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Plastic might be making us obese

washingtonpost.com

11–20 of 392 posts

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#11
post #4

Well that plus the cheeseburger

People ate fast food and drove everywhere in 80s/90s what changed that it's worse now?

Fast food portions being larger, poorer eating habits passed on from generation to generation, the internet, the smartphone, presumably more stress and anxiety.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#13
post #4

Well that plus the cheeseburger

People ate fast food and drove everywhere in 80s/90s what changed that it's worse now?

The paper talks about epigenetics and these chemicals, but isn't it possible the diet and lack of physical activity affected future generations as well? If not via epigenetics, perhaps via gut flora being passed down and spread?

They talk about lab animals with controlled diets and activity becoming fatter on average over the decades, and point to chemicals as the only possible culprit. I find that quite possible or even probable, but isn't it also possible the gut flora is evolving to be more efficient at processing modern food?

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#15
post #9
post #4

Well that plus the cheeseburger

Just saying "cheeseburgers" or "calories in, calories out" fails to explain why people eat more calories now than they did before. There is a vague, and I think very unhelpful, sense in society today that this is some sort of mass moral failing. In reality there are a few factors that could, alone or in combination, explain this change in average behavior. The most convincing to me: chemicals could be messing with ou…

In the UK average calorie intake has been dropping, but thats negatively correlated to kids being fat.

I would suggest that the big change is the amount of activity that an average kid does. which seems to be conducive to the calories in/vs out. the cause of this is complex. But a lot of it relates to stranger danger. Parents don't let their kids out after school unattended (for various reasons) which means they are inside not burning off as many calories.

The other thing to remember is that food is now cheap. Its perfectly possible to be in the bottom 20% of the UK income bracket and still have enough cash to eat more calories than you need. (This is a good thing. People starving in the UK is unforgivable.)

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#16
post #9
post #4

Well that plus the cheeseburger

Just saying "cheeseburgers" or "calories in, calories out" fails to explain why people eat more calories now than they did before. There is a vague, and I think very unhelpful, sense in society today that this is some sort of mass moral failing. In reality there are a few factors that could, alone or in combination, explain this change in average behavior. The most convincing to me: chemicals could be messing with ou…

> fails to explain why people eat more calories now than they did before

Wouldn't this also intuitively be related to the fact that a calorie today is much, much "cheaper" (in terms of labor required to acquire the calorie for both the producer and the consumer) than a calorie was even 100 years ago due to advancements in agriculture and distribution?

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#17
post #9
post #4

Well that plus the cheeseburger

Just saying "cheeseburgers" or "calories in, calories out" fails to explain why people eat more calories now than they did before. There is a vague, and I think very unhelpful, sense in society today that this is some sort of mass moral failing. In reality there are a few factors that could, alone or in combination, explain this change in average behavior. The most convincing to me: chemicals could be messing with ou…

And some of these metastidies indicate our measure of calorie may be off. Lab rats fed controlled diets with measured activity have gotten fatter over the decades. Somehow those rats are extracting more energy from their food or becoming more efficient at producing the measured amount of activity.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People ate fast food and drove everywhere in 80s/90s what changed that it's worse now?

Fast food portions being larger, poorer eating habits passed on from generation to generation, the internet, the smartphone, presumably more stress and anxiety.

Are fast food portions actually larger? I remember getting super sized combos when I was a kid (maybe even in HS, I forget when they got rid of them) but they're gone now, and on the rare occasion I get fast food the portions seem reasonable.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#19
post #9
post #4

Well that plus the cheeseburger

Just saying "cheeseburgers" or "calories in, calories out" fails to explain why people eat more calories now than they did before. There is a vague, and I think very unhelpful, sense in society today that this is some sort of mass moral failing. In reality there are a few factors that could, alone or in combination, explain this change in average behavior. The most convincing to me: chemicals could be messing with ou…

It's also much easier to eat a very high amount of calories in relatively little volume, compared to any other time in history. It's very easy to eat thousands of calories in what would be a healthy volume of vegetables. Pack more calories and people will eat more calories before they actually feel full.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#20

I've recently started taking 'liraglutide', which is an appetite suppressant. I haven't been taking it that long, but so far it's amazing -- I eat a balanced meal with an approriate amount of calories in it, and then I am full, and don't want to eat any more. Sometimes I snack and eat a biscuit, but then I don't feel any need to eat a second biscuit. I'm not saying this is a long-term solution for me, or people in ge…

'an appetite suppressant' is really underselling liraglutide. It also corrects insulin resistance, which accounts for some degree of it's effectiveness as a weight loss aid beyond it's effects on slowing the GI tract.

GLP-1 agonists are truly an amazing class of drugs. It's absolutely absurd that they're generally not covered by insurance for non-diabetics, even when they yield such obvious benefits for obese people.

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