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IMHO, these articles are a bunch of crap. As a practicing Doctor of Chiropractic for 20 yrs with a specialty in nutrition, for anyone one to imply that activity and food intake are not related to obesity is trying to sell something. There are two causes of obesity in America: Inactivity and addiction to sugar. For anyone to imply that sucrose does not affect health in general and weight is ludicrous. But we alternative practitioners are used to this from orthodox sources. Americans are addicted to sugar. We consume nearly 150 pounds a year now.I challenge anyone reading this to go four days without any food that has sugar in it. Bet you can't make it. The other cause is incorrect individual food intake patterns. I recommend anyone interested to read the books on individual meatabolic typing. One mans diet food is anothers scale breaker. By the way, I practice what I preach. I'm 51 yrs old, 6-2, 170lbs and ran a 14.2 sec in the 100 meter at the Senior Olympics. Sorry I can't reply to comments now, got to get back to work.

I challenge anyone reading this to go four days without any food that has sugar in it. Bet you can't make it.

How much do I win? I have gone without sugar for over 5 years. Also cut out coffee and salt. Sugar plays hell with my system...I get a sugar high and then I crash and burn and feel like crap the rest of the day...not worth it. I cannot even stand the taste of anything sweet anymore. I get really angry when a restaurant brings me sweet tea when I order tea.

BTW, I am about 15 lbs. overweight AND I walk 1.5 miles on my treadmill each night besides walking all over the AF base at work and working in the yard on weekends. I can't take diet pills because I have high blood pressure. Your theory does not fly with me.

When I was a little kid in the 50's, Mom used to always tell me and my brothers that bread and sweets, and starchy stuff were the fattening things. Not that any of us kids were fat, we were all skinny. Nor were many of our little friends fat, overweight kids were something of a rarity back then, the way I remember. Nowadays, though, you see lots of fat kids around, something has changed, and it's not genes I don't think. That would constitute proof of evolution.

Anyway, it seems like we are coming full circle on what is considered "fattening" to eat, Atkins seems to reflect the conventional wisdom of 50 years ago.

I have noticed a few statements, some in the article I think, others on posts, mentioning that sugar is not inherently that fattening in of itself. Perhaps not, it is beyond my knowledge to argue this. But I will say that adding sugar to foods, as is commonly done today, causes us to continue eating far beyond the point at which we are full. I reckon, since we eat so much more sugar and sweets than in the past, that this is a major cause in the rise of modern obesity.

Not to mention that sugar may encourage anti social behavior, though that is another discussion, I suppose.

P.S. My thyroid is fine according to my doctor and I eat 5-6 smaller meals a day rather than 3 big ones, which is recommended for my condition to keep my blood sugar level stabilized. I also take a vitamin supplement called AlphaBetic to control my blood sugar level. It works for me, especially since it does not have iron in it, which I am allergic to. But I still can't lose the weight, no matter how hard I try.

I challenge anyone reading this to go four days without any food that has sugar in it. Bet you can't make it.

Betcha I can. Not a problem at all. But maybe that's why, at 5'10", I weigh 137. I lost 75 pounds after the birth of my last child so I agree (a) that it's hard, (b) that you have to combine exercise--usually twice or three times a day, not just once--with a sugar-free diet, and (c)obese people usually overestimate how much exercise they're getting. They move slowly and take their time, which means they don't burn up many calories. When fat people tell me they envy my slim figure, I ask them, "How far did you run this morning?" I have never heard one answer, "Oh, I ran 5 miles this morning before work and now I'm swimming half a mile. I'll lift some weights before bed, too." Most of them would rather try different purchased diets or sip aspartame-contaminated soft drinks (yech!) and hope that will work.

That said, I do kind of like the idea that environmental factors are partly responsible for our epidemic. It sure couldn't be naturally occurring genetic changes or the fat person's ancestors back in Thailand, Hungary, England, Iceland, or Botswana would be fat, too.

Since sucrose, like other sugars, is converted to glucose in the body, I have a couple of questions. Do you just avoid foods containing added sucrose, or any food containing sucrose (e.g. onions)? What about foods containing other sugars (e.g. honey) or starches and glycogen that also are converted to glucose? How far do you go to avoid sugar?

Only four days?
How about two weeks on a water-only diet, or does being sick nearly to death with a flu not count?
I lost 30 lbs in that two week period and the month or so recovery, and it took two years of deliberate effort to gain it back - as I stated in a post on the other thread, my metabolism is a spendthrift.
So, what did I win?

... for anyone one to imply that activity and food intake are not related to obesity is trying to sell something ...

Amen!

But, I don't agree with your addiction to sugar hypothesis. Anecdotally, I'd say that we Americans are eating more calories from restaurant/take-out foods each year. These foods tend to be packed with salt, fat, and sugar. If we fill our stomach with these foods we too will be packed with salt, fat, and sugar. In other words, if we eat a lot of restaurant food, we'll tend to over consume calories. The result is we will gain weight.

I did not gain any noticable amount of body fat from my late teens to my late thirties - in spite of eating a lot of sugar/carbohydrate laden foods. In my late thirties, I started eating in restaurants on a regular basis. This also accompanied a reduced amount of physical activity. In one year, I put two inches of fat around my waistline and gained 10+ pounds of fat.