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New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

sustainableplastics.com

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Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#351

Post by remarkEon »

confidantlake wrote: post #260
remarkEon wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think this, that the obesity thing was just a function of an increase in calorie consumption and a drop off in physical activity. I just can't take this view seriously anymore. When you look around today, there are body types that never existed prior to the 1970s - at least at any kind of scale. Comparing pictures of family gatherings from the 1950s through the 1970s, and then to the 1990s and beyond and th…

It is the calories. We are simply eating many more calories than in the 1970s. Cheap, high calorie, highly processed food were not ubiquitous like they are today. Being a cop is a very sedentary position in most of America. Unless you are a city cop out walking around you are probably in your car most of the day.

I'm not being clear, because there's some confusion in the replies to my comment here and elsewhere in the larger thread. I'm not denying that calorie counting helps most people lose weight. I did it to cut after a gain phase when I was training for certain events. Of course it works (for most people), and I agree with you that I wish more people did it.

What I am saying is that, for many and an increasing number of people, something is wrong - calorie surplus or not - with that they're ingesting. Even the physiology of being "fat" in the 1950s looked absolutely nothing like obesity does today. The "processed" part is the difference, though, so we certainly agree on that point.

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#352

Post by jollyllama »

gglitch wrote: post #230
JKCalhoun wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as if it was the adoption of the microwave oven that signaled the roller coaster was beginning to race downhill. God, I wish I could go back to non-plastic packaging. Natural peanut butter I can still find in glass, as I can for my jelly. But mayonnaise, ketchup and countless other items are in plastic-only containers.

I don't know about ketchup, but mayonnaise turned out to be far easier to make at home than I anticipated.

Mine always turns out runny and fails to congeal. Any tips?

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#353

Post by xdavidliu »

lukas099 wrote: post #224
xdavidliu wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i don’t think evolution works that fast; the only thing that fast would be something like selective breeding for dogs, but thats intentional; the type of evolution you’re talking about is more on the order of 10^6 years

Everyone always says this but I’ve never heard it from an actual evolutionary biologist. Some genes evolve faster than others; in fact, some genes have themselves evolved to be able to evolve faster.

does the gene for halving overall hormone levels evolve fast enough to respond to 3 generations of improved health care?

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#354

Post by meindnoch »

throwawayfear wrote: post #276
meindnoch wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was an idea of the infamous Romanian communist dictator Ceausescu: he wanted to feed the whole of Bucharest in a single giant canteen. Unfortunately he was toppled and killed in 1989 before this idea could come to fruition.

It’s unfortunate that a communist dictator was toppled and killed? Did you ever bother to look into why that happened and all the evils he did? We shouldn’t be borrowing from a dead communist dictator’s playbook. Clearly it didn’t work out for him and the vast majority of people didn’t want that.

It was irony. It was unfortunate for him, because he couldn't realize his grand vision of communal food distribution: https://www.rferl.org/a/photos-romania-hunger-circuses-bucha...

I didn't think I needed to elaborate that any idea coming from communist dictators (let alone the self-styled Genius of The Carpathians) should not be the basis of our policies.

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#355

Post by calf »

bowsamic wrote: post #283
throwawayfear wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source that this is the norm in Germany? How many Germans do you know who do this and how did you conclude that the sample is indicative of the broader population? How expensive is food in Germany that people have no independence to buy and prepare food? Parent is getting downvoted because the vast majority of people won’t agree with that nonsense. Leave it in the 1900s.

I work at a major research institution with a canteen and literally all of the Germans in my research group eat at the canteen. When I walk past it is very full. Germans have a meal called Abendbrot which means "evening bread". When COVID hit, Germans struggled to cook food at home, even leading to house fires https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-pandemic-reveals-germans-p... My wife's startup does not have a canteen, s…

A research university is a pretty select group though. What about the average working family with children? Or retired age adults? Do Germans not have a "slow food" movement where they are encouraged to garden, cook, and compost at home?

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#356

Post by dhfjfhfh »

bhouston wrote: post #75

There are two macro population health trends that suggest we are somehow poisoning ourselves at a large scale. Most people do not relate the two, but I personally wouldn't be surprised if they have related causes. The first is the Flynn effect, which was rising IQ levels decade over decade, which halted and then reserved for most Western nations around 1990s/2000s and is now declining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F…

I wonder if the Flynn effect could be more about our cultural environment then our chemical environment.

