[Darnright]

>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.

[Mase]

That book would suggest that obesity and diabetes has been with us for quite some time.

It might also suggest that there is a genetic component to diabetes. Even so, diabetes was rare back then as was obesity. That's because people worked like hell and didn't have access to the amount of food they have today.

Can this be due to the huge amounts of carbohydrate based foodstuffs the average person consumes?

Sure. And the huge amounts of fat based foodstuffs the average person consumes. We also consume a lot more protein per capita than we did several generations ago. The conventional wisdom is that the total number of calories is what is important – while the macronutrient ratio is not terribly important – provided it does not lead to malnutrition.

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.

Low fat may be the rage these days but that's mostly because people have been told that a particular macronutrient is the problem rather than the total calories consumed being the problem.

I hear it often that sugar (carb) consumption is the problem. The numbers don't bear that out. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1970 sugar's share of total calories consumed was 18.6%. In 2005, that had declined to just 17%. In comparison, per capita consumption of total fats in 1970 was 145 grams. That amount increased dramatically to 190 grams in 2005. Saturated fat intake has gone from 50 grams to 59 grams per person per day over the same time period.

So, I think there are a lot of misperceptions out there, many of which come from people who have no idea what they're talking about along with others who are pushing an agenda.

Carbohydrates are proven to cause the body to secrete insulin.

Well, of course they do. Insulin facilitates the metabolization of carbohydrates. Caffeine also stimulates the secretion of insulin. Can you show a correlation between caffeine consumption and obesity?

The modern diet is way heavier in carbohydrate than is healthy

The stats from the Dept. of Agriculture seem to disagree with you. I would say, instead, that the modern diet is far too energy dense to be healthy, and in the case where very high levels of sugars are being ingested, other foods are lacking or absent so the diet becomes very unbalanced so the body can now be lacking in vitamins, essential fatty acids, essential amino acids and essential minerals including trace minerals.

Trying to pin the problem on sugars rather than obesity and the diet and lack of exercise that leads to obesity, is quite the stretch given what we can learn from my grandfather's generation. Unfortunately, all of these facts won't stop the various charlatans from hawking their diet fads that ignore this very real (and simple) issue.