Good news for people who don’t want to spend their lives in the gym in order to burn off the fat – they’re wasting their time. Putting on weight is more to do with what you eat than how much, as researchers have demonstrated this week.
The real cause of weight gain and obesity is the Western diet of processed foods and drinks. To prove the point, researchers from the University of South Carolina compared the lifestyles and health profiles of first-generation and second-generation Mexicans now living in the USA. The second-generation Mexicans – who had adopted the standard American diet of fast and processed foods and sugared drinks – were 2.5 times more likely to be obese than first-generation Mexicans, who were still eating their traditional diet of corn, beans, meat, vegetables and fruits.
The study looked at the lives of 2,300 second-generation Mexicans aged between 12 and 19 years. They had all turned their backs on their traditional diets, and instead were eating processed foods high in saturated fat and sodium, and drinking sweetened beverages.
The results are yet another example to demonstrate that the standard calorie-intake model for weight gain and loss is simplistic.
(Source: Journal of Nutrition, 2012; 142: 298-305).
