Boldly perpetuating the status quo.
A Mathematical Challenge to Obesity
Did you ever solve the question posed to you when you were first hired — what caused the obesity epidemic?That is not controversial- it's hogwash. This is endocrinology, not economics.
We think so. And it’s something very simple, very obvious, something that few want to hear: The epidemic was caused by the overproduction of food in the United States.
Beginning in the 1970s, there was a change in national agricultural policy. Instead of the government paying farmers not to engage in full production, as was the practice, they were encouraged to grow as much food as they could. At the same time, technological changes and the “green revolution” made our farms much more productive. The price of food plummeted, while the number of calories available to the average American grew by about 1,000 a day.
Well, what do people do when there is extra food around? They eat it! This, of course, is a tremendously controversial idea. However, the model shows that increase in food more than explains the increase in weight.
Binge eating is not enjoyable.
And women do not get fat if they can avoid it.
Please explain your data in the light of decades of diet advice and weight-loss obsession.
Due to the same influence of agribusiness on government- at the same time this glucose-industrial explosion was happening, the FDA started telling people to eat less fat and more carbs. The 'unintended' consequence of this is to cause hypoglycemia in individuals predisposed to obesity. Insulin dysregulation and the resultant food cravings explain our population's extra caloric intake and increasing weight, not supply and demand.
