So following up on last year’s post about the population’s mysterious and abrupt weight gain beginning in 1978, plus or minus a year or two, and leveling off in 1997, plus or minus a year or two. The chart looks something like this:
The question is, of course… why? Researchers, health professionals, statisticians, nosy relatives– they all want to know the answer.
So let’s make a few wild assumptions.
Given the abrupt onset of the situation and that curious and equally sudden levelling off, a genetic culprit would seem to be ruled out; evolution takes longer than 20 years. The pattern suggests some kind of environmental trigger, something that phased in beginning in the late 70s and reached some maximum saturation point in the late 90s, then remained stable after that.
So, what else happened around the same time period that could be related? A few of the usual (and occasionally counter-intuitive) possibilities are:
Antibiotics
High fructose corn syrup
Artificial sweeteners
BPAs
Birth-control hormones
Increase in fat consumption
Reduction in overall activity (possibly linked to computer use)
Something that children ingested starting around 1960, triggered at puberty 20 years later
Grain consumption
Lack of sleep
Increased salt intake
Increased consumption of restaurant meals and fast food
Reduced tobacco consumption
Microwave oven ownership
An interesting hodge-podge of items, but they seem to fall naturally into a few discrete groups. The next few posts will explore a few of them.