America: A Big, Fat, Stupid Nation
I thought this was a worthwhile read.

I don't think it's the whole story but it summarizes most of the major drivers of obesity.

Other factors that come into play since the mid 1960's that are driving higher inflammation levels.

Click on image and scroll down page for larger graph

The increase in omega 6 high industrial seed oil consumption is particularly damaging because High Omega-6 Diet Lowers Omega-3 Status, but Low Omega-6 Diet Preserves and Omega 3 resolves inflammation while omega 6 is pro inflammatory.

What other changes have occurred in our environment and our foods over the last 50yrs that affect our inflammatory status?

Ozone levels are rising by 1~2% annually contributing to the decline in vitamin D status.
Urban Tropospheric Ozone Increases the Prevalence of Vitamin D Deficiency
Demographic differences and trends of vitamin D insufficiency in the US population, 1988-2004.

Modern Wheat varieties now contain more gluten than previously If you haven't yet grasped the danger of gluten then perhaps start with This blog by Tim Ferris That includes a long section on gluten from Rob Wolf's new book explaining the issue in detail.

We must also be aware that wheat has changed in other ways in our lifetime. The concentrations of zinc, iron, copper and magnesium remained stable between 1845 and the mid 1960s, but since then have decreased significantly, which coincided with the introduction of semi-dwarf, high-yielding cultivars.
While all micronutrient deficiencies will affect our metabolism and health magnesium deficiency in particular will adversely affect over 300 different enzyme actions.
Only 4% of magnesium oxide is absorbed so please don't rely on a multivit/mineral to correct your magnesium status. Remember also only 1% of our magnesium circulates in the blood the rest is in our bones so Blood Serum magnesium tests only indicate deficiency or insufficiency when all the magnesium stored in bones/tissue has been exhausted.

It's also likely that the modern plant breeding techniques that have made wheat even less nutritious and more dangerous also apply to the nutritional content of our fruit and vegetables

Dietary Assessment of Major Trends in U.S. Food Consumption, 1970-2005 this article provides a summary of the overall changes in food consumption over the those 35yrs.


Heavy toll. More Americans than ever are now over weight, and one in three adults is obese. Children are growing fatter even faster. Obesity and diabetes “are the only major health problems that are getting worse in this country, and they are getting worse rapidly,” says Thomas R. Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The trends add urgency to improving nutrition and exercise at home, schools and workplaces. Click image for larger version

With the introduction of all kinds of new technologies, our life style has changed a lot. Probably it's time to change the definitions of obesity and overweight. What a title!

. . . . just look at who we elected to be a president !!!!!

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Imagined knowledge kills learning . . .
The cure for boredom is curiosity...there is no cure for curiosity..

America has become over-drugged for one thing. And this is done at all ages. Hormone imbalance is a great source of the weight problem. I suspect it is due to the heavy use of pesticides. As well as other environmental toxins. The liver, which is the main filter for these toxins, is probably overloaded. The abnormal thyroid is another weight problem source.

Digestive bitters and vitamin B can help the liver to break down excessive hormones.

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- Jim

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." �Eleanor Roosevelt

But if you click the link you will see where it came from. It would be no good me name calling the USA as UK is not far behind for the rise in Obesity levels so the sentiments of the title apply equally to UK as a nation.

Our Food Standards Agency is still plugging the Fat makes you Fat idea when we all know it's refined carbohydrate that raises insulin high and fast and obliges the body to store excess calories in fat tissue.

Why Low Carbohydrate Diets Work

How naive of Justin Stoneman to think he's educating the world about pampered americans.. like we don't already know this.. hahaha

Judging by his writing, he's a bitter, bitter pill.
He needs to come to America to learn how to chill~
On second thought, let that particular Irishman stay in his homeland & continue gazing over the ocean, happy to dream our dream.

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Good info Ted Hutchinson. We were actually just talking about that Dietary Assessment of Major Trends in US Food Consumption report recently in a nutrition class I attended. It's really quite an eye opener.

