Are snacks the culprits in overweight?
There’s evidence that one of the main reasons people are more overweight these days is that they eat more snacks. I can believe it.
Remember when we were young, and people weren’t supposed to eat between meals? When was the last time you heard that advice? Such practices seem to have gone the way of the dodo.
I also think that extra-meal food is a lot better in general than it used to be, and a lot more available. There are more ethnic treats and vendors, and a lot more variety of all sorts.
It’s like sneakers (or tennis shoes, if you’re from a different part of the country) used to be: just Keds. And Oreos were once just Oreos. But now it’s been pointed out to me—even though I never eat them any more, because of my problem with chocolate—that Oreos and variations on the Oreo theme have commandeered nearly a whole aisle to themselves these days, with a burgeoning multiplicity of Oreo choices.
By the way, when I was a child and loved Oreos, I used to eat them by the time-honored technique of separating the halves (always a risky and delicate moment, sort of like separating an egg), savoring the frosting first, and then either eating the wafers on their own or discarding them (surreptitiously, of course). How about you?
I wonder if most of the weight loss attributed to smoking is actually fewer snacks. A smoke break fills the relaxation requirement without adding to munchies.
(I’m no Bloomberg, Smoke em if you got em!)
Am I really the only one who thinks that Oreos are completely tasteless? I personally can’t abide sweet foods, so a lot of this went over my head. (I don’t like either fruit or chocolate – there, I said it. Liqorice is nice, though.)
But I do wonder if maybe people are too quick to disregard the genetic link to weight. I eat like a trucker and find it impossible to gain weight. The rest of my family is like that as well.
But I know other people who have the opposite metabolism, and it seems to run through families. Yes, the individuals differ in how they react to it. Some work very hard to stay somewhat trim, on one end of the spectrum. Others just don’t try to fight their body at all and are considerably fatter. Then there are the people in between.
I don’t like the way people constantly talk about personal choices on the one hand, and those nefarious food companies on the other hand, while basically ignoring biology.
“And Oreos were once just Oreos. But now it’s been pointed out to me–even though I never eat them any more, because of my problem with chocolate–that Oreos and variations on the Oreo theme have commandeered nearly a whole aisle to themselves these days, with a burgeoning multiplicity of Oreo choices.”
Isn’t capitalism wonderful? 😉
How about me?
I was indoctrinated early in the virtues of delayed gratification; and so when I encountered Oreos, I acted in accordance with that principle:
The first step was the same as neo-neocon’s, but then we diverged. I ate the wafer and then did the same with a second Oreo. The remaining two wafers with attached frosting were then pressed together. If I had two more Oreos, I did the same with them. These two double-frosting Oreos could then be separated, leaving both layers of frosting on one wafer. Once those wafers were eaten, the two wafers with double layers of frosting could be pressed together, giving an Oreo with four layers of frosting.
This is where I usually stopped because four Oreos was usually all I was allowed. But the final Oreo, with four layers of frosting, was delicious and worth the wait.
Best wishes,
Jim
Sure, everybody like to tests themselves to see if they have the skills necessary to separate the two halves of an Oreo without breaking the wafers, but that was never my preferred way of eating Oreos.
I was always a dunker. I enjoyed dunking them in milk. Which also provides the eater with a test.
The trick is to submerge the Oreo long enough that the wafers absorb alot of milk, but not so long that when it is removed from the milk it is so soft and weak that the wet part breaks away from the dry part. Then it falls into milk and you have to fish it out with a spoon. And eating cookies with a spoon just isn’t right.
If you look at school pictures of kids 50 to 75 years ago, you will see very few fat students. There was little money and few snacks. Cookies, cakes, and ice cream were rare treats associated with special events. Meals were prepared at home and vegetables were common. And we walked or rode a bike to get around.
Another vote here for Oreo dunking.
I just popped Oreo’s into my mouth, chewed ’em up. and washed ’em down with cold milk. The time it took for each Oreo was just about equal to the time it took to get the next one outta’ tha’ package (done while chewing the previous one and washing down with cold milk.)
Hersey kisses were designed by the same engineers apparently. Time to unwrap one is equal to the time to chew one up.
