Is it really the fat in food that is making us fat and causing so many health problems?

Short answer: no. More to come when I have writing time.

@incendiary_dan Can’t wait.

Portion sizes were much smaller. Remember when a hamburger fries and a coke were a whole meal? The same meal now is considered a “kids meal” The large bottle of soda was the 16 oz bottle. I’m 50, so you might NOT remember.
Foods were much less processed, and mom made her gravy from scratch, not a packet.
People ate out as a treat, now they eat a meal at home as a treat.
We were also much more active. I don’t remember the exact number, but I remember reading a story that said a secretary using a manual typewriter used something like 2 pounds a year worth of calories more than an administrative assistant with a typewriter.
We were limited to 2 or 3 TV stations, and had to get up to change the channel so we found other things to do with our time, we were more active and less subject to the heavy duty food marketing.
The processed choices are crazy. Studies have shown that the more choices you have in food the more calories you will consume. I can’t site the studies right now, but it was pretty revealing. Made me limit what I bring into my house.
Hormones that make animals fatten up faster are also being passed on to us through our food.
Watch the movie Food Inc. (If you are an Amazon Prime member you can watch it for free.)
It will show you how our country has changed the way we eat so dramatically in the last 50 years that our great grand mothers wouldn’t recognize it.

First of all you burned a lot more calories when you were younger running around all day. And many more adults had active jobs that didn’t have them sitting in a cubicle in front of a computer monitor.

People did not eat as much processed food then, and the processed food did not have High Fructose Corn Syrup in it. (HFCS is actually metabolized in a different manner from sucrose.)

And portions were generally smaller then. Remember when having a Coca Cola was a six ounce bottle, not a 12 ounce can? People had an eight ounce cup of coffee on their afternoon break instead of a 16 ounce frappucinos that are glorified milk shakes with whipped cream?

All of these can each be dismissed as not much of a change from 45 years ago, but the incremental effect is the obesity epidemic we now have to deal with.

@Judi Great minds think alike!

No, it is primarily the sugar, whose consumption has increased massively. Also, portion sizes as was mentioned above.

Also, it is our relative wealth, which allows us to eat too much meat.

to late to edit, I meant, and administrative assistant with a computer. I hate when my fingers get ahead of my brain.

I agree that inactivity is one of the most contributing problems. TV is being used to babysit, and millions of people rather sit in front of their computer screen than enjoy the outdoors. But I’ve known some very active overweight people who don’t seem to over eat and don’t have thyroid or hormone problems and they watch what they eat. So I figured it has to be something in the food.
@Judi I agree and think it very well may be the hormones added in our meat. Goodness knows, young people today are developing a lot faster and girls are getting facial hair and boys are developing breasts, even when they are not overweight.

No. Real fat is much better for you than shitty gross nasty fake crisco and other weird things people today use because “fat is the devil and is killing us.” No, we are fat and dying because no one exercises or gives a shit what they put into their body.

We were active as kids and walked to school, climbed trees and played at the beach. We didn’t deliberately eat healthily but food was usually cooked from basic ingredients. A slice of bread spread with lard and sprinkled with salt or greasy chips wrapped in old newspaper was a special treat. No one was fat, it was unheard of.

In non-fast foods? No, I don’t think fat is to blame. I believe conditioning towards bigger and bigger portions, accepting junky foods into the everyday diet (like soda pop and “snacks”) and the idea no one should ever have hunger during their day are the most to blame.

Weight gain is easily calculated by the following: calories in from food – calories out from exercise = weight gain/loss. A nutrition professor lost 27 pounds on a twinkie diet proving that weight loss has everything to do with calories in – calories out, and nothing to do with all of the other gimmicks out there.

I don’t think fat is the problem as much as sugar and HFCS. When you eat too much fructose (unless it is in a couple of pieces of fruit a day which also has the fibre attached) you are hungrier for everything and eat so much more food. I read a book about this and brought back some of the fat and cut out the sugar and lost weight – I was quite shocked. It’s to do with your body’s natural appetite regulator – too much fructose overrides it so you still think you’re hungry. That has been my experience anyway. I remember eating exactly as you described as a kid and we weren’t fat either.

A diet high in carbohydrates will add weight, as will soft drinks. The body converts carbs into sugar, which is good if you’re very active, but bad if you’re a couch potato.

@CaptainHarley while your point is well made in the sense that the American Diet does contain a lot of carbs, it still boils down to calorie counts. If someone limits themselves to 800 calories a day of pure sugar, they’re going to loose weight, likewise with eating 800 calories of pure lard, or whatever else you can think up. It’s like the old joke “what weighs more: a pound of lead or a pound of feathers?”

Because Americans are getting fatter, the most likely explanation is that (1) we’re taking in more calories/day than we used to (by drinking more soft drinks for example), larger portion sizes or many of the other suggestions mentioned above. (2) We’re buying fewer calories than we were in the past because our jobs are typically more sedentary, or our metabolisms have been affected by our environments and lifestyles, etc. It could also be a combination of both (1) and (2).

True, true!

I’ve lost 30 pounds in the last 5 months or so. I rarely eat fast food, but when I do it’s usually from local restaurants instead of chains. I don’t drink sodas with high-fructose corn syrups. My proportions have significantly decreased, and I think that is the part of my current diet that has helped the most. I used to be able to eat 3 slices of pizza in a sitting and still want more. Now one slice satisfies me. I am also careful to be very grateful for the food I have. I eat it with the intention that it will nourish and bless my body, and make it stronger because I love my body and I want it to feel good.

I also have become much much more active than I used to be. I walk three miles a day four days a week, give or take. I also attend ecstatic dance once or twice a week, and try to find myself in activities that get me moving like boogie boarding and hiking.

bottom line; Smaller portions eaten with gratitude, no sodas(or pop if you prefer), active lifestyle.

Fats have been an essential part of our health since the beginning. Humans, as omnivorous animals, have gained nutrition from it since the beginning. Many essential nutrients we need come from various fats (they’re fat soluble). It’s the types of fats we get that have changed (and the types of carbohydrates), and many of them are nutrient deficient. Cooking oils based on corn and soy are prevalent, as is meat from animals raised on corn and soy instead of eating their natural diets. Fats from olives, coconuts and other nuts, and such are good, as are fats from free range and wild animals.

To a certain extent what @gorillapaws says about calories is true, but as with most simplifications in a complicated subject, there are problems. Part of our calorie-out factor has to do with how efficiently our body is running, and how much muscle mass we have. Some foods promote muscle growth more than others, for instance, so in the long term would increase your basal metabolism. Certain vitamins, likewise, have shown to assist in weight-loss and overall health, even preventing many types of diseases and even cancers. Vitamin D, a fat soluble vitamin by the way, is one that assists the body a lot. It’s usually found in high amounts in the fats of free range and wild animals.

Edit: I also wanted to mention that many traditional indigenous peoples have subsisted on diets made up primarily of animal fats, and had far fewer health problems than anyone in a Western culture. The Inuit, who often ate nothing but fatty animal flesh (raw) had never had problems with diabetes until introduced to Western carbohydrate-heavy foods.