Well that plus the cheeseburger
People ate fast food and drove everywhere in 80s/90s what changed that it's worse now?
Plastic might be making us obese
11–20 of 392 posts
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#12Seems impossible to avoid I guess?
A solution would include medical therapies in addition to avoidance.
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#13Well that plus the cheeseburger
People ate fast food and drove everywhere in 80s/90s what changed that it's worse now?
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
#14Well that plus the cheeseburger
The large fries and enormous glass of corn syrup aren't welded to the burger, which has a perfectly fine nutritional profile for an entree.
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#15Well 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…
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
#16Well 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…
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
#17Well 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…
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#18Earlier 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.
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#19Well 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…
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#20I'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…
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.