Math alone is the wrong tool to solve a problem that is biochemical and behavioral in nature. On an individual level, the fix is straight-forward: eat more "good" fats, and little or no grains and sugars. I have yet to encounter someone who has done this and not seen dramatic results.
It's a trickier problem on a broad sociological level, though. The sugar peddlers have an incentive to create and maintain the addiction, and yet they're also just giving people what they want, and at the end of the day, it's still a free country. We can't ever expect all people to abandon sugar any more than all people have abandoned smoking.
As much as I hate to agree with libertarian dogma, I think the USDA is a big part of the problem. They've been been promoting high-carb diets and "moderate" sugar consumption for decades, and it certainly smells like yet another government-industrial complex protecting existing profits.
We shouldn't get so worked up about exactly what we eat. When we look around the world, we see that people who eat a modest diet and are physically active every day live long, healthy lives.
If we go back to what we would think of as the dark ages of nutritional knowledge, there were lean, healthy, athletic people back then. And it wasn't just people who ignored all the nutritional dogma of the day, either. The people who swallowed it most conscientiously were lean as well. It seems like so much has changed since then, but has it? Go to the gym today and you'll see a bunch of people who work out, eat paleo, and have low body fat. Thirty years ago they'd still be lean and in great shape, but they'd believe an entirely different dogma about nutrition.
If what we ate was anywhere near as important as how much, then the people who were most disciplined about following the old low-fat, relatively-high-carb diets would have been at a disadvantage compared to people who paid no attention and half-assed it. Or, if the low-fat guys were right, they should have been leaner than the guys who thought milk and eggs were the secret. But consistently, decade after decade, people who are disciplined about diet and exercise are lean and fit no matter what they believe. When people let their discipline slip, most of them end up overweight to some degree. The entire sum of our nutritional knowledge has yet to change that.
>> eat more "good" fats, and little or no grains and sugars.
Grains, specifically cereal grains, may serve as a limited dietary source of fiber, essential amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. As with everything, it is best to exercise moderation but I wouldn't recommend fully removing grains from the diet.
Refined (table) sugar is a common offender but small dosages of fructose and sucrose from a daily serving of fresh fruits and vegetables are justifiable.
Those high-carb diets were probably useful several decades ago, especially in countries that suffered from the world wars. I think it had good intentions but due to those commercial influences, the advice wasn't adapted to fit modern lifestyles.
Comments
Math alone is the wrong tool to solve a problem that is biochemical and behavioral in nature. On an individual level, the fix is straight-forward: eat more "good" fats, and little or no grains and sugars. I have yet to encounter someone who has done this and not seen dramatic results.
It's a trickier problem on a broad sociological level, though. The sugar peddlers have an incentive to create and maintain the addiction, and yet they're also just giving people what they want, and at the end of the day, it's still a free country. We can't ever expect all people to abandon sugar any more than all people have abandoned smoking.
As much as I hate to agree with libertarian dogma, I think the USDA is a big part of the problem. They've been been promoting high-carb diets and "moderate" sugar consumption for decades, and it certainly smells like yet another government-industrial complex protecting existing profits.
We shouldn't get so worked up about exactly what we eat. When we look around the world, we see that people who eat a modest diet and are physically active every day live long, healthy lives.
If we go back to what we would think of as the dark ages of nutritional knowledge, there were lean, healthy, athletic people back then. And it wasn't just people who ignored all the nutritional dogma of the day, either. The people who swallowed it most conscientiously were lean as well. It seems like so much has changed since then, but has it? Go to the gym today and you'll see a bunch of people who work out, eat paleo, and have low body fat. Thirty years ago they'd still be lean and in great shape, but they'd believe an entirely different dogma about nutrition.
If what we ate was anywhere near as important as how much, then the people who were most disciplined about following the old low-fat, relatively-high-carb diets would have been at a disadvantage compared to people who paid no attention and half-assed it. Or, if the low-fat guys were right, they should have been leaner than the guys who thought milk and eggs were the secret. But consistently, decade after decade, people who are disciplined about diet and exercise are lean and fit no matter what they believe. When people let their discipline slip, most of them end up overweight to some degree. The entire sum of our nutritional knowledge has yet to change that.
> But consistently, decade after decade, people who are disciplined about diet and exercise are lean and fit no matter what they believe.
Proof?
>> eat more "good" fats, and little or no grains and sugars.
Grains, specifically cereal grains, may serve as a limited dietary source of fiber, essential amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. As with everything, it is best to exercise moderation but I wouldn't recommend fully removing grains from the diet.
Refined (table) sugar is a common offender but small dosages of fructose and sucrose from a daily serving of fresh fruits and vegetables are justifiable.
Oats are a grain, and I've never heard anything but praise for oats, from anyone.
Such things as russet potatoes are probably more questionable than oats, for example, as I believe they are almost entirely starch.
I follow the Paleo diet, and oats are not allowed. And potatoes, definitely not.
Yes, it is indeed quite difficult to go wrong with having oats in your diet. :)
Hulled rice and quinoa are wonderful too.
Russet potatoes are typically unnecessary.
Those high-carb diets were probably useful several decades ago, especially in countries that suffered from the world wars. I think it had good intentions but due to those commercial influences, the advice wasn't adapted to fit modern lifestyles.