If bad carbs make people fat, then how did the Irish avoid obesity in the past when potatoes were the primary component of their diet?

I feel a move to the War Zone coming on ...

i don't get it.

Lots of hard work which burned up calories. Few sugary treats. And as was said above, fewer calories than they needed.

And how do we know they did avoid it?

because they drank Guinness! It's good for you!

Excess calories make people fat. Bad carbs are just the most effective delivery system.

if potatoes are the only component of the diet, and on top of that, there is not a lot of it around and you work 14-16 hours a day, you will loose weight!!

Its quite simple - maybe it can be a new craze - the Irish potatoe starvation diet - 1 million of irish really suceeded and lost sooooo much weight they died!!

Anyway, the potatoe is still a main part of our diet and we are getting fatter and fatter ...

Gagalina

I don't honestly believe eating a potatoe is going to make you fat nor is it why we continue to get fatter and fatter. However, driving through (not a physically demanding activity that driving), ordering a supersize french fry, along with a burger n soda that is eaten on the way back to a job where a person sits down at a desk for 8 hours and a few hours later eats a "big grab" bag of deep fried potatoes as a snack from the vending machine....might be a more likely scenerio. Leaving work, picking up kids and already being tired..fixing a boxed meal of hamburger "helper" potatoe au graten, that has about 1 dried potatoe in it and the rest crap....well, you get the point.
You know, I don't know one overweight person in my family that eats plain potatoes, plain pasta, plain rice and plain carrots. We keep getting fatter as a society because we eat too many "rich" foods and do too little. That's just what I think. My dad had cornary artery disease, had open heart surgery and went on the "heart healthy" recommended eating plan, and lost all his weight and dropped all his levels to normal. But he actually STAYED on it, see.
I guess if we can STAY on a plan for life, thats key. For my, staying is the problem. I think Atkins made my cravings eventually diminish, which made me feel more in control of my eating, but I did eat a lot less calories.

i dont think anyone is claiming that pure carbs like potatos and white bread will make you fat. actually i think that you can eat a lot of carbs and be quite thin. of course, thats the ONLY thing you can eat. JUST potatos, JUST plain rice, JUST plain pasta.....JUST plain carbs. you'll be nice and thin, and weak and sickly.

1. A total caloric intake of about 1400-1600 calories a day, on a regime of grueling physical work

2. A life expectancy of about 45 years.

Stone Age Diet:

65% fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, honey.

35% lean meat (mainly game, eggs, wild fowl, shellfish.)
Modern Day Diet:

55% new foods, processed cereals, grains, milk and milk products, sugar, sweeteners, processed fats, alcohol.
28% fatty meat, poultry, eggs, fish, shellfish.
17% fruits, vegetables, legumes, nut.

Just curious, anyone know the percentages on Atkins? I'd like to compare those.

Excess body fat is only one symptom of hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance.

Right you are. It's analogous to the old diet of the Chinese. No matter what kind of food you are eating, if you are starving you will be thin. Now that the Chinese are getting wealthier on average due to implementation of a more market based economy, they are starting to get fat too.

My husband is Irish, and he gets fat and fluffy eating potatoes. I'm sure his ancestors burned off everything they ate, or maybe they were all fat and fluffy, too. Who knows? All I know is, we don't get potatoes in this family, except sweet potatoes once in a great while.

where does this data come from? I've heard it argued that stone age diet was not neccesarily lean meats, that high fat meat was prized and sought out, and that the nuts, fruits, legumes, etc. were consumed only when available, which would depend on where you lived and the time of year.. in other words, they were not consumed on a year round daily basis.