Stop Eating Twinkies: Why Fat People Keep Getting Fatter

Several factors contribute the the alarming rate of obesity in America. While it may seem plausible to assume that Americans are a hefty bunch due to their wealth and access to food, many studies have linked obesity to poverty. According to an article by Science Daily, a study in 2008 by New York University's Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health "...reveals that characteristics of neighborhoods, including the area's income level, the built environment, and access to healthy food, contribute to the continuing obesity epidemic."

Why low income people are more prone to obesity may have something to do with the way cheap foods are processed. High Fructose corn syrup drips from many food sources that many people would not believe have anything to do with sweetness. To venture deeper into a more controversial theory of obesity, I'd present the dynamics of low carbohydrate diets such as the Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution, Protein Power by Dr's Michael and Mary Dan Eades, and the South Beach Diet by Dr. Agaston. One interesting thread links all of these diets together: too much simple sugar in the diet.

After reading Protein Power, I wondered how some countries, such as Japan, can boast high statistics for longevity and healthy body weight when the majority of the people consume such large portions of the carbohydrate-packed food, rice. It wasn't until I read Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution that I realized the American diet has a unique impact on obesity. The following passages from Dr. Atkins book reveal the obesity-inspiring impact of American foods.

"WE'RE THE VICTIM OF 'CARBOHYDRATE POISONING.' The most killing diseases of the twentieth century stem from what I call "carbohydrate poisoning." What causes that? Mainly, sugar. In many cases, virtually a sugar addiction. As Dr. John Yudkin points out, "We consume more sugar now in two weeks then we did in a year two centuries ago."

"For decades now Americans have been brainwashed by advertisers to start the day with processed cereals, and fill up in the hours afterward with soft drinks that contain no real nutritive value, only carbohydrates."

Low carbohydrate diets focus on the hormonal imbalance caused by an over taxation on the system by carbohydrates. Dr. Atkins said that not all people are predisposed to the worst affects, but those who are, can become addicted to carbohydrates.

Following a low-carb diet may not be the answer to establishing good eating habits in children, but hidden carbohydrates and sugars such as high fructose corn syrup can prompt an uncontrollable hunger. Reducing processed foods at an early age would be key to minimizing those effects.

Popular television shows have done documentaries on the eating habits of the morbidly obese. Morbidly obese people can eat an unfathomable amount of food. While it may be simple for the slender to ascertain that "eating too much junk food," is the cause of obesity, a plausible question arises. How can obese people eat an amount of food that seems physically impossible to eat to individuals with a healthy weight range? What causes people to struggle to avoid eating so much, when slender people are more inclined to eat naturally with only occasional moments of temptation? I'm not saying that slender people don't mind what they eat, but I am saying that there is a huge disparity between the struggle that overweight and obese people have with food and the struggle that healthy weight people have with it.

How does someone become 600lbs? Some people are an unhealthy weight from childhood, and others, may be mildly overweight and then blossom into an unimaginable weight some time in their adult lives. The weight gain doesn't happen the way popular media portrays it to happen. Most overweight people may never had decided to one day to eat all the Twinkies, chips, and pizza their hearts demanded.

Two extra sodas a day equal 2240 calories a week. A person could potentially gain 116lbs in one year simply by drinking two extra sodas a day. The extra weight gain along that year can increase that person's metabolic needs to maintain the extra body weight. So, if someone started at 160lbs, six months later, the now 218lb person has a more active Hypothalamus demanding a bigger menu for the bigger body. Soon, the originally 160lb person who ate a healthy diet, save for that extra soda during lunch and extra soda during dinner, is looking at storing even more calories, because as his body demands more calories, he's finding it difficult to say no to a completely natural and involuntary physical response: hunger.

If simple dietary mistakes can put a person's weight out of balance, what happens when those same people are exposed to the addictive qualities in popular processed foods? Considering the result of following some low-carb diets, hunger dissipates. The most difficult challenge of following a low-carb diet is the over-abundance of highly processed foods. When I followed the Protein Power diet, I was shocked at easily my hunger was satiated. What broke my adherence to the diet was a cupboard filled with various pastas and rices, and a desire to find quick, low-cost meals for my family. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study by Foster et al. (2003), on obesity and low-carbohydrate diets that found low carbohydrate diets to work exceptionally well for the first six months, but that the results after one year showed poor adherence to the diet. My thought on this lack of adherence is that we are over burdened by the availability of highly processed, high carbohydrate foods.

Foster, Gary D., Wyatt, Holly R., Hill, James O., McGuckin, Brian G., Brill, Carrie, Mohammed, B. Selma, Szapary, Philippe O., Rader, Daniel J., Edman, Joel S., Klein, Samuel
A Randomized Trial of a Low-Carbohydrate Diet for Obesity
N Engl J Med 2003 348: 2082-2090