I wouldn't include American diets with "western" diets. I know of no other western country that has portion sizes approaching ours. And that's not including the "all you can eat" establishments. The French, for example, consume a lot of fat, but they eat far less than we do and get a lot more exercise.
That's one of the problems in going just by the conclusions, which is all that the media ever report. There's just no way of knowing without finding out what the research construct is. It shouldn't come as any surprise that the American diet is based on sugar, starch, fat, alcohol, and LARGE portions. Can the English diet be characterized the same way? The French? The German? The Italian? The Dutch? I doubt it, but given the internationality of ET, I should think that residents of other countries could pipe up here.
Fat is always bad? Read this guys website, with lots of citations. Pretty interesting... notice the DATE. http://www.ourcivilisation.com/fat/chap3.htm Longshot.... DON'T read this because it contains more Eskimo stories peace axeman
I have done quite a bit more than allow myself to be spoonfed and I am fully aware of how a study works, but that it is not the point. The point as ever, is number of calories and the percentage of carbs, protein and fat in those calories. High fat eaters hang on hard but unfortunately there really is very little evidence out there to back them up. They don't like this because they do like that tasty fat so much. They "know" what is bad for them but find all kinds of ways of denying it. I understand. I used to be a bloater myself. It's tough to make a clean break. But sooner or later that's what you gotta do. If you want some real super duper can not get out of that what ever you do evidence for the absolute best diet then why not design a study yourself. Now that would be gift for the world. Personally I've finished with studying diet but there are a hell of a lot of confused and unhealthy people out there, and boy do they need this mess sorted out for them.
By "fat", I'm referring mostly to the emphasis on fried foods, particularly fried fast foods. And then there's hydrogenation . . .
That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about reading the conclusions only rather than the study itself, along with its design and its data. The conclusions alone are immaterial. If you've convinced yourself of your statements and are satisfied with them, that's fine. But it isn't data, other than empirical. In any case, people aren't fat just because of what they eat. They are fat mostly because of why they eat. Which is why "diets" in and of themselves are not enough.
Just for the record... I wans't making a reference to any of your posts when I posed this question. It was for the people who are convinced that fat is always a bad thing in all cases. peace axeman
Well, today I deviated from my Atkins shake/swimming diet. I reduced down to 2 drinks and started eating solids early...instead of 15:00 I started at 14:30.... My laps in the pool have stayed on schedule....I add 1 lap per day ....weekends off. I started at 13....up to 20 laps. My beer driking is holding steady at 2-3 michelobe ultras per evening depending on if the wifey gets home early from work Today I took the afternoon off from work.....and took the car into PepBoys for a maintanence tune-up. I purposly use PepBoys as I can take the bike in the van and ride it home while they work on the van. It forces me to exercise and gives a usefull reason to get on the bike. My legs were burning this time.....that lactic acid and my weak muscles really reacted. I do not know why? This happened only after my swimming regiman....Gosh...could I be getting into shape? Will I be one of those slaves to my body and have all that alert vitality again?.....oh no! Well the alternative is worse.....so I want to encourage you folks...keep on going it gets easier! Michael B.