A lot of things happened in the 80’s, but one of the biggest things was when food companies made the switch from fructose to high fructose corn syrup. Dr. Martin shares an article saying that researchers are still unsure of what happened to cause the obesity epidemic we are seeing today.
Join Dr. Martin as he shares several reasons why obesity began to soar in the 1980s!
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by MartinClinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone, and once again, welcome to another live this morning. Hope you're having a great start to your day. We sure appreciate you coming on with us. Okay, we're going to talk today about the year 1980. Okay? 1980. Got that. What happened in 1980? Well, listen to this. Okay? This comes out of the Journal of Clinical Nutrition, okay? Okay. This is the article. Obesity: an Unexplained Epidemic. This is the Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Since 1980, obesity has soared, and here's what they say. It's unexplained.
Well, journal of Clinical Nutrition. I'm going to explain it to you. I'm going to tell you what happened. What happened in 1980 where the journal says we have an epidemic of obesity, and they don't know what happened. What is it? Here's what they're saying in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Actually, Americans are eating less than they used to, and they're getting bigger. I'm going to tell you why. Why didn't they call me? I would've told them why. Okay, so we're going to talk about this because insulin is a growth hormone, and today we have so much more insulin. Americans might be eating less. Canadians might be eating less. It's what they're eating. I've told you this, it seems like thousands of times it ain't calories because what they're saying is Americans are eating less calories and they can't figure out why America, and that's what they were talking about. Canada, U S A. I know we have a border, but what's the difference? We eat the same foods, and so they can't figure it out. And I want to tell you why that's happened. Okay?
Let me give you a little bit of history because it's really important that we understand this. So when you look at food, what's happened? Now, I have been saying this for a lot of years because like I said before, this podcast, I had a radio show and I talk a lot about this. What's happened since 1980? So, the first thing that happened since 1980 is that we changed sugars. We changed sugars. So we went to a high fructose corn syrup. Okay? So we did two things. We switched the sugars in 1980. Well, as a matter of fact, by 1982, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, all the soda companies switched. They went from sugar to high fructose corn syrup. And the reason they did it, the government was involved in this guys. The government was involved because the government subsidized corn. If you were a farmer, a corn farmer, the government subsidized this. They wanted more corn, okay?
But what these food giants did, they took corn and the corn syrup, and they made an artificial liquid sugar, high fructose corn syrup, the antichrist of sugars. And everybody in the food industry, when they realized the government subsidized it, made it cheap, very cheap, and it was cheaper than putting ordinary sugar in food. They added it to the sodas, to the chocolate bars, to the cereals, to the, you name it. They flipped the sugar, number one. So I'm going to write this down on our little board. In 1980, fructose, 1980, they switched the sugar. They went and they got fructose. Okay? 1980 and fructose, by the way. And I remember them saying this, well, it's actually better for you because they said, okay, it doesn't spike your insulin, not like sugar does. Fructose won't spike your insulin. Think of it. You're eating a fruit. It's good for you. That's what the food industry said. But what they didn't realize is that high fructose corn syrup, it didn't spike your insulin, but it spiked your insulin resistance, big time. Okay?
Another point. When a bear gets ready for winter, what does it eat? You think bears are stupid? How do I get fat for the winter? Berries. Now, I love berries and I love blueberries, and they're good for you, okay? A bear will eat up to 30,000 blueberries in a day, apparently, like, holy moly. But they're getting ready for winter. You see, it's hibernation. And if you want to get fat, high fructose corn syrup is unreal. It's sugar on steroids. It'll puff you up big time. And I always tell people, look, if you left the planet in the 1970s and you came back to planet Earth in 2023, and you went to your local mall or Costco or wherever people gather, what would you see? You'd be shocked. What happened? 1980, the Journal of Clinical Nutrition, unexplained obesity, unexplained, what a mystery. I can't get over it. How they could even say that. They switched the sugar. That's what they did. And I've been screaming ever since, screaming John the Baptist in the wilderness. Hello out there. It's not a mystery.
