Let's take a look at the real problems facing America and the rest of the developed world:
1. Mismanaged IT in critical infrastructure.
2. Misallocated funds in programs helping the destitute.
3. Cyclical loops of depression-lack of opportunity-lack of skill building.
4. Health disorders on a massive scale, like metabolic disorder, that can be solved with very simple things like diet and exercise.
These places are not where a bootstrapped startup can make a difference. They are mired in red tape and ignorance.
Show me the path to get people off of sugar diets. Show me the path to get the VA to modernize their forms and applications. I'll do it right now for free. It isn't just me, so many of us are ready and willing to help.
The truth is that we build Instagrams because people will use them. We build them because the biggest hurdle is Apple's insane app verification process; but the bigger problems are so much harder to solve because the blockades are human and political. Barriers that most of us can't hope to cross.
>that can be solved with very simple things like diet and exercise.
"Very simple", applied to diet? Try very controversial.
There are tons of different "good diet" theories, and many of them are mutually contradictory.
I've tried several, and done a lot of research. I've settled on "low carb" as sustainable, healthy, and actually effective -- and it doesn't need to be terribly expensive (though it's likely more expensive than subsisting on grains).
But getting people to change their diet -- really change -- is really hard. For low carb, it means no possibility of fast food (except the occasional burger or grilled chicken patty sans bun -- no fries with that!), so you have to plan more carefully. And if you don't want to be eating all-meat, you have to cook low carb vegetables and eat salads.
When I tell people how I eat, they generally tell me they couldn't eat that way, and the reason is that they have their own food habits/rituals that involve carbs. And it typically ends there.
If there were more places that were low-carb-friendly, it would be much easier. But aside from the occasional BBQ joint that offers non-sweet sauces, it's really hard.
[By the way: when you say "sugar diets", are you including all simple carbs in that? Because eating cooked potatoes gives you a faster "sugar rush" than eating sugar; to really fight metabolic syndrome, you need to get rid of high glycemic index foods as well, and ideally just eliminate carbs entirely. Natural fats, on the other hand, are fine if you eliminate carbs. I refer to my diet as the "bacon and dark chocolate" diet, because I can pretty much eat as much of both as I feel like -- and yet I've lost more than 30 pounds.]
I think with "sugar diets" he specifically refers to diets that contain a lot of Fructose, cooked potatoes contain starch, the liver and muscles convert an excess of that in glycogen and a relatively small amount of fat. Glycogen is actually really useful. Getting a rush afer having eaten an energy rich meal is what is supposed to happen. It's Fructose which is dangerous in large quantities and is linked to type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Among other things it also blocks Leptin signalling to the brain, so the brain does not properly register how much energy it just gained, leading to overeating and no desire for physical activity.
I didn't really want to get into the weeds with the comment, but every single diet starts with the same thing:
Eliminate artificial sources or additions of fructose / sucrose.
I'm not advocating cutting glucose or even the elimination of starch. I'm saying cutting out the Coca Cola and the sugar we add to yogurt / chocolate milk / pies / ice cream / sauces / candy / cake / muffins / donuts / pizza (sugary tomato sauce) / glazed meats / etc. is step one in stopping metabolic disorder. Basically anywhere you have sugar in the absence of water soluble fibre.
Even if everyone went to eating potatoes and steak every day, that would be a vast improvement. Obviously there is more that can be done, and this is where people start to disagree (dairy good vs dairy bad, meat focussed vs vege focussed, fruit good vs fruit bad, nuts good vs nuts bad) but all that stuff is secondary.
Eating bacon will definitely lead to weight loss, but it's high in cholesterol and saturated fats, usually high in sodium, and devoid of many nutrients that are good for long term health and exercise (like potassium, fibre, vitamin k).
But sure, you are already doing better than 70% of North Americans if you're staying away from fructose / sucrose.
>high in cholesterol and saturated fats, usually high in sodium
...which are not bad for you. That's part of the controversy.
Eating cholesterol doesn't raise your cholesterol. Piles of studies show this. Eating carbs raises your cholesterol.
There are basically no studies that show eating saturated fat is bad for you. The one study that was pushed by industry (and a SINGLE nutrition researcher who happened to be leading the FDA) back in the 50's was using hydrogenated coconut oil. Even the recent FDA guidelines admit there's no research-based reason to avoid saturated fats.
And salt turns out to be fine for you unless you've already got high blood pressure.
>devoid of many nutrients that are good for long term health and exercise
I do eat vegetables. I eat almost zero fructose (what you'd find in a small handful of blueberries, once a day or so), and less than a couple of teaspoons-worth of sucrose in a typical day. And I get about 6-8 hours of intense exercise in a typical week.
