One big question I have about the obesity epidemic is why did it start to trend upward in the 1970s. Here is a table that I've put up from a previous post (click to enlarge):
It shows the different levels of food in 1970 compared to 1997. What's striking is that even back then, there was large amounts of sugar being consumed. For example, people consumed 122 pounds of flour and 122.4 pounds of sugar in 1970. Wouldn't this be enough to cause the metabolic syndrome and make people overweight/obese? The only difference in 1997 is that the amounts are larger. Looking at it in this way, you would have to say that there is some type of threshold effect, such that when the total amount of flour/sugar passed some level, that overweight/obesity was produced in large amounts.
I have my doubts about this theory. In Paleolithic times, people consumed virtually no flour and sugar. Yet in 1970, they consumed nearly 250 pounds of flour and sugar and this didn't lead to overweight and obesity? This seems curious to me. Yet here's a picture of people in 1970 (or at least 1969 at Woodstock):
So the question is, why didn't the 250 pounds of flour and sugar being consumed in 1970 lead to the majority of people being overweight?
