obesity
The Truth Behind The Diabetes Epidemic And Obesity
The Truth Behind The Diabetes Epidemic
Unfortunately the world is losing the battle against diabetes. Many experts believe the number of people now living with it is estimated to be over 380 million. This is mostly Type 2 diabetes that is directly related to obesity, a poor lifestyle, little or no exercise and eating an excess of processed foods lacking little if any nutritional value. We are creeping towards 10% of the world’s population having this disease (adults).
This is becoming a major health issue that is fast approaching near epidemic proportions across the world because there are more than 1.7 billion adults who are overweight, and approximately 300 million or more are considered obese. Even more tragic is this epidemic is trending towards younger and younger individuals, even as young as prepubescent ages. Sadly, there are now at least 150 million children worldwide who are overweight or obese.
In 3rd World countries over 70% of the population has Type 2 diabetes and this number is increasing each year. The most commonly affected are the people in the middle of their lives, between 35 and 65 years old, those years when they need to be the most productive.
In contrast, in developed countries people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are usually past the age of retirement and it occurs mostly in the highest poverty areas. Whether it is in developing or modern developed countries, poverty and a greater consumption of low cost per calorie foods, processed and packaged foods and sugary drinks goes hand in hand and makes Type 2 diabetes thrive.
This is a serious problem that needs serious solutions, nutrition education, lifestyle changes and better choices and avoiding these empty processed foods that increase the likelihood of obesity at any age.
A great start is to focus on eating healthy protein, vegetables, drinking lots of water and beginning an exercise program (even a small one). You’ll start to feel better, lose weight and have the energy and focus to make even more positive lifestyle changes!
How The War On Fat Was A Big Mistake
Many experts now believe that the war on fat was the biggest mistake in the history of nutrition.
At exactly the same time that we were all told to reduce the animal fat and cholesterol that we ate, the correlation and incidence of many serious diseases also increased. Now we find ourselves in the midst of a worldwide crisis of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.
The truth of the matter is, that neither saturated fat nor dietary cholesterol have been proven to cause harm in our bodies. The experts are now realizing that the movement to eat a low-fat diet was based on inaccurate and flawed studies. With the obesity crisis plaguing the world, research has shown that these previous studies have now been completely proven false.
The Epidemic Of Obesity And Quickly Ensuing Diabetes in the U.S. Started At Basically The Same Time As The Low-Fat Movement Took Off
Back in the late 70’s was when this movement started by encouraging us all to eat a low-fat diet and avoid fats altogether. The obesity epidemic began at the same time. While people started giving up butter, they replaced it with low fat-foods that were much higher in carbs and sugar.
When we replaced butter and lard with vegetables oils and trans fats is when even more serious disease occurred in the modern world. The obesity epidemic started in 1980 and has continually worsened. The diabetes epidemic started around 1990. Obesity and diabetes have now become the biggest health epidemic in the world, unfortunately killing millions of people each year including children. Third World countries are also being hard hit by this due to the rampant malnutrition there and programs that supply them with food filled only with empty carbohydrates and sugar.
In European Countries They Consume The Absolute Most Saturated Fat In Their Diet And Yet They Consistently Have the Lowest Risk of Heart Disease
60 Minutes did an interesting segment in 1991 entitled “The French Paradox” that investigated this phenomenon. At the time it was the opposite of U.S. standards because according to the U.S. nutrition experts, the French do everything wrong in their diet. They eat a high-fat diet, they don’t exercise regularly, they smoked regularly…. yet somehow miraculously had half the rate of heart disease as Americans (143 vs. 315 per 100,000 middle-aged men). They also lived at least 2.5 years longer with this lifestyle!
Despite a diet rich in foods like pastries, cheeses and cream sauces, France is not a country rampant with obesity, and apparently this has mostly to do with this type of eating lifestyle. Instead, we North Americans like to shovel down processed foods as if eating were healthy to do so.
Some of the longest living people are from the southwest of France (The Gers). Their typical meal is very high in saturated fats – they use duck fat for cooking, foie gras, sausage, cassoulet, (pork sausage, goose, duck, pork skin, beans) and lots and lots of cheese (oh and daily wine).
The truth is that consuming saturated fat and cholesterol has nothing to do with cardiovascular disease. Focusing on eating healthy proteins in proportion with healthy fats (yes, even saturated fats) and a limited amount of good carbs is a healthy diet that will keep obesity and diabetes away!
Is There Really Starvation Or Is It Actually Malnutrition?
This was a concept that took me a moment to wrap my head around. I grew up with Sally Struthers in the 80’s educating the world about African children who were starving and suffering and she brought amazing awareness and compassion to this fact. However, fast forward several decades and now we are seeing the paradox of more people dying across the world from obesity than starvation. There are more than 1.5 billion people across the world that are dangerously overweight and dying from its complications….AND they are also malnourished.
So the world can produce enough food to feed those in need yet they are malnourished and obese. How do those two go together? It is a strange concept but many obesity sufferers are just as nutrient deficient (malnourished) as those people without enough food to eat (starvation). This is because the food that is being fed to the hungry and starved in many Third World countries is plentiful enough but not protein or nutrient based, because it is typically a corn or soy mixture with a sugar content. They are eating, but not with any true nourishing content. Many researchers believe that by 2015 undernourished obesity will be the leading cause of death in low income communities, not starvation.
Obesity leads to the obvious diet-related illnesses such as hypertension, heart disease and of course, diabetes. These are serious illnesses that can’t always be treated in challenged parts of the world, let alone the less serious diet-related illnesses such as vitamin deficiency, gout, mental disorders, skin conditions, poor vision, failure to thrive in infants and children and even cancer.
This isn’t just an issue in Third World countries. It is directly linked to poverty and also poor choices, which is evident in the U.S. as well as many other countries. In America, there is a dangerous trend of families substituting whole foods for their families with fast foods, processed foods and frozen foods that are not any different than the soy or corn products fed across the world to struggling families. The body stores much of this useless stuff we are supposed to call “food” as fat in the body (GMO’s, refined sugars and flour, soda products, processed sugar and high fructose corn syrup plus a plethora of trans fats). Our bodies honestly don’t know what else to do with it. Yet, the crazy part is…..we are still hungry! It’s because our body has not received the protein and nutrition that it needs so it keeps asking for more….and we keep eating more. The vicious cycle continues and the fat stores get larger and larger, causing obesity, disease and death.
The important thing is to recognize this cycle and break it. Break out of feeding yourself and your families empty garbage and instead eating whole food nutritious meals filled with healthy protein and vitamins, that will prevent obesity and permanent debilitating health issues.
These are hard topics but hugely important and have been a true awakening and eye opener for me. Wishing you all well in your new awareness of this subject and the learning curve that goes with it. Make those amazing new dietary choices today! ( :
Mission Nutrition 