Boing Boing! linked a Harvard Article about carbohydrates and obesity. Stealing the quote they quote from the (long) article:

“We are not adapted to handle fast-acting carbohydrates,” Ludwig continues. “Glucose is the gold standard of energy metabolism. The brain is exquisitely dependent on having a continuous supply of glucose: too low a glucose level poses an immediate threat to survival. [But] too high a level causes damage to tissues, as with diabetes. The body is designed to keep blood glucose within a tight range, and it does this beautifully, even with extreme nutrient ratios: we can survive indefinitely on a diet of 60 percent carbohydrates and 20 percent fat, or 20 percent carbohydrates and 60 percent fat. But we never [before] had to assimilate a heavy dose of high-glycemic carbohydrates.”

Full article here (Harvard Magazine) No mention of premium ice cream. I personally like to blame High Fructose Corn Syrup but that’s just a pet peeve of mine at this point. Perhaps sometime I’ll try and dig up some science on that.

Update:

I was reading the article and linked to the body mass index (BMI) calculator here.

According to my height, I must lose 87 pounds to not be considered overweight. (BMI is 36.6, fwiw). And then I’d be barely (less than a pound) inside the upper end of the normal range. My apologies to anybody grossed out by my grossness.