Earlier quoted context omitted.
Volatile organic compounds from upholstery and plastics in the dashboard may explain it. Spending a lot of time in trucks is like living in a mobile plastic house.
It seems insane to me that someone would think the reason truckers, who spend all day every day sitting down and eating on the go foods, are fat because their dashboards have plastic in them.
Plastic might be making us obese
341–350 of 392 posts
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#342Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I think you're right, but the the article says: "In the US, roughly 40% of today’s high school students were overweight by the time they started high school." Not sure what the source is.
Overweight is a tier below obesity. That's believable.
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#343Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems insane to me that someone would think the reason truckers, who spend all day every day sitting down and eating on the go foods, are fat because their dashboards have plastic in them.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10010...
Changes literally nothing. I have no doubt that most truckers would still be fat if they had a tank of the freshest, purest air piped directly into their lungs 24/7.
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sugar and seed oils (vegetable oils). Practically impossible to avoid especially in "food deserts".
I've seen a lot of broscience that says "seed oils and PUFAs are bad". Is there actual evidence for this?
Whether or not peer-reviewed studies show an impact on health, seed oils are just kind of gross:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfk2IXlZdbI
Compare this to making butter - shake up some cream for a little bit to separate out the buttermilk.
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#345Earlier quoted context omitted.
if you've come through that unharmed you're a miracle. shame is a fantastic motivator and holy cow is it one of the most caustic things ever to the recipient's psyche.
The most important thing in the world is leverage. And shame can make for some pretty powerful leverage. I’m a hyper critical individual especially when it comes to myself. If I didn’t work to avoid shame, it’s very likely I’d be a lot more miserable and a lot less successful.
> If I didn’t work to avoid shame, it’s very likely I’d be a lot more miserable and a lot less successful.
Ok, I am not going to say that is incorrect or anything; you know you far better than any internet strangers.
I would say that having a motivation which is based on avoiding negative outcome rather than being drawn towards positive outcome is by definition an unhealthy motivation, and that's my point about shame. It does work, it brings success, it brings money, and so on, and deep down, every last person motivated primarily by aversion to negative outcome is going to be very unhappy in their core. Those people know that just a small number of honest mistakes will bring failure and those feelings of shame, even if the source of the shame is completely internal and the mistakes that got them there trivial.
These people are not happy. Not really; they are only going in the correct direction because the bad direction is artificially acutely punitive, far more than it would be on its own.
Western culture does not recognize this very well at all; we are a results-driven society. In public, we openly scorn parents shovel shame onto their children, and the parents learn (via shame from the public) that they should simply do this privately, rather than openly. Shame begets shame.
Fear of failure should never be a stronger motivator than the desire to succeed.
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#346is it possible to be in a caloric deficit and still gain weight if this is true? or is a caloric deficit + weight loss just a thermodynamics problem
Strictly, no, but it is possible to have the expectation that your body would be burning 1700 calories a day by simply existing (using any online calculator will give you a rough idea of what your "Basal Metabolic Rate", or BMR, should be. But if you have metabolic damage, you may have a lower metabolic rate than expected, meaning that the same 1200 calories a day that should cause you to lose a lb a week is actually…
What does your exercise routine look like? If you’re going overboard on cardio you might have some better luck hitting the weights, _adding_ back in some calories in the form of extra protein and doing a bit of body recomp. It’s tough, mentally to increase calories after losing that much weight, and tougher still to see the scale increase after working for such a long time to drop weight.
The nice thing about increasing strength and muscle mass is that it’s going to burn calories for you 24/7, not just while you’re doing the activity.
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#347Overlooked throughout this discussion, afaict, is an explanation as to why animals are also getting fatter. > The problem of obesity isn't confined to just humans. A new study finds increased rates of obesity in mammals ranging from feral rats and mice to domestic pets and laboratory primates. https://www.livescience.com/10277-obesity-rise-animals.html
I’d expect pets are getting fatter because we can afford more, better pet food and treats. I mean, it’s crazy how large the selection is. Feral rats, same thing - we have a lot more food waste than we used to.
As far as laboratory animals under strict food controls, that’s a bit harder to explain, but maybe it’s a breeding/genetics thing? I dunno, some kind of sinister hidden chemical/obesegen/hormone disruptor just strikes me as a bit far-fetched.
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#348Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#349Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Doesn't Serbia have one of the highest rates of tobacco smoking in the world?
Totally. It also has friendly, hilarious, tall and broad shouldered men who love to drink and gamble on soccer, women with great fashion sense who get their nails done religiously, and some of my favorite local folk music I've ever heard. I think the point I'm trying to make is that broad, multi-faceted cultural differences that span generations are a better explanation for differing obesity rates than one single factor like the lack of socialized healthcare.
I think it takes living in Europe and also living in rural America to really understand just how different we are across the Atlantic, so broad demographic differences like this aren't something we can neatly attribute to one cause, nor should we aim to.
Re: Plastic might be making us obese
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
I lived in SE Asia for a while. Obesity is almost non-existent, though rapidly increasing for children. I tried to figure out why. Was it lifestyle? More manual labor? No, even office workers weren't obese. Running was viewed as some weird western habit. Few people went to the gym. Most just went for walks for exercise. Was it diet? Maybe. But plenty of local foods weren't exactly healthy. Mostly processed carbs. Lot…
Or they have less exposure to obesogens and therefore don't want to eat as much, leading restaurants to offer smaller portion sizes. There's a correlation, but not necessarily a causation.
Which obesogens do you imagine a place like SE is NOT exposed to? The pollution is far worse, and the food supply is even less regulated.
I'd expect far more exposure, rather than less.