How about the second one?
Vantage point 1: Americans were lazy and fat first, then the government stepped in and said "we need to help these poor souls out and tell them how they should live 'healthier' and what they should eat."
Vantage point 2: The American government stepped in and decided that they knew better than us what we should be eating and decided to tell us about it.
Well, it all really started with a study completed by a man named Ancel Keys (who happens to have been born in the same city as myself). The study was eventually called the Seven Countries Study which looked at the prevalence of cardiovascular disease in older males aged 40-59 and the relationship to dietary cholesterol.
What this led to was a drastic widespread panic that eventually led to the first dietary guidelines from the USDA. At that time, there was already a sharp increase in the amount of cardiovascular related deaths in the U.S. and increasing rates of mortality related to obesity and Type II diabetes. In an effort to curb this, the government set those guidelines.
Although the Seven Countries Study was groundbreaking and made many crucial discoveries relating heart/vascular health to our diet and exercise habits, the over-reaction stemming from this research article led to dietary guidelines for the masses that were a drastic over-simplification of the findings.
The real issue, that has since been uncovered but with great controversy, is the correlation between the rise in cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and the other metabolic syndrome related health problems and the increase in refined carbohydrate consumption in this country. There is plenty of research that has been done correlating the rise in sugar and refined flower with metabolic syndrome related health issues.
The true cause of the drastic increase in sugar and refined flower consumption? Well, although there are many factors involved in the increase, what it really came down to was a surplus of commodity corn coming out of the great corn belt. Something had to be done with the extremely large amounts of corn coming out of this region, and finding new ways for consumers to consume it became a lucrative game.
There are so many things that products of corn can be found in these days, its almost impossible for us to avoid them. Follow this link and you will see many, but not even all, of the ways that manufacturers have found to get us to consume this corn surplus.
If you take a look at the first dietary pyramid recommended for us by the USDA, the biggest portion of our diet (~60%) should be coming from breads, grains, and starches. This actually wouldn't be such a big deal if so many of the products that we consume in the supermarket were pure whole grains and starchy vegetables, but they aren't. They are whole grain look-a-likes that are infused with more corn products that we can really know just by looking at the ingredients list. So with all these "good grains" we're getting, we're also getting infused with tremendous amounts of corn products; basically sugar in various forms disguised as "flavor enhancing" or "freshness maintaining" ingredients. Some of the more common ones would be corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, guar gum, artificial and natural sweeteners etc. The list goes on and on.
The next set of dietary guidelines does a better job than the first one, and the latest one is yet even better than that one. But the point is, is that the USDA just isn't getting it. Or maybe they do, but they know what the implications of "getting it" means the the countries agricultural system as it stands now. The explanation of that is a whole new article in itself.
What it really comes down to, is we need to stop eating processed foods that come from factories and start eating the way that our great grandparents ate. We need to stop eating according to guidelines and start eating the way that the human body was meant to eat food. For a more detailed version of what I'm getting at here, see the various books by the author Michael Pollan such as Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food.
What it really comes down to, is that we should eat according to cultural tradition, family tradition, and human instinct. Your body knows better than you do what you should be eating, and what you shouldn't be eating. Listen to your body and what it tells you. If you're extremely tired after eating, or you get sick, that is your body's way of telling you that what you just ate isn't the right stuff. When it comes to the average person, it isn't about calories, carbs, fat, or protein content. It's about getting whole, natural food that your body was meant to breakdown and utilize for energy. After you eat, you should be energized and feeling good, not the other way around.
Next time you go to the grocery store, try this. Everything that you put into your cart, ask yourself the following question: Would my great grandmother know that this thing is actually food? If the answer to that question is "no" or you even have to think about it for a second then you should really take a step back and ask yourself if your body was really meant to consume that food. I'm not really sure where humans got their "God Complex" from, but what in the world makes us think we can make our own food that is better for us that what God mad for us. Maybe you don't believe in God, then think of it as an evolutionary concept. Either way, humans cannot even compare to God, or millions of years of evolution.
When you shop for food follow these simple steps to a better selection of food:
1. Stay to the outsides of the supermarket and avoid the isles with a few exceptions such as cooking oils and select breads such as the Ezekiel brand breads, or salsa's and canned fish.
2. Try to shop organic for the following list of foods found here: Dirty Dozen
3. If it makes a claim to health, stay away
4. If it comes in a fancy box, stay away
5. If your great grandmother wouldn't eat it, you shouldn't either
6. If it fits into a cultural tradition, than it may be OK. Just make sure you're getting the actual traditional ingredients in your food. Supermarket frozen lasagna doesn't count as the "Italian" tradition
7. If you feel worse after you eat it, stay away.
I hope that this article is both enlightening and useful since health really is "greater than the greatest wealth".
DG
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