<story><title>Dear American Consumers: Please don’t start eating healthfully</title><url>http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/05/19/dear-american-consumers-please-dont-start-eating-healthfully-sincerely-the-food-industry/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jcampbell1</author><text>I have a solution to the obesity epidemic, that would be realistic to implement.  Right now the factors for what we analyse in nutrition is calories, macro nutrient content, and micronutrient content.   What we really care about is satiation and satiety.  These are words that no one talks about, and but get to the core of the issue.  If I eat this food, how many calories will I consume before feeling full?(satiation).   After eating this food, how long until I feel the need to eat again? (sateity).&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately the research and measurements of these values is thin.  We need to fix that.  We already know things like whole milk better provides satiation and sateity than skim milk, and children that drink whole milk actaully have less obesity than skim milk drinkers.&lt;p&gt;If we just measured and labeled foods with a sateity/satiation index (what we really care about), then people would actually have a chance to pick better foods.  Right now it is damn near impossible to determine if eating eggs and bacon for breakfast is more likely to drive over eating vs cereal.  It can be measured, but we just don&apos;t do it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Dear American Consumers: Please don’t start eating healthfully</title><url>http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/05/19/dear-american-consumers-please-dont-start-eating-healthfully-sincerely-the-food-industry/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>DanielBMarkham</author><text>Interesting.&lt;p&gt;Over the years, this is the third or fourth version of this same story that I&apos;ve read.&lt;p&gt;Read one on low carbs. Read one on low fat. Now this one.&lt;p&gt;The assumption here, as it was in the others, is that we now know what works and what doesn&apos;t. And that forces beyond our control conspire to keep us fat. In this version, the thesis is that some form of certification system for marketing to children can cure the obesity epidemic.&lt;p&gt;Beats me. But I&apos;ll bet twenty bucks that a decade or two from now we&apos;ll be reading the same type of article, only with different kinds of suggested cures.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m of the opinion that there is nothing wrong, or rather that the population is acting entirely naturally and appropriately given their adaptation to specific evolutionary conditions, which have changed drastically in the last 100 years. I doubt controlling marketing material will have a long-lasting effect, but anything is worth a shot. It is a very serious problem.&lt;p&gt;Looking at the recent past, I&apos;d be just a bit more humble about it.</text></comment>