Defining The Wave
“Wave” is a historian’s word here, not a laboratory verdict.
It means an observed cluster: obesity, diabetes, dental caries, cardiovascular anxiety, constipation, diverticular disease, and other chronic conditions drew new attention as industrial food patterns spread.1
The cluster did not arrive everywhere at once. It was measured unevenly. It was interpreted through the limits of each observer’s tools.
That caution matters.
White flour belongs in the story because it increased refined starch exposure while reducing fiber and micronutrient density. Sugar belongs too. So do urbanization, sedentary labor, changing fats, smoking, stress, antibiotics, sleep, and medical diagnosis.2
The book is not hunting for one villain.
It is asking why one suspect, refined bread, enjoyed unusual cultural protection. That question reaches backward to Daily Bread Expands and forward to The Food Pyramid.
Related sections: The Transfer Problem; Refinement And Confounders.
Footnotes
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Denis Burkitt and Hugh Trowell, eds., Refined Carbohydrate Foods and Disease: Some Implications of Dietary Fibre (London: Academic Press, 1975). Secondary scientific collection. ↩
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Mozaffarian, “Dietary and Policy Priorities,” distinguishes diet quality, refined starches, sugars, fats, sodium, and food systems in chronic disease risk. Secondary synthesis. ↩