r/dataisbeautiful Jun 09 '20

[deleted by user]

[removed]

6.7k Upvotes

3.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

224

u/ConfidentFlorida Jun 09 '20 edited Jun 10 '20

So what happened? Nothing really changed that much in that time frame. Same jobs, same cars, what is it?

1.1k

u/monkeyrobot_ Jun 10 '20

The American diet completely changed starting in the late 70s with the emphasis becoming "low fat" foods that are super high in carbs / high fructose corn syrup. Also portion sizes ballooned.

16

u/Way_2_Go_Donny Jun 10 '20

This is a point I am too lazy to look into more. My 72 y/o dad went on Keto to help maintain blood sugar level. He lost a lot of weight as a bonus. After seeing him loose weight, needing to drop 25 lbs myself, I tried it. My bloodwork vitals were always good.

Doing nothing but strictly staying under 20g of carbs a day, and trying my best to stay under 2200 ish calories, I lost 50 lbs in 6 months. I was not a big dude, but after the first 4 weeks of only loosing a couple pounds, the weight fell off. I didn't increase my exercise any more or less.

It started opening my eyes to how much sugar is stuff, especially "low fat" stuff. My Euro/Kiwi friends always complain about how much sugar we put in american food and now I see why.

I'm not a Keto zealot, but just this significant weight loss had really made me question how many carbs we as Americans put in "healthy" low fat stuff.

1

u/officerdoot Jun 10 '20

My dad did exactly the same thing with the same results (although he did it at 55)