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> Excess weight or obesity boosts risk of death by anywhere from 22% to 91% A strange statistic, as the actual risk of death is 100% for all of us.
> Excess weight or obesity boosts risk of death by anywhere from 22% to 91% A strange statistic, as the actual risk of death is 100% for all of us.
> Excess weight or obesity boosts risk of death by anywhere from 22% to 91% A strange statistic, as the actual risk of death is 100% for all of us.
Man, food is so addictive and not like you can just stop eating it like you can quit drinking booze or quit smoking!
What's unique about food is that unlike smoking, drugs or booze, a human will always have to go back to eating, it's essential for day-to-day life unlike Jameson, Marlboro and meth. If you have a healthy relationship with food then you're fine, otherwise every day you're faced with willpower checks that you might struggle to consistently pass.
Man, food is so addictive and not like you can just stop eating it like you can quit drinking booze or quit smoking!
When I reduce carbs below 30g/day, my appetite is naturally suppressed (or avoids over-stimulation). Food feels much less addictive. It's easier not to snack in the face of stress. Keto probably added 10+ years on to my life expectancy.
YMMV.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't believe this myself, but I do know a lot of people who believe being overweight is unfairly demonized and not as harmful as TPTB would have us believe. Many point to BMI as an inaccurate gauge of healthiness (there's a fair point there about eating disorders and ethnic predispositions towards higher BMIs) and unhealthy obsessions with thinness (as opposed to fitness). Look up "Fat Acceptance" if you'd like to…
> I do know a lot of people who believe being overweight is unfairly demonized Because it is. As you yourself allude to later... > I don't think we should view fatness as a moral failing It clearly is not. I suspect the only people who believe that are the folks 'born on third base' as it were. > some people need a bit of a push to kick bad habits like overeating Some people? The vast majority of people are overweigh…
No its not. Its nowhere near demonized as it should be.
> It clearly is not. I suspect the only people who believe that are the folks 'born on third base' as it were.
It's a failure of self control.
> Some people? The vast majority of people are overweight. Anyone who isn't fit & trim has no business commenting on anyone else's bad habits and moral failings. None. Got a little bit of a spare tire? Shush. Got some love handles? Shush. Skinny fat? Shush again!
Untrue. The vast majority of people in rich countries are overweight.
Previously believed by whom? Pretty sure we've been aware that obesity is a huge problem for a generation now. I mean we literally talk about an obesity epidemic. Next, science is going to find out that water is wet.
I don't believe this myself, but I do know a lot of people who believe being overweight is unfairly demonized and not as harmful as TPTB would have us believe. Many point to BMI as an inaccurate gauge of healthiness (there's a fair point there about eating disorders and ethnic predispositions towards higher BMIs) and unhealthy obsessions with thinness (as opposed to fitness). Look up "Fat Acceptance" if you'd like to…
I think this is the real culprit - the idea that overeating is the root cause and not a symptom, and that a little bit of a push makes a difference.
I actually think our "personal moral failing" thinking is a large impediment to actionable solutions for society, because instead of looking at WHY even 18-year-olds have gone from below 20 BMI in 1879 to over 26 BMI in 2022[0] we just go around and around in circles about how it is a personal responsibility issue not a systemic one, while the data continues to show that it is across all of society. We continue to subsidize sugar substitutes (corn turned into HFCS) at the production side but sugar taxes to offset the subsidies are seen as "attacks on freedom." The US's overproduction of HFCS has even lowered the international price of sugar indirectly.
Because sugar is so cheap, and so addicting, in our capitalist system the manufacturer willing to exchange other ingredients (e.g. fats, proteins, etc) for sugars may be both cheaper AND taste better, even if ultimately it isn't satiating. So we have a bunch of foods which are high in sugar relative to historical norms or that simply never existed because they exist to act as a "sugar delivery system" (e.g. soda).
After the UK introduced a soda tax (SDIL), we can see that due to both manufacturers reformulating their drinks AND changes in consumer behavior it resulted in lower calorie intakes that they did NOT make up by buying alternative sources of sugar (e.g., candy)[1]
[0] https://www.calciumhealth.com/the-american-obesity-epidemic-...
[1] https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/article/explainer/...
Man, food is so addictive and not like you can just stop eating it like you can quit drinking booze or quit smoking!
For me, carbohydrate consumption and appetite are massively correlated. When I reduce carbs below 30g/day, my appetite is naturally suppressed (or avoids over-stimulation). Food feels much less addictive. It's easier not to snack in the face of stress. Keto probably added 10+ years on to my life expectancy. YMMV.
Previously believed by whom? Pretty sure we've been aware that obesity is a huge problem for a generation now. I mean we literally talk about an obesity epidemic. Next, science is going to find out that water is wet.
I don't believe this myself, but I do know a lot of people who believe being overweight is unfairly demonized and not as harmful as TPTB would have us believe. Many point to BMI as an inaccurate gauge of healthiness (there's a fair point there about eating disorders and ethnic predispositions towards higher BMIs) and unhealthy obsessions with thinness (as opposed to fitness). Look up "Fat Acceptance" if you'd like to…
You’re not supposed to say out loud that you smoke, drink, or overeat because you enjoy it and have accepted that you might live a less long life and/or one with greater medical needs. You’re supposed to say that you’re ashamed and you can’t help yourself and that you know you’re supposed to be healthy.
This is the moral trap that makes people try very hard to find proof that X or Y is ultimately healthy. In Christian moral language, it’s like being handed a biblical passage that supports that thing you want to do. If being fat is healthy, you don’t have to wallow in shame, you just have to convince everyone that they misunderstand the facts.
It’s hard to make social systems like universal healthcare work when people are openly and unrepentantly unhealthy, but the fact is that health is no more universal a form of piety than faith in some specific God. Some people will just want to eat a lot of ice cream and hamburgers because they’re yummy.