I think I've read that book, but it doesn't ring a bell. I've written for nearly 30 years about food and health and the connection between them. That certainly doesn't mean I know it all.
I used to write a column for a Peavey in-house publication about health last century... At least once I got pushback from the company nurse because I pointed out some good effects from consuming alcohol (like increased HDL), I was not very PC but mostly shared health/nutrition news items of interest.
The most important thing that I learned, was not to trust dietitians, the industry and anything the media produced about healthy food.
What? don't trust the science?
For a chuckle look at the food pyramid (thanks Sweden).
The biggest threat to your health, food-wise, isn't salt, fat or anything you'd naturally find in that food, unless you have already some ailment or disease.
The biggest threat is the industry itself.
1- first threat is not enough
2-next threat is too much
An example I like to use, is Heinz Ketchup. At one moment in time, it was an exemplary product. In some ways, it still is. It was exemplary because there were no food additions at all. These days, I fear in most ketchup variations there's added sugar. In most there are stabilisers or other unwanted chemicals added. Not that these make Heinz products into something to avoid, but it isn't progress either.
On the other side of the scale, there are numerous wannabe ketchup makers who'd throw anything into that sauce if it stands a chance of improving profits.
Like sugar? I have been cooking since I was a teen (mom had a full time job so we kids took turns cooking the evening meal). The government has done one thing right with label regulations forcing the food industry to list ingredients. I used to buy commercial tomato sauce as a base to cook with until I studied the label.
Of course we need to be alert to games they play with serving size etc...
You mention Sucralose. Are you aware it can be detrimental to your gut bacteria?
So far my gut biome seems to tolerate it well but I do not consume very much. Sucralose is 600x sweeter than sugar. I was a big fan of cyclamates, banned in 1969 because of the Delaney amendment that bans any food that is found to cause cancer. I don't recall the details but I think the experiment that banned cyclamates used a dose big enough to choke an elephant. Later in the 70s they tried to ban saccharin that is actually more carcinogenic than cyclamates but the public pushed back. Another factor that does not appear in this zero cancer risk calculation is that being overweight promotes cancer (doesn't literally cause it, but energy surplus promotes cancer growth).
Your gut bacteria are the center of your health. They are responsible for your vitamin intake and regulate your happiness and health. And this is different for most folks. While one can eat most anything and still won't get fat, most westerners need to take care because their gut flora is poor. The average African will have between 5 and 10 thousand species in their gut, most westerners only have a few thousand at best.
when I was a kid I'm told that I ate dirt.... I bet my gut flora was pretty diverse back then.
I get a kick out of all these TV commercials for fruit and vegetable pills/capsules...and the truly remarkable claims they make for eating them
I expect that everything we eat (and drink) affects our gut biome, and they are constantly in competition with each other. I will occasionally snack on a clove of raw garlic that I expect favors some and distresses others. I also eat Kefir (fermented milk) that I suspect similar to yogurt, is considered good gut food.
A popular concept is that we live too cleanly. That's only partially true. The main reason our gut biology is poor, is because of unknown, unwanted effects of food additions. The science behind that mechanism is only recently being discovered.
Processed food (crap) is engineered to make us eat more, duh its a business. Salt content is high because apparently humans (and deer) like salt. Since I don't eat any processed foods (I cook everything I eat from scratch), during hot summer months like now if I sweat a lot, I sometimes find myself salt deficient. It starts with cramps in my small fingers but if untreated I can get painful cramps in larger leg muscles later that night... A few grams of table salt in a glass of water usually squares me away. Oddly when I'm salt deficient the salt doesn't taste as salty as normal, but I guess that is just my body trying to get more of something it needs.
Talking about salt... In the Lomborg book talking about addressing chronic health problems he mentioned that the UK has legislated a reduction in salt content in processed foods and they smartly tapered it down over several years so the public didn't notice a huge difference all at once.
If you have healthy gut flora, you can eat almost anything and you won't get obese. That's because these bacteria also regulate your appetite and probably even your likings.
I expect my gut flora is average (or better), and I am not obese, but i could easily be if I ate ad libitum. About 50 years ago I weighed 35# more than I do now. For pretty much my entire adult life I have had to manage my weight by controlling my energy balance (eating less and exercising more). Since my knee went arthritic several years ago and I stopped jogging my 15 miles a week, that's over 1,000 kCal
I can no longer eat/drink.
If you have a secret mix of gut flora that allows people to eat all they want without getting fat, put it in a capsule and sell it. You would surely get rich, if such a thing actually worked.
You could get that company that sells fruit and vegetable capsules to market it for you.
I also don't think looking at what mankind ate thousands of years ago is the ideal reference.
It informs us about the diet our ancestors evolved while consuming. Some (paleo diet crazies) take this too far. We are omnivores so can eat pretty much anything, and do.
After all, humankind almost vanished in the past.
Those that perished during lean times did not pass along their genome, it was our well fed ancestors that passed down their healthy appetites.
JR
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