Let us be quite clear, the rise in obesity in Ireland and indeed also in the UK is following the lead set by the USA. There is absolutely no hint of smugness or gloating intended or implied in my post or indeed in the original article.

We all have to see the truth in what is happening in real life and understand WHAT IS MAKING US EAT MORE now than we did 50 yrs ago.

Well that's your opinion. I don't believe speaking frankly ever did any harm. We do not have time to spend in endless polite debate.

We have to face facts however unpleasant they are and the sooner we do the sooner we will start to take effective action to prevent the projected increase in Alzheimer's and Diabetes.

This is no dream, it's a nightmare scenario.
It's about time you understood you need to protect and nurture the next generation because if you don't they are not going to care for you in your old age.

Is the Earth getting heavier? If the world population gets fatter, does it make the Earth heavier?

Nay. The real question is whether the Earth can support such inequality between consumption and resources in a sustainable manner.

Perhaps the rich countries get fatter as the poor countries starve. There will be a balance. Mother Nature or wars will make the balance.

In order to produce the calories you consume we use oil derived calories to produce the fertiliser and grow/harvest the crops and produce /distribute the foods. It's the industrialisation of the food production process that results in lower nutritional quality foods being produced in larger amounts and because we have to consume more of them to benefit from the vitamins and minerals our bodies require, we are obliged to consume more than previous generations.

It doesn't take that much effort to grow your own salad leaves. Buying a pack of living salad, dividing the plants up into small clumps and planting them in a container like this Barrel Organic Gardening System and you can continue picking the outside leaves (leave 4 on each plant in the centre, just pick the lowest leaves) and you have a continuing supply for 8~12 weeks.

Indeed but it doesn't have to come to that. We can all employ some common sense and if we take personal responsibility for the quality of the food we consume then we don't have to be pawns of those who are driven by profit. It's really not a big deal to grow your own salad, veggies and keep a few chickens.

No one has to eat refined carbohydrates.

Thanks Ted. Kind of you to answer. They were rhetorical questions actually. I realize that the mass, which we take from the Earth, we eventually give back. I mean we are not creating more new atoms than what already exist. The weight of the Earth increases as we pick up new space debris, such as meteors, dust, asteroids (hopefully not). The Earth sheds some dust and gas as well.

But even with grassroots efforts, there is a great imbalance between population and resources. And that is getting worse as the decades go by. It is time for another grand migration. To the stars and planets.

I read Lierre Keith's book The Vegetarian Myth recently and rather than thinking the future isn't sustainable I feel there is hope if we all make an effort to understand that we don't have to be party to a BIG FAT STUPID NATION.

Sure if you are stupid enough you can choose to spend an excessive amount of money on a pathetic bag of limp tired probably bug ridden bag of spinach that has spent the last few days being transported hundreds of miles or you can find a way of growing spinach by your back door and nip out and pick some as required. Organic, pesticide free, no food miles, no additives, no chemicals no artificial fertilizers and a row of Swiss chard to follow on through the winter.

We don't have to emigrate to Mars. We just have to apply a little common sense.

We do have to understand why food that is made commercially for us is less healthy than food we grow and cook for ourselves.

I don't know if you have ever been to Texas, but the grasshoppers here will stand up and fight you. The jackrabbits are so big, you can put saddles on them to ride. Catch my drift? It costs a lot to manage an organic farm or backyard.

I'm thinking of all the places on Earth where civilization has managed to migrate and still live well. Or not. In places like Arizona, which is mostly desert, or parts of Africa that is mostly dust, it will take much money and education to feed such a growing population. Importing grain is cheaper. Already, much of the western USA is having water "wars". Yet people still want to live in these places. Again I say, the population is expanding too rapidly for the Earth to sustain it.

Vegetable Gardening in Containers
I think this is a cheaper more sensible option.