4 ms·

I love how we will blame anything besides admitting we stuff our holes too often, know it, and still don't stop doing it. Excessive food, especially sugar, is t

by 0des 5y ago

I love how we will blame anything besides admitting we stuff our holes too often, know it, and still don't stop doing it. Excessive food, especially sugar, is the biggest undercurrent in harmful substances in our modern age and hardly anybody wants to do anything about it.

shiftpgdn 5y ago
Because that’s a lazy idea. Do you really think everyone everywhere suddenly all at once decided to eat more and walk less?
- pizza234 5y ago
  There's no mention of "sudden change" in parent's post. The reference is to "modern age", which is consistent: shift from manual to sedentary job, increase of processed foods, increase of food availability, increase of pressure from industry to eat more and more processed foods; it's a very linear phenomenon.
- bamboozled 5y ago
  Probably yes, you can click a button and have pretty much anything you need delivered the same day (in some places).
- nicoburns 5y ago
  Not everywhere, but it certainly seems like that's happened in the US. Most people I know (from here in the UK) who have been on trips to the US have come back shocked at both the portion sizes and the lack of opportunities for exercise in everyday activities (apparently this is a lot to do with a culture of driving everywhere). And if it was a longer trip (weeks/months), they've often also put on a noticeable amount of weight that they then quickly lose once they're back home.
  - arethuza 5y ago
    The very first thing I ate in the US (in 1995) was a club sandwich - it was huge and had been battered, deep fried and served sprinkled with icing sugar. Even by Scottish standards that seemed a bit much!
- namlem 5y ago
  Yes? Suburban, car-centric lifestyles have become the norm.
- spywaregorilla 5y ago
  Average american calorie consumption was up 24% between 1961 and 2013. Can you increase your caloric intake by 24% without putting on weight? edit: src https://www.businessinsider.com/daily-calories-americans-eat-increase-2016-07 https://www.businessinsider.com/daily-calories-americans-eat...
  - pc86 5y ago
    Not only that but I'll bet my next ten paychecks the average American is more sedentary in 2013 than they were in 1961. So I would expect the net surplus calorie increase to be a lot more than 24%.
- throwawaylinux 5y ago
  Changes in food, availability, cost, marketing, etc would be obvious things that could cause it. Whereas plastics -- When you look at the staggering amount of plastics pollution coming out of rivers in East and South East Asian and the subcontinent, it correlates pretty well with some of the lowest obesity rates in the world.
- brimble 5y ago
  Unlimited free refills on sodas at restaurants didn't become normal to the point of being the expected default, IIRC, until the mid 90s or later. I think the effects of the unlimited-refills thing, and (relatedly) of to-go soda cup sizes becoming insanely large, doesn't explain the whole thing but probably is a big enough factor to be worth looking at.
  - pc86 5y ago
    "More soda" probably doesn't explain population-level changes over the course of a half century or more.
    - brimble 5y ago
      Doesn't take very many more calories per day (on average) to pack on a lot of pounds over a few years. And soda doesn't fill you up.
yourapostasy 5y ago
> I love how we will blame anything besides... When talking statistical trends, keep in mind that even animals in tightly-controlled settings are getting obese in aggregate [1]. This is scientifically curious. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/10/its-not-just-us-even-american-animals-are-getting-fatter/310063/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/10/its-not...
yourusername 5y ago
The question is why we stuff our holes too often now. It is not just availability of food. Even comparing to the 1970's or 1980's when food was already widely available and cheap obesity prevalence is still increasing. The shift from manual labour to sedentary jobs doesn't explain it. Office workers in the 1980's on average were less obese than the general population now and even people with physical jobs (construction workers) are more often obese.
- yoyohello13 5y ago
  Maybe it's a combination of sedentary jobs and also sedentary leisure. In the 1970s or 1980s people didn't have the plethora of activities we have today that involve staring at a screen.
  - b112 5y ago
    Maybe, but, I remember newspapers saying things like "Americans now watch an average of 5 hours a day of TV", in the 80s. And the term "couch potato" was common. And all the snacks we have now, existed then...
    - throwawayboise 5y ago
      In the 1980s, fat (the dietary kind) became evil. All the prepared foods that were high in fat started to reformulate. What did they replace it with so it still tasted good? Sugar, primarily corn syrup. "Fat Free" became the label they wanted. The prepared and snack foods of the 1970s often had sugar, but by the 1990s more of the products had a lot more, and more of it was HFCS not the more expensive cane sugar.
- pxeboot 5y ago
  Obesity has become far more socially acceptable since the 70's/80's. Being the "fat kid" at school was a big deal back then. Now it is completely normal in many places.
  - PuppyTailWags 5y ago

