Our Diet Culture

Our health is getting worse and worse with chronic, incurable diseases like diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, and others too numerous to list. Many of these diseases are directly linked to what we are eating and drinking. And then, when we are feeling ill, the scale tips a little higher than our ego can handle, and the mirror isn't saying what we want to hear, we go out and buy a book. A diet book.

Here's the reality: Anything we eat can be turned into fat. Fat that we eat directly is the first type that piles onto our middle and thighs, because it is easier for the body to convert fat to fat. Are all fats created equal? Yes, and no. All fat can be turned into fat on our bodies with an equal amount of ease. But all fats come with baggage of their own, and that baggage can be good or bad. Putting a thick layer of butter on a slice of fresh bread may taste good to many of us, but it is pretty much just a large helping of fat. At the same time, it's been shown that butter is better for your heart than margarine.

The next thing to be turned into fat are carbohydrates. However, carbohydrates are what we need to fuel our body. They are turned into sugar by our bodies - that's why high carbohydrate foods taste sweet - like a nice baked potato has a sweet flavor as we chew it. Our saliva contains an enzyme that starts digesting carbohydrates in our mouth, turning them into sugar. Sugar is what makes us go, but we have to again consider the baggage. We could eat a toaster tart and know exactly the amount of sugar and carbohydrates in it, but a piece of whole grain bread and sweetened jam could be equal in sugar and carbohydrates, but have a better mix of baggage.

Okay, so what do we mean by baggage? And what about protein? We'll get to protein in a minute.

Baggage are the components that come with one of the three sources of energy we use - fats, carbohydrates, and protein. It's those good things like vitamins, minerals, and fiber, but it's also chemicals, altered ingredients, artificial ingredients, and empty energy - what we generally hear referred to as empty calories. Just as an example, let's have breakfast. Subject A is going to have the usual store mix pancakes with syrup and a bit of margarine. The pancakes are going to be based on white flour, flour that has been stripped of all nutritional value, only to have some of it added back in a form that is questionably absorbed by the body. The syrup will be high fructose corn syrup, with colorings, flavorings, and a preservative. The margarine is all vegetable, but it's been processed so that it's solid at room temperature, thus transforming some "good" fats into "bad" fats. Subject B, however, is going to eat whole grain pancakes, also from an easy to use mix. Instead of table syrup, he's going to use maple syrup. And instead of margarine, he's going to use butter. He's going to get the full value of the whole grains, including vitamins, minerals, and fiber. He's going to enjoy the maple syrup with fewer calories because he's going to use less - it's sweeter and more flavorful than most commercial syrups. And he's going to get all the benefits of using natural butter, with none of the baggage of margarine. And since butter has a nicer flavor, he's hopefully going to use a little less of that, too.

Low carbohydrate diets encourage the use of protein and fats, and severely limit the amount of carbohydrates eaten. The supposition is that the absence of carbohydrates will help the body regulate blood sugar levels and thus suppress appetite. Then there are the GI, glycine index, diets, that separate foods into "good" carbohydrate foods and "bad" foods. But the problem with that is that M&M's have a lower GI index than do carrots. Which is better for you?

Protein is the last thing that gets turned into fat in our bodies. But most Americans, and many other cultures, eat far more protein than their body could possibly use. Most Americans eat animal protein at every meal. And this protein is produced at the expense of land and water that could be more productively used in producing crops. In addition, the raising of these food animals creates huge amounts of waste that causes an excess of pollution.

The beginning and end of the diet fad in our culture is that many of us are using food for our own personal issues- to satisfy unfulfilled needs- instead of what is it made for: to fuel our bodies. There is nothing wrong with making food an occasion, a time with family and friends. But there is a problem when we make food a psychological placebo for the ills of our society.