Summary
A new Lancet study reveals nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, a sharp rise from just over half in 1990.
Obesity among adults doubled to over 40%, while rates among girls and women aged 15–24 nearly tripled to 29%.
The study highlights significant health risks, including diabetes, heart disease, and shortened life expectancy, alongside projected medical costs of up to $9.1 trillion over the next decade.
Experts stress obesity’s complex causes—genetic, environmental, and social—and call for structural reforms like food subsidies, taxes on sugary drinks, and expanded treatment access.
Not an expert but I think ultra processed food has two main aspects, one is additives and preservatives. And the other is our body doesn’t need to process it as much to digest it. If you eta rice/bread your body has to break that carbohydrates into glucose which takes energy. Now if you directly take suger/glucose then eating the same calories would be a lot more plus calories since your body doesn’t need to work hard to process it. Furthermore it has more pure calories per same weight, so you end up consuming more to feel full compared to eating something not as calories dense.
“Body doesn’t work as hard to process it”, would this in theory mean that more tender foods would be less work to break down, so a crock pot would actually be a poor method to cook your food long term?
Again I’m not an expert on this. But the problem is think comes from sharp change in the type of food within few generations. Since we have started cooking food more and more we have gotten weaker jaw and bad teeth with results. But something that happened over a long time, vs something that happened within last 100 years has a different health impact.
Nope I’m going to call you the expert that told me that all foods slow cooker are now worse for me. Kidding. But thanks for the thought, someday maybe I’ll look more into whether breaking down food so they are easier to eat and having weaker jaws would be bad long term. I would have figured not having hard foods would be better for your teeth though, maybe it is worse for your gums not needing to be as sturdy over time? Thoughts for food I suppose.
Like with most things in life, variety is the key. Everything in moderation. Eat fruits, vegetables like carrots, celery, etc (raw). Chewing action has benefits. Sometimes cook things till they’re really soft, sometimes enjoy a bit of chewy meat. If you have variety in your habits it should be ok.