And then you have insulin resistance. You have high circulating insulin. It doesn't spike the insulin at first. Sounds good, but your cells at the cellular level, they resist it. So now your pancreas has to secrete even more. The population got bigger, the population got bigger because of high fructose corn syrup. It's the biggest culprit. And now we're consuming near 200 pounds a year on average. Your body was never, ever, ever meant for that. And because of that high fructose corn syrup, everything got bigger. I'm going to write this down so you can see it. What got bigger? Our bodies, bigger. Our hearts got bigger. "Oh, Dr. Martin, you got such a big heart." Don't tell me that. I don't want a big heart. Like emotionally I do. Okay, but I don't want physically to have a big heart. Okay?
Everything grows. So you have a big heart, you have a bigger liver. Okay? So what do you got? You got a bigger body, okay? Got a bigger body. You got a bigger heart. Yikes. Yikes. You don't want a big heart. Cardiomyopathy, your heart gets big. You don't want that, okay? You don't want a big heart, okay? And you get a big liver. You want a big liver? No. And today, since 1980, listen Linda's and Larry's out there. Listen, since 1980, in 1980, true story. There was no such thing as N A F L, okay? Not the football league. There was no such thing as an N A F L. You know what an N A F L is? Non-alcoholic fatty liver. There was no such thing, wasn't in the medical textbooks. There was cirrhosis of the liver, alcoholics, cirrhosis of the liver. Studied that, but you know what we didn't study? Non-alcoholic fatty liver. We didn't study it. You know why we didn't study it? Because it didn't exist until 1980. And here's the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, scratching their heads. What happened? Unexplained Americans are eating less calories.
But guys, we know better, they switched the sugar. They got fructose and fructose like alcohol goes right to your liver, right to your liver. It's metabolized in your liver just like alcohol is. It's meant for hibernation. It's not meant for you to live on. So then what happens in the liver? What do we say all the time here? What happens in the liver doesn't stay in the liver, unfortunately. Insulin is a growth hormone. It makes things grow. Your heart, your liver, okay? Your kidneys. You want to be a lean, mean fighting machine. You want this fat everywhere.
Now, I just got to say this, in case you're thinking, "well, Dr. Martin, didn't you want us to have a fat head?" Yes and no. Okay? Yes, you call me fat head, take it as a compliment. But what happens in the brain is different because what have I taught you? When you get insulin resistance in the brain, insulin can't even get across the blood brain barrier. So what happens to your brain? It's swimming in glucose or fructose. It's swimming in it, but it doesn't get inside the cells. So it's like swimming in the ocean. You're surrounded by water, but you can't drink it. So your brain cells shrink, especially your hippocampus. The brain cells shrink.
So since 1980, okay, increase in the size of our bodies, big time. Obesity epidemic. And they're saying, well, the statistics on it were crazy, and they can't figure it out. But they say like young people, kids. And somewhere around 40% of the population is morbidly obese. And somewhere around 80% of the population is overweight. According to this article, they're overweight and 40% are severe obesity. And they scratch their heads and go, why? Well, I'm a why guy. I'm a why guy. Why did this happen? Okay, now I'm going to write something else down. Because this happened pretty well at the same time. We were eating less fat. According to the world, fat makes you fat. Fat is bad for your heart. Fat is bad for everything. Fat makes you fat. And the whole world pretty well went for the lie. Fat gives you cholesterol, and cholesterol gives you heart disease. No fructose does, but the whole world went low fat.
Everything you go into the grocery store, low fat, low fat yogurt, low fat this, low fat milk, low fat you name it, low fat. Why? Ancel Keys. The serial killer that I write about in my book, Sun Steak and Steel. He got the whole world, not in his hands, but he duped the world. You know why President Eisenhower had a heart attack? He said, it started all with this. And by the 1960s, his picture was on the cover of Time Magazine. I had to study this guru's hypothesis. Fat clogged your arteries. Fat made you sick. Fat was bad. Fat, fat, fat. So let's go low fat. Oh, what happened? So by the 1980s, women especially, we're eating low fat foods because if you eat low fat, you eat less calories because calories in and calories out. It became the mantra of the world, guys. I watched it. I watched it happen, and it bothered me. I used to scream, you're looking for love in all the wrong places. It didn't make me popular, by the way, that's not popular. I went against the grain. I said, well, cholesterol is good for you. How can you tell me cholesterol is not good for you? Cholesterol is good for you, and cholesterol is only found in the animal kingdom. So what did people do if they did eat meat? They ate chicken. Chicken and salad. I'm going to have a little bit of chicken on my salad.
