Carbohydrate: the Ultimate Hunter 107 fibre( up 12 %) to avoid bowel cancer while our protein intake is largely unchanged. There are only four food groups so what about the third: alcohol, could it be the culprit? No. In Australia – the largest consumer of alcohol after France – alcohol intake has been on the decline since 1996.( And alcohol was hopefully never going to explain the weight gain in our children!) 18 You don’ t need to be a clinical epidemiologist to work out that carbohydrate is primarily responsible for our weight gain as a nation. There is only one way to cut this blame pie. We did what the medical profession, the authorities, told us to do from a dietary point of view, and we became the fattest population in the history of the world! And how do carbohydrates kill us with‘ silent ferocity’? What are the weapons used by this particular human predator? Obesity is associated with a number of life-threatening illnesses. The three most lethal conditions are also deadly silent in that they come with no obvious warnings until they are well developed. They are like an intercontinental ballistic missile fired deep under water from a submarine with its target half a world away. After it leaves the submarine it is committed to its deadly journey and very difficult to stop, but the waters above still look calm and tranquil. The three illnesses are type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis( the narrowing and damage of arteries that lead to heart attacks and strokes in the brain) and the closely related condition of hypertension( high blood pressure). Like that missile that has left the submarine, in their early stages, these 18 Research into population physical activity levels suggests there has been some decline over this period, although some US research has found no significant decreases – presumably as people in recent years have become more aware of the need to be more active. As we discussed in the chapter on exercise – our weight is much more a result of what we eat than how much we exercise.