The Foods That Made America Fat

The actual change in the proportion of protein, fats and carbs from 1961 to 2000 in this data only vary by perhaps 1-2%. The issue is not the source of the calories, it is the sheer quantity of them.

I think its true that people have forgotten how to cook. I get a bit annoyed with the excuse that people on low incomes can only afford junk food. When i was studying i was on a very low income. Id never buy crappy foods. For example, if i brought 500g of mince and cooked it up with a heap of vegies on sunday id freeze it and eat it during the week with different cheapy things like noodles or rice. Heaps healthier than hot dogs or pizza and cheaper. So people dont have an excuse to be eating these things or worse still feeding them regularly to their kids.

I read and hear all the time, eat right. Then when trying to find a list of healthy foods to eat there is nothing. Just stupid sayings like like eat veggies,poultry,etc. Well they add crap to all foods.
Where can i find an actual list of healthy foods?

Hi Rick,
I think it comes down to educating yourself over time through research and just common sense. Alot of Governments have developed information kits regarding healthy eating and recommended dietary intakes etc which you can get of the net. Just stay clear of Fad diets and eat everything in moderation. lots of fruit and vegies and a healthy amount of carbs... and not too much take away or processed foods!

How do they know this?

Of all the comments and the statistics in this area, it's really the processed fats, refined carbs, processed meats, and processed foods that are making us sick.

Refined carbs raise tryglicerides, while trans fats damages arteries.

I live in the suburbs today, and I walk during breaks at the office buildings, and take a 2 to 3 hour jog on one day of the weekends.

I try to eat everything in moderation (More veggies during the weekdays I work), and enjoy the parties with no restrictions now.

It's a bad idea to severely restrict treats, because eventually, you will crash, and wind up eating lots of junk foods. So it's a good idea to have a treat once in a while.

We should be consuming more grown foods than foods that have been ultra refined.

But anyways, it's a tough battle, because your weight sometimes creeps up after a while when you lose, and here you go again. Despite me still exercising today, I am gaining back body fat.

However, today, I am counting more to the body fat ratio more than weight, simply because I can be 150 to 160, yet have a fatty body, despite me being in normal weight.

I may be not suprised if the caloric intake would be back down to 2500 a year from now, and then we be thinner, yet even sicker, and wind up with thin people developing type 2 diabetes, because of their fat ratio of their body.

Rick said:
I read and hear all the time, eat right. Then when trying to find a list of healthy foods to eat there is nothing. Just stupid sayings like like eat veggies,poultry,etc. Well they add crap to all foods.
Where can i find an actual list of healthy foods?
[...]

IAWTC. I think the health industry is really out of touch with the reality of what food is available. I have read a lot about healthy diets where they show a plate with a small piece of chicken and a small pile of potatoes, then a large helping of steamed vegetables. Looks lovely. But how do I account for proportions if I ordered a burrito from the local taqueria? Or even if I cooked spaghetti at home? It's not as easy to quantify.

I just think that the guidelines need to be a lot more realistic and specific for what the abundance of food out there REALLY looks like.

E said:
I3) There is always food in tv. Weight-loss program, pizza, weight-loss pill, oreos, weight-loss exercises, fast-food chain. Well, who can resist? Maybe they should be banned. everybody knows that fast-food exists so they can make that choise if they want to without having a big cheesburger in front of their eyes.[...]

I think this is another case of the health industry not being realistic enough about the food that we are surrounded with day in and day out. It's a very mixed message. On the one hand, we are told to eat healthy in very generic terms "eat lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins" - and that's difficult enough to translate to actual meals (for the average busy person.)

But then you turn around and the much stronger message we're seeing is to eat more and more food - often, the worst kinds of food. I almost laugh when I see those ads for chain restaurants that say "if you can't decide between chicken shrimp and steak, why not have all 3 with our combo meal?" And they make it very convenient, very tasty, and very affordable. For too many people, the wrong answer is the easiest one to make here.

And if you see all this food around you all the time, in such large quantities, you do start to think that this is normal, acceptable, and even the right way to go. Your mind can't filter out all that advertising noise to listen to the very quiet voice saying "eat fruits and vegetables..."

