4 ms·

>It’s true that people eat more calories today than they did in the 1960s and 70s, but the diﬀerence is quite small. Sources have a surprisingly hard time agree

>It’s true that people eat more calories today than they did in the 1960s and 70s, but the diﬀerence is quite small. Sources have a surprisingly hard time agreeing on just how much more we eat than our grandparents did, but all of them agree that it’s not much. Pew says calorie intake in the US increased from 2,025 calories per day in 1970 to about 2,481 calories per day in 2010. The USDA Economic Research Service estimates that calorie intake in the US increased from 2,016 calories per day in 1970 to about 2,390 calories per day in 2014. Neither of these are jaw-dropping increases. A 20% increase in food intake seems huge. The data I could find on weight over the same period puts people at only 15% heavier, so this seems to be underselling the difference.

imtringued 5y ago
Increased calorie intake and conversion to fat is the problem but why do humans increase their calorie intake and decide to convert their calories into fat? What button are they pressing that says "I want to be fat!".
- PicassoCTs 5y ago
  Funny Wild speculation time: In ancient times, when the times got rough, there was always a pre-crisis-phase, aka you witnessed something traumatic, but were not yet impacted by it yourself. Stressing yourself out and triggering that "horror"-phase (movies/ evening news) makes your body go into the "binge" for reserves during crisis mode. Testable Hypothesis: End of the World screaming makes you fat, Continuous bored calm and mental safety feelings make you thin.
  - taneq 5y ago
    Should be able to see a significant uptick in BMI across the population between 2019 and now if this is the case...
    - PicassoCTs 5y ago
      A correlation between BMI and media consumption would be rather blatantly obvious i guess.
      - taneq 5y ago
        I'd expect one of those regardless of stress levels / doom and gloom levels, purely due to most media inherently lowering aerobic activity.
- garganzol 5y ago
  An average consumer good contains tons of sugar by default nowadays. Being a fast carbohydrate, it fools the mind of a human into believing he/she is still hungry and thus needs more. This leads to inadequate glucose overshoots on daily basis. When the time of insulin comes (approx. 2 hours after food intake), the insulin curve is sharp and overshoots over the peak in response to monstrous amounts of glucose in the blood. Despite clearly peaking, no amount of insulin can cover all previously consumed glucose at this stage, and the rest of it gets transformed into the fat.
kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
It seems like a VERY significant increase, yet the author glided right by it. How much would he have considered to be ‘jaw-dropping’?
- Pyramus 5y ago
  This issue caught my eye as well, and I find the argumentation quite sloppy in some parts. Also see my other post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27808936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27808936 Now take several of these "insignificant" factors, add interaction effects, and we potentially get a much richer picture.
- dobin 5y ago
  If people before 1970 eaten approximately their TDEE (2000 calories?), than a 20% increase in calories eaten means something like 400 calories over TDEE per day - every day, all your life. Of course people get fat like this.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
Not to mention that jobs are more sedentary on average than they were in the 60s and 70s. So not only did we increase intake but also likely reduced expenditure.

imtringued 5y ago

Increased calorie intake and conversion to fat is the problem but why do humans increase their calorie intake and decide to convert their calories into fat? What button are they pressing that says "I want to be fat!".

PicassoCTs 5y ago
Funny Wild speculation time: In ancient times, when the times got rough, there was always a pre-crisis-phase, aka you witnessed something traumatic, but were not yet impacted by it yourself. Stressing yourself out and triggering that "horror"-phase (movies/ evening news) makes your body go into the "binge" for reserves during crisis mode. Testable Hypothesis: End of the World screaming makes you fat, Continuous bored calm and mental safety feelings make you thin.
- taneq 5y ago
  Should be able to see a significant uptick in BMI across the population between 2019 and now if this is the case...
  - PicassoCTs 5y ago
    A correlation between BMI and media consumption would be rather blatantly obvious i guess.
    - taneq 5y ago
      I'd expect one of those regardless of stress levels / doom and gloom levels, purely due to most media inherently lowering aerobic activity.
garganzol 5y ago
An average consumer good contains tons of sugar by default nowadays. Being a fast carbohydrate, it fools the mind of a human into believing he/she is still hungry and thus needs more. This leads to inadequate glucose overshoots on daily basis. When the time of insulin comes (approx. 2 hours after food intake), the insulin curve is sharp and overshoots over the peak in response to monstrous amounts of glucose in the blood. Despite clearly peaking, no amount of insulin can cover all previously consumed glucose at this stage, and the rest of it gets transformed into the fat.

kwertyoowiyop 5y ago

It seems like a VERY significant increase, yet the author glided right by it. How much would he have considered to be ‘jaw-dropping’?

Pyramus 5y ago
This issue caught my eye as well, and I find the argumentation quite sloppy in some parts. Also see my other post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27808936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27808936 Now take several of these "insignificant" factors, add interaction effects, and we potentially get a much richer picture.
dobin 5y ago
If people before 1970 eaten approximately their TDEE (2000 calories?), than a 20% increase in calories eaten means something like 400 calories over TDEE per day - every day, all your life. Of course people get fat like this.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

Not to mention that jobs are more sedentary on average than they were in the 60s and 70s. So not only did we increase intake but also likely reduced expenditure.