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Why can't they do those things? All of them are easy steps. Sure, they take time, but so does the process of someone dropping a drug dependency. It sounds a lo

Why can't they do those things? All of them are easy steps. Sure, they take time, but so does the process of someone dropping a drug dependency. It sounds a lot as though the obese then suffer a severe addiction if they can't make even small changes to their lifestyle in order to directly save and improve their lives on both short and long term scales. If that's the case, shouldn't we be pressuring them to get help? Obviously i'm not sure how you feel about alcohol or opiate addictions, but assuming you think we should warn people of the dangers of drug overuse and addiction, shouldn't we do the same for the obese and their addictions? Also, i am rather genuinely curious on one point: What makes some people seem to have such a hard time compared to others? How come some people can consume the same food overall, but still maintain the ability to self regulate instead of greatly overeating?

leokennis 5y ago
I’m not a doctor or scientist but indeed, I could imagine that psychologically obesity is often similar to a drug addiction. So yes, help similar to alcohol or drug addicts would likely help a lot. But that’s the thing. For me it’s easy not to shoot heroin or drink 20 beers. For addicts it’s incredibly hard not to. And not for a lack of wanting to quit; they have a disease, maybe they’re on drugs to alleviate the mental pain of issues from their youth or whatever. And just like anti drug advice isn’t “well stop putting that needle in your arm, simple isn’t it?”, anti obesity advice isn’t “stop putting that cheeseburger in your mouth”.
- burnerburnito 5y ago
  Fair perspective. What I felt compelled about is that it seemed like the message was "we shouldn't tell people to stop" simply because they won't comply, whereas to me applying social pressure is a part of the education and prevention, as well as motivating people to stop by annoyance and embarassment. I'm a little short on time, so I'll also concisely say that at first I referenced addiction almost as if to show similarities and contrasts (i didn't fully consider it a real one), but now on further thought it really does seem like a true addiction...
bradknowles 5y ago
Human bodies don’t actually work that way, regardless of whatever you might think from your personal anecdotal experience. Claiming that this is a simple problem simply proves how willfully ignorant you are of the myriad of problems encountered and what kinds of solutions actually work.

leokennis 5y ago

I’m not a doctor or scientist but indeed, I could imagine that psychologically obesity is often similar to a drug addiction. So yes, help similar to alcohol or drug addicts would likely help a lot. But that’s the thing. For me it’s easy not to shoot heroin or drink 20 beers. For addicts it’s incredibly hard not to. And not for a lack of wanting to quit; they have a disease, maybe they’re on drugs to alleviate the mental pain of issues from their youth or whatever. And just like anti drug advice isn’t “well stop putting that needle in your arm, simple isn’t it?”, anti obesity advice isn’t “stop putting that cheeseburger in your mouth”.

burnerburnito 5y ago
Fair perspective. What I felt compelled about is that it seemed like the message was "we shouldn't tell people to stop" simply because they won't comply, whereas to me applying social pressure is a part of the education and prevention, as well as motivating people to stop by annoyance and embarassment. I'm a little short on time, so I'll also concisely say that at first I referenced addiction almost as if to show similarities and contrasts (i didn't fully consider it a real one), but now on further thought it really does seem like a true addiction...

bradknowles 5y ago

Human bodies don’t actually work that way, regardless of whatever you might think from your personal anecdotal experience. Claiming that this is a simple problem simply proves how willfully ignorant you are of the myriad of problems encountered and what kinds of solutions actually work.