Food quality, dietary habits, and health
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 26, 2026 20:31
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Quote:
A low-fat, high-carb diet has been the largest public health experiment in history. As the world gets ever fatter, we MUST rethink
25 Nov, 2020 07:56
By Malcolm Kendrick, doctor and author who works as a GP in the National Health Service in England. His blog can be read here < https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/>; and his book, 'Doctoring Data – How to Sort Out Medical Advice from Medical Nonsense,' is available here < http://www.doctoringdata.co.uk/>;.
New research suggests that four billion people globally will be overweight in 2050. This trend can be traced back to the ‘low-fat, high-carb’ guidelines first issued in the 70s, and should prompt a major U-turn on dietary advice.
A recent report < https://www.thedailystar.net/world/news/4b-overweight-people-2050-1997
501>; from the Potsdam Institute < https://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/home>; predicts that by 2050 there will be four billion overweight people in the world, with one-and-a-half billion of them obese. This is not entirely surprising. The world has been getting fatter for years, and things do not seem to be slowing down.
This Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) graph < https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/obesityandtheeconomicsofpreven
tionfitnotfat-unitedstateskeyfacts.htm>;, which looks at the rise in overweight adults in a number of different countries, shows that the trend seems inexorably upward.
Why is this happening? There are undoubtedly a number of factors at play here. Socio-economic status plays a significant part in many countries. Those with poorer educational attainment are more likely to be overweight, an association that is much stronger in women than men, for reasons that are not clear.
It is also fascinating to look at where obesity levels are highest < https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/obesity-overview.aspx>; in the US, essentially in the poorer southern States.
When you analyse the data, it is clear that obesity is not evenly distributed and there is a very clear difference between rich and poor. Why? That is probably beyond the scope of this article. Instead I am going to consider something else that I think is having a significant impact: dietary guidelines.
At one time, there was no such thing as a dietary guideline. The first was one was published in 1976, in the US. The UK followed suit, then much of the rest of the world. Before this, people ate pretty much whatever they wanted. Imagine that! There was no one to tell you what you should, or should not, eat. How on Earth did they survive?
The guidelines were not developed in an attempt to reduce the rates of obesity, which was not considered a major problem at the time. They were designed to protect against heart disease, which was the major killer. It still is, although the rates have fallen. The guidelines themselves promoted a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet.
Prior to 1976, there was not really a major problem with weight or obesity in the US. Then came the guidelines, and from that point onwards, things changed, as the rising obesity < https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/overwei
ght-obesity>; levels in the US demonstrated.
In the UK, there were no dietary guidelines until 1980, at which point exactly the same upturn in obesity occurred as was seen in the US. There was an immediate uptick, then an unstoppable rise.
As an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) noted < https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2564564>;, “Beginning in the 1970s, the US government and major professional nutrition organizations recommended that individuals in the United States eat a low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet, launching arguably the largest public health experiment in history. Throughout the ensuing 40 years, the prevalence of obesity and diabetes increased several-fold, even as the proportion of fat in the US diet decreased by 25 percent.”
The article went on to say that “a comprehensive examination of this massive public health fNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Ate too much when I was out today and paying for it now. Just have that yuck feeling.
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JSF -
arteries can get stiff and narrow due to many different things besides cholesterol: diabetes, high blood pressure, and smoking, to name a few.
ARTERIOsclerosis is the very general term for hardening of the arteries; "the thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of arteries". Arterio - of the arteries, sclerosis - hardening; "A thickening or hardening of a body part, as of an artery, especially from excessive formation of fibrous interstitial tissue".
ATHEROsclerosis is a more specialized term for hardening of the arteries due to cholesterol deposits. The name derives from atheroma - "an abnormal accumulation of material in the inner layer of the wall of an artery", and sclerosis - hardening. These deposits are made of fats, macrophages, a type of white blood cell, various fibrous connective tissue, calcium, etc.
