“According to two National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey’s (NHANES), the prevalence of obesity for adults between the ages of 20 and 74 increased from 15% (1976 – 1980 survey) to 32.9% (2003 – 2004 survey) 1. These same surveys also showed the number of adults considered to be overweight increased from 47% to an astounding 66.2%, with the sharpest swell in overweight and obesity occurring in the 1990’s. Thankfully, there seems to have been a leveling off of obesity rates since 1999, with no significant change between 2003 & 2006 for either men or women 2. However, despite this leveling of obesity rates, 2/3rds of the people in the U.S. remain over weight or obese, and this is unacceptable.”
(Evolution of the Unhealthy American Part 1)

So how did we as a country get so fat? What caused our weigh gain and its inherent health risks? Many self proclaimed experts say, “Americans are eating too much.” Is it just a matter of calories in versus calories out? Is it really as simple as reducing the amount of food we eat, exercising more or both? Are we really eating too much, or is it what we’re eating? Do man-made substances in our food really make a difference in our ability to maintain a healthy weight?

Well, Yahoo Health has put together a list of 20 habits that can add to your bottom line so to speak. Here are 5.

1. Eating low fat. What do low-fat meals replace fats with? Carbohydrates. Remember carbs are non-essential. Meaning, you don’t have to consume them to be healthy. the lower your carb intake, the lower your insulin levels. The lower your insulin levels the less food you store as fat on your body.

2. Drinking soda, even diet soda. Because a 2005 study found that drinking one to two sodas per day increases your chances of being overweight or obese by nearly 33 percent. And diet soda is no better.

3. Skipping meals. A study from the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people who cut out the morning meal were 4.5 times more likely to be obese. Why? Skipping meals slows your metabolism and boosts your hunger.

4. Watching too much TV. A University of Vermont study found that overweight participants who reduced their TV time by just 50 percent burned an additional 119 calories a day on average.

5. Eating when emotional. A study from the University of Alabama found that emotional eaters—those who admitted eating in response to emotional stress—were 13 times more likely to be overweight or obese.

The best advice I can give concerning fat consumption is to increase your intake of omega 3s, like EPA and DHA found in fish oil, and reduce your consumption of polyunsaturated fats like vegetable oil.? Polyunsaturated fats contain high amounts of omega 6 fatty acids, which in excess are detrimental to our health. Probably most importantly however, is to eliminate trans fats if your like most Americans who consume processed foods. By switching the fats one consumes you can increase your overall health, prevent heart disease, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, ulcerative colitis, depression, Alzheimer’s, and a host of other diseases..

These two types of fat, omega-3 and omega-6, are both essential for human health. However, the typical American consumes far too many omega-6 fats in their diet while consuming very low levels of omega-3. America’s consumption of vegetable oil has increased by 437% in the past 80 years.? We evolved on a fairly high fat diet. The problem is that the types of fats we were eating back in the Paleolithic days were quite a bit different from the fats we eat now.

In the Paleolithic era, our ratio of omega 6s to omega 3s was very close to 1:1. We ate like this for millions of years. These days it has been suggested that this ratio is 30:1 up to 50:1! So why should we be concerned? The change in the ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 plays a role in pretty much every major disease that’s killing us in Western civilization. The primary sources of omega-6 are corn, soy, canola, safflower and sunflower oil. These oils are overabundant in the typical diet, which explains our excess omega-6 levels. Avoid or limit these oils. Omega-3, meanwhile, is typically found in flaxseed oil, walnut oil and some fish.?

By far, the best source of omega-3 fats are those found in wild fish. Wild caught fish like salmon is high in two omega-3 fatty acids crucial to human health, DHA and EPA. These two fatty acids are pivotal in preventing diseases as mentioned earlier. The human brain is also highly dependent on DHA. Low DHA levels have been linked to depression, schizophrenia, memory loss and a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Eat more salmon

Fat is it friend or foe? Well if you ask most, including health care professionals, they’ll say foe. It’s time for people to wake up! The current ways of eating aren’t working. Just a few years ago, for the first time in history the top six books on the New York Times Best Seller list, were about the same subject: diets low in carbs, moderate to high protein, high in fibrous carbs (vegetable), and moderate fat. Why is this topic so popular? They work!

One of the biggest reasons protein diets work is the consumption of fat. That is, fat minus the abundance of carbs. Fat has many functions outside of being used as an energy source, and certain fatty acids are essential. Without eating them you’d literally get sick and die.

But how does fat help our diet? Well, fat satiates the appetite, and helps to stop the cravings for sugar. And probably most importantly, fat when combined with a low sugar intake actually aids in burning fat as fuel. That’s right, fat helps burn fat. When fat is restricted, our bodies have a defense mechanism built in through evolution for survival. Our bodies will actually stop using fat as fuel in an effort to preserve our stores for future use.

Bodybuilders have known this for years through trial and error, while dieting for shows, they would reach a certain body fat percentage and suddenly plateau for no apparent reason. We found that by adding fat to the diet like olive oil, or coconut oil, would jump-start the body to burn body fat. It’s not the amount of food you consume that is the problem. It’s the types of food you’re consuming.

Sounds bizarre doesn’t it.

For decades we have been taught that fat is bad for us, carbohydrates are good, and that the key to a healthy weight is eating less and exercising more. Yet with more and more people acting on this advice, we have seen unprecedented epidemics of obesity and diabetes. With seven years of research, Taubes argues persuasively that the problem lies in refined carbohydrates (white flour, sugar, easily digested starches) ?via their dramatic effect on insulin, the hormone that regulates fat accumulation?and that the key to good health is the kind of calories we take in, not the numbers. There are good calories, and bad ones. Taubes traces how the common assumption that carbohydrates are fattening was abandoned in the 1960’s when fat and cholesterol were blamed for heart disease and then?wrongly?were seen as the causes of a host of other maladies, including cancer. He shows us how these unproven hypotheses were emphatically embraced by authorities in nutrition, public health, and clinical medicine, in spite of how well-conceived clinical trials have consistently refuted them. He also documents the dietary trials of carbohydrate-restriction, which consistently show that the fewer carbohydrates we consume, the leaner we will be.

Good Calories Bad Calories is the end of the debate about the foods we consume and their effects on us.