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Plastic might be making us obese

washingtonpost.com

271–280 of 392 posts

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

This refutes your claims https://fireinabottle.net/torpor-sloth-and-gluttony-part-1-a...

This article is pathetic.

It compares in excessive detail some old and frankly hard to follow tables to the present day guideline of 2,500 calories and makes NO EFFORT to validate whether or not that's realistic.

It also tries to use pictures from baseball game showing thin people in the front row as evidence of... something. This is still what you see today. Rich people are significantly thinner on average in america. And even in obese heavy areas, you don't see a lot of obese people walking around. Because... they're not walking.

Here's an article citing an american average of 3,600 calories consumed per day, up a whopping 24% since 1961.

https://www.businessinsider.com/american-calorie-intake-last...

Here's another article citing CDC data suggesting a 22% rise in caloric consumption leading into the year 2000.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/04news/calorie.htm

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#272
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

which part of a cheese burger is bad for you?

The burger itself is probably the healthiest part of it. It’s the bun (full of corn syrup and carbs), a massive amount of sodium, the condiments (also corn syrup), a side of fries (mostly carbs), a soda (even more corn syrup). By the time you’ve finished a decently sized burger you’ve eaten enough sugar, sodium and carbs for the entire day.

A Big Mac and large fries at McDonalds comes to 1040 calories and 102 g of carbs (9 g of which are added sugars). That's 39% of the calories coming from carbs, which is generally considered to be a moderate level of carbs in the medical literature.

Get a double Quarter Pounder with cheese instead and its 1230 calories and 101 g of carbs (10 g of which are added sugars). That's 33% of calories from carbs, which is also in the moderate carb range.

As far as the burger itself goes, a doubler Quarter Pounder with cheese is 740 calories and 41 g of carb (10 g of which is added sugars). That's 22% of calories from carbs and would count as a low carb item in much of the medical literature.

Americans tend to go overboard. They hear that cutting back on carbs has been shown to have some benefits, and they think this means they have to cut back from the 50-60% calories from carbs diets they are on to 5-10%. That is very hard since it eliminates most breads, pastas, rice, potatoes, and deserts. It is costly and/or time consuming to maintain such a diet. Most who try will fail for those reasons.

In fact much of the benefits from reducing carbs will come with a more modest reduction to around 40%, which can be achieved without having to largely give up the aforementioned foods. It is much easier to stick with it when you can still eat at most restaurants, including most fast food places.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#273
post #257
post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Shame should be a powerful motivator. It doesn’t seem to work too well in the west though.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#274
post #269
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.

Why does the Mediterranean diet work so well? Because of the socialized healthcare. (in other words: "it's not the diet dummy", just like it's not the plastic)

After living a year in Florida and then living a year in Serbia, I can't say I'm convinced it's the socialized healthcare is what makes Europeans so much skinnier than Americans.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#275
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This article is."A significant rise in obesity incidence has even been noted in laboratory rodents and primates – animals raised under strictly controlled conditions of caloric intake and exercise. The only possible factors driving weight gain for these animals, researchers believe, would be subtle chemical changes in the nature of the foods they eat, or in the materials used to build their pens."

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#276
post #249

My pet theory on obesity is how varied and delicious food is these days. Literally my grandparents ate homemade porridge, cheese sandwiches, Potatoes/Carrots/Cabbage/BeefOrPork nearly every day of their lives. No wonder they didn't over eat. New generation has a huge number of yummy dishes to choose from.

This isn't just your pet theory, it has a name and significant support - The Cafeteria Diet https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33309818/#:~:text=The%20Cafe....

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#277
post #102

Yes, plastic MIGHT be making us obese. But, we definitely know high caloric intake and sedentary lifestyle makes us obese. I don't understand why obesity is such a mystery. People are creatures of path of the least resistance. Developed countries have highly dense caloric food and people are inactive most of the day due to cars and office jobs.

"Developed countries" don't have 40% of high school students clinically obese. Only the US does.

I haven't been able to find a source claiming higher than 16% for US high school students, fwiw. I wouldn't bat an eye if europe caught up soon.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blaming plastic seems incredibly strange to me, given that plastics are practically universally present in American life but obesity itself is not universal.

Did anyone say plastic is the only factor?

They're claiming its the primary factor even though it's not obviously higher among the obese populations.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consume multiple times more sugar than the average person, and I'm thin as a rail with a healthy metabolism. Sugar in itself isn't likely to be bad. Sugar in addition to a deranged metabolism is probably bad. Fixing the deranged metabolism, (which is likely to be caused by various environmental factors) will probably be the best solution.

What's your daily caloric intake, though? It's not just sugar that's negative. Traditional diets which are high in either carbohydrates or fats are broadly ok, it's the combination which is problematic, because it's all the caloric consumption of fats at 9kcal/g along with ghrelin/insulin spiking/dropping with carbohydrates (at 4kcal/g) which is an issue, because all of a sudden daily caloric intake is much higher.

The OP’s point was that sugar is a problem in itself, so I was addressing that. You’re saying it’s total caloric intake which is a different claim. I do eat a good amount of fat, from the fudge and the dosa for example. Idk what my total caloric intake is like, but it’s probably around 2k

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

So avoid "food deserts". It's not difficult. -arbitrage > Food Desert: Urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. Yeah, just move somewhere else! Lol. This is the kind of half-baked bullshit answer I expect from reddit not from Ycomb. Troll somewhere else dude.

There is a good point to this though.

Poor people immigrate all the time, for better work, better opportunities, family, whatever.

My guess is rarely for access to higher quality food.

When I was poor I wasn’t incapable of moving.

It’s an interesting idea, migration based on quality food.

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