What Changed? A Look Into the Obesity Crisis
Imagine a world where you didn’t have to count calories or worry about going to the gym.
And in this world, you are already thin and fit. Obesity is rare or nonexistent. All this, simply just a result of living your life.
Fantasy world, right?
Wrong… This was reality… For most of human history.
It only started to change in the last half-century or so. Which begs the question: what the hell happened?
Our Activities Changed
One area people often point blame is a change, or rather a reduction, in our physical activity levels.
I touched on this in my previous post, about the convenience of modern technology that allows us to expend few calories throughout the day.
We’re all aware of this and many of us take steps to move more, hence the growing popularity of gyms.
But notice… Despite the intentional attempts to exercise, people are still overweight.
What gives?
The Exercise Myth
Four categories make up our Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), or our “calories out”. We have the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), Thermic Effect of Food (TEF), Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT), & Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT).
- BMR is the base calories we burn to stay alive (e.g. breathing, brain function).
- TEF is the energy it takes to digest food.
- NEAT is the energy we expend from unplanned movement (e.g. cooking, fidgeting, typing).
- EAT is deliberate exercise (e.g. running, lifting weights).
Looking at the chart below, our energy expenditure from EAT is only 10% of TDEE on average.
These percentages change based on individual biology and choices (like deliberate exercise), but it typically remains a small chunk of TDEE regardless.
For example, hunter gatherer types walk roughly 5–8 miles per day, burning 480–760 calories. It’s roughly equivalent to about 2 hours of walking. Point being, it’s not that significant (there are no marathons involved).
This certainly bumps up their EAT, yet it remains a small percent of TDEE (only 20–30%).
Despite all this, hunter gatherers are lean and fit. So the narrative we must exercise ourselves to death for health and fitness clearly comes with cracks in the foundation.
This brings us to the true source of the problem…
Modern Food
We’ve experienced major changes in food over the last century, worsening exponentially the past few decades.
The culprit? An explosion in the industrialization of our food supply. Some good has come from it, like more food at lower costs (thanks to technology). Unfortunately our health has suffered with all the highly processed garbage we now consume.
The Standard American Diet is largely made up of ultra-processed foods — about 60%. (Note: there are different levels of processed foods, not all are bad.)
Ultra-processed food is loaded with calories, fat, carbs and questionable ingredients. They also often lack fiber, protein and a satiating trait (food scientists design the stuff to be addicting so you keep eating & buying more).
Self-Interests Come First
Ultra-processed food uses cheap, often subsidized, ingredients that have a long shelf life. This is good for Big Food, who profits nicely off these engineered foods. Real food on the other hand is perishable and more difficult to brand and market. This doesn’t favor profit margins.
Big Food spends lots of time and money to influence dietary advice. Both through lobbying government recommendations and funding scientific research (to nudge towards certain outcomes).
This is how we end up with the suggestion grains should be 30% of our diet, or heavily processed seed oils (e.g. canola oil) are healthy.
Getting Around the Problem
When it comes to health advice, understand many forces are at play. Not all advice is bad, but the consumer’s health is not necessarily top priority.
The best advice is always to take health into your own hands. Do your own research so you aren’t fooled by bad actors.
That being said, you will never go wrong with real food. The less processed it is the better (e.g. vegetables vs. V8 juice).
This coincides nicely with eating more traditional foods, historically speaking. Foods we’ve been eating since before the industrial revolution, and even better if we were eating it before the agricultural revolution.
It’s difficult to overeat whole foods like meat & vegetables. Cut out ultra-processed, sweetened garbage and make real food the focus of your diet. You’ll see your weight and health improve significantly.
