A study has revealed that the average woman’s waistline has expanded by six inches since the 1950s. As a sizeable chunk battles obesity, the food industry has found a way to make its profits by filling our lives with processed low-fat foods. But do they really work? We find the truth.
In a country where 48 per cent of children are malnourished, there’s also a large urban population dealing with obesity and the many lifestyle diseases it brings along. This rise in obesity has been largely attributed to nutritional transition—a concept first presented in 1993 by Barry Popkin, an obesity researcher in the US. This concept primarily refers to changes in diet in the Western world—from high-fibre diets to those based on processed foods containing more fat and sugar. We’ve seen a similar transition in India over the last couple of decades.
HOW WE GOT FAT
So how did we get here? We haven’t changed genetically, but our environment and accessibility to food has. We are constantly bombarded with visuals tempting us to consume more. As humans, it is normal to give in. I know someone who travelled halfway across town to buy the new Magnum ice cream simply because she couldn’t find it in a store in her own area. Her explanation: ‘It was everywhere. Hoardings, bus-stops, newspapers. I had to get my hands on one.’
What happened in America over 40 years ago has had a profound impact on how the world eats today. In the early ’70s, under the US President Richard Nixon’s administration, the country faced a crisis brought on by the Vietnam war. But Nixon had a bigger problem to fight closer home—the rising food prices and protesting housewives. With an impending election and in an effort to combat this, he appointed Earl Butz as the Secretary of Agriculture. Earl not only changed America’s landscape, but also the way we eat now. He had a vision to change small farms to mass production ones, manufacturing cheap food on a scale people couldn’t imagine before. This surge in manufacturing ultimately resulted in a surge in obesity. His idea was for farmers to grow more corn than ever before. This led to a huge surplus that was then used to produce an industrial sweetener, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Cheaper than sugar, HFCS was pumped into popular aerated drinks, which, in turn, pumped empty calories into people’s system.
On the other hand, the obsession with avoiding fats began in the 1970s, when then US senator George McGovern began investigating the link between diet and disease. Concerned that eight US Senators had succumbed to heart disease, he and his colleagues sought the advice of Nathan Pritikin, nutritionist and longevity pioneer. Nathan was famed for his belief that by following a low-fat, high-carb diet, you could reverse heart disease. Result: America’s first dietary guidelines was established emphasising the dangers of fats.
THE LOW-FAT FLUX
The food industry turned the attack on unhealthy food into a business by introducing low-fat food. But researchers found that food without the fat tastes like cardboard. Kayalmozhi Maran, Chennai-based nutritionist says, “There’s a reason why fat-rich foods are delicious. The fat in them makes them taste good, it lingers in the mouth making you savour every bite, as it doesn’t mix with water. You’ll see this when you wash meat, the fat always floats.” In order to work around this, the industry took the fat out, and, instead, replaced it with sugar. Kayalmozhi points out, “Skimmed milk by itself tastes awful, but when you add flavourings like chocolate or vanilla, it gets polished off within seconds.” So, even though you may be filling your shopping carts with guilt-free, low-fat foods, a whole lot of hidden sugar is getting a free ride.
OUT WITH THE FAT, IN WITH THE SUGAR
Canned juices, energy bars and aerated drinks, among a host of other processed foods, are peddled as healthy options when they are actually high in sugar. They are loaded with either HFCS or sucrose—the former is sweeter. Ultimately, this sugar gets converted into fat. When you overload the liver with sugar, it causes fat to accumulate in and around it. This can lead to diabetes and other chronic illnesses.
While you’re eating, leptin (a hunger hormone) is released from your fat cells signalling to your brain that you’ve had enough and don’t really need a second helping. But too much sugar confuses and dulls this signal. New York Times journalist Michael Moss conducted a spine-chilling investigation of the junk food industry in his 2013 book Salt Sugar Fat: How The Food Giants Hooked Us. In this, he says, sugar with its ‘high-speed, blunt assault on our brains’, is the ‘methamphetamine of processed food ingredients’. Scientists working on the formulation have one overriding feat—to establish the ‘bliss point’, which is the precise amount of sugar, fat or salt guaranteed to send consumers over the moon. A high-sugar diet can be particularly damaging for women, causing heart disease, metabolic disorders, insulin resistance, and can cause weight gain and related hormonal disorders like PCOD. Medical researchers believe nearly 7 crore people— half of them women—in a population of 121 crore, have diabetes in India, and the number is predicted to rise to 10.1 crore by 2030, if precautions are not taken early on.
