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The taste for something has nothing to do with your body size. That's what you're suggesting: that the taste buds and brain chemistry that interprets the taste of foods, is related to body size.
That would imply, by extension, that thin children don't like fatty foods, such as cake and fudge and ice cream and bologna sandwiches and peanutbutter and jelly and Girl Scout cookies.
It would also imply, by extension, that fat people like cake and ice cream and fudge and bologna sandwiches and peanutbutter and jelly and Girl Scout cookies.
So you'd have to do a little observation, and ask just a handful of thin children and fat people...
I think you'll find that both segments of the population enjoy all of these things. So obviously it can't be the fat that's making them like the foods. What is it then? What do fat adults and thin children have in common? Hm... other than SOME kids who lack self control, and SOME fat adults have lack of self control,
Not much really. So it's really just coincidental.
I think there's more to it than that. It's not just food. It's also activity levels and metabolism.
Both certainly play big parts, but what we put into our mouths still play the biggest part. I can look back to 1986 when hubby first developed some heart problems. We took the low fat diet to heart (pardon the pun) in fact we probably went overboard; yes, we started an exercise routine, but we had always been pretty active so it wasn't the same as the actually eating habit changes we made. We both lost a lot of weight and pretty rapidly. I think I lost about 20 lbs over a couple of months and his was similar. of course that was 25 years ago and we eventually drifted back to our old habits, we have aged and all the weight we lost we found again.
So you'd have to do a little observation, and ask just a handful of thin children and fat people...
I think you'll find that both segments of the population enjoy all of these things. So obviously it can't be the fat that's making them like the foods. What is it then? What do fat adults and thin children have in common? Hm... other than SOME kids who lack self control,
Ya, that's it. Thin kids conscientiously weigh the outcome of eating high calorie foods:
{public domain photos under creative commons}
The boy on the left does not know the correct things to eat.
The boy on the right is conscious of his daily calories. When he is offered any treats, the first question he asks himself is "Will my pants feel tighter on me if I eat this?" He has learned to make wise choices.
The boy on the left makes unwise choices: He chooses cookies, brownies, ice cream, crackers, pizza, fried chicken, and butter.
The boy on the right wisely chooses and measures out 1/2 melon, 1 cup steamed broccoli, 6 ounces lean chicken, 2 cups lettuce, 6 ounces of skim milk, 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, one slice of whole wheat bread with no butter, and light dressing. His snack is a measured 4 ounces of apple sauce and one slice of cheese. On weekends he may splurge and eat two strawberries. He has learned to make wise choices.
The boy on the left watches TV and video games
The boy on the right uses his stop watch to get 20-30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise on most days of the week. He measures his heart rate too. He has learned to make wise choices.
The boy on the left looks at a bowl of cookies and eats nine of them
The boy on the right looks at a bowl of cookies and walks away, realizing they will make him overweight. He has learned to make wise choices.
The boy on the left chews his food one time and then swallows.
The boy on the right chews his food 17 times then swallows because he knows it takes 20 minutes for his stomach to feel full. He has learned to make wise choices.
I agree with the other respondents. Fat is an important nutrient. Unsaturated fats are best, of course.
Purely anecdotal: I LOVE fatty foods and have always been thin. I refuse to buy labeled fake/low fat foods (fake butter, low-fat cheese, fat-free yoghurt, low fat anything) and now that I am thinking about it the same goes for my extended family, all thin. We tend to eat "real" food. I just spent a Passover weekend with family and inlaws in Chicago and there was a whole lot of salmon with skin, full-fat cream cheese and other cheese, Ben and Jerry's icecream, as well as tons of fruit and matzo and gefilte fish and lamb curry and sushi and butter and eggs eaten by everyone and none of the 20 or so people involved were overweight. But we also ate sort of small portions and every day took one or two walks along the lakeshore.
What I have noticed about the fatter people in my life is,
a: They get little to no exercise.
b: They tend to snack a lot.
c: They eat a lot of processed food and drink soft drinks, iced tea, flavored water, all that crap.
d: Not a whole lot of vegetables, whole grains, fruit, unprocessed meat, etc.
e: Seem to have the capacity to eat a gargantuan meal, then snack or eat another meal within hours.
f: Their fridges are full of low fat processed food.
So mainly: Thinner people eat smaller portions of unprocessed food without worrying about fat content, along with plenty of fruits and vegetables, and get more exercise. Heavier people don't get as much exercise and eat larger portions and more processed foods.
Maybe some do, but some have metabolism problems as well. if you eat what you want, as you say and are thin, that is a clue right there. I still do believe, like I have said, heavy people do like fatty foods. I do question your other conclusions and mainly because of my family and friends with weight concerns: I do not eat junk or processed foods hardly ever. We can have chips, crackers or other snacks in the pantry and we usually have to toss them because they get stale. Because I love to cook, processed foods are something that you might find in our freezer to be eaten when we are really in a hurry or when we get home from a very busy day. We are talking once a month maybe. We usually have 2 veggies a night plus 5 nights a week we have a salad and normally the veggies are fresh even in the winter: we have fruit (fresh) daily, and only eat whole grain breads. We eat 2 to 3 meals a day and they normally are not huge, but probably bigger than we need. The exception is Sat breakfast which is the meal I always call our weekly fatty meal: hash browns, meat, a couple of eggs and toast or biscuits. This is the day we skip lunch.. Our fridge is not full of low fat anything, I rarely buy low fat, it is tasteless and usually filled with sugar. The exception is cottage cheese, I do buy 2% and I do buy hubby low fat yogart. I do agree about the exercise. I Also think low carbs help keep weight under control, plus portion size. These are probably two areas where weight control is based on eating habits.
I have a friend who has battled being overweight for several years, even after bariatraic surgery. For her it's an eating disorder, a disfunctional, emotional relationship to food (and not celery). Also comfort food tends to be fatty like mac n cheese.
I think excessive carbs can put weight on, even "healthier" ones like grains, whole grain breads, pasta. I know when I eat more carbs, I can put on a few pounds that week.
A pound is 3500 calories. Are you eating 7000 calories worth of grain in a week? If not than you are not gaining a few pounds because you ate some grain.
Saturated fats have been demonized for the last 50 years, but there are plenty of studies showing benefits when the source is nutritionally dense like grass fed meats, pastured eggs, healthier oils like coconut, etc. The problem with the negative studies is they always add the processed crap meats into the equation such as pre-packaged deli meat and chemical laden bacon. I have now dropped over 50 lbs and my diet is pretty heavy in saturated fat (compared to the standard diet recommendations) from bison, beef, real butter, coconut, etc. Avoid the Polyunsaturated from cheap vegetable oils/margarine and load up on real food. I am not an expert by any means, but my body has gotten lean almost effortlessly by eating like a farmer. I was fat from processed meals, vegetable oils, snacks and fast foods.
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