Obesity in American-Indians and African-American teens
Read yet another report on increase in obesity in AI and AA in recent decades
Which caused me to do some research on the topic, and I noticed that the reasons fell into 2 groups:
Reasons which have not changed in 200 years
Reason which have occurred when increases in obesity have been observed
Reasons related to vitamin D for obesity in AI and AA – which have NOT CHANGED recently
Dark skin -> less vitamin D per minute spent in the sun
Use of alcohol -> less liver and kidney function -> less vitamin D converted for use in the blood
Outdoor exercise is not a priority -> outdoors less -> less vitamin D
Less time out of doors when near whites -> less vitamin D
Low income -> less expensive food such as salmon which have high levels of vitamin D
Low income -> unable to afford vacation in sunny climate - especially in the winter
Lactose intolerant (AI 100%, AA 75%) -> less milk ->less vitamin D
Reasons which HAVE CHANGED recently
Increased use of multi-media (black teens 12 hours per day)
Increased use of statins -> less vitamin D
Increased use of air conditioning 50% increase to 70% -> outdoors less -> less vitamin D
Note - Many of these reasons also apply to additional dark skinned individuals in the US and elsewhere
~~#00C:Content of Decreased vitamind in food page as of Aug 15, 2010
Food has been optimized for calories, color, ability to appear fresh for a long time, ease of harvest, but never optimized for nutrition
Food typically highly processed - often significantly reducing the vitamin content
Fertilizers - synthetic and incomplete have produced food with less vitamin content
Use of pesticides have created crops which do not have their own pesticides (i.e. far less resveratrol, etc. now)
People eat far more "empty calories" than before - depleting the nutrients which they get from good food
Farmed fish - far less fatty acids, and 1/3 as much vitamin D.
Factory Farms - where the animals are not free-roaming - getting far less of the trace elements and have no ability to influence their diet~~