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EventsCoca Cola-loving Mexico now most obese nation on Earth
According to new statistics Mexico is now the most obese major nation on the planet. A few minor island-nations are even worse off, but among bigger countries Mexico now takes the title from the USA.
CBS: Mexico takes title of “most obese” from America
So why did Mexicans get this obese? Perhaps by eating too much junk food (full of processed carbs) and drinking too much soda?
Mexicans drink more Coca Cola than any other nationality, 225 litres (60 gallons) per person per year! Coca Cola is said to be “an essential part of the Mexican people’s diet and can be found even where there is no drinking water” (source).
But surely using Coca Cola instead of drinking water couldn’t possibly have made all these Mexicans obese? After all, Coca Cola is part of the solution to the obesity epidemic. Their commercials say so all the time and they even educate dietitians about it.
No, the problem has to be something else.
So why do people drink this stuff in massive quantities? Could it be that it is actually sold cheaper than water? Is it for taste (food reward theory), or is it the sugar rush (insulin roller-coaster theory)? Is it a false belief that it is good for them, a false belief that has been implanted into their minds at a very young age? Or is it peer pressure, or is it the remnants of childhood "copy what your parents do" behaviour?
I must admit that I drank a lot of coke-like fluids in my younger years, but I actually don't remember why. It certainly couldn't have been thirst, because sugary sodas don't really quench thirst that effectively. I think I drank it at home simply because it was there, sitting in the fridge waiting for me. I also don't really remember buying a crate of coke myself, so I guess it wasn't an addiction, but simply convenience and habit.
Later on I switched to diluted fruit juices, as I didn't want the sugar-rush but the taste. Now it's just tap-water, tea and coffee. Again I don't really know why I made that switch. I guess I just don't see the point of drinking anything else. Can you grow out of drinking soda? Or was it a change in environment... I do remember that back then my parents reduced their consumption of sodas considerably.
What do you think?
I'm Hispanic and lived most my life in the US border with Mexico and have seen this all my life. I believe this article is true in the larger cities where fast foods are available. In rural cities Mexicans are very poor and walk everywhere and are thin. This article maybe more about people in large cities where processed foods are available.
Do not get me wrong Martah, I do agree with Your observations, but it might be that in rural Mexico less soda consumption plays part in people being thin.
The problem in Mexico is most likely a combination of processed foods,over consumption of corn,beans and rice as well as the availability of sugar laden drinks and drinks that the body breaks down into sugar such as beer and other alcohols.
Here's an article on Coke marketing in rural Mexico: http://english.periodismohumano.com/2013/03/05/the-coca-colization-of...
Now the big Q is, why the C.C. company doesn't just sell more water. They should make money if they sold pure water for the same price as coke (which they shouldn't, it should be cheaper).
Maybe the C.C. company has heavily invested in HFCS / sugar production and plantations as well.
But let's not just blame the soda companies. Not providing access to safe & cheap drinking water is a massive failure of infrastructure. Apparently the Mexican state / government has different priorities than the well-being of all of their citizens.
The reason Mexicans are getting fatter simple. They have more money these days and can afford more Coke (and other junk food). It's an occasional treat for the poor, but becomes a regular diet for the middle class and wealthy.
At least these days one can find a sugar free diet coke just about anywhere they sell regular coke. I remember trying to find diet coke in Latin America twenty years ago. Good luck with that...
I mean, it's just water, tons of sugar, some brown food colouring, maybe lemon juice, phosphoric acid, caffeine, and other flavours.
I can at least comprehend that once you get richer you spend more money on 'luxury' items, hopefully better food, shoes, clothing..., fancy smart-phones, cars, travel...
BUT COKE????
Does drinking coke, or carrying a bottle of coke with you and drinking in public give you a bigger ego? As we've heard it is pretty cheap stuff in Mexico.
I just don't get it.
But once people get even more money and better educated they start to recognize that sugar sodas, like cigarettes, are short term feel good products that are bad for you in the long run.
By the way, I can drink tap water safely form my house and will not get Moctezuma´s revenge. Maybe some tourists have a very sensitive and weak stomach.
You might want to read a site a bit before
jumping in with comments.
Also, paragraphs might make your info
more readable.
...and take a breath and count to
10 before you post.
Robert Lustig, MD — Sugar: No Ordinary Commodity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sVlJEhnRu4
And what´s your point about me reading a bit more about a site before I jump in with comments??
are just a wall of words?
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"I left CW for PB (primal blue print) relieved that I never had to eat dry toast without butter or the sawdust known as a boneless skinless chicken breast again. Butter, bacon and red meat were back on the list. Of course from that I learned to fear grains and legumes and heating olive oil beyond room temperature.
But, I've been reading the forums and so now I know that I have to fear:
fruit and tubers (because I have to keep my carbs below 20)
nightshades (I'm a little unclear as to why but I may or may not have an autoimmune disease)
eggs (depression)
nuts (they are poisonous I tell you, POISONOUS)
dairy (oh bye bye butter)
coffee
salt
bacon (wait...I just got you back!)
eating in a window larger than 4 hours a day (I did read on the forum that EVERYONE should limit their eating to a 4-6 hour window)
So I settled down to my big ass salad (minus the carrots, peppers, tomatoes and flavor) with a 3 lb steak on top and continued to read.
