What went wrong?
Why in the last 50 years we've seen an explosion of obesity and metabolic disease in men all around the world. What is the common denominator?
Bread, bread everywhere and not an egg to be seen!
The start of our obesity and chronic metabolic disease explosion can be traced back to just over 50 years ago. And the blame has to be laid firmly at the door of the largely unscientific advice we have been exhorted to follow in that time.
Advice that has proven to be catastrophic for our health, out fitness and our general well-being.
In the late 70’s and early 80’s (depending on which country you resided in) our government health committees made a momentous decision. Based on what amounted to no evidence whatsoever, they proclaimed that we should stop eating saturated fat (because heh, it kills you doesn’t it? We’ll discuss at a later date) and base our diet on carbohydrates.
This was contrary to centuries of knowledge that carbohydrates are fattening – something your grandparents knew so very well.
And what happened?
In the period since, obesity levels have risen at least 10-fold, and the associated chronic metabolic diseases have followed a similar trajectory. The health spans of populations have shrunk significantly and our health services are edging closer to bankruptcy (if they’re not already?) under the burden of caring for chronic diseases.
While all the time, figures show that we have obligingly followed the advice of our authorities, almost to the letter.
So, that didn’t work out very well on all levels, did it?
I’m no conspiracy theorist but it almost seems like we’ve been part of a widespread experiment which has gone horribly wrong.
In the last 50 years we have reduced our consumption of animal fat. We have taken on board low fat with gusto. We’ve done the skinless chicken and said no to eggs. We’ve eaten a lot more carbs.
We even exercise more now than we ever did 50 years ago. Before the 1970’s jogging was practically unheard of. Now it seems everyone and their dog is at – quite literally down my road.
Yes, we’ve got the call to exercise bit well and truly front and center.
But despite all this we’ve got fatter and sicker and our calorie consumption has increased. Since 1970 the number of calories we consume has gone up by 600-800 calories per day, depending on which source you read.
And these excess calories have come from just three types of food:
Flour and grains
Sugars (predominately corn sweeteners)
Vegetable oils
And what does research tell us about flour, grains, sugars and vegetable oils? Pretty much what your grandparents knew – they drive weight gain. They are obesogenic, regardless of calories. They promote and cause body fat accumulation, and worse still they mess up your brain’s satiety center so you just can’t stop eating the darned things.
Furthermore they can be found in combination in all the ultra processed, junk foods. And junk foods form the foundation of our daily diet in many Western countries.
They’re within easy reach tempting us 24/7, 365 days a year.
Calling all men!! Learn how take back control of your health, in the evidence-based way, by signing up to The Metabolic MD - because your man health is truly in your hands!
PS I like Nick Norwitz’s take on this: