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Regardless of this new evidence people have been eating carbs for at least 10000+ years. The obesity epidemic has only really started the past 30-50 years. What

Regardless of this new evidence people have been eating carbs for at least 10000+ years. The obesity epidemic has only really started the past 30-50 years. Whatever has caused people to get super-fat, it wasn't carbs.

xvilka 5y ago
Easy carbs and abundance of it. Before it was hard to find too much food for a common person.
- vagrantJin 5y ago
  Well it's not like we don't know that eating excessive amounts of food, is going to cause health problems related to obesity or otherwise.
  - otabdeveloper4 5y ago
    The problem is that we have no handle on what "excessive amounts" really is. A slice of cake is, in fact, an "excessive amount" - it's more food than a pound of cheese. Eating a pound of cheese does, indeed, feel "excessive", while a slice of cake (or two) is just a chaser after a full meal for most people.
    - spadros 5y ago
      Not sure what cake we're talking about here but a pound of cheddar has roughly 1800 calories. A slice of cake is worth about 4 or 5 thick slices of cheese if you're trying to compare calorically.
      - otabdeveloper4 5y ago
        Comparing calories is not the correct approach. Diesel fuel has a huge amount of calories, but your body obviously can't process it properly.
        phonypc 5y ago
        Surely you don't mean to suggest that humans can't make use of the energy in cheese?
        otabdeveloper4 5y ago
        It's not a binary dichotomy of can vs can't make use.
- fpoling 5y ago
  In the book “Burn” Herman Pontzer mentioned that modern hunter-gatherers in Africa gets over 50% of their calories from starchy vegetables and honey, not from hunted animals.
mrhektor 5y ago
I don't know about that. Carbs combined with sedentary lifestyles, processed foods etc is probably closer to the truth
- beebeepka 5y ago
  Or the simplest explanation:some people just like to eat too much and it shows. Commence downvotes...
  - ByteJockey 5y ago
    Well, sure. But the point is that it's not new. Gluttony is mentioned in bronze age texts. You don't make something one of the "seven deadly sins" because people aren't doing it. But it's a significantly bigger problem today, so people are trying to point out things that have changed after the invention of writing.
elken 5y ago
Continuously consuming refined sugar and highly processed carbs is relatively new. The resulting insulin production inhibits fat oxidation and increases fat storage.
guerby 5y ago
I like Dr Jason Fung videos about this topic https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fung+obesity+epidemic https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fung+obesity+ep...
- nostalgiac 5y ago
  I'd suggest being very cautious of that information you enjoy. https://www.biolayne.com/articles/research/its-not-calories-its-hormones-a-response-to-dr-jason-fung/ https://www.biolayne.com/articles/research/its-not-calories-...
imtringued 5y ago
Basic things like bread are getting worse. I can eat a decent amount of home baked wheat based food but store bought wheat bread is just awful to my digestion. Just two slices is enough to regret it. It's clearly not the gluten. I've read articles that store bought bread has more FODMAPs. They clearly changed something in the baking process in the name of mass production but there is no way I can figure it out myself. Whatever is available in the stores is not the same thing we ate 100 (random number) years ago.
- dpflug 5y ago
  I suspect it's more recent ingredient changes, but there is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process
- 1_player 5y ago
  I heard a similar story from friends, and I bet you get high quality (organic and whatnot) ingredients for your home baking, while store-bought food is mostly full of pesticides, GMO, highly treated wheat which might explain why one makes you feel like crap and the other doesn't. And that's not limited to wheat, but I reckon most commercially available fruits and vegetables are much worse than their counterparts grown organically in one's own garden. They certainly taste much worse. Carnivore is much maligned still, but I bet the reason it works so well is that you avoid eating an unknown amount of chemicals that are routinely sprayed on unripe plant matter, which has to count for something.
fpoling 5y ago
Plus mono diets like eating only rice or potato are effective at loosing weight. What processed food brought is very unnatural combination of a lot of refined carbohydrates and a lot of fat especially in the form of polyunsaturated seed oils. Seed oil consumption in substantial quantities is relatively new thing (like 100 years). And even olive oil (with its rather low polyunsaturated fat content) was never staple food. In Ancient Greek literature, for example, there are more references to its usage as cosmetic or for lighting than for eating.

