A new report suggests that 50 percent of the world isn’t at
a healthy weight, and it may be in large part due to the huge increase in
vegetable oil the world now consumes.
Tim Benton, a professor at the
University of Leeds, told the BBC that while vegetable oil used to be a
rare commodity, soybean and palm oil are now so ubiquitous that they’re
considered two of the main eight food groups (along with wheat, rice, corn,
sugar, barley, and potatoes) that provide 85 percent of the world’s calories.
Over
the past three decades, trade agreements have made vegetable oil cheaper and
easier to produce, export, and import. This has had some positive
externalities, as Benton points out. Namely, it’s helped reduce famine in a big
way, and has allowed the “poorest of poor access to cheap calories.”
Simultaneously, worldwide obesity
has doubled since 1980, and Benton suspects that it’s because people are eating
more unhealthy imported foods instead of what’s locally available. Corinna
Hawkes, the director of the Centre for Food Policy at the City University of
London, told the BBC that it’s also possible that the low cost and increased
availability of oil has led some countries’ to change the way they prepare
food. For example, in China, it’s not uncommon for food to be deep-fried in
oil, and people in Brazil use large amounts of oil in some traditional dishes.
Hawkes also raised the “quinoa
question,” or the idea that the skyrocketing demand for quinoa in recent years has led to rising
prices and scarcity for people in the countries in which it’s grown. The research
is shaky; however, there is some anecdotal
evidence that shows that the
surge in demand for quinoa has raised Bolivian farmers’ incomes
while simultaneously making it harder for them to afford to actually eat
quinoa—that in turn drives poor Bolivians toward cheaper, more processed foods.
And of course, technology has
changed the way we live as well. The fact that you can basically work, eat,
shop, and live almost completely online without having to get up and move
around doesn’t do much to help the obesity crisis worldwide.
Ultimately, the obesity crisis is
complicated. However, if nothing else, this is a good reminder that oil, while
healthy, is also calorie-dense, so
use it sparingly when cooking. And when possible, reach for olive oil for its heart-health benefits.
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