I think the problem is eating out too much. Coffee from starbucks has more calories than coffee from home. Your cake out of the box has less calories than the "Death by Chocolate Cake" they sell in the store. People should either learn how to fix their own food, or get the nutritional info on food the eat when they eat out.

I think that if people cut out Starbucks lattes, they can lose weight

i agree with the peeps here before me...they pretty much said it already and would make not to much sence to completely repeat it with rambling rants

Hi Rick,
I think it comes down to educating yourself over time through research and just common sense. Alot of Governments have developed information kits regarding healthy eating and recommended dietary intakes etc which you can get of the net. Just stay clear of Fad diets and eat everything in moderation. lots of fruit and vegies and a healthy amount of carbs... and not too much take away or processed foods!

Thanks You :)

I think butter is very deceiving because you can really add it to anything. Even ordering a chicken breast, vegetables and rice in a restaurant would have a bunch of butter in each of those foods. Pretty crazy hey?

Very interesting. Developed countries are so fast paced that we are eating out so often and generally they are higher calorie meals. I also think that people are exercising less.

Trans fats have to be the worst. They can be hidden in so many common foods and can be eaten in such abundance. Those are absolute killers!

I'm from a family that struggles with weight their entire life, and I really want to buck the trend. Right now I am at my heaviest since college and in recollecting what was different about my lifestyle at my thinnest, I've realized it was because I was dirt broke then, but hyper-aware of being healthy.

I've noticed a theme in this thread suggesting that people eat poorly because they can't afford to eat well. I have to agree with latter posts that suggest people don't know HOW to prepare a healthy meal, and are too lazy (myself included!) to do the extra work it takes. I know from experience that you can eat healthy on the cheap if you apply yourself!

As I was finishing college I started getting really curious about nutrition, and taught myself to make my ~$20-30/wk grocery budget work to buy the type of diet I learned about (this was only about 5 years ago!!). Here’s some things I did . . .

- Buy basic staples that can be used for any meals (nonfat plain yogurt is breakfast with fruit, and a veggie dip at lunch and sour cream at dinner)

- Buy in bulk, I always have big containers of brown rice and what pasta and both cost less than 80 cents/lb when you buy in bulk. I buy the 1 lb yogurt and family size bags of snack food like pretzels than portion them out into reusable containers. I buy a 2 lb block of cheese once a month.

- Buy cheap fruit (yay bananas!) and fruit that is in season. If you have a local farmers market hit it at the end of the day when they need to get rid of everything and ask for a discount. Pick fruit yourself when its in season - it is good excercise, less expensive and you can just rinse it, slice it and freeze it to add to meals year round.

- Select veggies that give you more bang for your buck – cabbage and broccoli with some raisins tossed in make for a delicious salad and gives you way more food per dollar then bagged salad or spinach and other greens. Choose whole carrots and slice them down to babies at home! Buy big bags of frozen mixed veggies for dinners (easier to preserve unused portion and has WAY less sodium than cans).

- Choose your spendy foods wisely! You do not need to eat meat every day! Keep peanut butter, eggs, beans and yogurt in stock and eat one of these items each day to get your protein. Buy one BIG package of whatever meat is on sale each week, cut it down into portions the size of a deck of cards and then freeze enough for 1 meal for your family in ziplock bags. Before you know it you have a few things to choose from in your freezer. You will be perfectly healthy only eating meat 1-2 times a week (I’m from the south, this was a tough concept for me to grasp!!!)

- Make big batches of grain/veggie based dishes and carry the leftovers for lunch. You don’t need to buy frozen dinners or cold cuts to take to the office! If you don’t have a fridge/microwave, a peanut butter & banana sandwich (put honey in the mix to keep your banana from browning) with a carrot makes a good lunch.

- Learn to make your own dressings using yogurts, oils and vinegars. It’s cheaper and healthier.

