The Coming Obesity Epidemic Weighs Heavy On My Mind

I wish I could be more upbeat and positive about this
subject. But I can’t. 1/3 of all adults and children in the USA are overweight
or obese. This rate has significantly climbed since the addition of high
fructose corn syrup as the cheap/cost effective sweetener of choice amongst
much of the food industry in the 1980’s. And it’s not going away anytime soon.
Neither is the high unemployment rate and limited incomes forcing people to buy
the cheapest food that still tastes reasonable; refined carbohydrates. In an
ideal world, we would all learn to raise our own organic food in the confines
of the garden/yard and  possibly coop/trade
with each other. Use of pesticides and herbicide would be drastically reduced
for such small scale food production. But, I digress. Adding to the battle of
the bulge was the medical industry’s wrong turn into the low fat diet recommendation
occurring several decades ago. In response the market populated the store shelves
with all varieties of LOW FAT foods and snacks. As you know this trend did not result
in weight loss nor better health. This was because the fat in foods was
replaced with cheap processed carbohydrates.

If low fat, low carb, high protein, grapefruit, etc diets
all fail to create normal weight as well as health, what diet strategy does
work? It’s really all about the right balance. No one size fits all. But if one
formula comes close, it would be the following calorie breakdown: 20% from
protein, 40% from good fats, 40% from good carbohydrates. Of course this varies
amongst individual needs. Generally, the more uncooked, raw , non-processed
foods made of mostly vegetables, fruit, and organic whole foods of the earth,
the better. Dr Michael Aziz MD nicely demonstrates this in his current book The
Perfect 10 Diet, and I have recommended it for nearly all my current
patients. Simply put, if you’re gonna eat cheap carbohydrates, you’re gonna feel
like and be a cheap carbohydrate (overweight yet starved of other nutrients). You are what you eat.

Back to that gloom and doom prediction. In my mind, not
until there exists an incentive for society to eat and buy healthy choices in
the right proportions will the obesity epidemic change. Regulating what we eat
via legislation is not the answer. It would just create a black market for your
favorite cheese doodles (can you imagine) and drive the price of good food even
higher. I do favor limited choices of healthy food combinations in school
cafeterias. I do favor teaching moms and dads how to eat right and become good
examples for their children. I favor teaching doctors and nurses how to eat
right and be good role models. These ideals are all well and good, but are still
all driven by economics. Reasonably cost high quality food depends on (free,
minimally regulated) markets to respond just as they did to the low fat idea. They
can (and so I am a little hopeful!). Until then, my job as health champion
remains secure (Please excuse today’s diversion into macroeconomics).