The Obese Diet
The Obese Diet!!!
Many diet plans are named for the basic theme of the plan; for example; The Keto Diet focus on ketosis, The Vegan Diet focus on plants, etc. As a physician (retired) who became plant based 5 years ago I have been able to examine our dietary habits and when I say ‘our dietary habits’, I’m talking about our general population which includes my many years of meat, mashed potatoes, and ice cream. Our modern Western diet emerged after the Industrial Revolution with the development of the now hugely powerful Food Industry; they were able to develop new methods of food processing which greatly extended the shelf life, also destructive of the valuable food sources our bodies need from the micro-nutrients, vitamins, etc.
As the Food Industry became more and more competitive while seeking higher profits our available food sources became the ingredients for our standard diet, the Standard American Diet. In the process they also hijacked our taste buds and brains while feeding us more refined junk, sugars, salt and, yes a lot more fat. The chicken of yesterday is no match for ‘The Incredible Cluck’ the poultry industry (in their cage free, over-crowded, enclosed barns) produces today.
We are at a point in life that tells us…Hey, what we’re eating ain’t good. But you know what, we are not listening. We keep gaining weight like the increasing wind in a Hurricane; sooner or later we’re going to fall down. As history has shown us, weight is gauge of performance in life, in health, in production, and in longevity. Gaining weight leads to discomfort, disease, and death; this is our present diet here in the United States and rapidly spreading across the world. This Western pattern Standard American Diet is harmful in two ways…gaining weight and getting sick.
The primary reason that most people go on a diet is to lose weight; that is to improve their physical status externally by reducing obesity or for health such as improving one’s cholesterol and/or lipids. There is a connection between excess weight and impairment. And indeed excess weight is just that…Excess Weight! It takes more energy, it uses up space, and it leads to disease and death—not necessarily in that order. For example Heart disease is the number 1 COD (cause of death) in the United States in 2019; the fact that obesity is closely related to heart disease should be common knowledge. That alone can certainly be a stimulating factor for going on a ‘diet’. A diet actually refers to the food ingested and since no two people eat the same amount, it could be stated that we each have our own ‘Diet’. Diets can be either good or bad. The Western or Standard American Diet is the worse diet in the world while the Whole Food Plant Based diet is the best diet in the world. Reviewing the medical and scientific research reveals the very obvious fact that, beyond all doubt, a plant based, whole food eating pattern is the most efficient diet for health, weight, and peak performance.
Should we move to eat more food that equals health or continue to eat foods that make us overweight and obese? Of course the answer is Well, duh? In the U.S. the numbers are incredible with close to 75% of our adult population being in the overweight/obese (OW/O) category. The rate of children becoming OW/O is shocking as evidenced by the number of children today being diagnosed with Hypertension, Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity….yes, the term ‘Obesity’ became an official medical diagnosis in 2013 by the American Medical Association. These three diseases that we are seeing in our children today, T2D, Hypertension and Obesity were rare if at all just 50 years ago. In other words being Obese is not healthy; it puts too much stress on various systems of the body leading to impairment of function and eventually death.
I’m suggesting that we have a ‘new name’ diet, The Obese Diet!!! It’s not a new diet; it’s a new NAME!!! The Obese Diet!!! And with those fabulous ingredients that makes us drool whenever we can hunt them down; how can we ever refuse? The red meats, those packaged lunch meats, bacon, butter, corn syrup, lots of high sugar drinks, eggs, and some slimy hog meats too. As my Grandma Benson would say, “Call it like you see it.” The Western pattern Standard American Diet is actually The Obese Diet!!! Vegan Doc 9/2/19