THE TRANS-FATS CURSE
While the world witnessed a boom in low-fat products in the ’80s, the trend has caught on in India only in the last few years. In a bid to reduce the amount of saturated fats, people started cutting back on full-fat dairy products and red meat. “The food industry then started replacing animal fats with unsaturated vegetable oils,” explains Sujatha Ramachandran, Bangalore-based nutritionist and food guru. “Some of the changes they had to make included altering the structure of the vegetable oil, so it could be used in place of solid fats, and this is done through hydrogenation.” This was bad news, considering hydrogenated vegetable oils increased the levels of dangerous trans-fats.
THE GOOD FATS
Fats do more than just supply calories. Certain fats, like those found in nuts, seeds and cod liver oils, provide essential fatty acids (including omega-3). These good fats are important to maintaining healthy blood vessels, ensuring hormonal balance, regular functioning of our nervous system and healthy skin and hair. The fats in our diet also help us absorb certain vitamins, the fat-soluble ones, that include A, D, E and K. “Following a very low-fat diet can cause deficiency of these vitamins, which, in turn, can impact immunity and even affect bone health,” cautions Sujatha.
HEDONIC HUNGER
As the growing prevalence of global obesity suggests, an increasing proportion of food consumption seems to be driven by pleasure, not just by the need to fuel up. People are prompted by food-related cues, like the sight or smell or talking, reading or thinking about food. Social media, too, has contributed in the way people constantly share images and details of a good meal they’ve had with friends or family.
THE GOOD AND THE UGLY GOOD FOR YOU
LENTILS AND LEGUMES: You get protein, fibre and complex carbohydrates that do not cause your blood sugar to swing. The dark ones are also loaded with iron.
YOGHURT: Protein, fat, good carbs, and, most importantly, good bacteria for a healthy gut.
NUTS: Peanuts, walnuts and almonds are healthy for daily consumption (only a fistful) and are the ideal source for Omega-3 fatty acids.
OILS: Sunflower, canola and olive oils don't harm your body. Coconut oil when used in moderation is a better choice than hydrogenated vegetable oils or animal fat.
GRAINS: Whole wheat and millets are great. White rice in moderation is not going to kill you, but non-polished brown rice is a far healthier choice.
NOT GOOD FOR YOU STREET FOOD: We love it, but most of it is cooked in hydrogenated vegetable oil loaded with trans-fats. What’s worse is they reuse the same oil, rendering it carcinogenic.
ENERGY BARS AND CEREALS: Read labels carefully. Most of these come loaded with sugar.
CANNED AND PROCESSED FOODS: Cakes, cookies, soup mixes, ready to-eat mixes, noodles and spreads containing margarine have a substantial amount of trans-fat.
FRIED AND HIGH-FAT SWEETS: This covers most Indian mithais made with khoya,hydrogenated oils and a whole lotta sugar.
SALAD DRESSING: Think low fat salad dressings are good? They almost always come with added sugar. Instead, ask for mustard or vinaigrette dressing.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Head to a multiplex and you won’t find ‘small’ popcorn. However, you can easily upgrade to a family tub for just a few rupees more. This concept of supersizing was first introduced at a cinema in Chicago, US, in 1967 when David Wallerstein was asked to boost the sales of popcorn and soda. He was then taken on board of McDonald’s, which rolled out its first large fries in 1972.
- Denmark became the first country to ban trans-fats. New York followed suit by banning the use of trans-fat in restaurants in 2006. In India, there are no regulations to curtail the use of trans-fats. Also, for the lack of adequate regulations, ingredients are often not listed on the packaging of the growing ready-to-eat segment.