Oh shit, avocados are too high in omega 6 so despite the fact that coconut oil makes me sick, I tried to pour coconut oil on my big ass salad. It formed an interesting waxy coating and made me feel like I was eating suntan lotion, but all in the name of health.
But then I started considering my meat. I mean whole foods SAID it was grass fed, but how do I know? I didnt see the cow's home. I decided I was best off learning to hunt.
After some trial and error and brushes with the licensing laws of various type of hunting implements I settled down to my salad with venison and suntan lotion
And then I thought. I had to turn down my place in the CSA run by my best friend because now the only veggies I could eat were lettuce, spinach, zucchini and cucumbers - everything else was either a nightshade, a grain, a legume or a tuber or a high carb winter squash. But while hanging out on her farm I heard her talk about her deer problems. See, the wild deer were wandering on to the farms and eating produce. And perhaps not just veggies. Wheat, oats and corn were being damaged as well. Maybe by deer.
Oh shit....what if the deer I shot had wandered into a field somewhere and eaten some wheat? One mouthful of wheat would render the omega3: omega6 balance useless! Best to stick with fish on my salad. BUT who knows what the HELL is in that store bought so called wild fish. Probably just farm raised toxic omega 3 free fish.
So I bought a boat and some fishing gear (boy they werent kidding when they said PB was expensive) I caught some tuna but had to throw it back because of the mercury. And the toxic waste in the Columbia river made me leary of the salmon and trout I caught. Sardines. Sardines are tiny little fish so they dont have much time to absorb toxins. But by then I was told it was the wrong season to fish for sardines myself. And the fact that I was out of vacation time to travel to the ocean. So I set out to buy some canned sardines.
But then I read about BPA lining in canned foods and decided that wasnt safe. Who needs all those estrogen precursors.
So...in true grok fashion I decided the only truly safe form of protein were the insects. Harder to catch in suburbia than you might think. At least I have my many hours of low level exercise down. (which was a relief because 2 weeks ago on one of my runs my HR slipped up to 76% and I have been afraid to run ever since)
But then I realized the grubs were mostly feeding on grass roots and other pesticide laden things in suburbia.
Damn.
So as I sit down to my lettuce, zucchini, cucumber and suntan lotion salad, I now under stand why some folks find it easy to eat only once a day. My hair is falling out but that's ok because then I wont need shampoo."
Hahahahaha it made me laugh so much.
I just learn a little bit of everything and everybody. This way I make informed and smart choices so I can have balance and health in my life. What works for me, may not work for somebody else. Everybody should listen to their inner voice and be tuned in with their body, mind and soul.
I hope my paragraphs are ok now :)
The bottom line is that each of these commentators has valuable insights to offer based on experience. But one always has to exercise critical thinking to discern what is valuable insight from experience, what is just plausible conjecture and how much of it is applicable to oneself. The basic principles of metabolics are the same for everyone, but there is a lot of variation and a lot of unknown factors still. In the Fine study on LCHF treatment for terminal cancer patients, on the same diet some achieved ketosis and lower blood sugar (and remission of cancer), others did not achieve ketosis (and their cancer progressed). This illustrates that no single dietary prescription will work the same for everyone. Frustrating, yes, but reality is reality.
Murray, great post. I agree with you all the way. What works for you may not work for me. My sensitivities are quite different to yours and so I have to figure out what works for me and not follow anyone else blindly. I recently found out that avocados causes my sugar levels to go through the roof (not a good idea when you're a T2 diabetic). So they're nog a healthy food for me.
We come to this way of eating with the idea we should be eating freely from God's bounty of whole foods and end up balancing the percentages of fat to protein with lab intensive accuracy while choking down 2Tbls of coconut oil with our fistful of supplements. Geez, let's make a fetish of what we eat...like the vegans.
Except the taste.
Even your bottled mineral water taste weird.
I wish that everyone could taste proper water, like the one from melting glaciers that you can drink straight from the stream :)
I find the chlorine taste overwhelming here in Toronto. Even our dog much prefers puddle water (on streets, in grass, in muck, with green slime on top) to tap water. He even laps mud slurry when we go through forest hills and its relatively dry. My wife often remarks, how can he drink like that and not get sick? Better than the alternative, according to my dog. One neat trick he does in the early morning is to run over a grass field with his head on the ground tilted, tongue lolling, so he licks up dew from the grass. Very funny to watch.
Coke may be bad, but I sure do have a bad Coke Zero (no sugar) habit. And a bad Pepsi White (no caffeine, no sugar) habit.
Oh and I'm always in deep ketosis above 2 mmol.
So whatever.
Not saying it's a good thing, but it's not an insanely high statistic. Anyone else ever have 4+ cans in an evening?
I have been on Atkins for sixteen years now and know that soft drinks are one of the hardest things to give up! Even a diet COKE greatly increases my cravings for carbs.
Keep up the great work.
Mike Scott
In the United States 39grams of HFSC
In european countries as much as 28grams to as little as 12 grams of sugar permited by law
Japan is 11.5grams of sugar
so you see where i am going with this
Coca Cola does not need to contain loads of sugar to be one of the most delicious beverage inthe world
You're obviously still controlled by your sugar addiction.