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Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

theatlantic.com

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Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#151

Post by saiya-jin »

netcan wrote: post #145
saiya-jin wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it ain't that hard, and it actually makes sense. i can take a look in my own family and it's apparent. answer is - we became lazy, so slowly that many actually think that nothing changed. sample job you mention - carpenter now doesn't do as much physical work as he used do do 500 years ago. the ones who don't use modern approach, they are skinny, muscular athlete-looking types, even if they are 50-60 years old. most…

I'm not talking about 500 years ago, I am talking about 25 or 50 years ago.

my father is still working in the same company, doing +- the same job and guess what... he is moving around much less. I could go on with examples that are valid across the globe.

computers in one or other form, albeit amazing, also got us move around much less. people are happy they can regulate lights from their cellphone, rather than getting up and walking those 3 meters...

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#152

Post by Menge »

haywirez wrote: post #115
netcan wrote: post #107

I have no particular expertise in this area, but I've been making the "we don't know why people are fat" argument to whoever will listen for a while. Doctors (socially, not at an appointment FWIW), academics… I'm actually quite surprised how often they've been thinking along the same lines and/or they are convinced by the general idea. basically: People have been getting fatter, to pathological levels for quite a whi…

Didn't read the study, but part of the explanation could be that people spend less time outside and are generally in warmer environments. Omnipresent AC, different clothing, better insulation all means that the body burns less calories to keep itself warm.[0] "[...] in the U.K., average living room temperatures rose from 64.9F/18.3C in 1978 to 66.4F/19.1C in 2008 and bedroom temperatures increased from 59.36F/15.2C t…

This is an excellent example. The other thing I would assume is that a lot more of everyday activity in the 1980s required a little more human physical input and a little less waiting for a machine to stop. Using or even moving typewriters, manual steering, prepping food, cleaning without machines doing small prep instead of standing in front of a microwave, getting up to change the TV station.

While we could construct modern measures, I doubt we have good measures for all of the micro-tasks in the 1980s..

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#153

Post by maxerickson »

netcan wrote: post #150
maxerickson wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The food supply has increased and people are consuming more. See here: http://www.usda.gov/factbook/chapter2.pdf Two big increases in consumption are in chicken and cooking oils. The average American eats 40 pounds more chicken than their grandparents and 30 additional pounds of fat and oils.

Or... maybe the food supply increased because we are eating more. I mean we don't generally produce more than we can consume.

I wasn't proposing causation, just stating that access to calories has increased.

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#154

Post by netcan »

Menge wrote: post #152
haywirez wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't read the study, but part of the explanation could be that people spend less time outside and are generally in warmer environments. Omnipresent AC, different clothing, better insulation all means that the body burns less calories to keep itself warm.[0] "[...] in the U.K., average living room temperatures rose from 64.9F/18.3C in 1978 to 66.4F/19.1C in 2008 and bedroom temperatures increased from 59.36F/15.2C t…

This is an excellent example. The other thing I would assume is that a lot more of everyday activity in the 1980s required a little more human physical input and a little less waiting for a machine to stop. Using or even moving typewriters, manual steering, prepping food, cleaning without machines doing small prep instead of standing in front of a microwave, getting up to change the TV station. While we could constru…

Travel agents in 1980 did less physical work than ER nurses do in 2015 whether measured in micro-tasks, macro-tasks, steps per day or anything else. But, secretaries from the 1980s were (I'm guessing, but this is probably true) less fat than ER Nurses today.

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#155

Post by pxue »

netcan wrote: post #107

I have no particular expertise in this area, but I've been making the "we don't know why people are fat" argument to whoever will listen for a while. Doctors (socially, not at an appointment FWIW), academics… I'm actually quite surprised how often they've been thinking along the same lines and/or they are convinced by the general idea. basically: People have been getting fatter, to pathological levels for quite a whi…

it's because we stopped "moving".

for example, when was the last time you "ran to the store" to grab something like milk? I wouldn't call that exercise but it's definitely something current generation lost compare to all the previous ones.

