Childhood obesity rates triple as saturated fat consumption declines and grain consumption soars: Can anyone join the dots?

This study was published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood 2000 Jul;83(1):18-24

Study title and authors:
US adolescent food intake trends from 1965 to 1996.
Cavadini C, Siega-Riz AM, Popkin BM.
Nestle Research Center, Nestec Ltd, Lausanne, Switzerland.
This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10868993

Chilhood obesity tripled from the 1960's to the 1990's. See figure 1 below.

FIGURE 1. Prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents, by age group --- United States, 1963--2008

The figure above shows the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents, by age group, in the United States during 1963-2008. In the United States, childhood obesity affects approximately 12.5 million children and teens (17% of that population). Changes in obesity prevalence from the 1960s show a rapid increase in the 1980s and 1990s, when obesity prevalence among children and teens tripled from nearly 5% to approximately 15%.

The aim of the study was to examine the changing trends in adolescent (11-18 year olds) food consumption in the United States.

The study found from 1965 to 1996 in adolescents:

(a) Actual total amount of food consumption DECREASED.
(b) Fat consumption decreased by 7%.
(c) Saturated fat consumption decreased by 3%.
(d) Carbohydrate consumption increased by 8%.
(e) Grain product consumption rose by 642% in boys.
(f) Grain product consumption rose by 512% in girls.
(g) Soft drinks consumption rose by 164% in boys.
(h) Soft drinks consumption rose by 116% in girls.

To recap: In a 30 year period obesity rates tripled in adolescents. Actual amounts of food consumption decreased, fat and saturated fat consumption decreased, carbohydrate consumption increased and grain consumption massively increased.

What is the official dietary guideline advice from the from the United States Department of Agriculture?

.........that our diets should emphasize grains and be low in saturated fat!!!

Can anyone join the dots?

 

What has caused the rise in obesity?

This post features an article revealing the data for carbohydrate consumption and obesity rates

In the 1970's the "low-fat/high carbohydrate is good" dogma was implemented to "help combat" obesity and heart disease. Dietary fat (especially saturated fat) was vilified as the enemy and the advice was to curtail its intake.

This advice (which is constantly repeated year after year for the past 40 to 50 years) has certainly been heeded as the figures below show. Carbohydrate consumption has risen sharply whilst fat consumption in the diet has declined.

Figure 1 shows the rise in carbohydrate consumption and the fall in fat consumption from 1971-2000 in the United States.

Figure 2 shows the rise in carbohydrate consumption (dots) and the prevalence of obesity (vertical bars).

FIGURE 2

So after 4 or 5 decades of the eat less fat, eat more carbs message what is the result? Childhood obesity has more than tripled since 1976 and adult obesity rates have doubled.

What is the latest advice? Cut back even further on fats (especially saturated fat) - which of course means an even bigger proportion of your food will then be in the form of carbohydrates.

Why are we been told to cut back on saturated fats? People automatically think saturated fat is connected to heart disease. However is this really the case? Figure 3 shows the relationship between saturated fat consumption and heart disease.

FIGURE 3

Can anyone spot any correlation between saturated fat consumption and heart disease?


If there is any trend, the data may show that saturated fat actually offers protection from heart disease. France and Switzerland have the highest consumption of saturated fat, yet are among the lowest in terms of heart disease rates. Azerbaijan and Georgia are amongst the lowest in consuming saturated fat, yet are at the top of the countries suffering from high rates of heart disease.

Since the evidence has shown that saturated fat has nothing to do with heart disease and more dietary carbohydrates lead to higher obesity rates - why is the latest dietary advice from the United States government encouraging us to cut back even further on saturated fat and eat even more carbohydrates?





Diabetes rates have tripled since the low fat crusade started in 1977

This paper was published in Nutrition Volume 26, Issue 10, Pages 915-924 (October 2010)

Study title and authors:
In the face of contradictory evidence: Report of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Committee
Adele H. Hite, M.A.T.a, Richard David Feinman, Ph.D.b, Gabriel E. Guzman, Ph.D.c, Morton Satin, M.Sc.d, Pamela A. Schoenfeld, R.D.e, Richard J. Wood, Ph.D.f

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.nutritionjrnl.com/article/PIIS0899900710002893/fulltext#sec18
 
Over 30 years ago the initial Dietary Goals for Americans (1977) proposed increases in carbohydrate intake and decreases in fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and salt consumption that are carried further in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) Report.
 
In the three decades since the dietary goals were issued:
(a) Carbohydrate consumption has increased
(b) Overall fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol consumption have decreased to near or below targeted levels
(c) Caloric intake remains within recommended levels
(d) Leisure-time physical activity has increased slightly
 
The author notes that since these dietary changes have been successfully accomplished the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the US has increased dramatically in the past three decades and the number of Americans diagnosed with diabetes has tripled.
 
