Jacob A new Netflix documentary is here to teach you everything you need to know about how your food choices affect your health. The documentary looks at the rise of knowledge around nutrition and the dietary trends that have come into play over the past half century, including what is now referred to as the “Western Diet”, which has seen our eating habits transform through fast food and convenience-oriented food preparation.
1. Where Did We Get The Idea Of A “Western Diet”?
This all began in the early 1970s when Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger thought it would be a good idea to bomb Cambodia. A group of scientists then at Cornell University happened to be doing some research on the effects of high-fat diets on rats (they were being fed things like butter, bacon, etc.) when they noticed something weird: the rats that had access to fatty food seemed to be getting smaller.
2. Your Body Can’t Use Fat
In an attempt to figure out what the issue was, the scientists conducted a series of tests on the rats and eventually discovered that there was something that prevented their bodies from using fat as an energy source. And this discovery turned out to be very relevant to humans: since the 1960s, we’ve been told by nutrition experts to increase our consumption of fat in order to maintain healthy body weight. This is how it was described by an actual doctor: “Eat more [fat], get thinner. Eat less [fat], get fatter.”
3. Why Fat Gets Stored As Fat (In Humans).
The rats were given a specific protein that is found in almost all animal products, the type of food our beloved government recommends we eat in order to maintain healthy body weight. This protein is called lectin and it attaches its sugar molecules to the cells in your body, making them impermeable and thus preventing nutrients from being absorbed by the cell.
CONCLUSION
So here we have it: the true cause of weight gain. Don’t get too upset at Netflix – they’re not the ones who lead this campaign. But this is how they got to where they are now: it’s a bunch of doctors and scientists who were honest enough to admit they were wrong and humble enough to listen to their critics.
