Clive Cartlidge of ironclive.com has an interesting post today concerning a story in the LA Times on ‘The Amish Paradox’. It is based on ‘The French Paradox’, or the fact that the average French diet contains the highest fat content yet France has one of the lowest incidences of heart disease in the world.

From ironclive.com:
Despite a high-calorie diet, the Amish community’s intensely physical lifestyle produces a strikingly low rate of obesity (around 4% – compared to the U.S. population figure of 31%) . Forget the standard-issue health and fitness resolutions that include joining a gym, going to yoga and eating a high-protein diet. The best way to get in shape may just be to toss a few bales of hay and wash buckets of wet clothes by hand.
An exercise science professor has discovered that a pocket of Old Order Amish folks near Waterloo, Ontario has stunningly low obesity levels, despite a diet high in fat, calories and refined sugar – exactly the stuff doctors tell us not to eat.

As Clive notes, perhaps it’s time to stop concentrating on the latest magic pill and fad diet and notice that, as a society, we continue to eat more and move less, something that probably contributes to rampant obesity far more than a slice of bread does.