Some History

My late mother was born 100 years ago next month.

When she was young there were no "epidemics" of obesity or diabetes. "Everyone knew" if you wanted to lose weight you cut back on starches. Some people still called dieting Banting

She was a junior/primary school teacher from the thirties to the seventies. During that time there might be one or at most two "fat kids" per class, and it was often blamed on "glands" - ie. endocrine system. There might be one diabetic in the whole school, usually none - though that might have been because they went to special schools as well as the incidence being far lower. There might be a couple of kids with asthma or allergies in the whole school.

I was born over 60 years ago. During my time in school (fifties/sixties) and at college (early seventies) the same was true.

It's only since "low fat" diets were imported from America that we also imported American levels of obesity, diabetes and many other diseases - with a delay as the effect of the diet took a hold in the population.

Look at the picture today, probably the majority of the population has some metabolic dysfunction. A little known fact is that the rate of increase of Type 1 is actually higher than the rate of increase of Type 2 - although the incidence of the disease itself is still much lower - and this increase is largely in adult onset Type 1/LADA.

When I go downtown I see the fit healthy old folks in the butchers and the veg shop. All the fat people are in the Co-Op buying their low fat food and becoming inexorably fatter. No-one blames "glands" today, they blame gluttony and sloth.

There's something desperately wrong with this picture.

How true Chris.

I would say with asthma though, those with children with mild asthma in the 60's went largely undiagnosed. I was one of them, branded lazy and unfit because I got breathless when running and colds turned into chest infections and made me really ill. I reckon I've been asthmatic since I was 2, but it was only diagnosed when I was pregnant with my 2nd child when I was 32.

I totally agree about low fat products. Diet Coke was also a major problem for me, but many are saying now that it's not harmful. I know it was for me and no study or scientist will convince me otherwise. When n=1, and I am the one, it's 100% true for me.

Hi Chris

Back in the days when your and many other Mothers were young, people ate real food. Meat and three veg was the main meal of the day. These people did not eat junk they ate real food. Even the bread was of a totally different quality before the Chorleywood bread process  tuned most bread into a failed science experiment. The bottom line is all we have said for years is eat whole fresh food and dump all the man made made poison. Only eat food from the farm or the sea, not from a look alike petro chem plant.

Over the decades the consumption of sugar/carbs has gone ever up, while the consumption of healthy saturated natural fats has gone down and down. This correlates almost in straight line graphs with the epidemics of obesity and the often linked type two diabetes. The good news is, so many scientists and medical professionals are beginning to see the light, the light that shone on us years ago.

One day, although not in our life times, people will look back on the so called 'healthy diet' the same way cigarettes are seen now. The tide has turned and we are winning the war, but a long way to go before the war is over and won.

There's money in carbs, money in processed food, money in low fat foods, money in ready made meals, money in junk food, fast food etc, etc.
I watched Dragon's Den last night and there was a couple trying to flog the Dragon's a new range of Gluten free packaged junk. One of the dragon's was already eating gluten free and he said for breakfast, "I had an avacado and and egg, but there's no money in that is there ? I'm out !"

mo1905 wrote:There's money in carbs, money in processed food, money in low fat foods, money in ready made meals, money in junk food, fast food etc, etc.
I watched Dragon's Den last night and there was a couple trying to flog the Dragon's a new range of Gluten free packaged junk. One of the dragon's was already eating gluten free and he said for breakfast, "I had an avacado and and egg, but there's no money in that is there ? I'm out !"

Calories from carbohydrates are very cheap, from proteins very expensive in comparison.

zand wrote:How true Chris.

I would say with asthma though, those with children with mild asthma in the 60's went largely undiagnosed.  I was one of them, branded lazy and unfit because I got breathless when running and colds turned into chest infections and made me really ill.  I reckon I've been asthmatic since I was 2, but it was only diagnosed when I was pregnant with my 2nd child when I was 32.  

Yes good point, same for the diagnosis of non-Type 1 diabetes. However there is little doubt there's been a massive increase in the actual condition as well as improved diagnosis.

Pasha wrote:

mo1905 wrote:There's money in carbs, money in processed food, money in low fat foods, money in ready made meals, money in junk food, fast food etc, etc.
I watched Dragon's Den last night and there was a couple trying to flog the Dragon's a new range of Gluten free packaged junk. One of the dragon's was already eating gluten free and he said for breakfast, "I had an avacado and and egg, but there's no money in that is there ? I'm out !"

Calories from carbohydrates are very cheap, from proteins very expensive in comparison.

Yes, and quality fats are more expensive than industrially produced Omega 6 seed oils laced with trans fats, yet another of what have become known as the Neolithic Agents of Disease, and championed by Walt Willett at Harvard who should damn well know better the difference between O6 and O3.

Not just the bread but the wheat it's made from has changed substantially

Yes we grew a lot of our veggies on our allotment and bought what we didn't grow in local shops. Before I went to school and mother went back to work we had a butcher and a local baker call weekly. Afterwards we would use a local butcher's shop, a village baker and get our eggs from one of several local farms etc. Very much what I've reverted to.

I suspect going back to a hardcore Paleo diet may be unneccesary if your metabolism is only slightly broken, going back to what your grandparents ate would be a good first step. I was in my teens before ever eating in a restaurant. Even the hotels we stayed in on holiday did "home cooking" and had a kitchen garden, chickens and maybe a pig or two, and the tea shops baked their own scones.

A lot of the village shops have closed but some still have a "community shop" or the local farm shop has taken to selling commercial stuff alongside their own produce. Better still although many village pubs have also closed, many of those remaining sell home cooked locally sourced food, and are prepared to do things like substitute salad for the chips. It was not too hard to obtain a satisfying meal for me as a low carber, my mother who ate tiny meals, and my cousin who is vegetarian. Gluten free or nut free Real Food is also readily obtainable. Feels almost like an underground movement becoming mainstream.