re: How common was obesity in the past?

Judging by my class pictures and yearbooks from the 1970s and 1980’s, - almost non existent. Looks like a lot of kids were chubby though- right before puberty- like 6th grade. I Had one person in my senior class of 100 who maybe would be considered obese.

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fast food boom & high fructose syrup boom

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This is exactly correct.

Coca Cola switched from sugar to High Fructose Corn Syrup in the US in 1985. It's been all downhill since.

Portions at restaurants, especially fast food ones, have also gotten larger. In the 80's when McDonald's introduced the value meals, the fries and drink were a standard size equivalent to the small size of today. They only had 2 sizes in fries - small and large. The small came in the white paper holder, the large in the red cardboard holder. I think it was around 92 when they introduced the large and extra large size value meals. I seem to recall to get the Dream Team plastic cups during the 92 Olympics, you had to order the large extra value meal.

Can we talk about where fat acceptance and even celebration fits into the current trends?

As a society we seem to be promoting being a fat frick as something beautiful and healthy,

Fat kids were made fun of or ostracized until they became the majority.

Now who’s laughing?

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The skyrocket in obesity in this country tracks nearly perfectly with when the gubment codified the infamous "food pyramid" - which suggested the "base" be formed by 8-11 servings of carbs per day (all while foisting soybean oil on them as the primary oil.)

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I agree. The push for more carbs. The injection of sugar into everything. Combined with people walking less. But the emphasis on eating carbs is criminal.

As a kid I loved Delaware Punch. Someone gave me a 16oz bottle last week—hadn’t seen the stuff in forever and didn’t even know it was still made—and the nutrition label horrified me. I think it was 81 grams of sugar lol. I didn’t drink it and refused to even give it to my kids. Crazy.

Looking back at school pics, it was rare to see anyone significantly overweight. Hardly even any overweight period.

I have been a low carb zealot for 13 years, it’s a reaction to the vilification of fat, but the truth lies in excess calories. For the first time in history we have rid the world of famine, so much so that it is the number one cause of death.