ABC Radio National

First Bite





Date/Time 23 Aug 2014 6:26:56pm
I live near the Tohono o'odham Indian Reservation in Arizona that the Japanese commenter is referring to. The interesting thing is that they became very fat in the 1800s when forced onto reservations and denied access to traditional hunting and farming areas. This was despite living in poverty with a life of hard physical labour. So nothing to do with fast food or laziness back then. Gary Taubes who believes that sugar and carbohydrates primarily drive obesity describes the history of this tribe. He suspects that like many hunter gatherers, they were particularly genetically predisposed to get fat on a high sugar/carbohydrate diet. I know after I gave up eating sugar and significantly limited carbohydrates that I lost weight and had more energy and desire to exercise. It is surprising how little I need to eat now that my natural hunger control has returned. I urge people to read Gary Taubes 'Good Calories: Bad Calories' for a thorough review of the science of obesity. He is a very respected US science writer and spent 6 years researching this very influential book.
