Has anything really changed since?

Not much. I went grocer shopping today and the dairy aisle was still loaded with fat free yogurt. Big giant 0% on the front.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one buying the full fat 6% plain yogurt.

That's the way I feel when I buy a bunch of meat on sale. But the last few ground beef sales they've limited it to 10 lbs at a time. So maybe there are more people buying it. The rest of the time people probably think I'm a vegetarian.

Here are a couple of items that have been published following on from George Monbiot's original article:

The Spectator article makes a pretty good case for exercise decreasing over the decades, which makes sense, but this?



No link provided for that one which contradicts everything else I've read, including Gary Taubes' excellent book.

Even if this were true, which I doubt it is, the damage from high sugar consumption takes many years to develop. So you would expect there to be a lag in consumption vs. ill health. Also, the damaged people may be consuming more, and the healthy people consuming less, so the average could still be down.

From the Spectator article:



I'll have to add these ones to my List of All Obesity Cause Theories thread. I can't believe I didn't think of the rise of central heating!

I always remind people who remark on how thin people were in the good old days that back then most adults, and certainly most working class adults, smoked cigarettes. They were aware that if they gave up they would gain weight, because they would replace the cigarette during a break with a snack, often something sugary like a biscuit, or would soothe their nerves with cake or chocolate instead of nicotine. So although sugar is the culprit, the fall of smoking played a role in the rise of the overweight.

It sure did for me. I quit smoking twice. The first time I gained about 40 pounds that I didn't know how to get rid of - so I started smoking again - & promptly lost the weight. The 2nd time I quit I gained a lot more weight, but I didn't go back to the smokes - could no longer afford them. Food was cheaper.

When I stick to the low-carb diet, the good healthful food is even cheaper than the junk food.

Lying liars who lie say that sugar intake is down since the seventies. Replacing table sugar with high fructose corn syrup and calling it a decrease in sugar intake is lying. Nice dip after 2000. The graph doesn't include maple syrup, honey, agave syrup, concentrated grape juice, and what not.

Teaser, what would we do without you?