Heavy Questions (obesity)

NY Times Magazine ^ | January 2, 2005 | ELIZABETH WEIL

[redheadtoo]

Then I asked her if she ever took a slice of bread and cleaned up her plate.

Not while Mom was watching!

[andie74]

Isn't shrimp very low in calories? Scampi isn't fried, either. And isn't it expensive for a town supposedly suffering from dire poverty? You know, that is what I thought at first too, but notice that the school principal is the one whose kid is clamoring for shrimp scampi. They probably eat upscale fast food, like the boil-in-bag Olive Garden.

[Veto!]

Shrimp, and lobster, snow crab, and alaskan king crab in drawn butter.

Definitely the yummiest things on the planet. And the good news is that lobster and crab have nowhere near as much cholesterol as shrimp.

[valkyrieanne]

Type 2 Diabetes in European history.

[valkyrieanne]

Pima Indians, "thrifty genes," and diabetes.

The Pima Indians were phenomenally healthy until they began eating "western-style" food - now they have about 60% diabetes and almost universal obesity among adults. They apparently were extremely well-adapted to extreme feast-famine conditions in their desert life, but not to ours.

[MEGoody]

"When you talk to children about losing weight, ''you see a blank stare,"

Well, sometimes. Other times you end up with a pre-teen or teen (usually a girl) who is attempting to starve themselves to death.

Does anyone know if other countries have as many problems with various eating disorders as we do in the U.S.?

[FITZ]

I guess it depends on what someone considers to be "western" or American style food. I usally think of pot roasts with potatoes and vegetables. Or baked chicken with the same, or a steak with a baked potatoe and some kind of vegetable. Cereal for breakfast, maybe a sandwich for lunch.

French cooking is considered to be very rich --- lots of high fat sauces -- but yet they don't tend to be obese from it. I think most of the obese kids wouldn't be obese if they ate well-rounded meals and had very few junk food snacks around. Certain ethnic groups are known to consume large amounts of cokes --- more than the average American does. It's not the fault of learning American habits so much as it is bringing habits with them --- maybe where the water isn't safe to drink, you become accustomed to always drinking cokes.

There probably is a genetic component too --- but it would be interesting to see what would happen if a lot of groups were served Chinese food or French portions of French foods and compare with groups eating lots of pasta and breads and those eating lots of corn and lard.

[Nov3]

Believe me I am quite familiar with the causes of "adult" onset. (It could be called juvenile onset now). I too believe that heredity has an influence but your statement on the massive die off of westerners in the 17th and 18th century baffled me. 1st diabetes is at record levels now in all races. 2cnd people with no family history are developing it in great numbers. 3rd "white" flour though available in the time period you list was not in wide use. It became readily available "to the unwashed masses" in the mid-late 19th century.

As far as the Pima Indians go I am sure if you look at their diet it is stuffed with more carbs, sugars, hydrogenated fats, and alcohol that the typical "western person". Don't include "western" children in that. There are tons of white fat diabetic "Adult' onset kids. There is no diabetes in my family anywhere except in my sister's kid. None in the fathers family either. This eating style is true of Mexican Indians and blacks (in general). BTW the link you posted talks of the shortcomings of the thrifty gene theory.

The massive outbreak of diabetes we are seeing now is due to white flour, corn syrup, soy and "modern" manufactured food.

[CajunConservative]

Butter isn't as bad for you as the fake margarines. You can make scampi just as tasty by using less butter. Real unadulterated fats are good for you, even animal fats. It's the fake ones you need to avoid like the plague.

[Nataku X]

Unless I'm missing something about seafood, protein foods don't absorb fats in general. In fact certain ways of deepfrying steak will low the fat and calorie contents of steak... the olive oil draws out the saturated fats. Vegetables, on the other hand, sop it up like oil. Did you have lots of leftover butter?

[FITZ]

And just plain too much food. We live in abundance --- but we don't have to eat 3 hamburgers --- 1 can be enough. And if we live sedentary lifestyles, we should adjust for that. The contruction workers here might eat more than the welfare types who just lay around --- but they don't have the same weight problems.

[valkyrieanne]

I've noticed with a lot of recipes that you don't have to use as much butter as the recipe calls for, especially when I make it the first time & find I have a lot of butter or oil left over in the pan.

But in any event, butter is good for you - it's a pure natural food (especially if you are fortunate enough to get it churned fresh that day from the cow - a fantastic treat.) It has lots of Vitamins A & E, anti-oxidants, and some butterfat in moderation makes people (women especially) absorb far more calcium from milk and vegetables than they would otherwise. A lot of the artery problems people experience are due to inflammation and eating *bad* fats like trans-fats or rancid fats.

[Nov3]

They are better off eating the hamburgers than the 42 ounce Coke and fries with it.

You know when I was young and prone to laying around I would GAIN weight when I got back on a jobsite! It was mainly muscle. The two times I decided I needed a lengthly break I gained weight when I came back!! Thise were the days!!!

[Nov3]

But in any event, butter is good for you

A lot of the artery problems people experience are due to inflammation and eating *bad* fats like trans-fats or rancid fats.

Amen