{"id":10454,"date":"2024-08-21T16:45:29","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T09:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=10454"},"modified":"2024-08-21T16:45:29","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T09:45:29","slug":"processed-foods-and-obesity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=10454","title":{"rendered":"Processed Foods and Obesity\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The rise in the U.S. calorie supply responsible for the obesity epidemic wasn\u2019t just about more food, but a different kind of food.<\/p>\n<p>The rise in the number of calories provided by the food supply since the 1970s \u201cis more than sufficient to <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/19828708\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">explain<\/a> the US epidemic of obesity.\u201d Similar spikes in calorie surplus were <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/26170502\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">noted<\/a> in developed countries around the world in parallel with and presumed to <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/18173389\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">be<\/a> primarily responsible for, the expanding waistlines of their populations. After taking exports into account, by the year 2000, the United States was <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201017225634\/https:\/fns-prod.azureedge.net\/sites\/default\/files\/nutrient_content_of_the_us_food_supply\/FoodSupply1909-2000.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">producing<\/a> 3,900 calories for every man, woman, and child\u2014nearly twice as much as many people need.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t always this way. The number of calories in the food supply actually declined over the first half of the twentieth century and only started its upward climb to unprecedented heights in the 1970s. The drop in the first half of the century was attributed to the reduction in hard manual labor. The population had decreased energy needs, so they ate decreased energy diets. They didn\u2019t need all the extra calories. But then the \u201cenergy balance \ufb02ipping point\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/21872749\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">occurred<\/a>, when the \u201cmove less, stay lean phase\u201d that existed throughout most of the century turned into the \u201ceat more, gain weight phase\u201d that plagues us to this day. So, what changed?<\/p>\n<p>As I discuss in my video <a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/video\/the-role-of-processed-foods-in-the-obesity-epidemic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The Role of Processed Foods in the Obesity Epidemic<\/strong><\/a>, what <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/21872749\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">happened<\/a> in the 1970s was a revolution in the food industry. In the 1960s, most food was<a href=\"https:\/\/dash.harvard.edu\/bitstream\/handle\/1\/2640583\/cutler_obese.pdf?sequence=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> prepared<\/a> and cooked in the home. The typical \u201cmarried female, not working\u201d spent hours a day cooking and cleaning up after meals. (The \u201cmarried male, non-working spouse\u201d averaged nine minutes, as you can see below and at 1:34 in my <a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/video\/the-role-of-processed-foods-in-the-obesity-epidemic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>video<\/strong><\/a>.) But then a mixed-blessing transformation<a href=\"https:\/\/dash.harvard.edu\/bitstream\/handle\/1\/2640583\/cutler_obese.pdf?sequence=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> took<\/a> place. Technological advances in food preservation and packaging enabled manufacturers to mass prepare and distribute food for ready consumption. The metamorphosis has been compared to what happened a century before with the mass production and supply of manufactured goods during the Industrial Revolution. But this time, they were just mass-producing food. Using new preservatives, artificial flavors, and techniques, such as deep freezing and vacuum packaging, food corporations could <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/23410611\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">take<\/a> advantage of economies of scale to mass produce \u201cvery durable, palatable, and ready-to-consume\u201d edibles that offer \u201can enormous commercial advantage over fresh and perishable whole or minimally processed foods.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-108529\" src=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/07\/1-34.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/07\/1-34.png 1920w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/07\/1-34-960x540.png 960w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/07\/1-34-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/07\/1-34-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/07\/1-34-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/07\/1-34-480x270.png 480w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/07\/1-34-1200x675.png 1200w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/07\/1-34-720x405.png 720w, https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/07\/1-34-540x304.png 540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Think ye of the Twinkie. With enough time and effort, \u201cambitious cooks\u201d could <a href=\"https:\/\/dash.harvard.edu\/bitstream\/handle\/1\/2640583\/cutler_obese.pdf?sequence=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">create<\/a> a cream-filled cake, but now they are available around every corner for less than a dollar. If every time someone wanted a Twinkie, they had to bake it themselves, they\u2019d probably eat a lot fewer Twinkies. The packaged food sector<a href=\"https:\/\/www.semanticscholar.org\/paper\/Big-Food-corporations-and-the-nutritional-marketing-Scrinis\/2bb0fc5615bb180039a68aeeffab2ea9f2f018bf?p2df\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> is<\/a> now a multitrillion-dollar industry.<\/p>\n<p>Consider the humble potato. We\u2019ve long <a href=\"https:\/\/dash.harvard.edu\/bitstream\/handle\/1\/2640583\/cutler_obese.pdf?sequence=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">been<\/a> a nation of potato eaters, but we usually baked or boiled them. Anyone who\u2019s made fries from scratch knows what a pain it is, with all the peeling, cutting, and splattering of oil. But with sophisticated machinations of mechanization, production became centralized and fries could be shipped at -40\u00b0F to any fast-food deep-fat fryer or frozen food section in the country to become \u201cAmerica\u2019s favorite vegetable.\u201d Nearly all the increase in potato consumption in recent decades has been in the form of french fries and potato chips.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cigarette production <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/24011763\/\">offers<\/a> a compelling parallel. Up until automated rolling machines were invented, cigarettes had to be rolled by hand. It took 50 workers to produce the same number of cigarettes a machine could make in a minute. The price plunged and production leapt into the billions. Cigarette smoking went from being \u201crelatively uncommon\u201d to being almost everywhere. In the 20th century, the average per capita cigarette consumption rose from 54 cigarettes a year to 4,345 cigarettes \u201cjust before the first landmark Surgeon General\u2019s Report\u201d in 1964. The average American went from smoking about one cigarette a week to half a pack a day.<\/p>\n<p>Tobacco itself was just as addictive before and after mass marketing. What changed was cheap, easy access. French fries have always been tasty, but they went from <a href=\"https:\/\/dash.harvard.edu\/bitstream\/handle\/1\/2640583\/cutler_obese.pdf?sequence=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">being<\/a> rare, even in restaurants, to being accessible around each and every corner (likely next to the gas station where you can get your Twinkies and cigarettes).<\/p>\n<p>The first Twinkie <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/21219166\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dates<\/a> back to 1930, though, and Ore-Ida started selling frozen french fries in the 1950s. There has to be more to the story than just technological innovation, and we\u2019ll explore that next.<\/p>\n<p>This explosion of processed junk was aided and abetted by Big Government at the behest of Big Food, which I explore in my video <a href=\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/video\/the-role-of-taxpayer-subsidies-in-the-obesity-epidemic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The Role of Taxpayer Subsidies in the Obesity Epidemic<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This is the fifth video in an 11-part series. Here are the first four:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Videos still to come are listed in the related videos below.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"et_social_bottom_trigger\"\/>  <\/div>\n<p><script>\n            !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n            {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n                n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n            if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n            n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n            t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n            s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n                'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n            fbq('init', '1582627921973608');\n            fbq('track', 'PageView');\n        <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1675549\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rise in the U.S. calorie supply responsible for the obesity epidemic wasn\u2019t just about more food, but a different kind of food. The rise in the number of calories provided by the food supply since the 1970s \u201cis more than sufficient to explain the US epidemic of obesity.\u201d Similar spikes in calorie surplus were &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}