Links between fast food and obesity and diabetes

[jay gw]

The link between fast food and obesity has been studied and according to this, eating fast food in your youth will increase your risk of getting diabetes in middle age.

http://meatprocess.com/news/ng.asp?id=57043&n=wh1&c=nbbgbvsktuxtxwj

04/01/2005 - Young adults who eat frequently at fast-food restaurants gain more weight and have a greater increase in insulin resistance in early middle age, according to a large multi-center study published in the January 1 issue of The Lancet.

After 15 years, those who ate at fast-food restaurants more than twice each week compared to less than once a week had gained an extra ten pounds and had a two-fold greater increase in insulin resistance, a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is a major risk factor for heart disease.

"It's extremely difficult to eat in a healthy way at a fast-food restaurant. Despite some of their recent healthful offerings, the menus still tend to include foods high in fat, sugar and calories and low in fibre and nutrients," said lead author Mark Pereira, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota.

[Skeptic]

In other news, experts agree: sun rises in east.

[RandFan]

Originally posted by Skeptic
In other news, experts agree: sun rises in east. Damn you! Beat me to it. Flash --Dateline Fastfood USA. Eating processed foods high in saturated fat and sodium can be bad for you. Duh! Now, how do I fund my study that a diet high in twinkies can cause obesity.

[jay gw]

Eating processed foods high in saturated fat and sodium can be bad for you.

Why are the foods high in saturated fat and sodium?

[RandFan]

Originally posted by jay gw
Why are the foods high in saturated fat and sodium? In the beginning the planet cooled and then the dinosaurs ruled...

Perhaps a bit too far back. Back before humans domesticated wheat and developed means to produce large amounts of food by expending fewer calories humans needed sources of food high in calories to replace the calories expended in search of said food. Evolution gave us the ability to desire and recognize essential foods. Salt was absolutely essential to life and saturated fat provided calories in a compact form that did not require a lot of energy to convert to a form that we could covert to our own use. Plants high in simple sugars also provided this benefit. So, humans came to desire saturated fats, salt and simple sugars above all else (statistically speaking).

Fast forward to today. What's the best way to succeed by selling food in a capitalist market? Give people what they desire most.

Sex, salt, sugar and fats sell. If people experienced elevated endorphins and other chemicals that stimulated pleasure centers by eating Tofu then Tofu would be the number one food source. Period. It's in our genes.

Sorry for the patronizing tone, long sentences and bad prose. I'm in rare form or maybe typical form...who knows? I've had a few rum and cokes, that I know.

[Skeptic]

Originally posted by jay gw
Why are the foods high in saturated fat and sodium?

Tastes good.

[RandFan]

Originally posted by Skeptic
Tastes good. Listen damnit. Constantly simplifying what I work so hard to make difficult doesn't help my ego. Please stop it. :D

[hgc]

Originally posted by RandFan
.. I've had a few rum and cokes, that I know. Diet Coke, I trust.

[RandFan]

Originally posted by hgc
Diet Coke, I trust. :D

No and I like a spash of Grenadine which is almost pure sugar. Hey, I stopped drinking Irish Creme which is just fat, sugar and alcohol so I see that as progress.

[hgc]

Be it so obvious what is and isn't healthy, it appears that a large portion of people (leaning toward large people) will go ahead and indulge that instinct.

Many fast food chains that have offered healthy alternatives find they just can't make money that way. The trend will soon die, and the love of slow-suicide eating will continue. Witness the introduction of the Hardee's Monster Thick Burger -- a big success with 1417 calories and 107 grams of fat .NPR (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4619086). I bet it's tasty, but I'll never find out firsthand. I still love a good burger, but I have foresworn fast food crapola.

[Manny]

Originally posted by jay gw
The link between fast food and obesity has been studied and according to this, eating fast food in your youth will increase your risk of getting diabetes in middle age. Well, as others have mentioned, that's exactly right. So if one wanted to "solve" the "problem" one would want to find out what causes people to take (or send) their children to fast food restaurants, right?

It turns out that econometricians have done exactly that. The answer turned out to be surprisingly simple. The main factor is that since 1980 there has been a large increase in family monetary income accompanied by a large decrease in spare time for families and a large decrease in real terms in the unit price of restaurant food, leading families to seek quickly prepared food which they could get on the go to fit their time-constrained lives. Specifically, fully two thirds of the increase in adult obesity can be explained by increased labor force participation by women (http://www.thepublicinterest.com/archives/2004summer/article3.html) . It doesn't take a rocket scientist to intuit that children largely eat what their parents do and that therefore a large portion of the increase in childhood obesity can also be attributed to working women.

