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Eating processed foods won't make you fat.
Eating too large a quantity of processed foods will make you fat.
A recent study tended to dispute that.
A group of people allowed to eat as much as they wanted of minimally processed food was compared to another group that ate as much as they wanted of "ultra-processed" food.
With both groups eating as much as they wanted, the group eating the ultra-processed food got substantially fatter.
Obesity as a national problem didn't increase gradually over the 20th century. People got healthier, stronger, and taller over the course of the first 75 years. A processed meal was a TV dinner: A regular meal that was merely frozen. A hamburger was directly ground beef.
It was in the 80s that obesity ballooned in the US, and in the 80s that foods became radically ultra-processed, as well as diets for many becoming mostly fast foods. It was also during that period that two-income families and single-parent families became norms.
Do a Google images search to see for yourself. Compare images of ordinary people (street scenes, groups scenes), particularly young adults and teens, from the 70s and earlier with those from the 90s and later.
I do think there is a genetic component to it, and I do think that the commercial encouragement to larger portions is part of it. But the 80s is clearly definable as the period that something dramatic happened.
A group of people allowed to eat as much as they wanted of minimally processed food was compared to another group that ate as much as they wanted of "ultra-processed" food.
With both groups eating as much as they wanted, the group eating the ultra-processed food got substantially fatter.
Obesity as a national problem didn't increase gradually over the 20th century. People got healthier, stronger, and taller over the course of the first 75 years. A processed meal was a TV dinner: A regular meal that was merely frozen. A hamburger was directly ground beef.
It was in the 80s that obesity ballooned in the US, and in the 80s that foods became radically ultra-processed, as well as diets for many becoming mostly fast foods. It was also during that period that two-income families and single-parent families became norms.
Do a Google images search to see for yourself. Compare images of ordinary people (street scenes, groups scenes), particularly young adults and teens, from the 70s and earlier with those from the 90s and later.
I do think there is a genetic component to it, and I do think that the commercial encouragement to larger portions is part of it. But the 80s is clearly definable as the period that something dramatic happened.
There are way more calories packed into processed foods than unprocessed foods. No real mystery.
Abdominal fat that accumulates around the pancreas is thought to contribute to metabolic syndrome. IOW belly fat is worse than booty fat.
Then I never need to worry about diabetes! Lol. But back to the topic at hand (or mouth.) There are many complex causes of obesity. The simplest and probably most prevalent one is we consume more far more calories than we expend. It's mush easier to get fat nowadays than be skinny. Our food is unhealthy and our jobs/schools are too sedentary. Unhealthy food is usually much cheaper than healthy food. Then we drive a car to our office jobs and work st a sitting job 10 hours a day, getting 1000 calorie Chinese takeout food for lunch and 600 calorie Starbucks macchiatos in the afternoon. Factor in relaxing at home with 4 hours of TV or video games five nights a week and BBQs with the fam on weekends and you have a recipe for obesity.
Hormone wise, leptin is the hormone that makes us feel full. When we overdo eating and the buffets, we become insensitive to the feeling of fullness leptin gives us, leading to more weight gain. That, in turn, makes us more insulin resistant, increasing our risk of diabetes. And on and on. What OP is referring to are psychological risk factors for diabetes. My mom had morbid obesity and to sum it up, she told me she developed obesity as a psychological defense mechanism to childhood trauma. She said she thought if she was fat, people would not be sexually attracted to her and the obesity would somehow protect her like a shield. If her claim was true, and I'm not sure it was or if she just felt hopeless even attempting to combat such a severe weight issue and was just making excuses, it seemed to work. She was 5'3" and 300 pounds at the time of her death from cancer. She was only 45 years old.
Then I never need to worry about diabetes! Lol. But back to the topic at hand (or mouth.) There are many complex causes of obesity. The simplest and probably most prevalent one is we consume more far more calories than we expend. It's mush easier to get fat nowadays than be skinny. Our food is unhealthy and our jobs/schools are too sedentary. Unhealthy food is usually much cheaper than healthy food. Then we drive a car to our office jobs and work st a sitting job 10 hours a day, getting 1000 calorie Chinese takeout food for lunch and 600 calorie Starbucks macchiatos in the afternoon. Factor in relaxing at home with 4 hours of TV or video games five nights a week and BBQs with the fam on weekends and you have a recipe for obesity.
Hormone wise, leptin is the hormone that makes us feel full. When we overdo eating and the buffets, we become insensitive to the feeling of fullness leptin gives us, leading to more weight gain. That, in turn, makes us more insulin resistant, increasing our risk of diabetes. And on and on. What OP is referring to are psychological risk factors for diabetes. My mom had morbid obesity and to sum it up, she told me she developed obesity as a psychological defense mechanism to childhood trauma. She said she thought if she was fat, people would not be sexually attracted to her and the obesity would somehow protect her like a shield. If her claim was true, and I'm not sure it was or if she just felt hopeless even attempting to combat such a severe weight issue and was just making excuses, it seemed to work. She was 5'3" and 300 pounds at the time of her death from cancer. She was only 45 years old.
Your poor mom. A lot of women and not a few men become obese in response to childhood trauma. Then people traumatize them further through social ostracism and verbal abuse. This verbal abuse is not, IMO, dissimilar to racism. I dissociate myself from anybody who does that, or who assumes I might go along with it. A lot of folks do that without any awareness of the damage they're inflicting.
Hormone wise, leptin is the hormone that makes us feel full. When we overdo eating and the buffets, we become insensitive to the feeling of fullness leptin gives us, leading to more weight gain. That, in turn, makes us more insulin resistant, increasing our risk of diabetes.
Which is why kids who were made to clean their plates every meal tend to get overweight IMHO. They are forced to consistently eat past the point of fullness until that mechanism is over ridden or doesn't click in anymore.
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