Black Americans claimed the highest rate, at 49.6%, while Hispanics come in at 44.8% and whites at 42.2%; Asians hold the lowest rate, at a relatively low 17.4%.
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Added refined white sugar is being added to *everything* to make it more addictive. It’s in your bread, in your beef stew, your picante sauce, your mac & cheese … basically anything you didn’t make from base ingredients.
Yet these foods are the most available, cheap, and convenient for people already struggling to find the energy to keep up with work and chores. The sugar content builds insulin resistance in your cells, then you feel like a zombie all the time. Finding the motivation to cook on a regular basis while being a sugar zombie is impossible.
Tried keto once. It feels really unhealthy and it is. At best, it’s a stop gap and very temporary solution.
I only eat every other day when I’m a couple pounds up. As a general rule all the time, I don’t eat packaged, pre-prepared foods but start with fresh ingredients. I don’t eat out much, which is tough, because I live in the greater New York metropolitan area and good restaurants are everywhere and I could afford to eat all 21 meals a week in them, every week. Also have to eliminate snacking.
Interim fasting made it abundantly clear to me that most food is not eaten because we are hungry. It’s eaten because it’s that time of day, because our family and friends expect us to eat with them, because it is in front of us, because we are bored, or because our brains are craving a dopamine fix (even though that is actually counter-productive).
It is probably possible to eat healthy and have a keto diet. It would be very hard though. Most oils have high levels of Advanced glycation end products (AGEs). If oils are a major part of your diet, then it is unlikely your kidneys can keep up the clearance of this crud, accelerating aging and increasing the risk of several chronic diseases.
You want to eat more avocado? That one is just fine. Raw chestnut is fine. Olives are fine. Pistachios are excellent. Tarter sauce is excellent. Raw pumpkin seeds are fine. Roasted and salted soy beans are fine. Dressings are mostly OK. Corn oil, avocado oil, pumpkin seed oil, pistachio seed oil, safflower seed oil, and sunflower seed oils are fine.
Just eating a bunch of grilled/fried meat? That is a recipe for disaster.
Food is relatively cheap everywhere in Europe too.
It’s all a cultural factor. This stuff is learned through family, and if your mother fed you junk food when you were little, it’s much harder to go back to a healthy lifestyle.
In my opinion the US needs to teach ADULTS about correct nutrition. In my country, Italy, families have a great nutrition culture, and that is true in many European and Asian countries. That’s the main difference.
There is evidence that diabetes results from a staph infection: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150601172848.htm
They were blaming all the people with ulcers for handling stress poorly. Their psychology was defective. They needed to go to stress management camps, classes. They needed psychoanalysis.
All victim blaming bunk. It was a bacteria in the stomach. Just required a little antibiotic and they were cured.
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicobacter_pylori
I guess it is coincidence that they infected the animals with these viruses and they all got fat?
These viruses were uncommon in the population and then became common right when everyone was starting to get fat. It spread like an epidemic. Some scientists thought the “obesity epidemic” looked too much like an epidemic and looked for virus infections which were increasing in the population and low and behold when they tested these viruses they made animals fat. Excuse? That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about a target. How about we get rid of this virus?
You really think people were just superior 100 years ago?
People blamed Blacks in the South for being lazy too. Many had no shoes and poor sanitation and hookworm was everywhere. That makes you weak and lethargic. We only managed to get rid of this thing in the US during WW2. They had the conscientious objectors digging latrines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookworm_infection
If you can only think in terms of fault, your comprehension will be crippled.
In ancient times if you were blind they assumed you offended the gods somehow or your parents did. Doesn’t change the fact that most blindness at that time was due to vitamin A deficiency.
Epilepsy? You must have a demon.
We reduced lead and crime rates dropped: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/02/lead-exposure-gasoline-crime-increase-children-health/
You are the narcissist, if you are so determined to look down on others elevating yourself.
Steak is trickier. I use flank steak cut into strips as wide as they are thick cut against the grain. I cook on high with water covering the bottom and covered. I use a bit of soy sauce, Costco’s “no salt seasoning” and salt. You have to watch like a hawk. Add water as needed. Move the strips around and turn over with tongs. If you start to get too much liquid, pour part into a cup and resume. If it boils down again add from the cup. You don’t want to boil with a lot of liquid in there. This should be fairly quick…less than 10 minutes. If you cook it long, it will get tough. And remove smaller pieces first. They will be done sooner. And get eating within 5 minuets. The sooner the better.
I cook round steak slowly in spaghetti sauce. I coat with oil first. 30-40 minutes fairly low. The spaghetti sauce is fairly worthless at the end so don’t use a lot. Some is good on the steak, the rest just ends up down the drain. I don’t think I have this perfected yet. Like I said, it is tricky.