Hite finds:
(i) There is a lack of supporting evidence for the proposed dietary recommendations.
(ii) It is time to reexamine how US dietary guidelines are created and ask whether the current process is still appropriate for our needs.
(iii) An impartial panel of scientists consisting of biochemists, anthropologists, geneticists, physicists, etc., who are not directly tied to the public health nutritional policy should decide the dietary guidelines as such a panel would be able to hear all sides in the debate with few preconceived notions. They could advise impartial recommendations which would be based on a complete and accurate assessment of available science rather than a narrow perspective of accepted nutritional practice.
 
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Carbohydrates the cause of civilisatory diseases

This paper was published in Medical Hypotheses 1995 Aug;45(2):115-20

Study title and author:

The colonisation of Europe and our Western diseases.

Lutz WJ.

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8531831

Lutz says modern civilisatory diseases such as heart disease and cancer is usually blamed on the adverse effects of animal fat and cholesterol. However the 'field studies' themselves, undertaken to support this theory, failed.

As the last environmental changes in human history are agriculture and rise of carbohydrate intake (and therefore a concurrent reduction of fat and protein consumption), Lutz suggests that the carbohydrates rather than the animal fats cause our civilisatory diseases.

Agriculture (and higher carbohydrate consumption) started in the Arabian Peninsula and spread across Europe to arrive in countries such as Northern Ireland, Scotland and Finland last. So people in the Arabian Peninsula have had a longer time to adapt to the increase in carbohydrates compared to the people in the far West and North of Europe and this is reflected in the fact that countries such as Northern Ireland, Scotland and Finland suffer the most from heart disease and cancer.

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Low carbohydrate/high fat diet promotes weight loss

This post includes a summary of a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Vol. 45, No. 10, 1966 and a recipe for green eggs.

Study title and authors:
Glucose, Insulin, and Triglyceride Responses to High and Low Carbohydrate Diets in Man *

Books:

JOHN W. FARQUHAR,t ARTHUR FRANK,4 RICHARD C. GROSS,§ AND GERALD M. REAVEN WITH THE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE OF E. P. BROWN

(From the Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, Calif.)

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC292847/pdf/jcinvest00268-0140.pdf

The study found an association between a high carbohydrate diet and an increase in triglyceride and cholesterol levels.

The study also observed weight loss was associated with a low carbohydrate/high fat diet.

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Recipe of the day

Green Eggs

Food Mall: Eggs

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c raw spinach

• 1 T coconut milk
• 1 egg

Instructions:
Put all the ingredients in a blender and puree. Then scramble like normal eggs.

Green Eggs



Is LDL cholesterol, bad cholesterol?

Published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Vol 10 No 3 Fall 2005

LDL cholesterol: "Bad cholesterol" or Bad science
Anthony Colpo

Quote from the paper:

For the last four decades, the mainstream medical establishment has maintained that elevated serum cholesterol levels are a primary instigator of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease (CHD). Millions of people worldwide have been convinced by extensive promotional campaigns that that the key to avoiding CHD is to reduce cholesterol levels by using lipid-lowering drugs and diets low in saturated fats. This campaign has produced billions in profits for drug companies and the manufacturers of low-fat food products.

The worlds current top-selling pharmaceutical, for example, is Pfizers cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin (Lipitor), which amassed $10.9 billion in sales in a single year, 2004.

While the war on cholesterol has proved to be extremely lucrative for the food and drug industries, it has delivered no benefit to public health. CHD is still the leading cause of death inWestern countries. While the number of deaths from CHD has indeed decreased since the late 1960s, total incidence of CHD has not declined.

If cholesterol reduction were effective in preventing CHD, then it would surely lower both fatal and nonfatal CHD. This has not happened. Modern medicine has made significant advances in extending the lives of those who have already had heart attacks, but it has failed to help people avoidCHD in the first place.

In addition, the relentless drive to steer people to low-fat, highcarbohydrate diets has been accompanied by a marked increase in the prevalence of obesity and diabetes. This increase has been so large that some predict the steady rise in life expectancy enjoyed by Americans during the last century may soon come to an end.

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.jpands.org/vol10no3/colpo.pdf

The author concludes that: "The concept that "LDL" is bad cholesterol is a simplistic and scientifically untenable hypothesis. The inordinate focus on cholesterol, a perfectly natural substance that performs many crucial functions in the body, has taken and continues to take valuable resources and attention away from factors more closely related to heart disease.

Independent-thinking practitioners must look at the readily available evidence for themselves, instead of relying on the continual stream of anticholesterol propaganda emanating from health authorities.”

By doing so, they will quickly realize that the LDL hypothesis is aggressively promoted for reasons other than public health".

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