Eat Healthier, Die Younger

Following a link from the always-intriguing Gene Expression Web log, I found my way to this post on the Low Carb Art & Science 'blog, which asks the simple question: has eating a more nutritious diet made Americans healthier? If their data are to be believed -- and the author certainly makes a good case -- Americans have cut down on our consumption of red meat and dairy products in the past two or three decades, and switched to eating more grains, more chicken and fish, and more vegetables. The result? An "epidemic of obesity" and higher rates of heart disease (even though we're also drinking more wine than ever before). What gives?

Of course I don't know, but I can speculate. First, a lot of those "healthier" foods are likely being eaten in unhealthy forms -- fried chicken nuggets slathered in sugary ketchup, say, or grains and legumes combined into a massive starchy breakfast burrito.

Second, eating too much food which is nominally healthy can still be bad for you. If you live on a 3,000-calorie-per-day diet and don't move around much, it doesn't matter if those calories come from artisanal whole-grain bread and organic vegetables, or from fried corn dogs wrapped in bacon and dipped in mayonnaise; you're going to be obese.

Third, I also wonder if there has been a kind of "bimodal" change going on behind the graphs: some people in America are eating much healthier diets (part of the ongoing massive revolution in American eating habits since 1960), and a lot more people in America are eating vastly more unhealthy foods.

The 'blog post author prefers to see these results as "proof" that the modern dietary gospel is wrong. I don't see it as conclusive, but it does suggest there is no magical sure-fire immortality diet plan. The conventional wisdom about what we should eat changes as often as the correct way to raise and educate children: about once every generation or so. We may be seeing the beginnings of a new trend.

Writing this has made me hungry; excuse me while I go have a snack.

Comments

[Brian Rogers]

I recommend that snack include some red wine, since the reservatol in it is bound to make you immortal.

[Alexander Jablokov]

Food is tastier, cheaper, and takes less preparation than in any previous era. It's also presented in ways to overcome any resistance we might have. To someone from an earlier time, our food would seem pornographic. The wonder is that some of us are not yet spherical.