- Don’t drink empty calories. Have iced green tea (make it yourself and add honey, the bottled kind is not very good for you) instead of soda, plain coffee instead of a mochaccino, vodka tonic instead of vodka cranberry, bourbon and water instead of beer.

Recounting all this is more for me than all of you, but hopefully you’ll find it useful too! Now I just have to start doing these things again and hopefully I will loose some weight and save some grocery money!!!

While the data can all be extracted from what's presented here, the inconsistent manner makes it a bit less obvious, even misleading. Not showing total calories and percentages for everything is making it less obvious that what's really happened is an overall large increase in serving size or count (as in snacks).

The comment "Strange how more of us are obese than ever before and how diabetes and heart disease rates continue to climb" reinforces just how far of the mark the presentation here is. It tends to imply that there's something wrong with advice we've been given (like consuming less trans/saturated fat).

Omitting the raw calorie intake numbers for protein, carbs other than added sugar etc but showing them for vegitable oils etc seems like an attempt to keep us off course from what should otherwise be the primary obvious conclusion - most consume too much of everything!

The French and some others enjoy some very rich and tasty foods, but they do better at smaller serving sizes. There is nothing strange about it.

I routinely eat smaller servings, do the "bad" in moderation and even with very little exercise actually find myself wanting to GAIN weight!
I'm amazed how many people weigh at least twice as much as I do.

the problem with fat america is simple,their diet sucks and people dont do anything physically.Duh,I think the only soulution is fat camps,send people in a controlled jail like environment where they are made in the least to eat this or that in whatever amt.People have no self control,people by nature are evil and weak.I am an amputee and with little change to my diet and exercise,I am in the best shape ever!!This was due to an accident but diebetes by being overweight is the leading cause of amputation,more costs!!!!People need to get off their fat asses and exercise and watch what they eat,but they wont but americans have had it to easy for to long,dont know right from wrong and are mentally challenged from watching to much tv.

I respectfully disagree with the spin of this article. Foods don't make people fat. The food industry doesn't make people fat. It is people, freely choosing to not exercise, and freely choosing to eat more than they need, and freely choosing to each junk food is what made America fat.

I personally each at McDonalds a lot (almost every day), I am over 40, and I am in great shape. However, I order the small fries, and I choose not to drink soda.

Steve

I think that in addition to eating more calories, we are also eating lower quality calories from each group. For example, protein from farm animals is likely very different now than it was 40 years ago.

On top of that, I suspect that more of our protein comes from fast food burgers and fried chicken that good home cooking.

One thing that this article doesn't mention is chemical consumption.

What about all the artificial flavors, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, hormones, antiboitics, pesticides, and herbicides.

3800 calories, thats a 32% increase, isn't it just all that extra food that is making people overweight?

I am eating more fruits and vegetables and liking it. I am finding the time to do more cookin--cutting up vegetables and mixing them with meat or chicken in a stir fry type dish. I try and drink more water. I finally have been reading labels and listening to my doctor who has always stated that soda and fruit juices have a lot of calories. I am 62 years old and hope to go into my old age in good health. Presently I have high blood pressure controlled by medication. I am really frightened of type II diabetes that is why I decided to eat better. My highest weight was 317 about 6 years ago. I then got down to 303; stayed there for awhile; proud of the 17 pounds that I lost and now I am at 240lbs. I'll get there!! Others comments are very helpful for me. Thank-you.

Don't forget that this generation and those to come is the generation of Technology and computer games as well as communication. The other fact is we are using too much oils; look at the nature of oils, it serve no purpose. More grilling and alternative for oil. Maybe the idea of eating Ostridge meat instead of cows is looking better; being it is 99.9% fat free and low carbs.

It really is a no brainer. And it isn't as much about diet as it is exercise. About a year ago I was divorced and reentered the single life. I decided that I wanted to live longer and also might want to go on a date again. I began exercising regularly and it works. I changed what I ate a little but not drasticly. Exercise burns the calories and also helps yur body remain tough adn resistant to sickness.
I've since slipped and the weight is coming back. I've also noticed that you can change your diet and not exercise that much and it helps too though exercise is the main key. Its a balance, really.