@Nic
I'd like some further clarification on some of the things you said, plus also I've mixed in some of my own opinions and I hope you humour me with reading them.
- The rise of processed food
How is processed food bad? Most food is processed, except raw fruits and vegetables. Even organic stuff, I mean look at anything based on soy, or things like almond milk, etc. Unless this an Americanism I'm unfamiliar with that refers to some sort of specific process.
- The rise of usage of high fructose corn syrup
This breaks down the same way as regular sugar, but if you mean it's bad in the sense that it's much easier to consume way more of it, then I agree with you here.
#3 and #4 about gut flora
I've read a lot that this likely also has a huge influence on why so many people are so damn allergic to everything today, that and not going outside.
- The change in culture to a more sedentary one for most people
People bring up this one a lot, but consider that there were lawyers, bank tellers, accountants, etc who were essentially equally as sedentary way back when as now. The primary difference is, from what I've read, is that people consume about 500 more calories per day on average, but also about 150g - 200g more carbohydrates, i.e. sugar.
- The rise in usage of sugars of all kinds to make food more palatable
What's funny about this is that this usually happens because they remove the fat, because fat is considered bad, so they just put more sugar in it.
7 and 8
This is definitely one, as I've read some that would suggest hydrogenated oils which are promoted as being more healthy can actually inflame the cardiovascular system in similar manner to smoking
- Metabolic syndrome caused by increase in usage of certain plastics and the associated hormonal imbalances
I've not seen much direct hard evidence of this, and usually the hormonal imbalances associated with this and also bovine hormones for milk are more aptly explained by the rise in obesity.
- GMOs
The jury really isn't out on GMOs, they can grow more food, in less space, for cheaper, and they're controlling genes that already exist in the plants (for approved foods, not experimental examples often cited which people aren't even eating), they're also tested for sometimes years before approval, when organic cross breeding has no approval process so the suggested dangers of accidental allergens, etc are more realistically risky in organic farming than GMO farming.
There's a lot of fear mongering about this and it seems to be more related to "natural" is good, even though selective breeding over a long period of time can also create similar results, there just isn't enough time, both from a capitalist perspective and also from a 7+ billion people eating perspective. However, I will say the lack of diversity is an issue, as even the cloned banana sits on the edge of being destroyed by a fungus because they're all the same. Getting rid of gene patenting, I think, would encourage diversity since there'd be no benefit to fitting within a patent.
- The rise in usage of pesticides
There's no choice here either, before modern pesticides even the Netherlands had famines, thank science those days are gone, now they're some of the fattest people in Europe.
- The changes to various staple foods through non-GMO means, such as breeding wheat to have more gluten and other changes
This is another necessary thing, because without it many people would starve, and would have starved if not for these advancements. However, I contend this is more dangerous than GMOs. With GMOs we know what genes we're turning off and on, but with radiation + cross breeding, it's even more shooting in the dark, and could definitely cause allergy problems, especially with how sensative people are now.
- The decrease in consumption of naturally fermented foods, such as sourdough being replaced by fast rising yeast breads
OMFG, I love sourdough bread, I hate that I'm off bread mostly, but when I do eat it, and it's not pizza, it's sourdough. Great, now I can't stop thinking about sourdough.
- Decrease in consumption of fish oils and other healthy oils leading to an imbalance of Omega 3 and Omega 6 levels
Agreed, supplements help, and also they've found ways to get it into eggs, but the problem is that people often consider eggs to be some sort of heart attack pill, but eating wheat bread is fine. If the modern diet was better, I can't imagine even people who "eat healthy" would be so unhealthy, compared to people who used to "eat unhealthy" being healthier than people today. Seems sorta backwards.
- Possible Vitamin D deficiency from less time outside and poor diet
When I was a kid people would come to my school and give us some sort of milk with tons of vitamin D in it. Anyway, I take supplements today, but skin tone has a lot to do with ability to intake Vitamin D.
- Mineral depletion in food from modern farming practices
Ironically things like wheat flour have tons of things added now, especially in the US to make up for what's lost/lacking elsewhere.
That being said, my personal experience is that a combination of exercise, diet, good probiotic practices, and moving to a more whole foods and lower carb eating style can help almost anyone to drop some weight and improve their long term prospects.
I agree with you on lower carb for sure (see my story post above), but suggesting exercise and diet is unclear, especially because exercise to most people means things like running and walking which are very crappy ways to burn calories, instead of lifting weights which works a lot better. Second when it comes to diet, a lot of people consider the food pyramid/plate/whatever to be the best, but that's about 300g of carbs per day, when even for a lot of people 100g is probably too much, and also not enough protein.
