Is a low fat, very high carbohydrate diet the cause of obesity?

In 'Fat fertilisers': why overeating is not making you fat Sarah Berry reports on work by Dr David Ludwig into obesity and diet.

Overeating isn't making you fat.

Rather, getting fat makes you overeat.

This is the word of Dr David Ludwig, an obesity expert and professor of nutrition at Harvard.

"It may sound radical, but there's literally a century of science to support this point," Ludwig tells New York Times.
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So what, if not overeating, is causing an obesity crisis of epidemic proportions?

There are two things to consider, according to Ludwig, who examines the epidemic and foods that act as "fat fertilisers" in his new book, Always Hungry.

Firstly, what we are eating is a big problem.

"It's the low fat, very high carbohydrate diet that we've been eating for the last 40 years, which raises levels of the hormone insulin and programs fat cells to go into calorie storage overdrive," he explains. "I like to think of insulin as the ultimate fat cell fertiliser."

The calories become so well stored in the fat cells that our bodies cannot access them to burn for energy. This means we always feel hungry, as our bodies cry out for fuel they can use and simply trying to eat less exacerbates the problem without addressing the real issue.