoAfter moving to Japan and living here for a while, I realized when I visited my family back in the US how much of a punch in the face of sweetness/richness literally everything available in US restaurants is; it was honestly exhausting. Plus the fact that the portion sizes are double that of anything here, it's no surprise to me that Americans are obese and Japanese people by and large aren't. For another anecdote, my wife's friend worked at Starbucks in Canada and in Japan. She said the Frappuccinos in Canada use around double the amount of syrup than those in Japan.
- novok 6y agoThere is a great youtube video about exactly that: Why is it so Easy to be Thin in Japan? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr4MmmWQtZM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr4MmmWQtZM
- FalconSensei 6y agoWhen I moved from Brazil to Canada I was kinda surprised with the portion size in some restaurants here. Also: > how much of a punch in the face of sweetness/richness literally everything available in US restaurants is Yeah, too much sugar/salt/syrup/condiments, too many artificial ingredients on things. Today I was talking to my wife how the Cheetos here is not so good, as it has a weird orange color and the taste is way too much superficial. The cheese too. too many cheddar varieties with colors that doesn't seem like something made out of milk.
- oblio 6y agoAmerican sauerkraut, the kind you can buy in supermarkets, has SUGAR in it! What is wrong with you?!? :-(
- 8ytecoder 6y agoEverything has sugar in it. Even Sriracha!!! My experiment with cutting adding sugar completely for a month was the single hardest experiment I ever did with my diet. I lost 10 pounds in a month - absolutely unhealthy and I had to reverse course because of that. But, that's how much sugar there is in American food.
- camillomiller 6y agoThis sounds like the equivalent of lead poisoning being one of the causes for the fall of the Roman Empire.
- oblio 6y agoIs there a study about this?
- teleforce 6y agoPlease check this video on Vegetable Oils: The Unknown Story by the author of the book "The Big Fat Surprise" [1][2]. [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2UnOryQiIY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2UnOryQiIY [2]https://www.amazon.com/Big-Fat-Surprise-Butter-Healthy/dp/1451624425 https://www.amazon.com/Big-Fat-Surprise-Butter-Healthy/dp/14...
- kortilla 6y agoDon’t forget everyone in the 70s who smoked...
- xnx 6y agoThe type and quantity of available food is a huge factor. In the 1970s more people were also involved in jobs that required more physical labor: farming, manufacturing, construction, etc.