4 ms·

If this were truly the determining factor in the American obesity crisis, we'd see similar outcomes in all developed economies (which, obviously, we don't). Le

by rlue 8y ago

If this were truly the determining factor in the American obesity crisis, we'd see similar outcomes in all developed economies (which, obviously, we don't). Let's not throw our hands in the air and blame the quirks of evolutionary biology when there are clearly better examples to follow.

janekm 8y ago
What do you mean obviously we don't. Obesity in France is at 24%, closely behind the US and the UK. And obesity is rising in countries around the world as access to "western" diets increases.
- bildung 8y ago
  The obesity rate is the US is at over 36%, so at quite a distance to France [1]. The overall rank of all countries by body mass index places the US at #9 and France at #43. [2] Evolutionary psychology is fine for producing plausible-sounding explanations, but I have not yet heard a single case where it actually produced something of scientific value. Sure, aeons of scarcity obviously made us like food. But as can be seen with this example, culture often plays a much bigger role. [1] https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/29-most-obese-countries-in-the-world.html https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/29-most-obese-countries-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_body_mass_index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_body_mass...
  - Fricken 8y ago
    Obesity rates in both France and the US are rising at similar, alarming rates. In the mid-90s the US surpassed 24% obesity rates, and at that time France was at less than 10%. This is crazy. What are we doing? Nobody chooses to be fat, except maybe sumo wrestlers and a few other strange outliers.
    - bildung 8y ago
      One successful approach seems seems to be education at schools and banning junk food there: "From 2012 to 2015, the number of overweight and obese children has dropped by 12%." https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/14/amsterdam-solution-obesity-crisis-no-fruit-juice-enough-sleep https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/14/amsterdam-so...
- rlue 8y ago
  Here is a chart from Wikimedia, showing the incidence of obesity by country in OECD countries in the period 1996-2003: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_obesity#/media/File:Obesity_country_comparison_-_path.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_obesity#/media... Rates vary from 3.2% (Japan) to 30.6%. The median value is somewhere around 13%. Clearly there is more at work than evolutionary biology/psychology.

by rlue 8y ago

janekm 8y ago

What do you mean obviously we don't. Obesity in France is at 24%, closely behind the US and the UK. And obesity is rising in countries around the world as access to "western" diets increases.

bildung 8y ago
The obesity rate is the US is at over 36%, so at quite a distance to France [1]. The overall rank of all countries by body mass index places the US at #9 and France at #43. [2] Evolutionary psychology is fine for producing plausible-sounding explanations, but I have not yet heard a single case where it actually produced something of scientific value. Sure, aeons of scarcity obviously made us like food. But as can be seen with this example, culture often plays a much bigger role. [1] https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/29-most-obese-countries-in-the-world.html https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/29-most-obese-countries-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_body_mass_index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_body_mass...
- Fricken 8y ago
  Obesity rates in both France and the US are rising at similar, alarming rates. In the mid-90s the US surpassed 24% obesity rates, and at that time France was at less than 10%. This is crazy. What are we doing? Nobody chooses to be fat, except maybe sumo wrestlers and a few other strange outliers.
  - bildung 8y ago
    One successful approach seems seems to be education at schools and banning junk food there: "From 2012 to 2015, the number of overweight and obese children has dropped by 12%." https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/14/amsterdam-solution-obesity-crisis-no-fruit-juice-enough-sleep https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/14/amsterdam-so...
rlue 8y ago
Here is a chart from Wikimedia, showing the incidence of obesity by country in OECD countries in the period 1996-2003: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_obesity#/media/File:Obesity_country_comparison_-_path.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_obesity#/media... Rates vary from 3.2% (Japan) to 30.6%. The median value is somewhere around 13%. Clearly there is more at work than evolutionary biology/psychology.