Theory

My theory based on the empirical evidence over the past 2 centuries presented by Gary Taubes and the basic theory of evolutionary diet is that people are currently taking a backwards approach to nutrition. Major fault lies in organizations like the Department of Agriculture and the American Medical Association for disseminating bad science like the cholesterol-heart hypothesis and the food pyramid as common knowledge and labeling Banting style diets as unhealthy fads. Through the spread of inaccurate assumptions, Americans have been lead to believe that people are obese because they eat too much, ignoring the human body's ability to regulate body fat that 10,000 years of evolution has developed. To solve the obesity epidemic, the American diet needs to change. As I will discuss in a later post, the evidence with which the current American diet is based off of is fundamentally wrong. If anything, the food pyramid is more similar to an unhealthy fad than the Banting diet. In order for America to see a decrease in obesity, first and foremost, accurate information needs to be spread. This includes preventative measures taken by doctors to ensure their patients know the implications of eating unhealthily and how to eat more sensibly. Second of all, since people acquire their eating habits as children, primary school lunches should not include anything unhealthy. Its obvious that given the choice, most little kids will eat chicken nuggets over a serving of vegetables and meat. Taking away the unhealthy option is the only way to teach kids how to eat responsibly. Lastly, The Department of Agriculture should remove its food pyramid. It is wrong for a non health organization whose sole purpose is to regulate the production and sale of food to tell Americans what they should be eating. Nutritional guidelines should be established by a more responsible organization whose revenue is not based off of citizen's consumption habits.
These three recommendations are hopefully a step in the right direction because they identify how to fix the problem and how to stop it at its source. If they were implemented they would help halt the obesity epidemic.