When I was growing up in the 1970’s, most people were thin. My high school class had one fat girl and one fat boy. Remember the movie “Stand By Me”? Jerry O’Connell played the fat kid and he was at most 15 pounds overweight, which is the average kid nowadays.
Here is a chart of recent overweight and obesity statistics for adults. 70% of adults are overweight and obese.
Did people just turn into gluttonous sloths over the past 40 years? According to the author, yes, but not willingly. Dr. Lustig says the obesity pandemic (it’s spread beyond epidemic to worldwide), is due to altered biochemistry, which is a result of our altered environment.
The first Coca-cola glass contour bottles in the 1950’s were 6.5 ounces. Coca-cola was made with real sugar which was expensive because it grew in Cuba and Hawaii. Now, soda is made with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) which is grown in the U.S. inexpensively. For a buck, you can buy a 32 ounce Big Gulp soda. A McDonald’s adult meal in the 1970’s was the size of today’s Kid’s Meal. Restaurant meals are bigger because that’s what consumers want - to feel like they’ve gotten their money’s worth. HCFS or some form of sugar is in virtually every processed food now.
On the physiological side, our bodies cannot process that influx of sugar in all its forms. It stimulates a release of insulin; the more you eat the more insulin resistant you become. The human body cannot burn this as energy, so it gets stored in the fat cells. High insulin blocks the leptin signal - that’s the signal in the brain that tells you you’re full. So you feel hungry even when you’ve eaten. Then there’s ghrelin, a peptide that makes your stomach grumble when you’re hungry. Fructose does not decrease ghrelin so you still feel hungry after eating tons of carbs. Last of all is cortisol, the stress hormone. This was awesome when early man had to run away from a sabre-toothed tiger. Unfortunately, we can’t run and hide from our miserable bosses! So we compensate by overeating.
Here are Dr. Lustig’s solutions:
Get the insulin down - eat fiber, reduce sugar, and exercise
Get the ghrelin down - eat protein, stop binging at night, and get more sleep
Get the leptin signal to recognize satiety - eat fiber, stop eating when you’re 80% full
Get the cortisol down - exercise, exercise, exercise!
My takeaway: the outside world isn’t changing so we have to. Here is a link to one of my favorite bloggers Sean Anderson who has successfully maintained a 300 pound weight loss and works daily on overcoming a sugar addiction.
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| Source https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information |
The first Coca-cola glass contour bottles in the 1950’s were 6.5 ounces. Coca-cola was made with real sugar which was expensive because it grew in Cuba and Hawaii. Now, soda is made with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) which is grown in the U.S. inexpensively. For a buck, you can buy a 32 ounce Big Gulp soda. A McDonald’s adult meal in the 1970’s was the size of today’s Kid’s Meal. Restaurant meals are bigger because that’s what consumers want - to feel like they’ve gotten their money’s worth. HCFS or some form of sugar is in virtually every processed food now.
On the physiological side, our bodies cannot process that influx of sugar in all its forms. It stimulates a release of insulin; the more you eat the more insulin resistant you become. The human body cannot burn this as energy, so it gets stored in the fat cells. High insulin blocks the leptin signal - that’s the signal in the brain that tells you you’re full. So you feel hungry even when you’ve eaten. Then there’s ghrelin, a peptide that makes your stomach grumble when you’re hungry. Fructose does not decrease ghrelin so you still feel hungry after eating tons of carbs. Last of all is cortisol, the stress hormone. This was awesome when early man had to run away from a sabre-toothed tiger. Unfortunately, we can’t run and hide from our miserable bosses! So we compensate by overeating.
Here are Dr. Lustig’s solutions:
Get the insulin down - eat fiber, reduce sugar, and exercise
Get the ghrelin down - eat protein, stop binging at night, and get more sleep
Get the leptin signal to recognize satiety - eat fiber, stop eating when you’re 80% full
Get the cortisol down - exercise, exercise, exercise!
My takeaway: the outside world isn’t changing so we have to. Here is a link to one of my favorite bloggers Sean Anderson who has successfully maintained a 300 pound weight loss and works daily on overcoming a sugar addiction.
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