So what we need, if one believes that this is a problem which has to be solved, is a national program to discourage at least one parent from participating in the workforce. Maybe enforced discrimination to keep the wages of a second partner (woman or man, doesn't make a difference) low. Maybe a program to make divorces much more difficult to obtain and the end of presumptive custody by single-parent households to increase the chances that there will be two parents in the first place such that one of them can stay home.

Since having only one parent in the household is one of the primary factors in child poverty the solutions would kill two birds with one stone.

Right?

[RandFan]

Originally posted by hgc
Be it so obvious what is and isn't healthy, it appears that a large portion of people (leaning toward large people) will go ahead and indulge that instinct. Myself included. :( But then humans are fond of self destructive habits. What is good what is bad? I wish I did not engage in such habits. I tell myself I won't. I make a plan, a commitment and then do great for awhile and then fall off the wagon and binge and then I'm worse than before.

Many fast food chains that have offered healthy alternatives find they just can't make money that way. The trend will soon die, and the love of slow-suicide eating will continue. Sadly the "slow-suicide" doesn't fit with Darwinism and allows the passing on of genes. Perhaps we can reason our way out of this mess. Maybe we can figure out how to change brain chemistry and reverse the trend. Until then peer pressure, shame and appealing to ones sense of survival is a proven and effective means for a portion of the population. It hasn't worked for me though.

I still love a good burger, but I have foresworn fast food crapola. I wish I were young, beautiful, intelligent, a few inches taller and capable of simply foreswearing an unhealthy diet. My hats off to you and I recomend such a commitment for ayone myself included. I haven't given up.

[Skeptic]

So what we need, if one believes that this is a problem which has to be solved, is a national program to discourage at least one parent from participating in the workforce. Maybe enforced discrimination to keep the wages of a second partner (woman or man, doesn't make a difference) low. Maybe a program to make divorces much more difficult to obtain and the end of presumptive custody by single-parent households to increase the chances that there will be two parents in the first place such that one of them can stay home.

But then it means I cannot really blame the big corporations like McDonald's for it! EVERYBODY knows that if I'm fat, it's some evil corporation's fault!

[RandFan]

Originally posted by Skeptic
But then it means I cannot really blame the big corporations like McDonald's for it! EVERYBODY knows that if I'm fat, it's some evil corporation's fault! Thank you! I fault Little Debbie.

http://www.littledebbie.com/images/logo.gif

B!tch

[Beerina]

Originally posted by Skeptic
In other news, experts agree: sun rises in east.

Nah, Norm McDonald did it best on Saturday Night Live:

"Read about this and other stories in this month's edition of the medical journal 'Duh', on sale in stores near you!"

[Mycroft]

Originally posted by RandFan
:D

No and I like a spash of Grenadine which is almost pure sugar. Hey, I stopped drinking Irish Creme which is just fat, sugar and alcohol so I see that as progress.

I wanna party with you. We just can't let the wife know.

[hgc]

Originally posted by RandFan
...
I wish I were young, beautiful, intelligent, a few inches taller and capable of simply foreswearing an unhealthy diet. My hats off to you and I recomend such a commitment for ayone myself included. I haven't given up. Probably not much you can do about your age and height. But weight is another matter, and beauty is often improved with weight-loss. I lost 50 lbs in 6 months this year, and I'm NEVER going back. South Beach Diet. PM me if you want to talk about it in detail.

[Random]

This looks like a tasty burger…

http://www.dennysbeerbarrelpub.com/thinking.jpg

It’s available at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub (http://www.dennysbeerbarrelpub.com/) in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. It's a fifteen pound burger. About eleven pounds of beef, with about four pounds of toppings. On a bun. If a fifteen pound burger is too much for you, they have a smaller nine-pounder.

Sadly, fries are extra.

[RandFan]

Originally posted by hgc
Probably not much you can do about your age and height. But weight is another matter, and beauty is often improved with weight-loss. I lost 50 lbs in 6 months this year, and I'm NEVER going back. South Beach Diet. PM me if you want to talk about it in detail. Thanks hgc,

Believe it or not I've acutally lost more than that. More than 60 pounds on fen-phen. I lost nearly 50 pounds on Atkins. I lost 35 pounds on Jenny Craig. I've lost more than 20 pounds more times than I can count on Diet Center, Weight Watchers, Cambridge, etc. The problem is that when I lose lots of weight I seem to spike higher and quicker. You see, it's not really the losing the weight that is the problem but maintaining.

