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Plastic might be making us obese

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#251

Post by gwbas1c »

VyseofArcadia wrote: post #92
vallassy wrote: post #52

Is it the plastic though, or is it the sugar? Over my last few years of reading, I've convinced myself that sugar is the main culprit in massive obesity in Western countries, especially the US (i.e. high fructose corn syrup). Sugar is in everything (like plastic, I suppose). Look at the ingredients of what you buy and you'll be surprised where it turns up. Peanut butter, mayonnaise, beef jerky, even bog standard brea…

> even bog standard bread Yes, we definitely have too much sugar in everything, but as an amateur baker I will defend sugar in bread. Sure, you don't need it in a baguette or a rustic boule, but it is indispensable for a nice, soft sandwich loaf. It's not there to make the bread sweeter. It makes the bread softer, it boosts the yeast for a nicer rise, and it keeps it from going stale as quickly. Granted, I don't use…

> but it is indispensable for a nice, soft sandwich loaf

There's a difference between the kind of bread you're making, and Wonder Bread. Wonder Bread is just an oversized marshmallow.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#252

Post by spywaregorilla »

tsol wrote: post #243
kccqzy wrote: post #210

If a factor can't explain why non-Hispanic Asians have much lower prevalence of obesity than any other race, I tend not to trust it. Are Asians simply using less plastic than other races? Look at the chart: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db288.pdf The chart is simply striking. We should all be investigating what are the Asians doing right that all of us should learn from.

Then why are lab rats also overweight?[1] What are they doing that asians aren't? Really I think you can't look at one single factor no matter how convincing you think it is 1- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-lab-rats-are-...

This article is not stating that lab rats are overweight. It is stating that some rats were made overweight by dosing them with these chemicals.

There was a 2010 study that did suggest lab animals were fatter than previous years. However, it was not statistically significant for rats. Only mice. It did not specify a causal factor.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#253

Post by Dalewyn »

kccqzy wrote: post #210

If a factor can't explain why non-Hispanic Asians have much lower prevalence of obesity than any other race, I tend not to trust it. Are Asians simply using less plastic than other races? Look at the chart: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db288.pdf The chart is simply striking. We should all be investigating what are the Asians doing right that all of us should learn from.

>Are Asians simply using less plastic than other races?

Considering that Japanese use an absolutely terrifying amount of plastic for food packaging and aren't landwhales, I'd say the theory from TFA's headline is bunk.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#254

Post by gwbas1c »

vallassy wrote: post #52

Is it the plastic though, or is it the sugar? Over my last few years of reading, I've convinced myself that sugar is the main culprit in massive obesity in Western countries, especially the US (i.e. high fructose corn syrup). Sugar is in everything (like plastic, I suppose). Look at the ingredients of what you buy and you'll be surprised where it turns up. Peanut butter, mayonnaise, beef jerky, even bog standard brea…

Look for real sourdough bread. ("San Francisco style") The loaf is round, and the bread has to rise more slowly.

Years ago I dug through every bread in the aisle to find the one with the least amount of sugar. I went home with a weird-looking sourdough loaf, and I've been hooked ever since.

In CA, most grocery stores carry it, because it's a local style. In MA, I have to go to Trader Joes to get it at a good price.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#255

Post by kiba »

Tade0 wrote: post #62
elil17 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think saying that physical activity accounts for the differences in weight isn't supported by the evidence. I mean, surely if eating pure honey for half your calories but exercising a bunch led to good health outcomes and lower weight, we'd see people losing weight by exercising without dieting. We don't see that. Similarly, look at their article on obesity in different professions - it does not align with who does…

There's an interesting book supporting this idea: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/603894/burn-by-herm... Basically measurements of calorie intake and burn rate indicate, that physical activity doesn't appreciably speed up metabolism. You still should exercise to avoid chronic diseases, but you can't outrun a bad diet.

You can outrun a bad diet IMHO. There's a point in which physical activity outrun the body's willingness to adjust basal metabolism.

However, it is not really practical for most people to use exercises to burn calories. Rather diets are more important and more effective.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#256

Post by Tao3300 »

jonwinstanley wrote: post #229
OJFord wrote: post #213

This is absurd. The authors should look at what some people (or perhaps they themselves, and that's the issue) have in their trolley (cart?) next time they're shopping (storing? ;)). Obesity is, for at least the most part, plainly not caused by too many/wrong pesticides on fruit and vegetables. It is caused by (far) too many things that are not fruits and vegetables.

Agreed. And it’s not like everyone is obese. There’s a large proportion of people who eat healthily, avoid processed food, keep their portion sizes regular and refrain from too much alcohol. Unsurprisingly these people are in good shape despite probably being in close proximity to the plastics/chemicals described in the article.

I'm always really skeptical of claims about obesity for more than one person. Obesity is defined in terms of BMI, which is severely limited as a metric for health. An individual with more muscle mass and higher bone density is healthier than the alternative, but their BMI will be higher. Not all body mass is bad.

This tends to confirm my own anecdata, which is that I'm not surrounded by overfat people after all. I do see morbid cases from time to time and in certain population centers. A mostly healthy population with a small number of extremely overfat cases is going to appear to have bad BMI stats on the whole.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#257

Post by imeron »

brabel wrote: post #237
kgilpin wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it lower consumption of alcohol?

Food. Just see what they eat (and how much). It really is simple as that.

Don't forget that Japanese actively shame fat people! This is very much frown upon in Western societies but it works for them I guess.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#258

Post by [deleted] »

kccqzy wrote: post #210

If a factor can't explain why non-Hispanic Asians have much lower prevalence of obesity than any other race, I tend not to trust it. Are Asians simply using less plastic than other races? Look at the chart: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db288.pdf The chart is simply striking. We should all be investigating what are the Asians doing right that all of us should learn from.

[deleted]

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#259

Post by jabroni_salad »

kccqzy wrote: post #210

If a factor can't explain why non-Hispanic Asians have much lower prevalence of obesity than any other race, I tend not to trust it. Are Asians simply using less plastic than other races? Look at the chart: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db288.pdf The chart is simply striking. We should all be investigating what are the Asians doing right that all of us should learn from.

Well if you want the One Number That Affects Asians, I think what stands out to me the most is the prevalence of lactose intolerance over there, approaching 90% the more easterly you go. They just do not do very much dairy.

Less scientific, but a couple years ago I decided to transition to a more meat-lite diet and ended up turning to Asian cookbooks to make that happen. Veg entrees are just a novelty to western cuisines and everyone is stunlocked on meat substitutes instead of just doing well with the stuff that grows right out of the ground.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#260

Post by Melatonic »

kccqzy wrote: post #210

If a factor can't explain why non-Hispanic Asians have much lower prevalence of obesity than any other race, I tend not to trust it. Are Asians simply using less plastic than other races? Look at the chart: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db288.pdf The chart is simply striking. We should all be investigating what are the Asians doing right that all of us should learn from.

I would say food - most asian people I know (even ones that eat a pretty western diet) still randomly incorporate a lot of things that are Real Foods or processed type foods that are close to Real Foods. They also eat a lot (generally) more mushrooms and fermented food (and great variety of fermented food - not just yeast based stuff like yogurt).

Does it really make sense that Western diets basically just ignore a whole kingdom of foods? Plants, Animals, Fungi. Those are the three. Why do we eat so few of the latter?

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