The Obesity Epidemic: What Caused It? How Can We Stop It?

by Zoe Harcombe

It seems far more plausible that carbohydrate consumption, especially processed carbohydrate, is a root cause of overweight and insulin resistance and other serious metabolic consequences, rather than sloth. Human beings have as naturally evolved to avoid expending energy as they have evolved to gathering energy. I do believe that inactivity plays a part in the vicious cycle, but not that it is the root cause. The ‘but for’ test for me comes down to modern processed food. This is the thing that has changed so dramatically during the time of the emergence of the obesity epidemic. Inactivity is a consequence of our current poor nutrition providing no useful energy for the mitochondria and a consequence of the overweight being less able to move and that’s the downwards spiral.