while the car culture and the megagulp bucket have more to do with it, I am seeing a lot of studies pointing out the food pyramid not fitting the science - and what people actually eat even less. the egg thing is screamingly funny; the study fed dried egg powder to those known egg eaters, rabbits - and was sponsored by the joint council for putting milk on your cereal for breakfast instead of having an egg.
I've no issue with the food pyramid being wrong because I don't actually believe for a split second that anybody actually really pays any attention to it.
I think the development of cereal as a cultural item, not to mention the adoption of High Fructose Corn syrup in EVERYTHING, has less to do with the government food pyramid and a lot more to do with fantastic marketing groups wanting to sell a product.
Although the real culprit is probably "size creep" on American Food portions. 40 years ago, a McDonalds burger was considered a meal - that's the small old style burger, which even with a standard portion of fries is still coming in around 500 calories, compared to a McAngus Third Pounder which runs at 700+ just for the burger. People just don't notice that stuff.
Plus the exercise thing.
Rand is also very anti the concept of food calories - exercise = total energy in equation, and while it's not that simple when it comes to feeling hungry (lots more chemistry at work), it really is that simple if you want to lose weight.
It's been easier to lose weight since I started keeping a food diary on my phone and tracking everything. If I have a bad week, weight doesn't change or goes up. If I stick to targets for a couple of weeks, it goes down. The biggest change it's involved has been weighing and measuring food because it's really easy to over eat and not notice. Especially with carbs.
have you come across the hacker's diet? nicely engineering approach to the figures. all the diet studies show you can lose weight on low fat or low carb, the main difference is the good cholesterol impact (more from low carb, less from low fat) and the key is tracking.
but there's a whole mix of other things around white fat/brown fat, impact of gluten proteins and some complex things I think we have no idea about, but carb doesn't seem to be the safe filling option the pyramid makes people think (especially when it's low GI carb). Plus butter is better than margarine. anything that comes out of a plant or animal is better than the version that comes out of the factory ;-)
For us, main changes have been adding more meat, bringing butter back into the diet - hell a tablespoon is a lot and only 100 kC, not to mention using real cream in sauces, AND measuring pasta, rice, potato portions.
A serving of pasta is only 60g... it might not look much but it works.
Oh, and trying to work through hunger pangs with water and/nuts.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 11:56 am (UTC)http://thehealthyskeptic.org/heartdisease is an interesting resource that's quite good on the science
no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 02:03 pm (UTC)I think the development of cereal as a cultural item, not to mention the adoption of High Fructose Corn syrup in EVERYTHING, has less to do with the government food pyramid and a lot more to do with fantastic marketing groups wanting to sell a product.
Although the real culprit is probably "size creep" on American Food portions. 40 years ago, a McDonalds burger was considered a meal - that's the small old style burger, which even with a standard portion of fries is still coming in around 500 calories, compared to a McAngus Third Pounder which runs at 700+ just for the burger. People just don't notice that stuff.
Plus the exercise thing.
Rand is also very anti the concept of food calories - exercise = total energy in equation, and while it's not that simple when it comes to feeling hungry (lots more chemistry at work), it really is that simple if you want to lose weight.
It's been easier to lose weight since I started keeping a food diary on my phone and tracking everything. If I have a bad week, weight doesn't change or goes up. If I stick to targets for a couple of weeks, it goes down. The biggest change it's involved has been weighing and measuring food because it's really easy to over eat and not notice. Especially with carbs.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 02:32 pm (UTC)but there's a whole mix of other things around white fat/brown fat, impact of gluten proteins and some complex things I think we have no idea about, but carb doesn't seem to be the safe filling option the pyramid makes people think (especially when it's low GI carb). Plus butter is better than margarine. anything that comes out of a plant or animal is better than the version that comes out of the factory ;-)
no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 03:15 pm (UTC)A serving of pasta is only 60g... it might not look much but it works.
Oh, and trying to work through hunger pangs with water and/nuts.