I’m shocked, Neo, that you sometimes threw away the wafers.
Re Neo’s opinion about better snacks. Last year I took a big 5,000 mile + road trip. I ate at convenience stores: sandwiches and hot dogs, for the most part. The quality of road food has definitely improved from what it used to be.
After I posted my comment above I visited what may be my all time favorite internet site, Shorpy. Each day, the owner of Shorpy posts about 3-5 vintage photos that he’s taken from the archives of the Library of Congress.
And when I made my daily visit to Shorpy, the first photo for today was taken in 1924 outside of a candy store in Washington, D.C.
Anyway, check out the size of the candy cane the little girl in the doorway is holding. (I think my link will take you to the enlarged version of the photo, but if it doesn’t click the link that says View Full Size).
http://www.shorpy.com/node/10734?size=_original
Like Scott I dunked. Get your ration and savor that sweet softness. Maybe that’s why I became an Oreo in later life.
I am not now nor was I ever a dunker, because I hate milk.
Sweet snacks, in my childhood, were available by permission of a parental unit, except for fruits and vegetables.
Oreos once had a wonderful flavor when coconut oil was a main ingredient, but it was banned as being fattening. Now it’s not fattening and is back in favor, yet not in the old snack foods like Oreos and Twinkies.
Twisting, dunking, and gobbling are just a few of my favorite ways of eating an Oreo cookie.
Last time I was at the supermarket, I couldn’t find the original Triscuits…but there were all the other substandard varieties…had to settle for the roasted garlic. But fortunately, the store was spared when I found good ol’ Cheerios in big-ass boxes.
Okay, so you don’t like milk or coffee and will toss the chocolate cookie, but a gob of shortening and sugar is the bomb? I’m good with that. Ain’t America wonderful–the commies and socialists would never have invented such a thing.
Yes, snacking is the key. Oreos are 160 calories “per serving” (I can’t find out how many cookies in a serving, which makes me think it’s 1). That’s about a tenth of what an adult needs to eat in a day. If you eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast, coffee in midmorning, a sandwich and a Coke for lunch, a couple of oreos in the afternoon . . . you’re actually done for the day. That big dinner is all going to get stored around your waist.
Decades ago we used to race sailboats off Marblehead. The afternoon snack was often Oreos. For some reason, as soon as the package entered the cockpit, some panic ensued – a squall, a snagged spinnaker sheet, always something.
In the subsequent stamping around, the Oreos got the worst of it. I never had to make the choice: it was always smushed Oreos.
As for the original topic, I think it’s the type of snack — usually refined carbs — that causes the problem.
Science journalist Gary Taubes analyzes the science and claims that not only have nutrition recommendations been wrong for 50 years, but that the answer was well-known before then:
Gary Taubes, “Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It”
Plug that into Neo’s link.
The main course is my nemesis….
I wanted to cast another vote for Mr. Frank’s theory about how diets changed. I also want to echo KBK’s endorsement of the Taubes books and other, related work.
I’d also add, though, that other things correspond with those changes, as well, namely: the rise of women working outside the home, and the increasing influence of television. Coincidentally, the last 50 years also corresponds with the rise of fast food restaurants. Television not only helped to popularize many snack foods, but it also enabled the creation of the “TV Dinner,” which has morphed into various sorts of microwavable, prepared foods.
So I’d say that a focus on snack foods is only telling part of the story. The real culprit is an emphasis on convenience and an over-reliance on prepared and convenience foods of many sorts. Not only are most of them filled with sugars, refined carbohydrates, and assorted preservatives and additives, but they implicitly encourage less healthy eating habits.
“Oreos are 160 calories “per serving” (I can’t find out how many cookies in a serving, which makes me think it’s 1).”
Nahhhhh…for me, one serving of Oreo’s is 1 line of ’em in tha’ package. One serving of Hersey’s kisses is a bag.
When it comes to chocolate in any form, I have zero capability to postpone gratification.
