Reference no: EM133367113

Case Study: ... In 1977, the American government released Dietary Goals for the United States, a document that urged the country to "increase carbohydrate consumption" and cut down on butterfat, eggs and red meat. The now infamous "war on fat" had begun. Butter gave way to margarine. Kids drank 2 per cent instead of homo milk. And meatloaf with mashed potatoes was replaced by skinless chicken breast with steamed vegetables.

It didn't work. All that supposedly healthy, low-fat eating didn't reduce obesity - it pushed the U.S. national rate up by 15 points. So, after two decades of fruitless lean eating, we unleashed our frustration on what we were told was, in fact, the true nutritional villain: carbs. For another 20 years, we basked in one newfound style of carbohydrate restriction after another: the Zone, Atkins, paleo, keto.

And once again, it didn't work. Since 1985, the rate of obesity in Canada has tripled. South of the border, 42 per cent of adults now have obesity. What did we get wrong?

We thought that weight gain came down to eating the wrong nutrient - first it was fat, then carbs - and that the key to weight loss was to simply eat less of that nutrient. The first part of that assumption, we now know, is wrong. Eating fat can make you fat, and so can eating carbs. People with obesity tend to eat too much of both.

But that's not all we got wrong. The second half of that assumption - that people can eat less food if they choose to -- is also wrong.

During the war on fat, Americans overdid it on the carbs, as we now know. But fat intake didn't even go down - it held even. Thanks to the success and popularity of the low-carb movement, Canadians reduced both bread and sugar intake, only to find that obesity went up, not down. The more we try to eat less, the harder it seems to become.

To the scientists who study obesity, this is anything but a surprise. ...The human brain regulates bodyweight. Let me say it again: The human brain regulates bodyweight. Just as your brain controls body temperature, heart rate or how much you sweat, it exerts a similar control on how much you weigh.

The very fact that we keep bouncing from diet to diet is evidence of this existential condition. All diets work in the beginning. The pounds melt away. Pants that were formerly too tight fit once again. But the weight comes back, usually starting around the six-month mark. The exasperated dieter swears he is eating less, but the scale claims otherwise. Fatigue sets in and we are beset by food cravings. Why? Because the brain is resisting weight loss. It wants you to eat.

Question:

Please read the entire article above and produce TWO paraphrased paragraphs of key parts