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Plastic might be making us obese

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#81

Post by InitialLastName »

KaiserPro wrote: post #15
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…

In the UK average calorie intake has been dropping, but thats negatively correlated to kids being fat. 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…

Not just "stranger danger", but fewer people (in the US, and AIUI increasingly other parts of the developed world) live in a place where you can do anything without driving. As a result, not only are children barred from operating independently of their parents' time, but everyone is more sedentary, by nature of replacing active travel with automotive travel at every opportunity.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#82

Post by Symmetry »

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.

A pretty thorough critique of SMTM's lithium hypothesis.

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7iAABhWpcGeP5e6SB/it-s-proba...

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#83

Post by bena »

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #63
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…

It could be both, and might even include other factors as well.

Here's the answer. It's a factor. As is sugar. No one thing is going to solve the problem, but everything helps.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#84

Post by rgrieselhuber »

JTbane wrote: post #69
loopdoend wrote: post #55

Earlier 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?

There is a great book that goes into this whole topic called Deep Nutrition. Also, anecdotally, I see a lot of correlation between PUFAs and FUPAs.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#85

Post by bombcar »

mylons wrote: post #71

is 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

I suspect it's a modifier at the edges; if X calories you gain Y weight per day, this can make that Y+(some percentage).

All these "we found the cause of obesity" dance around the problem.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#86

Post by oneoff786 »

bombcar wrote: post #72
oneoff786 wrote: post #27

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…

It's calories in/calories out for the majority - sure there's edge cases where you an discuss more "efficient" bodies, etc, but I daresay our diets are way more caloric than they used to be. And a lot of that is portion size and "added eating" between meals. I'd love to work out just how many calories the various soda companies ship a year.

Eh. I think people drastically underestimate the variance on calories absorbed (the effective amount in) and the calories used for general homeostasis and metabolism (the effective amount out) excluding exercise.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#87

Post by acuozzo »

dayvid wrote: post #64
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…

Spend 2 days and write down everything you eat or drink in a spreadsheet with calorie count (including oil and condiments). Use a digital scale if possible for more accurate measurement. The answer will be glaringly obvious. Most people don’t do this and spend their lives wondering why they can’t control their weight. Some quick culprits: sodas and juices (huge amount of calories), excess oil in food cooking (oil has…

> Most people don’t do this and spend their lives wondering why they can’t control their weight.

My experience with obese and morbidly obese individuals in the northeast US suggests to me that the problem is more related to mental health & addiction than a lack of information & education.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#88

Post by davidn20 »

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.

Re: Plastic might be making us obese

#90

Post by [deleted] »

jjallen wrote: post #65
PartiallyTyped wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And if you are looking for a biological mechanism, it might be related to epigenetics Very unlikely as afaik everything non parasitic gets broken down by our saliva and stomach acids.

That's not my understanding, at least in animals. Those who ate younger plants and/or animals lived longer. Sorry can't find a citation right now.

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