This newsletter comes out every other Thursday and hopefully provides you with thought-provoking content about the mundane, wacky, and weird. I will be writing until the 75th edition. If you know someone who may enjoy the newsletter, you can share it here.
I'm surprised every time I fly back to North Carolina and walk through the Charlotte airport. Everyone is so big. I was shocked to learn that over 70% of America is obese or overweight and that trend is only increasing. Diets and exercise are on the rise, but the United States (and many other countries) keep getting fatter? Why is that?
This is obviously an incredibly complex issue that will not all be resolved in one post, but it is an important topic to turn our attention to. Being overweight or obese makes it more likely you will get heart disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers and a reduced life expectancy. Excess weight also costs the US healthcare system an estimated $190 billion a year. There are tons of other hidden "costs" to a population of overweight people, planes use more gas, car seat sizes and door sizes are adjusted. Being obese or overweight is often socially stigmatized and has been linked to lower self-esteem and depression.
Body Mass Index (BMI) is the measurement for determining if someone is in a healthy range of weight, overweight, or obese. BMI is measured based on the height and weight of someone. If you are 6 ft. and weight 170 lbs. you are in a healthy range. If you are 5'3 and 170 you are overweight. Body fat percentage would be a much better measurement, but BMI is what we got as the best proxy for healthy weight range.
Below is a gif showing US obesity rates by states over the last 30 years. It also just current rates to project to 2030. There must be in something in that rocky mountain water.
Obesity went up all around the world starting around the late 1970s. Yes, genetics play a role in body size, and so does the motivation to lose weight. However, that doesn't explain why people's weight in industrialized nations shot up starting in the 1970s.
In 1976, 15 percent of American adults were obese. Now it’s nearly 40 percent. No one really knows why our bodies have changed so much. Obesity has always been with us, but never has it been so common.
What has changed since the 1970s? As seen below obesity has a a lot of contributing factors, and let’s take a look at a few.
What about exercise?
Exercise is great for many things but not weight loss. One reason is people overestimate how much they burn off while working out. For instance, you need to run about 45 minutes to burn off a muffin. Additionally, research has shown that people eat more after working out because they feel they deserve it or are hungrier. Feel free to break out into some Jazzercise to feel good, but don't expect to shed lbs.
Since the 1970s the US has gotten extremely good at producing cheap foods made with refined flour, added sugar, and added corn syrup. This was in tandem with the rise of fast food restaurants like Mcdonalds.
"Calories in, Calories out" is a popular diet theory. The idea being if you eat 2,500 calories, you need to burn 2,500 calories and you will stay at the same weight. While this may be true, it isn't the whole story. For example, 100 grams of baked potatoes contains 93 calories while the same amount of fries (100 grams) contains 300 calories. It is a lot easier to quickly consume higher calories from highly processed foods.
Why are we eating so many processed foods? Partly, because we enjoy it. The unhealthiest foods are often the tastiest, cheapest, most convenient, and most fun food. Foods like burgers, pizza, and soda are energy-dense foods, while broccoli, beans, and blueberries are nutrient-dense.
Samoa, the beautiful Polynesian island, offers a cautionary tale of the effects of processed foods.
Samoa's traditional diet consisted of coconut, bananas, taro, and seafood. Starting in the 1950s with globalization Samoa's waistlines rapidly grew. Today, over 93% of Samoa is overweight or obese, which is the highest in the world. Many of the other countries who top the list of most excessive weight tend to be small island nations because they have to ship in a lot of their food now. The food that makes it to the small island in the middle of the pacific has to be preserved, cheap and is often ultra-processed.
There is a strange story about Samoa and the turkey tail. Americans eat a lot turkey especially around Thanksgiving. We often eat the best parts of the turkey like the breast or leg. The turkey tail is actually a gland that produces oil for the turkey to preen itself. The poultry industry didn't want to let turkey tails go to waste, but Americans wouldn't eat it. They saw a business opportunity in the Pacific Island communities, where animal protein was scare. Starting in the 1950s U.S. poultry firms started dumping turkey tails in Samoa. The cheap, fatty meat quickly gained popularity, but had horrible health effects on the island. “By 2007, the average Samoan was consuming more than 44 pounds of turkey tails every year".
In 2007 in an attempt to improve public health, the Samoan government banned the import of turkey tail. However, the small pacific island country still wanted to join the World Trade Organization. As part of the agreement to joining the WTO in 2011, Samoa had to allow turkey tail to be imported again. Samoa is an extreme example, but shows how politics and business can warp our availability of food and what we feel is healthy. The environment you are in also matters a lot.
There is a saying that you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. This is true in almost anything. If you live near fast-food restaurants you will eat more fast food. Studies show that your friend's weights are contagious. You end up mirroring their weight.
Michael Pollan's advice, "eat food, not too much, mostly plants" is simple and practical. However, a person's environment and those sneaky processed foods also play a big role in weight gain.
🎧 A playlist of my podcast recommendations
I've listened to 500-1000+ podcasts and here are 20 that I recommend. If you have podcast episodes you recommend, please send them my way!
You will notice the "Tim Ferriss Show", "99% invisible" and "Smartless" make multiple appearances.
🎮 Global Power of the Internet
People watch more Minecraft hours than the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB combined.
Only 26 countries have more people than PewDiePie has subscribers.
Only 20% of YouTube’s traffic is from the United States.
Source:
Mike Dariano newsletter
Pic of the Week
Here are my two favorite girls. After a lot of traveling it has been great to be back in San Francisco. This pic was snapped in Dolores Park at a hangout with a few friends.