My grandfather's generation consumed a diet loaded with carbohydrates yet diabetes and obesity were almost unknown. Many of these folks were employed in agriculture and worked like hell. Even the people employed elsewhere, for the most part, worked like hell. No obesity, no diabetes.
Demonizing one macronutrient over another is a common trait of diet fads and is, naturally, supported by the people who want to sell books touting the fads.
History has proven over and over again that you can sell diet advice more easily if you claim that fats or carbs are the problem – while the obvious idea that calories are the problem seems to be something that few are prepared to pay for.
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/saturated-fat/changing-dietary-trends-and-the-obesity-epidemic/
http://www.ajcn.org/content/79/5/774.long
I *completely* agree with you that we are eating more overall, but our grandparents did not eat the amount of carbohydrates that we do. They certainly didn’t eat the refined sugar and corn syrup that we do. My grandparents’ generation ate substantially more fats than we do in the form of real butter and animal fats. Fruits and veggies were consumed seasonally. Go back a couple more generations and you’ll find that wheat and corn flour wasn’t refined even close to the point it is today, leaving a lot more fiber and making sugar carbs much less accessible.
When I talk about going on a very low/no carb diet, I’m talking about reversing a disease process that’s already been started, not staying healthy if you’re fine. People who’re already sick will not respond to a reasonable diet. (I know. I tried to deal with the problem by eating a carefully measured, balanced 1200 calorie diet. It didn’t work. I was already too far gone.)
Had we been eating the amounts of calories, carbs, fats and protein that our grandparents did, we’d be a much healthier society as a whole.
I also must note that people respond differently to the same diet. My husband can handle carbs much better than I can and is very healthy with a basic 100-160g of low glycemic index carbs. (Veggies and whole grains)
I am much more sensitive to carbs (I blame this on my Indian grandfather) and will become sick if I maintain a diet of only 60g of carbs.
There is no one diet that is perfect for every human.
One more thing: I never said that calories didn’t count. As a matter of fact, I used a 500 calorie diet to lose weight and maintain with a 1000 calorie diet. (With short bursts of up to 1800 calories on my ‘fun’ days)
>My grandfather’s generation consumed a diet loaded with carbohydrates yet diabetes and obesity were almost unknown. Many of these folks were employed in agriculture and worked like hell. Even the people employed elsewhere, for the most part, worked like hell. No obesity, no diabetes.
Demonizing one macronutrient over another is a common trait of diet fads and is, naturally, supported by the people who want to sell books touting the fads.
History has proven over and over again that you can sell diet advice more easily if you claim that fats or carbs are the problem – while the obvious idea that calories are the problem seems to be something that few are prepared to pay for.<
The link below leads to an e-book published in 1864 - and it is a 3rd edition of the work:
http://www.proteinpower.com/banting/
That book would suggest that obesity and diabetes has been with us for quite some time. I will agree with you that in today’s society, obesity is skyrocketing. Can this be due to the huge amounts of carbohydrate based foodstuffs the average person consumes? Go to the store and notice that sugar is added to almost everything processed, as is corn starch or wheat. Even “diet” TV dinners are loaded with carbohydrates, which are used as a substitute for the lack of fat. “Low fat” is the rage these days.
My dad was a doctor. He was born in 1908. When we cleaned out the house, we found diet sheets for diabetics that counseled patients to severely restrict not only sugar, but breads, cereals and other common starchy foods.
Here’s the thing. When you really lower calories, you are also lowering the carbohydrate content of an individual’s diet. This lowers blood sugar, decreases the amount of insulin in the blood and improves the health of the diabetic.
Obesity (and the other disorders that make up metabolic syndrome) is a sign that a person’s insulin levels in his/her bloodstream are far too high. Carbohydrates are proven to cause the body to secrete insulin. The modern diet is way heavier in carbohydrate than is healthy, even when the person is eating “healthy” whole grain products.