Including myself and friends, our weekend preferred activity are changing from going out (to parks, movies etc) to "Netflix and chill".

think about this, "Running" didn't become a thing until the late 70s. People simply didn't do much to stay "fit" before that. You can attribute it to biomes or genetics, but this is just within one or two generation.

What I would find interesting is if we can find data similar to what we record with fitbits, ie. # of steps per day etc. from people 30/40 years ago, and compare to actual fitbit data of today. I'd wager we'd find some interesting correlations.

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#156

Post by hderms »

tracker1 wrote: post #41
com2kid wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, the macros look sort of the same, but the source of those calories is much different. Just the types of cooking oil we use has changed a lot. Look at what goes into cookies now. It used to be butter, now I've seen recipes with canola oil. (if anyone tells you to use canola oil in your baked goods, ignore them and use butter!) There is evidence that gut bacteria is passed down from generation to generation, w…

I think this is spot on, and came to comment likewise... I think the types of product we are using for our macros is way off base from even a few decades ago. I only had a little glimpse of how much so because I know someone very allergic to soy, and it's in almost everything these days. I don't think that most things in particular are necessarily bad for you, but it might be worth taking a few steps back and switch…

that seems a bit too expensive. Where do you live? I can't imagine how it would cost more than 100 bucks for those ingredients, and I feel like if I went out to buy the ingredients right now (Chicago) I'd be able to make it for 80.

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#158

Post by toomuchtodo »

com2kid wrote: post #92
toomuchtodo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for that info! Did you ever experience symptoms similar to eye fatigue? I think I might be not consuming enough sodium and/or potassium; I'm going to up my doses of both to test my theory.

Nothing about eye fatigue, but I forgot to have any potassium for a month (err, oops, I ate lots of veggies but no leafy greens!) and my BP shot up to something like 170/90. My doctor was concerned and also confused. On the way out of her office I remembered I hadn't had any potassium for awhile, stopped by the grocery store, picked up some spinach, and a handful later (about a few minutes) the constant headache I'd…

I drank a cup of salt water last night to drag my sodium levels up, and the eye fatigue feeling is gone. Thanks for the pointer about potassium though!

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#159

Post by citeguised »

collyw wrote: post #141
citeguised wrote: post #80

Oh, so the laws of physics changed? Wow! No but seriously, this is a terrible article. As soon as you read »…a professor of _kinesiology_ and health science…« you know the statements are coming from people who believe in esoteric pseudoscience. If your burn more energy than you take in, you lose weight. Everything else doesn't make sense. You can get fat by eating 5000 calories worth of paprika every day. Statements…

Why the dismissal of kinesiology? It seems to be closely related to what you say in the next sentence: "If your burn more energy than you take in, you lose weight".

You are right, I think I confused the scientific Kinesiology with the esoteric one.

http://skepdic.com/kinesiologist.html

thanks for your comment! Unfortunately I can't edit the original post.

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#160

Post by jazzyk »

Litost wrote: post #111
yabatopia wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the push towards vegetarianism, low-fat, low-carb, etc as fads combined with industrialization of food has done a lot of harm to the public. What's wrong with vegetarianism? I would think it has lots of benefits. It's better for the environment, you don't risk eating very processed meat filled with hormones and additives, from animals often kept in horrible conditions. The meat industry is a textbook exampl…

I've just watched this and assuming it's unbiased which it seems to be, it makes a number of very compelling arguments to go vegetarian/vegan. Not least the huge water, grain and land requirements and the resultant methane emissions of eating meat which are globally unsustainable: http://cowspiracy.vhx.tv/

Why does it have to be vegetarian all the way? There are some nutrients (vitamin B12, probably others) available only in animal-source protein.

It used to be that meat was luxury and eaten infrequently (once a week). Going back to a similar schedule would save water/energy without depriving people of necessary nutrients.

Everything in moderation.

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