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My view is that you are wrong and your attitude represents the problem we have. We already know that weight gain is caused by eating too much. This was shown i

My view is that you are wrong and your attitude represents the problem we have. We already know that weight gain is caused by eating too much. This was shown in countless studies (where the amount eaten was actually monitored and not self-reported). The studies also show quite small variations in metabolism among individuals (https://examine.com/nutrition/does-metabolism-vary-between-two-people/ https://examine.com/nutrition/does-metabolism-vary-between-t...) If we accepted this information and stop pussyfooting about the issue we could take real steps to solve the problem. There are two major areas which could be improved: access to information and education. In my view the most important things to have are: -mandatory calorie information on any food sold, in case of fresh produce they should at least be available online, everything else should be labelled, especially in restaurants/food stands -educating children about counting calories, estimating calorie needs, direct cause/effect relation between amounts eaten and weight loss/gain, strategies to track food intake, health and mental health risk of gaining weight etc. Obesity is a big problem, especially for young people. Your health suffers, your self-esteem and mental health suffer, you become a burden to other people in your life who need to take care of you or interact with you in many situations. If you become obese and you never tracked your food intake it's a huge failure of education system, it's like getting scurvy because you didn't know you need Vitamin C to prevent it.

overgard 10y ago
Well hold on, mandatory calorie information is already available on basically every processed food. The only things that don't have that are actual raw whole foods, which frankly aren't the problem. ("Couldn't control my broccoli intake! I was eating too many salads!" said no fat person ever). There's also already a massive amount of "education" of children. We all had to learn the (extremely flawed) food pyramid and now they're pushing "MyPlate" with the same zeal. This was all rammed down our throats when I was in high school 15 years ago, so I can only imagine that the focus has increased in recent years given current trends. Your link isn't exactly concrete proof since it's evidently promotional text from a vitamin store? I've never seen someone try to use promotional copy as scientific evidence before.

overgard 10y ago

Well hold on, mandatory calorie information is already available on basically every processed food. The only things that don't have that are actual raw whole foods, which frankly aren't the problem. ("Couldn't control my broccoli intake! I was eating too many salads!" said no fat person ever). There's also already a massive amount of "education" of children. We all had to learn the (extremely flawed) food pyramid and now they're pushing "MyPlate" with the same zeal. This was all rammed down our throats when I was in high school 15 years ago, so I can only imagine that the focus has increased in recent years given current trends. Your link isn't exactly concrete proof since it's evidently promotional text from a vitamin store? I've never seen someone try to use promotional copy as scientific evidence before.