And what became the most popular breakfast for women was low fat yogurt. And guess what they put in the yogurt? Fructose, high fructose corn syrup. Guess what they put in the salad dressings? High fructose corn syrup. They put it in every snack. They put it in every soda. They put it in everything. It was government subsidized. It was so cheap. And the food industry were giving each other high fives. They found a sugar, a manmade sugar that was cheap because you could solidify it or liquefy it, lasts forever. I remember arguing one time on my radio show, years and years ago, I'm talking a long time ago. I used to do the Lynn Martin show in Windsor. I was a guest on there once a month for years and years and years. And I think it was live in saying, "well Dr. Martin, it's fructose. Fructose is good for you." I said, listen, God wanted you to eat fruit, not drink it. And this high fructose corn syrup was put into everything.
And then the second lie was, okay. It was a lie from the food industry. And secondly, low fat. And look at what that experiment has given us. A low fat diet. And even today, you get every vegetarian, every vegan, every documentary that you can look at just about in Netflix or others will tell you, oh, this is so good for you. Man, look, you want to eat some vegetables? Good for you. But don't come and tell me it's better for you than the animal kingdom because it ain't. It's just not. Bring me a piece of broccoli, which is usually the number one food in the plant kingdom. People will say, well, this has got the most of everything. And I like broccoli. I do. But you can't put it up against a steak. I'm sorry. You just can't. It's not even close in terms of the nutrient profile. It's not even close. It's getting hammered.
What happened in 1980? Wow. And the world's changed. Where are we at today? 93% of the population have metabolic syndrome. 93% of the population is on the Titanic, and most of them have no idea why they're there. They're paying the piper. They paid the fare because they got duped. They think about calories, they think low fat even today. And they think in moderation today. Everything in moderation. Wow, that came out of the food industry, by the way. Where did that statement come from? And then the food industry is not stupid. Just understand. This is huge. Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola they buy everything. The Lieber brothers, you just name it. There's only about eight or nine companies left. They're huge conglomerates. They're in bed with the pharmaceutical companies.
Now, does that mean there's no good people in those industries? Of course there is people that dedicate their lives, but they're going the wrong way. They've been duped. They've been duped. And I'm not even optimistic that we're going to change course since 1980. You know what we have? We have more heart disease than we ever did before. We have more non-alcoholic fatty liver. It's an epidemic even in kids. And we have an epidemic today of diabetes. True or false? It's true. And the world shakes its head. Too bad. Let's develop more drugs. Let's eat in moderation. It can't be food. It can't be high fructose corn syrup because that's good for you. Look where we are today with big hearts and big livers. And when you got big in the wrong places, you got heart disease worse than ever, worse than ever. It's not better than ever. It's worse than ever. They put hearts on the boxes of cereal. Imagine that. Cereal has a heart on the box. You know why? Because it's low fat. There's not fat in cereal. Good for you.
And the whole world has gone for it. Limit your eggs. Limit your butter. Limit, especially that fatty meat there. You better limit that. 1980. I was still a young puppy in 1980, and I watched it happen, and it got worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. Today, look at cancer. Okay? You know what you have? Big cancer cells, cancer's through the roof worse than ever. It's not better than ever. Ladies, you got more chances of getting breast cancer today than you did in 1980. Men, you got more chance of getting prostate cancer today than you did in 1980. I thought we had a war on cancer. Well, we're fighting the war with a pop gun. Remember what a pop gun was? Did they make those anymore? The Journal of Clinical Nutrition, unexplained obesity, unexplained, a mystery. Americans are eating less. They're not eating as many calories as they used to. Unexplained, a mystery. No, not so much. Not so much.
Hey guys, what is Friday? Question and answer Friday. Okay. How do you like my little boards? I kind of like it. Okay, guys, we appreciate you more than you know. Thanks for this wonderful audience that watches and listens live. For our audience that listens to our podcast, thank you. We love you dearly more than you know, and we care for you. And I know on this program, we don't even mean, yeah, we do to be controversial. But guys, I'm going to tell you the truth. Whether that hurts or not. We're going to go in behind the scenes, what are so-called mysteries today, and I'm going to show you, it's not a mystery at all. Love you. Talk to you soon.
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