Are we really becoming steadily more sedentary?
Posted on 21 October 2009
Body weight, and specifically fatness, is determined by a complex interplay of factors including diet, exercise and sleep habits. In some posts, I have highlighted the effect that one hormone
Published October 21, 2009 . Filed under: Exercise and Activity, Unhealthy Eating!, Weight Loss
I believe that the main cause for the increase of obesity and chronic conditions, is the huge imbalance of omega 6 to omega 3, and the low fat guidelines obsession.
Meat, eggs and dairy are all higher in omega 6 than ever before. Corn and grain fed industrial production against the traditional natural pasture fed.
The repacement of fat with HFCS in processed foods, also loads the omega 6.
I follow a paleo diet and have to work hard on my food to maintain weight and gain muscle.
Prior to this, I retrospectively blame omega 6 loading as the main cause of unexplained bodyfat increase.
October 22, 2009 @ 2:18 pm
Bill, my hedge on the matter has so much in common with yours and much in common with Johns’. The imbalance you speak of and the detrimental effect probably has much to do with causes of inflammation at the level of the cell and, with a clearer understanding of the processes involved, could likely go a long way to explain the origin of much chronic illness including the metabolic dysfunction that leads to weight gain and diabetes. These EFAs have a role in the origin of eiconosoids and energy management via hormones as I gleaned from Barry Sears’ “7day Zone Diet”.
In the same volume Sears also cites an imbalance of insulin and glucagon as also contributing to inflammation and makes it comprehensible and an attractive notion to a bovine like me. (The caveat here is that a little knowledge can be dangerous.) Managing the surge of insulin that causes the imbalance of these two hormones seems to return benefits in practice. I speak from personal experience.
Carbohydrate, being found in nuts, green leaves, and pretty much everything save for eggs, has been a component of the human diet for a long time but energy dense and carbohydrate dense staples distinguished by high GL are fairly recent introductions. Such staples including roots, (most notable the potato) rice, grain and derivatives. Is not the origin of larger, structured societies, and industrialisation founded upon the move to agrarianism and the adoption of cereal crops? Such moves, when successfully applied, significantly improve the caloric return fro given effort; it no longer requires the efforts of the many to feed the many. The event marks the origin of wider economies over and above purely subsistence ones. The progression is apparent in history.
As an economic aside, increasing efficiencies in provisioning need, be that within the essential economies of food, apparel, durables, and desirables etc., displaces people from employment within those noble economies and such displaced people must find increasingly creative ways to earn their daily bread; hmm, ….risky fund management..?
John puts before us many snippets that convey a sense that many factors deserve consideration for their contributory role in development and progression of degenerative conditions; insulin, inadequate levels of activity, sub-optimal Vitamin D, HFCS, fructose, and by implication liver function and alcohol, perhaps. Such factors appear to have in common that they are of our making and resultant from our entry to the industrial age.
The contrast between the modern diet and the evolutionary one constitutes a circumstantial basis upon which to press charges;- but carbohydrates – rather, elevated aggregate dietary GL originating from too much consumption of energy dense staples, in partnership with the EFA imbalance arising from industries preference for the more stable (and least healthy) oils, exacerbated by the anti-saturated fat obsession, are pinned firmly to my board as ringleaders and prime suspects. Johns’ book was instrumental in catalysing my interest.
October 22, 2009 @ 6:08 pm
Living in England, it’s the real life observations of the relentlessly increasing obesity in the population that fascinates me.
Back in the 70′s there were fat people, but very few morbidly obese and obese, by today’s levels.
The progression of cheap industrial meat from grain and grass fed animals, and the introduction of HFCS to replace fat in processed foods and meals, are in my opinion, the main culprits.
My protein staple, eggs, in the main, contain little or no omega 3. Probably only 5% of eggs available in supermarkets have omega 3 richness.
Organic products don’t guarantee good omega 3 levels. Feeding on organic corn and grains, fuels an omega 6 pesticide free bomb.
Something, or a combination of factors is going on out there, and from what I see, nobody has nailed the basic reasons for obesity and chronic disease increases, enough to make any difference.
My philosophy is to go back to basics, and abstain from the mainstream diet train.
So far so good at 55 years. Only time will tell. We only get one shot at it. I wish I knew 30 years ago, what I know now, and still learning!
October 23, 2009 @ 5:41 pm
Bill -
why don’t you go to the following web site:
http://www.westonapricefoundation.org
You will be amazed at the incredible amount of information you will find there!
Although interested in the subject of diet for many years, only in the last few years I came to realize that the official maxims of the diet gurus were nothing but a bunch of baloney. Quite by chance I read an article on the benefits of eating good, whenever possible organic saturated fats like coconut and palm oils, heavy cream (raw if possible), plenty of eggs and animal fats. I researched this quite unusual twist in the diet game and run into the above mentioned web site. It was absolutely incredible!
Since then, I changed my diet to reflect those ideas. I have lost about 15 lbs, feel great, my last blood test was excellent and in spite of my age (73) I feel full of energy and, in fact, I am always busy in a project or other.
Give that web site a try. You will be amazed at what you will learn.
I also love Dr. Briffa’s blog as it pretty much reinforces what I have learned so far and offers new insights. Good job, Dr. Briffa!
Best, Gabriella from sunny California
October 23, 2009 @ 11:59 pm
Reckless over-prescribing of prescription drugs has a lot to answer for. So many prescribed drugs (steroids, HRT, tricyclic antidepressants, anti-psychotics, anti-epilepsy drugs, etc) cause sodium retention/water retention/fluid retention/oedema/salt sensitivity/massive weight gain and initiates fat retention. Then the harm done by dieting, which usually exacerbates nutritional deficiencies such as the calcium depletion that sodium retention causes, results in further fluid retention and fat retention, i.e. dieting makes you fatter.
The food industry for various reasons has ladled more and more salt into its convenience processed food in recent decades, and of course added salt is the vector that ensures the fluid retention.
In my opinion, there needs to be a legally enforceable curb on the prescribing of these obesity-causing drugs, and a legally enforceable curb on the amounts of sodium permitted to be added to processed foods, especially bread, which most people, including the Food Standards Agency, tend to regard as a staple.
October 25, 2009 @ 8:59 am