We Act as if The Obesity Epidemic Has No Solution
Solid Proof It is Driven by Food and Food Culture
Obesity Rate Rank by Country
Check out the graph above. The US leads all other developed countries in the rate of obesity. This difference has huge implications that impact every one of us. The US spends 20% of GDP on healthcare. The European companies spend half that. Singapore spends 5% of GDP on healthcare and they live longer.
Part of the reason we spend more is our population is heavier and obesity contributes to faster aging, earlier chronic disease development including cancer and vascular disease. We address complications without addressing the obvious root cause. It contributes to our very high medical costs while increasing budget deficits at every level. For these reasons, it is critically important that we understand the root causes of our obesity epidemic and that we stop blaming ourselves. It is not due to personal weakness or a lack of willpower. It is due to governmental policies and food culture. There are huge differences in obesity rates between America and other advanced countries as you have already seen. The reasons for these differences are clear, but we keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. That doesn't reflect well on us. Now check out the chart below.
In 1950, Americans were slimmer than the Europeans are today. That is a very powerful clue to the origins of the obesity epidemic. In 1950, we ate more like the Europeans. Fast foods and highly processed foods were rare. Most foods were locally sourced and many more of us lived on small farms or in small rural towns. We ate real food cooked at home and we gathered around the table and took our time.
The European food supply and culture has remained more like ours was in 1950. Their farms are smaller and sell more of their products locally. “In recent times, short food supply chains and local markets, where farmers sell their produce directly to consumers or with a minimum of intermediaries, have flourished in all European Union countries, both in rural and urban areas. They represent an alternative to conventional longer food chains where small farmers often have little bargaining power, and the consumer cannot trace the food to a known producer or local area. On average, 15% of European Union farms sell more than half of their production directly to consumers.” These short chains are safer and less vulnerable to disruption. Remember the empty shelves during COVID? The Europeans eat real, whole food and their supply is more certain.
Here is some good news! We are not the fattest sickest people in the world. That distinction goes to the small Pacific Island nation of Nauru but the way that they became fat is just the same. One hundred years ago most people from that country were slender and then they changed what they eat. They used to eat whole, real food. The traditional Nauruan diet was primarily composed of fish, fruits, root vegetables, and coconuts. Nauru gained independence in 1968 due to an increase in economic growth from mining activities. Everyone shared in the profits. The import of western foods replaced the existing culture of fishing and gardening. They changed what they ate! Now they eat processed food, high in both sugar and fat, imported from large Oceanian countries such as Australia and New Zealand.The consequences are too familiar to us. Nauru has the highest rate of adult diabetes in the world. 31% of Nauruans are diabetic with rates as high as 45% among individuals aged from 55 to 64 years. 71% of the population is obese. That is where we are headed.
There is one more thing. The French and Italians are famous for their wonderful and delicious food, but their obesity rates are nearly half of ours. How can that possibly be? It is not because they walk and ride bikes. Once again, it is a cultural thing. My son was stationed with the army in Vicenza, Italy. I went to visit him there. By the time got there, they had lived in Vicenza long enough to know what the locals did. We visited a restaurant miles out in the country on a farm. The building was hundreds of years old, and it was beautiful. We ordered pizza coupled with the appropriate paired wine. Despite the fancy description the food was inexpensive. There were five servings of two pizzas with about 2 oz. of wine. The ten pizzas were each about the size of a saucer. The crust was thinner than our thinnest, there was little or no pizza sauce, and there were an assortment of cheese, meat, and vegetable toppings. The pizzas were wonderful. The whole experience took about two hours. When we were eating and talking, I noticed that everyone else in the restaurant was local. They took about two hours to eat too and they were enjoying it. They visited each other and the owner would come and sit at each table and visit. There was a real sense of community, and I loved it. By eating more slowly, you have time to know you have had enough to eat. If we had a restaurant like that where I live, I would be there frequently. That is part of the answer. There is a huge difference between eating in an Italian restaurant in America and Italy. In our country, Italian food is just another fast food loaded with fat, carbs, and salt.
In my last post, Dr. George Lundberg, one of our most impressive medical leaders made this astounding statement: Humans are frail and easily taken advantage of by the brilliant and highly motivated strategic planning and execution of Big Agriculture, Big Food, Big Pharma, Big Marketing, and Big Money-Driven Medicine and generally failed by Big Government, Big Public Health, Big Education, Big Psychology, and Big Religion.” That is why we are fat.
We are not fat because we are weak or defective. It is crystal clear. We are fat because we have changed what we eat. We are targets—victims of big business. Aren’t you mad? Frankly, I am mad as hell! I never wanted to be fat or sick! I weighed 307 pounds and had lymphoma when I was 43 because I was a target. Once I learned about the root cause of obesity, and started eating real whole food, I have steadily lost weight. The facts helped me succeed. I have lost 70 pounds and kept it off. I am certain I would be dead by now had I not learned the simple reason we are heavy. I know I won’t gain the weight back—ever. We don’t need to be victims. We can work with local farmers to provide real, whole, fresh food that is not addictive. You don’t need some complicated program, you don’t need medicine that costs a thousand dollars a month, and you don’t need surgery. You just need real, whole foods.
Yup! The doctors of the Japanese Society of Ningen Dock, credited for improving the metabolic health of the Japanese population, were pooped by the American big medicine until recently. They started monitoring and managing the impact of metabolic dysfunction and prediabetes decades ahead of us. Japanese who are overweight or obese with a protruding belly are called "Metabo." They are frowned upon culturally speaking. What we witness is the direct result of their work.
Without the industry standard corrupt quid pro quo, these are the same doctors who vigorously and independently investigated the efficacy of our technology, Premier Heart's Multifunction Cardiogram (TM), or the MCG, and determined that MCG is the best screening tool to detect cardiometabolic dysfunctions bar none! They also welcomed MCG into one of their best institutions in Japan, Keio University Hospital System, the American equivalent of Harvard Medical School, and Cleveland Cinincs combined! Imagine that!
https://open.substack.com/pub/mcgdoc/p/how-do-we-get-here-not-easy-for-sure?r=q7iae&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web