After years of being told that fat consumption is a dietary no-no, the latest research indicates that sugar, not fat, is the real demon in our diets.
Fat was labelled the bad guy years ago in what was essentially a political decision which pandered to the immense weight of the sugar industry.
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What region in the US is the fattest? We used to assume it was the South, but Southern researchers dispute that–they say it’s the Midwest.
Statistician George Howard says, "The obesity epidemic is overwhelming the US, and there’s this strong perception that Mississippi and Alabama are number one and number two in obesity–fighting for fattest place. We were thinking since people living in the South are generally more hypertensive and have higher rates of diabetes and stroke, it would be the fattest region, but when we looked at our data, people in the South were really not the fattest."
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The ancient Greeks warned that excessive consumption of food would disrupt the four humors in the human body. The ancient Buddhist and Confucian traditions, as well as Christianity and Islam, encourage moderation and disparage gluttony, as well. The Jewish Talmud teaches that people should eat enough to fill a third of their stomachs, drink enough to fill another third, and leave the rest empty.
Maybe instead of diet books, we should be consulting religious tomes instead?
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How much a person eats may be only one of many factors that determines weight gain. A recent study suggests that a breath test profile of microorganisms inhabiting the gut may be able to tell doctors how susceptible a person is to developing obesity.
How you tell if YOU’RE one of those unlucky people? Take a breathalyzer test!
On the LiveScience.com website, Christopher Wanjek reports that doctors say they can smell obesity on your breath, because certain gas-emitting microbes living in the human gut may be responsible for one person’s propensity for gaining too much weight. These microbes can be detected by the presence of methane and hydrogen on our breath.
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