The cardiovascular system is composed of different layers. Arteries have 3 layers - the intima - the 'Teflon' lining of the entire cardio vascular system; the media - made of collagen and elastin fibers and smooth muscle that can contract and relax; and the outermost adventitia also called the externa - which anchors the cardiovascular system to nearby tissues.
Nicotine causes the smooth muscles in the arterial walls to contract. With repeated stimulation, the muscles become thicker, causing the arteries wall to become stiff and the artery to narrow.
There is no up-to-date simple explanation as to how high blood pressure causes thickening and/ or stiffening of the arteries that I could find.
And cholesterol deposits also cause thickening/ stiffening. As I learned way back when (and I believe the simplified explanation is still good today), all arteries develop little rough areas in their intima as part of everyday wear and tear. Some people 'patch' those rough areas with cholesterol. Macrophages come to clean it up and create small areas of inflammation themselves. Inflammation leads to more white blood cells and fibrous deposition to wall off the area. Calcium is deposited as part of the inflammation process. It can be a positive feedback process. That accumulation of stuff is called an atheroma. Over time the atheroma can invade the media, working its way through small gaps and breaks in the artery wall.
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Quote:I know the feeling. Are you a tea drinker? A nice cup of hot tea might do the trick! Or, if you're suffering from indigestions, a TUMS or Rolaids.
Originally posted by Brenda:
Ate too much when I was out today and paying for it now. Just have that yuck feeling.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:I know the feeling. Are you a tea drinker? A nice cup of hot tea might do the trick! Or, if you're suffering from indigestions, a TUMS or Rolaids.
Originally posted by Brenda:
Ate too much when I was out today and paying for it now. Just have that yuck feeling.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
Yeah, it's a nasty feeling.
I don't like tea. All I did was just give my body the time it wanted to disgust all I had eaten. By suppertime yesterday I was fine.
Also I find TUMS and or ROLAIDS do very little for me and I have make sure I read the labels of them. They are usually fruit or mint flavoured.
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I've found the nicest thing for my morning wakeup and before-bedtime comfort: Hibiscus tea, with a teaspoon of elderberry syrup and a teaspoom of natural sweetener. And I can't say for sure but it seems to calm down my heart palpitations.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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That sounds tasty and like something I'd like to try. Where do you get them?
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I got the (loose) hibiscus tea from my sister; I don't know where she got it from but the elderberry syrup is from iHerb.com.
I make my tea pretty strong: 1/4 to somewhat less than 8 cups water, but then I dilute the tea about half when I pour it into my cup for heating.
iHerb prolly has loose hibiscus tea as well; I get my Frontier brand of organic cinnamon sticks for our coffee from there. I've used several different kinds of elderberry syrup from the cheap kind made with glycerol to the organic kind in agave syrup. It doesn't seem to matter which I use, and since taste doesn't mean much to me I use the cheapest kind made with glycerol. I sweeten it with Truvia which is a blend of erythritol, sugar, and stevia. (It's a strong sweetener so 1 t will do for a large cup).
Hope this gives you the right info!
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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Quote:My mother was prescribed 500 mg of niacin to help protect her from heart problems, when a heart issue was found. When some other drug was found, the niacin scrip was ended.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:This is the niacin this person was taking. It was SPECIFICALLY compounded as "fast acting" and rx'd specifically to promote flushing. It apparently has NO positive effect on cardiac events altho it raises "good" cholesterol.
I am talking about non-time release niacin, which gives a flush.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
Doctors do all kinds of stuff.
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This post claims that niacin (as nicotinic acid) BY ITSELF reverses plaque deposition, reduces the thickness of aterial walls and reduces heart attacks.
https://thedrswolfson.com/cardiologist-explains-benefits-of-niacin-for
-heart-health/
Later, larger studies of niacin combined with statins v statins alone showed no benefit from niacin, and some serious side effects.
I will have to look deeply into both studies which I dont have the time for in the near future.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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