But all of that was true before I went low-carb, and I was stuck around 200 lbs unless I effectively starved myself. With no other lifestyle changes, switching to a low-carb (and high fat) diet caused me to drop 30 pounds in six months; my memory improved, my thinking is more clear, and I've been healthier (and lighter) than I've been since high school.
No other diets I've tried have worked (including going nearly vegan at one point, and trying to go low-fat caused me to sink into depression, which is a known side-effect). This one works and is awesome. I don't see ever going back.
that can be solved with very simple things like diet and exercise.
Not everyone can afford to buy low fat organic produce at a boutique farmer's market that's open when they're at work, or requires a car to visit, and charges a fortune in terms of price-per-meal.
Not everyone has the time, money or knowledge to make a home cooked vegetable-rich meal.
There is vast opportunity to improve portion sizing.
It won't fix everything, but people that don't realize their fast food soda has 500 excess calories in it will benefit from pretty much any reduction in soda intake. Those calories probably aren't even contributing much towards satiety.
(I'm not claiming every fast food customer is consuming 500 excess calories of soda with each meal, though I'm sure some of them are. The point is that there are very straightforward opportunities that don't involve major lifestyle changes or added expenses.)
The solution to the western diet is right there around the edges of the supermarket, and probably most people by now realize it's there, but they keep buying the flavor-enhanced processed grains because they taste good and are addicting. There is no red tape from people solving this problem for themselves, and that problem (#4 from pi) is about 10000 times greater than whatever problems people have or had with taxi provisioning.
But how do people know to go to the edge of the supermarket when the government has been telling them, and schools have been teaching them go to the middle? This is the food pyramid the government was pushing from 1992-2005. You should have 6-11 servings of bread, rice, pasta, and cereal a day! It was red tape and ignorance that pushed people to the middle of the market.
That's still not very bad advice. I'm guessing it would be a great improvement on the average lower class American diet. Cut out most of the fruit, fish and vegetables, increase sweets and meat and you've got the average modern lower class diet. Carbohydrates make you eat a bit more, but they're golden otherwise and they're really cheap. And if you look at the other categories it seems they use the word "serving" a bit different than you and I.
Obesity isn't confined to the lower class. Go to any Olive Garden and watch someone eat an "Endless Pasta" bowl (all you can eat if you are not an Olive Garden fan), white bread sticks, and diet coke. Low sugar, but still horrible. It is a trap to think of sugar differently than other simple carbohydrates in your diet.
Obese Americans are not obese because they eat too much pasta and bread, but because they eat thousands of extra calories in the form of raw sugar and fat.
A 330 ml can of cola is about 140 calories. A "Big Gulp" with 15% ice is about 360 calories.
This may be true in a strict factual sense, but I think the interesting question is why people are eating thousands of extra calories on an unprecedented scope.
Is it simply because more calories are available or is it because industrial foods that are scientifically designed to trigger an addictive response are completely devoid of the nutritional value that their flavors signal? The metabolic and satiety response to 360 calories of carbs in the form of a Big Gulp is completely different to the response to 360 calories of carbs from potatoes.
Sometimes it's hard to tell if someone on this site is parodying an out of touch techie or actually is one. It's a lot easier and cheaper to just eat fresh, healthy foods than it is to try to invent a new food alternative.
It's a lot easier and cheaper to just eat fresh, healthy foods
"fresh foods": So now you need to have enough space in a working freezer to store all the fresh vegetables/etc that you buy at a much higer price then junk food. Or you need to have enough time off to go to the boutique farmer's market that obvioulsy isn't in a poor-person area like where you live in.
Soylent is fucking expensive and it is ridiculous to suggest that people eating kfc / mcdonalds / etc and drinking liters of soda a day will convert to Soylent.
$3/meal is more expensive than kfc / mcdonalds? Maybe if you live in the US and only eat a couple of items off the dollar menu every time. In Canada a meal at McDonald's is $10...
And I am one of those people that used to live on McDonald's and Burger King all day every day.
1. Mismanaged IT in critical infrastructure.
2. Misallocated funds in programs helping the destitute.
3. Cyclical loops of depression-lack of opportunity-lack of skill building.
4. Health disorders on a massive scale, like metabolic disorder, that can be solved with very simple things like diet and exercise.
These places are not where a bootstrapped startup can make a difference. They are mired in red tape and ignorance.
Show me the path to get people off of sugar diets. Show me the path to get the VA to modernize their forms and applications. I'll do it right now for free. It isn't just me, so many of us are ready and willing to help.
The truth is that we build Instagrams because people will use them. We build them because the biggest hurdle is Apple's insane app verification process; but the bigger problems are so much harder to solve because the blockades are human and political. Barriers that most of us can't hope to cross.