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Plastic might be making us obese

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#21

Post by scarmig »

CharlieDigital wrote: post #16
elil17 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

To an extent, but we're 10x richer than we were in 1900; we do not eat 10x as many calories. And it's poor people who eat more calories now, not rich people.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#23

Post by omginternets »

sithadmin wrote: post #20
CJefferson wrote: post #8

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.

>It also corrects insulin resistance

Is liraglutide doing that directly, or is it mediated by people eating less sugar?

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#25

Post by dstick »

CJefferson wrote: post #8

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…

Interesting. Does that help with all forms of caloric intake? Alcoholic / sugar beverages included?

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#26

Post by psychphysic »

sithadmin wrote: post #20
CJefferson wrote: post #8

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.

Within the UK they remain restricted too.

However, more and more at target populations i.e. obesity + diabetes/obesity related secondary condition or even at risk for diabetes i.e. ethnicity based.

Are being offered these treatments.

It really will be a new age for obese patients.

The first and exercise tactic is a lost battle, ideally we'd be bringing up a generation that can manage their weight but we've failed at that. This is a really good option.

Metformin is similarly excellent drug even in absence of diabetes.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#27

Post by oneoff786 »

elil17 wrote: post #6

A very long series of essays about this: https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-p... The authors take the view that obesogens account for 100% or nearly 100% of the rise in obesity, which is definitely a controversial view. However, they do an awesome job giving an overview of the arguments for obesogens.

I find this to be a pretty lame analysis.

> People in the 1800s did have diets that were very different from ours. But by conventional wisdom, their diets were worse, not better. They ate more bread and almost four times more butter than we do today. They also consumed more cream, milk, and lard. This seems closely related to observations like the French Paradox — the French eat a lot of fatty cheese and butter, so why aren’t they fatter and sicker?

Lard doesn’t make you fat. If anything it fills you up so you eat less and gain less weight. A lot more of the prior generations were also laborers which this acknowledges but really underplays.

The section on why hunter gatherers aren’t obese is answered by the fact that they are hunting and gathering.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#29

Post by Auracle »

CJefferson wrote: post #8

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…

I’m not overweight and I tried liraglutide for other reasons and it had the same effect on me.

Obviously it’s the whole “is your blue my blue?” conundrum, but at least some of us that aren’t overweight could also eat all day too. Dieting for anyone is hard. It seems like once you go below what your body is used to you’re going for be super hungry.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#30

Post by mathewsanders »

pc86 wrote: post #18
lancesells wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I moved from New Zealand to the United States and one of my early culture shocks was the large portion sizes. I’d order food to go and it would easily be two meals.

I wondered if it was some sort of expectation that when you ordered food at a restaurant that there was always excess you could take home in a ‘doggy bag’ which seems to be fairly common in the US but not typical in my experience in NZ or Australia.

I’ve definitely become accustomed to it and I can now eat that full American sized serving :(

Funnily enough, most of the time the cheeseburgers are smaller here in the US than NZ!

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