In 1900 lots of people lived with low access to information or highly sensory stimulating environments. By 1950 there was a lot more stimulus and info. TV, comic books, color movies, rock & roll, fear of nuclear armageddon. By 2000 we're overloaded. Cable TV, computers, cheap and rapid long distance communication, fear of climate armageddon. Maybe the cognitive load has just become too much. Two beers might make you better at darts, but 20 won't.

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#357

Post by throwawayfear »

zo1 wrote: post #212
jokoon wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem of replacing plastic in food is the cost. If you use glass or steel or aluminum, you need new logistics to reuse them. Also, glass is heavier, and requires a lot of energy to be made, so it would require a production chain that ships back empty containers. The best silver bullet solution would be to have local canteen, a bit like in the army or at school, where you just get a subscription with a calendar…

Collectivism need not invoke communism and socialism. I've long lamented how we've lost the local community at the village or even family level. I.e. we can still follow your idea but at a village or family level. So why buy butter in a plastic tub when your neighbour next door has a cow and butter churning machine? Heck have a big enough multi-generational household compound and you can keep it all in-family!

Doing it at the family level or between neighbors who like each other and agree to share from victory gardens and greenhouses and personal farms is much different than what the parent proposed. Multi-generational family compounds are an awesome idea. This also solves retirement issues for the elderly.

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#358

Post by flir »

ethbr1 wrote: post #310
flir wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or more simply, you could not subsidize the cheap unhealthy options at source (eg corn subsidies). But until very recently, I would absolutely have still chosen the unhealthy option. I'm not sure how much impact 20% on a bag of Doritos is really going to have.

Not sure you're going to shift US corn subsidies without changing the electoral system. ;) To me, substitutability is key. If you tax unhealthy food, but unhealthy food is the only option (from physical, financial, and time perspectives), people just pay more to eat unhealthy food. If you tax unhealthy food, but also require healthier and low-cost options at the same establishment , then people begin to have options.…

I'm saying I would have picked the unhealthy option. I know this, because I spent decades doing it when I certainly wasn't hurting for money. Maybe on a population level it would work, and I'm just atypical. Can we look at sin taxes on cigarettes and draw any conclusions?

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#359

Post by dhfjfhfh »

SunlightEdge wrote: post #300
bhouston wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obesity is caused in part by environmental toxins, probably to different extents in different people: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/19/environm... https://www.webmd.com/obesity/what-to-know-obesogens These so called "obesogens" just increase the propensity towards obesity and depending on exposure and your sensitivity to then, you can overcome them or not via exercise and dieting and other means.

The prevalence of sugar in so many foods can't help. Personally I avoid "sugary" food and drinks like the plague. I also don't snack and do regular exercise and sometimes don't eat dinner. I'm at a healthy weight in my 40s. How many adults that are obese have a healthy relationship with food and do regular exercise / fast? Obese children I have sympathy for, I'm uncertain how I feel about obese adults. I don't know i…

What about obese adults that used to be obese children?

Regardless of the cause of the obesity epidemic, it should be addressed compassionately and efficaciously. What makes that difficult (at least in the US) is that the most efficacious treatments aren't aligned with how the healthcare system works. Maybe you won't blame being fat on diet and exercise, but there's almost certainly a diet and excercise plan that will make you lose weight.

First-line treatment should be, - Walk/jog 30 min, 3x per week. Pace for a mildly elevated heart rate. - Eliminate super sweet foods from regular diet. No more than 3x per week. This could be VERY hard for sugar-addicted folks, so start small and work up. - Fast occasionally. Intermittent is great, but longer is even better. - Take a multivitamin.

The end goal is to replace your sweet craving with a fat craving and be ok feeling hungry for periods of time.

Re: New study finds microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, alter behaviour

#360

Post by zhynn »

saberience wrote: post #225
bhouston wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obesity is caused in part by environmental toxins, probably to different extents in different people: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/19/environm... https://www.webmd.com/obesity/what-to-know-obesogens These so called "obesogens" just increase the propensity towards obesity and depending on exposure and your sensitivity to then, you can overcome them or not via exercise and dieting and other means.

Obesity is caused by eating too much. If you don’t eat then you won’t gain weight, there is no subverting the laws of thermodynamics. It sounds callous but if you go to Africa or visit a prisoner of war camp you won’t find many fat people and so blaming chemicals in America for so many fat people doesn’t make much sense to me.

I'll just leave this here, it's a fascinating bit of citizen science:

http://achemicalhunger.com/

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