Here we go again! According to some recent research, giving
up high-fat foods and increasing high-carbohydrate foods to lose weight was all
wrong—dieters simply ate more sugars and starches to feel satisfied, and so
they failed to lose weight. Duh! Isn’t this rather obvious?
Of course lipids (fats and related materials) in small amounts are important for good nutrition. The myelin
coats around many nerve cells are made of cholesterol, a lipid that is also
essential for making hormones. Fats are the most concentrated form of energy
found in food, and they carry the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. Omega-3 fatty
acids appear to protect us from heart disease. We need lipids for all those
reasons. The problem comes when we eat too much fat—or, for that matter, too
much carbohydrate or protein. Instead of being entirely used as needed for
energy and for building needed compounds, part of the food is stored as fat
deposits around the heart and other muscles.
When did Americans start eating too much fat? Perhaps it
began, or at least was intensified, just after World War II. I can still
remember eating white oleomargarine (or dyeing it yellow with little dye
capsules) during the war. The stuff was unappealing at best, and when butter
rationing ended with the war’s end, real butter tasted wonderful. Cooks could
again use it, and everyone could slather butter on pancakes, waffles, and
toast. Corn-fed beef became more available, too. We started eating “high on the
hog.”
Back in the fifties, it was hard to find nonfattening foods.
In the Midwest where I grew up, there were wonderful fruits and vegetables to
eat in summertime, but in winter we were mostly limited to canned vegetables
and sugar-sweetened fruit. Soft drinks, too, contained a lot of sugar. Adding
to the problem, we were also riding around in cars much of the time; walking
and bicycling were not yet popular.
As a child and teenager, I struggled continually with
overweight. Besides eating too much, I was a bookish girl who avoided exercise.
Diets then were rather Draconian: Dieters were advised to eat very small
amounts of food, or to eat only one kind of food. There was a cottage cheese
diet, for instance; after a few days of that, I couldn’t face cottage cheese
for years. Until my mid-twenties, I found that I could lose weight only by
severely limiting my Calories. Though I never became anorexic or bulimic, my
dieting was certainly unhealthful. I had muscle cramps and felt tired in spite
of getting enough sleep.
Becoming one of the early members of Weight Watchers in the
1960s may have saved my life, or at least kept me well. For the first time, I
learned to lose weight without being hungry by eating large amounts of chicken
and fish, drinking skim milk, and making fruits and vegetables a large part of
my diet. At that time, cookies, candy, and ice cream were all “illegal” foods
for Weight Watchers members, which automatically lowered the amounts of carbs
and fat we ate. Many no-sugar foods appeared on the market at that time, too.
(Since then I have been able to eat sensibly without the strict rules of Weight
Watchers, and have never returned to extreme dieting. My weight has fluctuated
a few times during times of stress, but now I weigh 118 pounds, 40 pounds less
than when I was in high school.)
In the late fifties, a few years after President
Eisenhower’s frightening heart attack, scientists were beginning to find a
possible link between cholesterol and heart disease. When they found eggs had a
high cholesterol content, many people gave up eating eggs. Not a good idea.
Today we know that eggs, with their high protein content and low number of
Calories, are important for good nutrition.
More and more studies found that eating fats could
contribute to heart disease. For 20 years or so, we were counseled to protect
our hearts by eating less fat and exercising more. Exercise does use Calories,
and it has many other important effects on the body. Except for dancers
and athletes, though, most people
don’t exercise enough to lose weight.
Our eating habits became more sophisticated in the sixties.
Many of us watched chef Julia Child on television, bought her cookbook, and
tried to prepare dishes like boeuf bourguignon and trout meuniere. Though Julia sometimes used a lot of butter and
sugar, she recommended keeping portions small. Americans tend to go overboard on everything, unfortunately.
During the sixties even our dishes and glasses grew larger, the better to hold
large servings of food and wine. Hamburgers grew from the small patties we had
eaten in the fifties to the gigantic monstrosities, laden with cheese and
bacon, that are common today.
There have been many diets and weight-loss programs over the
years. We have seen the Atkins diet, the Pritikin diet, Jenny Craig, TOPS, the
popcorn diet, and so forth. One diet promoted eating grapefruit, which was
supposed to contain a magic enzyme that broke down fat. One of the strangest diets that came
along in the seventies was the “drinking man’s diet.” The general idea was to
limit carbohydrates severely, while satisfying ourselves with fat, protein, and
alcohol. I remember several coworkers coming back from lunch with silly smiles
on their faces, feeling they were dieting. That diet didn’t last long—in some people the high
level of protein led to ketosis, a potentially dangerous condition.
Perhaps that kind of diet was partly what led to the
anti-fat reaction in the nineties. Suddenly, carbs were in and fat was out. We
were told to eat more grains—and so some interpreted that as permission to eat
huge portions of pasta laden with sauces. Advice to eat legumes became
permission to eat baked beans with molasses. We were told that fruit was good
for us—and many of us ate too much of it, or consumed it as pie. People ate
huge muffins. And then they wondered why they gained weight instead of losing
it.
Some hopeful treatments are on the horizon, at least for the
severely overweight. A just-released study shows that bariatric (obese) surgery
leads to long-term weight loss. It may also be possible to alter the DNA of
persons with a genetic predisposition to obesity. Various physiological studies
are underway.
For those with less serious problems, though, the standard
advice is what it has been since antiquity—eat less in general, fill up on
fruits and vegetables, get more exercise. We all know that’s the secret, but we
get bored with sensible eating and exercising, devote too little time to them,
or eat for emotional reasons. The “Mediterranean diet” has been popular in
recent years, and is surely the best diet to come along. High in the delicious
grains, fish, fruits and vegetables, nuts, and olive oil that contribute to
good nutrition and weight loss, it even includes a little wine—a major plus for
most of us. (Alas! I can no longer drink alcohol, as it interacts with some of
my prescribed medicines.) I fear that if the pendulum swings toward eating less
rice and more bacon, dieters will lose the benefits of Mediterranean foods.
And, in ten years or so, nutritionists will discover again that we need to eat
more carbs and less fat.
