Obesity rates have tripled since 1980, particularly fast in children. Now, we thought it would be fun to look at some graphs with historical evidence or study results that illustrate some of the main reasons why we're getting fatter. Make sure you stick around for the last graph, which is my favorite, and I'm sure that you haven't seen it before.
Crazy Graphs That Show Why People Get Fat
Why People Get Fat?
- Number One: People are eating more junk food than ever.
In this graph, you see how the US population changed its eating habits in the past 120 to 130 years. Now, at the turn of the 20th century, over 90% of meals were simple home-cooked meals. By around 2009, about half of what people ate was fast food or other foods away from home. This graph actually underestimates the true change because a lot of what people are eating at home these days is junk compared to what they would've had at home in the year 1900. So This is why you get Fat.
- Number Tow: People don't burn as many calories when working.
Many blame obesity on decreases in physical activity, that we're just burning fewer calories than we used to. And although leisure time physical activity like exercise has increased, it's also true that people now have jobs that are less physically-demanding. This graph shows how people are now burning 100 fewer calories per day in their jobs, which may contribute to weight gain over time. I think what's missing is the change in average number of calories consumed while at work, which I'm sure would show the opposite of this. So, it would be a line that's actually increasing as the years pass. So, it's really a combination of sitting more at the work desk and then having the opportunity to eat and drink more calories throughout the day. So This is why you get Fat.
- Number Three: Carbs increased, while fat consumption never declined.
People love to argue about the causes of obesity. Was it sugar, carbs, fat, or something else? Now, ultimately, it was a combination of everything. This graph shows how many calories each nutrient contributed to the average person's total calorie intake each day. You can see the calories we got from protein remained quite constant for the entire 90 years of this data, only increasing by 10%. Now, carbs, which includes sugar, decreased a lot before bouncing back up, but fat consumption increased steadily and it never wavered, up by more than 30%. This data about fat consumption is particularly interesting because people love to point to the introduction of the low-fat guidelines in the 1970s and low-fat diets as the cause of obesity. But, of course, now we know that fat consumption never actually decreased. All that happened here was that people began eating more carbohydrate-rich foods, thinking they had replaced high-fat foods, but never actually reduced their fat consumption. You can see the spike in carb intake from the 1970s onwards, so people never actually went low-fat. So This is why you get Fat.
- Number Four: Increased calorie intake overall.
The fact that people ate more carbs without cutting fat explains why calorie consumption has increased dramatically and consistently over the past few decades. People are eating more fat, more carbs, and slightly more protein. It works out to be an average of 360 additional calories per day, per person, compared to 1960. You can see that the increased calorie consumption closely correlates with the rise in obesity rates. This is because, ultimately, that rise comes down to more calories in and less calories out. So This is why you get Fat.
Now, at the start of the video, I mentioned to you that my favorite graph was the last one, but that wasn't it. I actually wanna show you the latest trends in obesity. After decades of increasing, the national childhood obesity rates have leveled off. You can see it here that in the US, childhood obesity rates have remained stable for about the past decade at around 17%. Since 1980, childhood obesity rates have more than doubled from 7%, but at least it has plateaued in the last decade, which suggests we are making some progress. Of course, there's still a long way to go, but we have access to more information and data than ever before, so I really hope that it's set us up on the right path.
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