Irrationality in Our Beliefs: Carbohydrates and Weight Gain

When the article Is Sugar Toxic? was published in the New York Times, it quickly garnered thousands of views and surged to the top of the "Most Emailed" list. It discusses whether sugar causes diabetes, and is the primary cause of obesity. Many studies back this principle, and the science behind it is certainly valid. It goes against something we all are taught: Eating fatty foods, such as bacon, makes you gain weight. Instead, it shows that sugars are the true cause of our increasing chubbiness as a nation. I'm not going to go into the science here, but this concept has sparked a revolution. New diets are being created, designed to eliminate processed sugars from diets: put the focus on meat, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and take it away from carbohydrates.

Yet, while browsing my local newspaper this morning, I saw an article spouting that we would soon be seeing more potatoes in school lunches. After reading it, I shook my head in disbelief, then went on to other articles. As I was near finished with my toast, I happened across another article with "Spuds" in the title, this one about a Harvard study confirming that potatoes are a primary factor in weight gain. Potatoes are one of the primary carbohydrates in the American diet. After flipping back to the first article and rereading it in disbelief, I began to think of why we might not take this science as true, and continue with our current diets.

My first thought was that of change: marking sugars as a "bad" substance would fundamentally change our diets by eliminating pasta, bread, potatoes, fruits and many processed foods. I believe the fundamental human instinct is to resist major changes like these, and lock ourselves away instead. This could constitute a backlash against this discovery, and allow us to mark it as false and meaningless.

The belief that fatty foods cause weight gain is something we all are taught - when I first read this article, it took me a while to wrap my head around what it was suggesting. In addition, I was already influenced towards this theory by a friend. But many people will not believe what the article is saying, or will not read the article at all. That is our problem - we cannot choose whether to believe it or not, the science says it is true. As a nation, we should continue from there.