So why are Americans getting heavier

The weight tables keep coming out. More diet books keep getting published. New drugs (herbal and otherwise) keep coming on the market. And we are only getting heavier. What’s going on?

Does it come down to calories?

With all the new fat-free cookies and “light” products out there, how did this weight surplus happen? We are now in a culture where food is fast. Many of us eat out more than we eat in. Sweets are all around us. Soda is the number one source of added sugars.

As a nation we have become very aware of low fat diets and because of this we have been eating more fat free and low fat products. What we don’t realize is that in many of these products, sugar is being substituted for the fat with the calories staying pretty much the same. So we have really been trading fat for sugar. If we are of the mindset that we can eat more because it’s fat-free, then we are actually eating more (and getting more calories) with some of the products.

Surveys have shown that we are getting a smaller percentage of our calories from fat than we were 15 to 20 years ago, but that we are eating more calories and more added sugars. We are actually eating 300 more calories a day when you compare data between 1975 and 1995. Not good especially when you factor in that we are less active than we were back then.

Reducing dietary fat alone, without reducing calories, is not going to encourage weight loss. But as you reduce food fat along with reducing carbohydrates, calories will decrease and weight loss will be possible.

If we ate more fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains we would be eating fewer calories per a certain volume of food. This is compared to our higher meats and sweets type of diet. If eating less fat is making us fatter, should we eat more fat to lose weight?

First of all, it is a myth. We aren’t really eating less fat. Although Americans consume fewer “percent calories from fat” the actual number of grams that we take in has increased from 81 to 83 grams a day. This is because we have been eating more calories. So what’s the difference between eating 81 and 83 grams of fat a day, you say?

This comes out to an extra:

• 18 extra fat calories a day.
• 126 extra fat calories a week.
• 540 extra fat calories a month.
• 6,500 extra fat calories a year.