Skinny Asians and Leaner Pigs

I am constantly fascinated by Twitterers and bloggers, article writers and folks IRL who faithfully regurgitate non-truths and anti-science from the low-fat, high-carb establishment.

I've already had one Tweep storm off in a huff, taking her ball and going home on Twitter because I dared to say that I disagreed with her opinion that overeating causes us to be fat, period, and that furthermore, overeating was a compulsion that we could not control.

(She never explained how I had lost 140lbs if I was labouring under this brain-grip.  I was keen to know.  Thought I had Heroes-like superpowers.)

At any rate, here's two more articles full of bullshit that were Tweeted today:

(NOTE: I do not know these Tweeps, so I do not know what their opinions are on said articles. They may think they're craptacular as well. I'm not saying that they agree, just that these articles might be taken on faith as actual science by the credulous.)

This one, about the Korean rate of obesity being so low is interesting:

"the obesity ratio for Korea was 3.5 percent. Closely trailing Korea at 3.9 percent was Japan, which is the other Asian country in the Western-heavy club. The fact book is based on a survey of people aged 15 or older conducted in 2006 or the latest year available. Switzerland came in third with an overall obesity ratio of 7.7 percent. Norway and Italy came in at 9.0 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively.

Bringing up the rear was the United States which had a chunky ratio of 34.3 percent. Other countries with the highest obesity rates were Mexico (30.0 percent), New Zealand (25.0 percent), Britain (24.0 percent) and Greece (21.9 percent). "

Yow. We're 1/3 fatter than our closest continental European fatties? And Sumo Supersized compared to the asians?  Argh!

But then the article wraps up with this odd statement:

"A Ministry of Strategy and Finance official in charge of dealing with OECD reports said the healthy condition for Koreans and Japanese seems to be due to traditionally vegetarian diets for the Asian countries. "

Eh?  I've always understood the asian cuisine to be mostly veg and meat w/ rice and noodles as a side dish. NOT vegetarian.  In fact, Wikipedia sez of Koren cuisine:

"The consumption of pork and beef increased vastly in Korea in the 1970s. The per-capita consumption of meat was 3.6 kilograms in 1961, which increased to 11 kilograms per person in 1979. The result of this increased meat consumption brought about the increase of bulgogi restaurants which gave the middle class of South Korea the ability to enjoy meat regularly. The consumption of meat rose to 40 kilograms in 1997, while fish consumption was 49.5 kilograms in 1998."

Hmm. Koreans have eaten dog for centuries. I'm pretty sure that's not vegetarian.

Speaking of not vegetarian, here's a smackdown of my fave meat, pork.  It's full of outdated thinking and they start in on the fat-bashing immediately. Wanna bet 89% of the people who read this over breakfast were snarfing a bagel or a bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs?

"whether a meat is red or white isn't the best indication of the type and amount of fat it contains, Brewer says. A serving of chicken from the leg, skin on, contains more saturated fat and about the same amount of cholesterol as the same-sized serving of 95% lean ground beef."

They even invoke the idiotic 'study' about meat=death. *yawn*  You remember that one? Where the meat eaters who died just happened to be the sedentary, overweight, smokers ... but it was that damned red meat whut killed 'em!

Here's an interesting tidbit:

"Pork is leaner today. Several decades ago, the meat industry responded to consumer demand by finding ways to make meat less fatty. The pork industry, in particular, began to breed for leaner pigs. The result, says Ceci Snyder, assistant vice president of the National Pork Board in Des Moines, was that the average pork loin on the market in 1982 was 64% leaner than one in 1970. The fat content of pork has continued to drop -- albeit more slowly -- since then."

So ... wait.

About 40 years ago we all dropped our fat and upped our carbs at the advice of the FDA, and real butter, lard, real cream, etc left our supermarket shelves; all our dairy products became low fat, and we all started nervously watching our fat intake to the point where we demaned they breed leaner livestock?  And at the same time our rates of diabetes and heart disease and obesity began to climb to the percipitous rise they now enjoy?

But fat is bad for us?

As a lolcat would say: ai haz a confoozled