I’m a fish, veggies, and bread guy. Enjoy your steak, just don’t get too preachy.
“Westerners have been eating wheat based foods for thousands of years, with mass obesity being something fairly recent.”
For thousands of years, only the wealthy were immune from hunger. Poorer people might overeat in the summer months, but they would burn any fat buildup off during the lean winter months - just as deer do today. For most, “feast or famine” was a forced lifestyle.
My wife is from the Philippines. I lived there in the 80s. In the 80s, a fat Filippina was almost a contradiction in terms. They ate rice plus whatever fish, meat or vegetables they could get. My wife was 5’2” tall and weighed 88 lbs when she left the province.
Now the Facebook pictures she sees of family left behind are mostly chubby. Not all. She has brothers in the province who are lean as a rail. But the ones in the city have gained a gut.
My personal opinion is that people on the edge truly CAN eat just about anything. In fact, our bodies are adapted to ALLOW us to survive on a wide variety of foods. The problem comes when modern society allows everyone to live in perpetual summer - food-wise, at least.
I would then split the population into two camps: Those who never got fat and those who have been obese. The former can still get away with a lot on their food choices. Those who have been very fat will do better on a diet that prevents insulin-resistance. Keto or intermittent fasting will do that.
And in all cases, people can vary. So if someone is healthy eating a vegan diet, have at it! Enjoy! Those of us who do better on a high fat diet need to understand it isn’t a requirement for everyone. But it certainly OUGHT to be considered a valid choice - even if the American Heart Association & the Mayo Clinic say it is impossible!
I mean, really. Millions are doing good things using Keto and/or intermittent fasting. Why does the AHA insist they are fad diets, harmful to ones health, when so many of us are getting great results - AND have the numbers to back us up!
Seems to me the AHA and other “authorities” just don’t like having egg on their face. Or their plate...
“Let’s call a truce and agree that SUGAR”
50 years ago (based on what I know now), I would have agreed to leave it at Sugar. But today’s hybridized dwarf wheat is nothing like the wheat of even 50 years ago. Our bodies react to it no different than sugar, as insulin and appetite spikes...and today’s people show it.
We can thank this man for it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug
To his credit, he ended starvation world-wide, but to his detriment people are much less healthy because of his wheat.