Kids used to go outside and play. They rode their bikes or walked everywhere. Today parents drive them everywhere and can't let them out of their sight enough for them even to go to the neighborhood playground because of "stranger danger." That lack of activity makes for obese kids who become obese adults. And have you noticed how many cars are on the road? It seems like every 16-year-old kid has a car, not to mention every adult in the family. People used to ride bikes and walk more. And tv had 3-4 channels, so they did other things instead of just being couch potatoes. There were no video games and cell phones and computers to keep them so very inactive. If they wanted to socialize, they actually had to go to somebody's house or to the movies or dancing or bowling or roller skating or horseback riding or bicycle riding or to a park to play games or walking around the block in their neighborhoods. People were more active than they are now. They gardened more, washed their cars more, cleaned their houses more, played more, and even took longer standing to cook meals and to wash dishes. And yes, food had to be prepared and portions were smaller, and water and milk used to be what kids drank most the time. Cokes were special. And people weren't as entitled. It's a me-me-me society now and we tend to think anything we or our kids want, we/they should get immediately. Want cookies? I'll open up a bag of Oreos. Something more substantial? Here's let's pop some chicken nuggets in the microwave. You don't have to wait for supper. Eat whenever you want as much as you want. There are lots of reasons why our society is more overweight now, but I think a lot of it boils down to convenience in both activity and food.
To be fair, there were fewer cars then, so I suppose people did walk a little more, but I think the real change has been in portions - if you take your example of McDonalds, we might not eat more often but if you look at a portion of fries in the 60s, it's very small compared to the standard now.
A lot of people also believe it's a case of nutrition. Your food draws its nutrients from the soil - it's the only source it has really, but now we rely heavily on nitrogen fertilisers. Our food has a fraction of the strength and quality of nutrients it did in the past, and I've read a few sources who say it tricks our bodies into thinking we're undernourished, so we need to store reserves.
***Warning*** A lot of sarcasm and bitterness to follow since I love science and food and when bad science leads to bad food I get a little pissy.
Bad science leading to poor government guidelines, many still in effect or at least believe today. Let's looks at the myth that saturated fat causes heart disease. Ancel Keys, a physiologist at the University of Minnesota, began his 7 Countries study in 1956. He believed that dietary fats, primarily from animals, caused cardiovascular disease (CVD). So he looked at seven countries that had diets low in fats and also had low incidence of CVD. Nooo!!! You can't do that! Bad science! Bad Keys! He excluded any country that didn't prove his point and not only is that spitting in the face of scientific method but he relied on weak correlation of all things. Just...noooo!! But the government hopped on board and declared war on fat. Keys also started the Mediterranean Diet on the basis of this bad science. Doesn't matter that scientist still to this day can't find any significant correlation between fat and heart disease.
Sodium has a similar background from the '60s. Lewis Dahl claimed that sodium causes high blood pressure. Never mind the fact that to get anything statistically significant to back that up he had to give rats a human equivalent of 500g of sodium to raise their blood pressure. The average American (you know us fast-food eating fatties?) only consumes 3.75g a day so clearly we must need to worry about. Again, modern science can't find any link between sodium and high blood pressure but the government still tells us it's evil. By the mid 1970s salt was labeled the most dangerous food additive of all time. Thanks again bad science, you're ruining the good stuff!
The government gullibility for bad science, the average Americans willingness to believe the government led to massive changes in diet. Therefore bad science ruined good food. Now I want some real salted butter, none of the plain margarine crap.
IanG Ha! Good one! But make sure you aren't believing Omega-3s, or more specifically fish oil, are good for your heart. That myth didn't even come from real researchers, just a couple of Danish nutritionists who looked at the Inuit population and made the connection that they eat a lot of fish and they also aren't dropping dead from heart attacks. Or at least that's what they assumed since they only looked at poorly kept death certificates. But hey, science!
Sadly, the more widely available to the public the research is, the less accurate it tends to be. Most people don't read peer reviewed articles. I had it drilled into me in college to question everything I'm told and look skeptically at all research, especially if it's old or not peer reviewed. That's when I discovered a lot of these psuedoscience reports that have snowballed out of control. I also did a lot of projects on common health myths like this for my Nutrition as Behavior class and then again for my Health Psych class.
Palestrina It's not the diet I have an issue with it's the research that it was based off of. Like with anything, if it works people great! But Keys purposely excluded other diets solely because they had higher fat contents but didn't result in CVD which would skew his results. That's shady and misleading. I'm not saying the Mediterranean diet is bad at all, just not necessarily the best.
Last edited by LovelyLeah; 06-13-2015 at 12:37 AM.