That Shorpy picture linked by Scott is fascinating. My favorite part is the women’s shoes — so elegant! The giant candy cane reminds me of an enormous lollipop my grandfather bought me when I was about the size of the child clutching the cane – though it wasn’t quite that long ago not QUITE that long ago. Do they still make those lollipops, about the size of a dessert plate, with the flattened candy swirled outward from the center? I can’t imagine that it tasted very good but wow, I was impressed with the size of it.
Neo, out here in the Midwest we don’t wear sneakers because we don’t sneak around like you Easterners. And we don’t stand on line–we stand in line, and we stand tll.
I was overweight, and sometimes quite so, from about age eight until thirty. I graduated from high school in 1966 and yes, I was one of the few fat kids in the class.
By the way, I am six feet tall and for the last thirty years my weight has been about 160 lbs. and that’s because I found the secret to losing weight and keeping it off: Eat less and move around some.
Was not an Oreos fan so I can’t contribute to this part of the discussion. What I loved were those Hostess chocolate cupcakes with the cream center and little squiggles on the frosting. The preferred way to eat them was so you got a little frosting in every bite.
It’s the potatoes:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/potatoes-bad-nuts-good-for-staying-slim-harvard-study-finds/2011/06/17/AGRWmIgH_print.html
Basically, Atkins is right and the FDA is wrong.
Bob Sykes: Yes, it turns out that Atkins did get a lot right. But Taubes (and like-minded writers) has a more sophisticated and nuanced view than the article that appeared the other day about potatoes. The problem isn’t just potatoes but any sort of carbohydrates that cause your blood sugar to spike. That means not just potatoes, but sugar, white flour, and so on. The Harvard Food Pyramid is a big improvement over the FDA, but it still demonizes red meat and butter while advocating the use of some questionable modern oils (soy, corn, etc). The Paleo Diet is another alternative more in line with both Taubes and Atkins. Personally, I am more inclined to the approach advocated more by Whole Health Source and the Weston A. Price Foundation, though I am far from a zealous follower of that approach, either. Tom Maguire has been writing a lot about Taubes, the Harvard Food Pyramid, and related topics in posts such as this one at his blog.
My link to the Maguire post didn’t embed correctly. Here it is. Here’s another one.
If they had said – There’s evidence that one of the main reasons people are more overweight these days is that they eat more snacks and sit on their ass most of the time, their statement would carry a little more weight.
Over 25 years ago Michel Montignac developed a diet based on foods which don’t raise your blood glucose level, i.e. “low glycemic” food. Meat, fish, eggs, to be sure, but also many vegetables. His diet centered on modern French cuisine and is really very tasty. His books are great.
My wife and I were quite successful with his method about 15 years ago.
If you read Taubes carefully, his point is to not eat things that raise blood glucose, because that provokes an insulin response, and it’s the insulin that causes fat deposition. The science shows that people can get fat even while they’re actually malnourished. That accounts for the surprising amount of obesity in the third world: poor nutrition, mostly flour, rice, and sugar, whcih are cheap and easily provided via foreign aid.
Another popular diet that is low glycemic: South Beach.
“If you read Taubes carefully, his point is to not eat things that raise blood glucose, because that provokes an insulin response, and it’s the insulin that causes fat deposition. The science shows that people can get fat even while they’re actually malnourished.”
Atkins says the same (probably citing the same research, or research based on Taubes’) 🙂
As to snacks, they’re not necessarilly the cause of more people being overweight.
The main problem is that our lifestyle has become a lot more sedentary at the same time access to foods high in processed carbohydrates has become a lot more common.
As a schoolkid I took a bike to school, 12 miles one way, 5 days a week. Add 2-3 hours of mandatory PE a week, and lots of outdoors activities for a kid at home during evenings and weekends.
At the same time, there was little candy, package foods, white flour bread, etc. (though more potatoes than there are now). Drinks consisted mainly of unsweetened tea, water, and low-fat milk.
Now, kids are taken to school in a car and never walk more than from that to the classroom.
They get home and sit in front of a computer or television all evenings and weekends, not being allowed outside because “something may happen” and parents being mortally afraid of “pedophiles that are everywhere”. At the same time there’s a lot more high carb/high sugar foodstuff for them to indulge in. Drinks are coke, 7Up, and Red Bull.