Obesity has significantly increased in North America over the last sixty years. Since 1960, obesity and overweight rates have increased from 10.4% to 42.4% as of 2018, according to cerbariatrics.com.
The most fundamental reason for the increase in obesity is the increase in energy dense foods while jobs, modes of transportation, and urbanization have led to physical inactivity. The coupling of these trends, alongside smartphones, and the discouragement of play, have led to a sedentary fat generation.
While obesity is multi-causal, diet nonetheless plays an important role. One way that you can improve your diet is to eat more whole foods which will have the effect of decreasing energy density within your food, stabilizing your insulin levels, and increasing nourishment. Here’s why this works:
When eating whole foods, your body has indicators like ghrelin, which tell you when you’re hungry and full. Since your body generally knows how much nutrition is in this food, because it’s got a nutritional profile that our genes are familiar with, it can effectively coordinate with your dietary needs. Unlike ultra-processed foods, whole foods have a rich nutritional profile, including electrolytes, fiber, vitamins, and other micro-nutrients, which allow for your body to have what
Ultra-processed foods are often built with addiction in mind when creating them, so that even when your body is full, you’ll feel a need to continue eating them, oftentimes despite a lackluster nutritional profile. For instance, if your body doesn’t recognize sugar and salt added to peanut butter, it can increase the amount your body will eat, causing you to eat too much. There are also associated problems with oxidization wherein things like seed oils, are heavily processed, cause inflation, and contain high levels of omega-6s.
Isadore Johnson's Website 