So how is it that Asians eat tons of white rice but don't suffer from obesity, heart disease, diabetes and hypertension at anything close to Western rates?
Of course not. Asians eat more white rice, perhaps, but they also eat more fish, seaweed (in the case of the Japanese), more vegetables, walk more, eat more soy, etc... The effect of all of these variables, combined, may result in better overall health, and yet it could also be true that white rice in and of itself isn't that good for you.
I don't think they stay skinny by eating more. (I know, you mean "eat more of this good thing relative to the bad things".) But eating less on an absolute scale is probably a critical component.
This part is huge. I moved to a new city a year and half ago and started walking everywhere. Where I used to struggle keeping the weight off, nowadays without even going out of my way to exercise, it just stays off.
And now bear in mind my city is far less walkable than your average developed Asian city...
I'm convinced that if America finally got rid of its car obsession, health levels will improve dramatically, and all this talk of the obesity epidemic will fizzle.
First, the suburbs take up so much space and distances living areas from the store areas. If we had a New Urbanist city, it would get people to walk. Now, you can't walk. Walking is impossible. You can't walk to a Walmart and grab fresh food every day. In China, my family would get food from the market every day. Now, we get food once a week and it's in big bags. That's because buying food is inconvenient.
Second, the suburbs take up space and creates the dreaded long commute. You can't walk to work. This makes public transportation unfeasible. Everyone buys a car.
It's all a big self-propelling problem. It creates its own problems, and to fix them, you have to contribute to the problem. Long distance? Get a car. A lot of cars? Build more roads. The vicious cycle continues...
EDIT: Biking is possible. But does anyone do it to commute, with so many cars and such long distances? Nope.
I personally witnessed this myself. I had to come home from school one day and today's roads aren't good for walkers. There's no sidewalk, so I had to walk on the grass or in the ditches. In many places (in the burbs, not in the city, the city is fine for walking), there were no walk signals. If there were, you had to walk along the road to the signal which often required adding more walking to the trip. For example, I had to cross the street from the library to a restaurant for lunch. I had to cross the middle of the road, and no one wants to do that.
For more informations (and scientific peer reviewed papers that back me up), I'd recommend googling for "fructose metabolism". There is also a great lecture about fructose on youtube called "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
(Australia, land of locally-grown cane sugar.)
Probably, the worst thing about HFCS is its cheapness, so they put it on everything.
White rice still isn't great in this regard, but it's not as bad as comparable American staples.
Many health-conscious Asians have moved to brown rice, much like how many Western folk have moved off white bread.
My general impression is that refined carbs are simply not great for you.