Why Low-Fat Diet Caused Obesity Epidemic by Jonny Bowden

Why Low-Fat Caused the Obesity Epidemic by Jonny Bowden

Eating is a way to deal with stress. Being overweight is stressful. This is an interesting story I found. Check it out.
When you have something as massive and scary as the obesity epidemic, it's hard to point the finger at one single element and say, "that's why it happened." But however you slice it, the low-fat movement played a part in the epidemic.

After World War ll, heart disease rates began to rise precipitously. In the 1970s, a committee led by Senator George McGovern issued a report advising Americans to lower their risk of heart disease by eating less fat. This recommendation was based on evidence that linked diet to heart disease. Unfortunately, the report wrongly singled out saturated fat as the wicked element in our diet responsible for all our problems. This was the beginning of the low-fat movement.

And of the obesity epidemic.

It's more than a coincidence that they happened at the same time, and here's why.

Once dietary fat was "identified" as the chief culprit in heart disease -- a huge case of mistaken identity in my opinion -- food manufacturers sprang into action. The race was on to produce low-fat and no-fat foods, and to engineer the saturated fat out of everything.

This, in turn, led to a slew of "food-like" products, manufactured and processed edible substances bearing little resemblance to whole foods, and to idiotic experiments like margarine. Add to this witches' brew the invention of high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils (to replace saturated fat) and you had the perfect dietary storm.

You see, if you're a food manufacturer and you're removing the fat from some food, you need to replace it with something else or it won't taste very good. So, we wound up with a slew of low-fat products loaded with sugar. And since high-fructose corn syrup was now available cheaply, adding sweetness was an easy thing to do.

So easy, in fact, that high-fructose corn syrup started showing up in hundreds -- if not thousands -- of food products.

At the same time as all of this was happening, American started eating more of everything. This, too, is no coincidence. Here's why: If I give you a carton of Domino's sugar and tell you to eat till your heart's content, you won't consume very much. Same thing with butter. But if I put them together, something magical happens. Combine sugar and fat and every one of your evolutionary buttons are pushed. Manufacturers know this. Cravings get activated, brain chemistry starts firing, you can literally eat this stuff 'till you bust.

And we did.

The whole low-fat movement coincided with a huge spike in food processing and those who process and manufacture food products for a living have one goal -- getting people to eat more of their products. That's easy to do -- just engineer combinations of sugar and a bit of fat, which worked really well with the whole "low-fat" philosophy.

As long as it didn't have too much fat, you could eat it, right?

Meanwhile, fat -- the one macronutrient that keeps you full and satisfied -- was lacking from most of what we were eating. Sugar, the one element that keeps cravings going, was plentiful. Portion sizes in general collectively took a shot of steroids, as the whole country decided that super sizing was its birthright.

Low fat has a lot to answer for. It may not be the only reason we're experiencing one of the worst health epidemics in modern times, but it sure is one of the biggest.

Want to ditch the low-fat foods? Then learn how to eat healthy and distinguish serving versus portion size.

For more information from Jonny, visit his website.

Jonny Bowden, author, nutritionist and weight loss coach cuts through all the misconceptions about diet and fitness to help you transform your body, your health and your life.

How will we pay for healthcare? by Kelly Phillips Erb

As the House prepares for a vote on health care reform, the overwhelming question is how to pay the estimated $940 billion price tag on the plan. The obvious -- but not so politically popular -- answer is to raise taxes. Even better? Raise taxes so taxpayers don't notice it as much by including it in mandatory withholding.

That explains why the current proposal in the House under HR 3590 would add an increase in the form of payroll taxes. The bill, as it stands currently, would add .9% to the Medicare payroll tax to those individual taxpayers earning over $200,000 ($250,000 for married couples filing joint tax returns). That would bring the total tax rate to 2.35%.

The current Medicare payroll tax rate is 1.45% and is part of what we know as FICA, or Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax. The tax is imposed on employees and employers to fund Social Security and Medicare. Since it's imposed on only those who work, the tax has been quite controversial. Unearned income, including interest, stock dividends, and capital gains such as profits from the sale of stock or real estate, are not affected by this tax.

An alternative proposal would increase the tax rate and extend a 2.9% tax rate to include unearned income. This version is favored by President Obama and many Congressional Democrats. As of this writing, it is not expected to be included in the version of the bill taken up for a vote by the House. While the final vote remains to be seen, most pundits expect that the House would approve the health care bill passed by the Senate in December, with any changes implemented using a procedure known as budget reconciliation.

Since most taxpayers would not be affected by the increase, the measure passed easily in Senate at the end of 2009. The final vote was 60 yes, 39 no and 1 abstention: Sen Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) did not vote, citing "family commitments." Interestingly, the final version of the Senate bill tapped the increase at a higher rate than the original proposal: earlier versions called for an increase of just .5%.

If the measure passes the House (and this measure is expected to survive any last minute deal-making), the bump in rates would take effect after Dec. 31, 2012