xvilka 5y ago

Easy carbs and abundance of it. Before it was hard to find too much food for a common person.

vagrantJin 5y ago
Well it's not like we don't know that eating excessive amounts of food, is going to cause health problems related to obesity or otherwise.
- otabdeveloper4 5y ago
  The problem is that we have no handle on what "excessive amounts" really is. A slice of cake is, in fact, an "excessive amount" - it's more food than a pound of cheese. Eating a pound of cheese does, indeed, feel "excessive", while a slice of cake (or two) is just a chaser after a full meal for most people.
  - spadros 5y ago
    Not sure what cake we're talking about here but a pound of cheddar has roughly 1800 calories. A slice of cake is worth about 4 or 5 thick slices of cheese if you're trying to compare calorically.
    - otabdeveloper4 5y ago
      Comparing calories is not the correct approach. Diesel fuel has a huge amount of calories, but your body obviously can't process it properly.
      - phonypc 5y ago
        Surely you don't mean to suggest that humans can't make use of the energy in cheese?
        otabdeveloper4 5y ago
        It's not a binary dichotomy of can vs can't make use.
fpoling 5y ago
In the book “Burn” Herman Pontzer mentioned that modern hunter-gatherers in Africa gets over 50% of their calories from starchy vegetables and honey, not from hunted animals.

mrhektor 5y ago

I don't know about that. Carbs combined with sedentary lifestyles, processed foods etc is probably closer to the truth

beebeepka 5y ago
Or the simplest explanation:some people just like to eat too much and it shows. Commence downvotes...
- ByteJockey 5y ago
  Well, sure. But the point is that it's not new. Gluttony is mentioned in bronze age texts. You don't make something one of the "seven deadly sins" because people aren't doing it. But it's a significantly bigger problem today, so people are trying to point out things that have changed after the invention of writing.

elken 5y ago

Continuously consuming refined sugar and highly processed carbs is relatively new. The resulting insulin production inhibits fat oxidation and increases fat storage.

guerby 5y ago

I like Dr Jason Fung videos about this topic https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fung+obesity+epidemic https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fung+obesity+ep...

nostalgiac 5y ago
I'd suggest being very cautious of that information you enjoy. https://www.biolayne.com/articles/research/its-not-calories-its-hormones-a-response-to-dr-jason-fung/ https://www.biolayne.com/articles/research/its-not-calories-...

imtringued 5y ago

Basic things like bread are getting worse. I can eat a decent amount of home baked wheat based food but store bought wheat bread is just awful to my digestion. Just two slices is enough to regret it. It's clearly not the gluten. I've read articles that store bought bread has more FODMAPs. They clearly changed something in the baking process in the name of mass production but there is no way I can figure it out myself. Whatever is available in the stores is not the same thing we ate 100 (random number) years ago.

dpflug 5y ago
I suspect it's more recent ingredient changes, but there is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process
1_player 5y ago
I heard a similar story from friends, and I bet you get high quality (organic and whatnot) ingredients for your home baking, while store-bought food is mostly full of pesticides, GMO, highly treated wheat which might explain why one makes you feel like crap and the other doesn't. And that's not limited to wheat, but I reckon most commercially available fruits and vegetables are much worse than their counterparts grown organically in one's own garden. They certainly taste much worse. Carnivore is much maligned still, but I bet the reason it works so well is that you avoid eating an unknown amount of chemicals that are routinely sprayed on unripe plant matter, which has to count for something.

fpoling 5y ago

Plus mono diets like eating only rice or potato are effective at loosing weight. What processed food brought is very unnatural combination of a lot of refined carbohydrates and a lot of fat especially in the form of polyunsaturated seed oils. Seed oil consumption in substantial quantities is relatively new thing (like 100 years). And even olive oil (with its rather low polyunsaturated fat content) was never staple food. In Ancient Greek literature, for example, there are more references to its usage as cosmetic or for lighting than for eating.