[hgc]

Originally posted by RandFan
Thanks hgc,

Believe it or not I've acutally lost more than that. More than 60 pounds on fen-phen. I lost nearly 50 pounds on Atkins. I lost 35 pounds on Jenny Craig. I've lost more than 20 pounds more times than I can count on Diet Center, Weight Watchers, Cambridge, etc. The problem is that when I lose lots of weight I seem to spike higher and quicker. You see, it's not really the losing the weight that is the problem but maintaining. And your story can be told by untold millions. I've never lost a lot of weight before, and I intend not to have to do it again. New, lifetime habits. I used to eat at McDonald's about twice a month. New habit: eat at McDonald's never. Used to eat lots of pasta. Now it's whole wheat pasta semi-regularly and regular pasta as a very special treat. Used to east sweets all the time. Now it's dessert once a month. Used to eat a cheeseburger deluxe. Now it's a cheeseburger w/ bun occassionally and a sampling of fries here and there. And so on.

[RandFan]

Originally posted by hgc
And your story can be told by untold millions. I've never lost a lot of weight before, and I intend not to have to do it again. New, lifetime habits. I used to eat at McDonald's about twice a month. New habit: eat at McDonald's never. Used to eat lots of pasta. Now it's whole wheat pasta semi-regularly and regular pasta as a very special treat. Used to east sweets all the time. Now it's dessert once a month. Used to eat a cheeseburger deluxe. Now it's a cheeseburger w/ bun occassionally and a sampling of fries here and there. And so on. Good points and I should always be willing to alter my way of life in search of what works for me. If anything I'm lazy and don't try hard enough to make the little changes that can really add up. You have an absolutely valid point and I certainly can do more. I was supposed to get my stomach stappled but while I was in the program my wife lost her job and our insurance. :(

I am more than willing to accept responsibility for myself. I don't expect any pity and I don't blame anyone or anything.

[luchog]

I found that when I quit eating all that junk food for a couple years, after switching to a predominantly vegetarian diet, I completely lost my taste for it. It was probably easier for me to go vegetarian than for most, since I have a moderate allergy to red and white meat (I can still manage fish on occasion, if I don't overdo it). I also developed a desire for things I previously disliked, like certain vegetables.

I still eat a bit more refined carbohydrates and fats than are probably good for me; but nowhere near as much as I used to.

An interesting documentary, if you haven't seen it (which I'm sure most people here have) is Supersize Me (http://www.supersizeme.com/). The science is a little less stringent than it should be, and it relies rather more on emotionalism than science for my taste. But despite it's flaws, it still has some very good points, and makes them effectively. And it doesn't carry the heavy left-wing anti-corporatism that nearly all similar projects do; instead coming down more strongly on the side of personal responsibility.

[IllegalArgument]

Originally posted by Skeptic
Tastes good.

Also, I think it lasts longer, salt is a preservative.

I had a similar experience to luchog's, after a few months, once I cut soda out my diet and limited my fast food intake, it lost it's appeal for me.

Try cuting soda out your diet, and other really sweet drinks, for 2-3 months. There's a pretty good chance you'll find them too sweet.

Not sure what that means, except that maybe our national sweet tooth and fat cravings aren't as natural as they seem.

No conspiracy implied, just an observation.

[CBL4]

Another thing is that poorer people tend to eat at fast food places more often.* Poor people tend to have more health problems and worse health care. It is very hard to find out which things are correlated and/or causal.

* - I could not find a link but I have read this in the past.

CBL

[Skeptic]

Randfan--if you add up all the weight you lost, you should have disappeared long ago.

[RandFan]

Originally posted by Skeptic
Randfan--if you add up all the weight you lost, you should have disappeared long ago. Yeah but that is only one side of the equation.

[hgc]

Originally posted by Skeptic
Randfan--if you add up all the weight you lost, you should have disappeared long ago. That's gamblers' arithmatic.

[Kerberos]

Originally posted by Skeptic
In other news, experts agree: sun rises in east.
Theough actually the study doesn't even show that. As far as I can see they don't correct for excercise and other variables and unless I miss my guess badly people who use fast food a lot also tend to excercise less. I'm sure the conslusion is correct, but the study doesn't prove it.

[Skeptic]

Okay, let me rephrase that:

EXPERTS AGREE: Sun might rise in the east. More funding required for more accurate results.