I don't think you can predict a country's obesity rates by their carb intake at all. Maybe sugar intake, not sure. At any rate--which country is it where carbohydrates isn't generally the lion's share of the day's calories? I have trouble thinking of one. Not that geography is exactly a strong subject for me.

http://chartsbin.com/view/1154


This gives Italy's carb intake around 50 percent of calories--looking at other countries, while that looks enormous to us low carbers, in comparison to other countries, that's towards the low end.

I don't think 50 percent carbohydrates is less fattening than 70 percent carbohydrates. I think around 10 percent or less carbohydrates is less fattening than 30 percent or more.

I also don't think those higher carbohydrate intakes are in themselves fattening--whether it's a high variety of yummy packaged foods, higher presence of sugar and omega 6 fatty acids, more french fries versus potatoes with added butter (I'll eat way more calories as fries or potato chips if I let myself, versus potatoes and butter), or whatever. It is the carbs, but it's also the fat, but it's not the carbs or the fat so much as in the particular context in which we consume/are exposed to them.

Lowering insulin works... in mouse and rat studies of obesity, animals fed low fat diets have lower fasting insulin, and are leaner, than animals fed high fat diets. Not ketogenic, just higher fat with a bit of sugar kicked in. Adding fat to a diet doesn't even necessarily mean you'll eat less carbs. It's not an antidote, it's an alternative calorie source.