[Almaviva]

> whole grains

Yet the glycemic index of whole wheat bread is higher than Coca Cola. (Look it up!) I.e. the same amount of calories of bread will spike your blood sugar more quickly than Coke.

Metabolically, starchy foods including grains are a lot more like sugar than people who think they are making rational health decisions want to believe.

[ashark]

Other cultures manage to stay much healthier while maintaining bread and white rice as major parts of their diet, though. The biggest common differences, from what I can tell, are:

1) fewer total calories,

2) way, way, way less candy (to include soda, many breakfast cereals) and dessert food (milk shake with those fries? Dessert. Donut? Dessert. Coffee cake? Dessert.) on average,

3) fewer convenience foods, and relatedly, less added sugar in diet,

4) less deep frying

I'm less confident about these, but would guess dairy and fruit juice consumption also tends to be way lower in healthier societies. More cream sauces, yoghurt, and cheese, but much less drinking milk on its own, milk over breakfast cereal, grande Frappuccinos. Fruit juices more likely to be real and unadulterated, pricier, and less often consumed.

Not cutting out carbs period, or even limiting them to a tiny percentage of calories. This makes me suspicious of painting too much of the carb kingdom as problematic per se.

[EDIT] Formatting, "desert" to "dessert" because apparently I failed kindergarten.

[EDIT2] Looks like I was wrong about milk ("fluid milk consumption") as a common difference: http://www.dairyinfo.gc.ca/index_e.php?s1=dff-fcil&s2=cons&s...