You don’t need a lot of water to boil meat. I cook hamburgers/turkey burgers with just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. Cook with a glass cover and add water as needed to maintain…though usually water will come out of the meat and be sufficient. I mix marjoram, course black pepper, and quite a bit of fennel seed in the burger before I cook it. Tastes a bit like sausage without the grease. Sometimes I put sliced mushrooms in it too. You can add some red pepper if you like it spicier.
My trial and error recipe for Easter:
I buy boneless lamb leg (I buy it at Sam’s Club but also available at Costco for more). Cut it into 2 to 3 oz chunks, coat each with oil (avocado, sunflower, or grape seed). Put it in a pot with celery sliced (the center 6 or so sticks with leaves), 1 white potato diced, 2 or so thinly sliced shallots, 4 bay leaves, 1 tablespoon ground sage (or the equivalent fresh), 1 teaspoon marjoram, 1 teaspoon ground fenugreek, 1 cup of water.
Take to a boil then cook at medium-low for 55 minutes. Water will come out of the meat and celery, and the liquid level will rise.
I get no complaints.
It’s always someone’s else fault, yes?
The fundamental cause is a lack of self discipline caused not by poisons or abuse, but by an education that encourages narcissistic tendencies.
Being fat is the ultimate participation trophy.
Check with a doctor first – there are a variety of medical problems with keto for some people – kidney stones, muscle loss, etc. You kind of have to know what your’e doing and whether you should be doing it at all.
But yeah, if you’re one of the lucky ones who won’t get stones or other problems, keto works well. But it probably shouldn’t be a long term thing and it is very easy to gain the weight back once you stop it.
Most of the food predominantly consumed by endothermic (warm blooded) animals is not for tissue maintenance– but for the production of body heat. Ectotherms (cold blooded animals) use solar energy to raise their temperatures to appropriate levels.
In humans, Caucasians are the most efficient at converting consumed carbohydrates and fats into heat rather than into subcutaneous fat– which was probably a necessity in ice age Europe going all the way back to the Neanderthals.
The United States has the highest levels of obesity in the industrialized world because food is relatively cheap in the US plus America has a public school system that really doesn’t require or emphasize student participation in organized– intramural– sporting activities in its K through 12 system.
So eating a lot and excising very little will tend to make you a lot fatter:-)
All this assumes that biology really does work to neat multiples of 10 when calculated using metric units and curve fitted equations. And that there is no difference in the physical structure of a negro man compared to an east asian woman.
Providing those two assumptions are correct then these numbers are meaningful.
Isn’t obesity linked more to socioeconomic circumstances rather than race. In wealthy countries the poorer people tend to be more obese. Better off people have healthier lifestyles.
We don’t have Costco here, but I doubt there is anything specifically wrong with Costco products. Of course if you keep on stuffing yourself …..
Switch to a keto diet and you will lose weight while also not getting hungry. Having tried it to lose a few extra pounds (so that I could play sports with guys half my age) I can say that it does work.
I can assure you that there are plenty of non-thin Americans of Asian descent. Lay off the Costco products.
On the bright side lots of people won’t need food when they are quarantined in their homes.
Dark humor is like a vaccine. Sometimes you don’t get it quickly.
I think there are 6 things primarily causing this and none of them are the ones generally blamed:
1.Lead exposure in infancy and earlier. This damages the part of the brain responsible for self-control.
2.Adenoviruses 5, 36 & 37 when animals are exposed to these viruses they quickly gain weight. We can’t do those studies in humans because it would be unethical.
3.Alcohol results in increased child abuse. The child abuse later increases the rate of obesity in these grown children.
4.Stress from commuting in traffic.
5.Stress from living in debt.
6.Staying up late because we have light, heat, and entertainment. Self-control is weakened when one is tired.
I’m not saying food choices are not involved. I am saying there are reasons people are craving calories and comfort foods. Though there are addictive substances in some foods. Caffeine obviously, and that is a problem when combined with lots of calories: ice cream, chocolate, sodas, and sweat coffee, but there are also casomorphins in cheese which attach to the same brain receptors as heroin and other narcotics. https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpellmanrowland/2017/06/26/cheese-addiction/#293726513583
I suspect there are also addictive substances produced in the Maillard reaction. I cut this stuff out and cook other ways. And now, something everyone else is raving about at gatherings…I honestly don’t like anymore. Anecdotal…of course. But I am suspicious.
Sugar? I am not going to join the condemnation bandwagon.
obesity misses asians but not diabetes…too many refined carbs like white rice
Clearly, vast numbers of Americans have thyroid problems like my sister, and they just can’t help gaining weight even though they consume a normal amount of junk food and do not exercise, whereas Asians are genetically thin by nature.
I keep telling myself that, if I’m not hungry, food is poison.
It helps, a little.