4 ms·

Obesity and emotional problems appear to develop together from age 7

21 points by laurex 8y ago

AstralStorm 8y ago
Totally ignoring confounder of being ostracized by newly discovered "rules of kids". Awareness of such rules develops around this age but not the higher order ethics which would moderate certain behaviors. So, whom should the intervention be targeted at, obese kids, "evil" kids? Is this even actionable? Also the most important question is why would a 7 y.o. be obese. Caloric surplus takes a long time to accumulate after all - so essentially something is terribly wrong with their diet or something related.
mcfunk 8y ago
It's almost like both mental health and weight gain have underlying relationships to hormones, inflammation, etc which, when out of balance, can cause issues with both-- and can mutually reinforce both for endogenous and exogenous (i.e. bullying, fatphobia, discrimination) reasons.
- AstralStorm 8y ago
  I wonder why even run this analysis? Is it because someone said "being fat is no problem"? I'd rather see interventional RCTs instead for this at risk group.
  - mcfunk 8y ago
    It seems like research to show correlation between the two is a helpful step on the way to having such studies on intervention, though. I feel like the prevailing sentiment would be to consider the two separately.
pmiller2 8y ago
Interestingly enough, personality traits are pretty much solidified by age 7[0]. That suggests that 7 years old is not an arbitrary number in this study. [0]: https://www.livescience.com/8432-personality-set-life-1st-grade-study-suggests.html https://www.livescience.com/8432-personality-set-life-1st-gr...
dalore 8y ago
I really believe it's society increasing consumption of carbohydrates that causes this. Reading the literature from Tim Noakes and seeing the effects it has on kids and adults in The Magic Pill it's hard to argue that it certainly has some effect. I don't think it's "caloric surplus" as they claim. It's the wrong type of calories.
- mcfunk 8y ago
  Dr. Jason Fung and others have written some very compelling arguments for the idea that hormonal imbalance driven by both caloric makeup (too many refined carbs) and too frequent eating (market-driven obsession with snacking) are the underlying hormonal cause of obesity. And yes, we're not all simple machines, "calories in calories out" does not explain the problem.
- hprotagonist 8y ago
  For literally thousands of years, the vast majority of humanity has subsisted on bulk carbohydrates as the vast majority of their diet. Peasants ate {bread,oatmeal,congee, gruel...} and not a whole lot else, for most of recorded history, and for most of recorded history, most humans were peasants. It has to be more than just "carbs bad", because summed across population, we eat WAY LESS percentage carbs per person now than we did in 1100 AD. We eat more, period, and we exert ourselves less, and i think that's got to count for a lot.
  - apta 8y ago
    There's probably a difference between whole carbs, and the majority of what is available today in the market (refined and processed carbs). That probably plays a role here.
    - imtringued 8y ago
      Yes it basically boils down to the fact that most processed foods have added sugar or carbohydrates and you only see food that is easy to preserve in your local supermarket (whole grain flour becomes rancid quickly, food is picked unripe, etc). It's effectively fast food but without the stigma.

21 points by laurex 8y ago

Totally ignoring confounder of being ostracized by newly discovered "rules of kids". Awareness of such rules develops around this age but not the higher order ethics which would moderate certain behaviors. So, whom should the intervention be targeted at, obese kids, "evil" kids? Is this even actionable? Also the most important question is why would a 7 y.o. be obese. Caloric surplus takes a long time to accumulate after all - so essentially something is terribly wrong with their diet or something related.

mcfunk 8y ago

It's almost like both mental health and weight gain have underlying relationships to hormones, inflammation, etc which, when out of balance, can cause issues with both-- and can mutually reinforce both for endogenous and exogenous (i.e. bullying, fatphobia, discrimination) reasons.

AstralStorm 8y ago
I wonder why even run this analysis? Is it because someone said "being fat is no problem"? I'd rather see interventional RCTs instead for this at risk group.
- mcfunk 8y ago
  It seems like research to show correlation between the two is a helpful step on the way to having such studies on intervention, though. I feel like the prevailing sentiment would be to consider the two separately.

pmiller2 8y ago

Interestingly enough, personality traits are pretty much solidified by age 7[0]. That suggests that 7 years old is not an arbitrary number in this study. [0]: https://www.livescience.com/8432-personality-set-life-1st-grade-study-suggests.html https://www.livescience.com/8432-personality-set-life-1st-gr...

dalore 8y ago

I really believe it's society increasing consumption of carbohydrates that causes this. Reading the literature from Tim Noakes and seeing the effects it has on kids and adults in The Magic Pill it's hard to argue that it certainly has some effect. I don't think it's "caloric surplus" as they claim. It's the wrong type of calories.

mcfunk 8y ago
Dr. Jason Fung and others have written some very compelling arguments for the idea that hormonal imbalance driven by both caloric makeup (too many refined carbs) and too frequent eating (market-driven obsession with snacking) are the underlying hormonal cause of obesity. And yes, we're not all simple machines, "calories in calories out" does not explain the problem.
hprotagonist 8y ago
For literally thousands of years, the vast majority of humanity has subsisted on bulk carbohydrates as the vast majority of their diet. Peasants ate {bread,oatmeal,congee, gruel...} and not a whole lot else, for most of recorded history, and for most of recorded history, most humans were peasants. It has to be more than just "carbs bad", because summed across population, we eat WAY LESS percentage carbs per person now than we did in 1100 AD. We eat more, period, and we exert ourselves less, and i think that's got to count for a lot.
- apta 8y ago
  There's probably a difference between whole carbs, and the majority of what is available today in the market (refined and processed carbs). That probably plays a role here.
  - imtringued 8y ago
    Yes it basically boils down to the fact that most processed foods have added sugar or carbohydrates and you only see food that is easy to preserve in your local supermarket (whole grain flour becomes rancid quickly, food is picked unripe, etc). It's effectively fast food but without the stigma.