Re: Does a faithful lifestyle make you fat?
Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 11:49 am
I think it's the carbs that make LDS fat (there are a lot of LDS who are not fat, though). Every ward dinner is loaded with starches and sugars. It's nearly impossible to have your kid go to primary (and even YM/YW sometimes) without having them plied with candy. The only ward dinners I've gone to that have healthy food are those where some family or other decided they were going to bring their own salad (good salad, not bits of lettuce thrown together with a token tomato in it).
I also think there's something to that idea that LDS are, in general, too poor to eat the healthy foods. Processed, sugary, high carb foods are a lot cheaper to buy. Also, there is the idea that they may not have much time, so grabbing something quick and easy might be part of the problem.
From all that I have researched, the ideal diet seems to be high in fat (naturally saturated like coconut oil and animal fats), medium amount of protein, and low in carbs. The U.S., at least (I don't know about other countries), seems to eat low fat, super high carbs, and protein can run the gamut (but it's usually expensive so may not be eaten much, except at ward dinners). Insulin takes carbs and stores them as fat. I just finished a book called "Good Calories, Bad Calories". It is a large book and is stuffed full of scientific studies, as well as observations (from doctors with obese patients) from the 1800s on til now that plainly show that carbs matter more than calories, and that a low fat diet is pretty much guaranteed to make one fat.
I also think there's something to that idea that LDS are, in general, too poor to eat the healthy foods. Processed, sugary, high carb foods are a lot cheaper to buy. Also, there is the idea that they may not have much time, so grabbing something quick and easy might be part of the problem.
From all that I have researched, the ideal diet seems to be high in fat (naturally saturated like coconut oil and animal fats), medium amount of protein, and low in carbs. The U.S., at least (I don't know about other countries), seems to eat low fat, super high carbs, and protein can run the gamut (but it's usually expensive so may not be eaten much, except at ward dinners). Insulin takes carbs and stores them as fat. I just finished a book called "Good Calories, Bad Calories". It is a large book and is stuffed full of scientific studies, as well as observations (from doctors with obese patients) from the 1800s on til now that plainly show that carbs matter more than calories, and that a low fat diet is pretty much guaranteed to make one fat.