Weight Maven

Yay, Stephan Guyenet of Whole Health Source (probably my fave blogger) has saved me the trouble of writing my own post on the recently released 2010 Dietary Guidelines.

Two highlights:

Another thing I enjoyed about the Guidelines is the table on page 12 of chapter 2, which shows just how messed up the average American diet is. The number one source of calories in all age groups is “grain-based desserts”. The next five in adults are yeast breads, chicken dishes, soda/sports drinks, alcohol and pizza. To see typical American food habits presented like this just blows me away. They call this the “obesogenic environment”; the idea that we’re surrounded by tasty but unhealthy food and situations that favor the consumption of it. I agree.

and

The basic problem is that Americans are eating more calories than is optimal, and they have a very hard time stopping. It’s not because they have less willpower than their stoic ancestors, it’s because their bodies have decided that overweight/obesity is the new lean, and they defend that higher level of fat mass against changes. Simply telling an overweight person to eat fewer calories, without changing the dietary context, is not very effective in the long term, due to compensatory mechanisms including hunger and increased metabolic efficiency (fewer calories burned for the same muscular exertion).

Read his whole post.