I'm currently taking a break right now but my major is psychology with a focus on neurophysiology. You are right that sodium does have it's downsides outside of why it's vilified. Part of why people believe sodium causes hypertension is because, as you mentioned, people with hypertension can reduce their blood pressure by reducing their sodium intake. It's seems like basic logic but it's actually a far more complex process. I'll try to give a simplified version. Sodium increases blood volume. For the average person when their body receives signals that it has too much sodium it sends a signal to your brain that you are thirsty (water will dilute the sodium levels) and it will send another signal to the kidneys to remove filter out the excess. While you might assume higher blood volume would equal higher blood pressure, the body just compensates for it. Those who already have hypertension lack the ability to compensate so they need their blood volume to be lower which is why decreasing sodium helps.
It has nothing to do with wealth. Some of the most obese populations in the US live is impoverished areas. Social psychologists have called these areas food deserts. These are where there is a long geographical area where the only source for groceries are convenience stores and fast food restaurants and they lack any access to fresh produce. People in these areas live on highly processed food because it's all they can afford but these foods are also high in calories and lack any nutritional value. In these neighborhoods you'll see obese children who are severely malnourished. And as we know, habits developed in childhood almost always carryover to adulthood. These areas also tend to have higher crime rates so it's not as simple as going outside to play, it's too dangerous. Areas such as these also have higher incidence of hypertension, heart disease, and stress.
So there are a lot of people that don't have access to fresh produce in the US? How did that happen? All grocery stores are well stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables here and there's is one or two grocery stores in every suburb in any city. I live in a small town with a population of 3000 and there are three different places that I know of that sell fresh fruits and vegetables. Also processed food isn't so cheap here because of the lack of corn syrup (is that what it's called?). I remember that when I visited the US a couple of times that people in general were more obese or overweight there. So these food deserts are the reason?
I don't know Where are you? You live Violet but yes, not all supermarkets sell produce worthy of eating. When I lived in Harlem it was very very difficult to buy good produce, I had to leave the area and go to a different neighborhood to find the produce I needed and that's only because I could afford the subway ride to do that. Many cant.
It's a portion of the reason. Not the entire reason. It's actually many little things adding up to a big problem. Just to pull from my own personal experience, when I was living paycheck to paycheck I didn't own a vehicle. I literally could only carry home what I could carry. My fridge was a mini-fridge. Those tiny little things that really don't hold much and have the smallest compartment as a freezer (think the size of a shoe box or smaller). I also didn't own the utensils I'd need to actually cook. I don't recall owning a knife or a cutting board. Spending money on those would pull out of my already scarily small food budget. I didn't have proper pots, or a mixing bowl. No real tools, and I didn't know how to cook. I didn't have internet to look it up.
Some people also have deaths in the family, children in the mix, work multiple jobs to where time is an issue, or are caring for family members who are very ill. Time becomes a very significant factor there, and health on a list of things you're stressed about/need to take care of can easily fall by the wayside.
IanG Ha! Good one! But make sure you aren't believing Omega-3s, or more specifically fish oil, are good for your heart. That myth didn't even come from real researchers, just a couple of Danish nutritionists who looked at the Inuit population and made the connection that they eat a lot of fish and they also aren't dropping dead from heart attacks. Or at least that's what they assumed since they only looked at poorly kept death certificates. But hey, science!
I eat fish every day and it has transformed my life. I must be so special and unique.
My personal opinion is that the Med diet is the best. Both in terms of what has worked for me but also from my reading. You really just can't go wrong with it.
I have a friend who lives in a suburb of NYC and I was kind of shocked that her local grocery stores don't have fresh fruits and vegetables (she actually had a delivery service for fruits/veggies, which wasn't cheap) In some are of the country, grocery stores don't want to open in certain areas so lots of people depend on convenience stores. And when you may not have a car, it can even be more difficult.
I don't know Where are you? You live Violet but yes, not all supermarkets sell produce worthy of eating. When I lived in Harlem it was very very difficult to buy good produce, I had to leave the area and go to a different neighborhood to find the produce I needed and that's only because I could afford the subway ride to do that. Many cant.
I live in Tasmania Australia and here almost all supermarkets sell good produce. And supermarkets are a lot more common here. But when I mentioned convenience lifestyle that people in the US have I didn't just mean the food. I was also talking about things to do with housework. For instance I noticed a few differences here like here people hang out most of their washing instead of using a dryer, hand washing still exists here, people water their gardens themselves, can openers are still fairly old fashioned here, then there's dishwashers and these are some of the differences I noticed when visited the US. Many of these conveniences are only had by wealthy people over here. So I'm asking, how do people possibly afford these things?
Then there's the fact that chicken nuggets can be microwaved there. Here, they have to be put in the oven to be cooked. I was thrilled because the supermarket finally started selling pre-cooked meat in the last year. I remember seeing that in a supermarket in the US over ten years ago. I get the impression that the convenience lifestyle in the US is so far ahead of the rest of western society and that's partly what makes them so large.