by 0des 5y ago

shiftpgdn 5y ago

Because that’s a lazy idea. Do you really think everyone everywhere suddenly all at once decided to eat more and walk less?

pizza234 5y ago
There's no mention of "sudden change" in parent's post. The reference is to "modern age", which is consistent: shift from manual to sedentary job, increase of processed foods, increase of food availability, increase of pressure from industry to eat more and more processed foods; it's a very linear phenomenon.
bamboozled 5y ago
Probably yes, you can click a button and have pretty much anything you need delivered the same day (in some places).
nicoburns 5y ago
Not everywhere, but it certainly seems like that's happened in the US. Most people I know (from here in the UK) who have been on trips to the US have come back shocked at both the portion sizes and the lack of opportunities for exercise in everyday activities (apparently this is a lot to do with a culture of driving everywhere). And if it was a longer trip (weeks/months), they've often also put on a noticeable amount of weight that they then quickly lose once they're back home.
- arethuza 5y ago
  The very first thing I ate in the US (in 1995) was a club sandwich - it was huge and had been battered, deep fried and served sprinkled with icing sugar. Even by Scottish standards that seemed a bit much!
namlem 5y ago
Yes? Suburban, car-centric lifestyles have become the norm.
spywaregorilla 5y ago
Average american calorie consumption was up 24% between 1961 and 2013. Can you increase your caloric intake by 24% without putting on weight? edit: src https://www.businessinsider.com/daily-calories-americans-eat-increase-2016-07 https://www.businessinsider.com/daily-calories-americans-eat...
- pc86 5y ago
  Not only that but I'll bet my next ten paychecks the average American is more sedentary in 2013 than they were in 1961. So I would expect the net surplus calorie increase to be a lot more than 24%.
throwawaylinux 5y ago
Changes in food, availability, cost, marketing, etc would be obvious things that could cause it. Whereas plastics -- When you look at the staggering amount of plastics pollution coming out of rivers in East and South East Asian and the subcontinent, it correlates pretty well with some of the lowest obesity rates in the world.
brimble 5y ago
Unlimited free refills on sodas at restaurants didn't become normal to the point of being the expected default, IIRC, until the mid 90s or later. I think the effects of the unlimited-refills thing, and (relatedly) of to-go soda cup sizes becoming insanely large, doesn't explain the whole thing but probably is a big enough factor to be worth looking at.
- pc86 5y ago
  "More soda" probably doesn't explain population-level changes over the course of a half century or more.
  - brimble 5y ago
    Doesn't take very many more calories per day (on average) to pack on a lot of pounds over a few years. And soda doesn't fill you up.

yourapostasy 5y ago

> I love how we will blame anything besides... When talking statistical trends, keep in mind that even animals in tightly-controlled settings are getting obese in aggregate [1]. This is scientifically curious. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/10/its-not-just-us-even-american-animals-are-getting-fatter/310063/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/10/its-not...

yourusername 5y ago

The question is why we stuff our holes too often now. It is not just availability of food. Even comparing to the 1970's or 1980's when food was already widely available and cheap obesity prevalence is still increasing. The shift from manual labour to sedentary jobs doesn't explain it. Office workers in the 1980's on average were less obese than the general population now and even people with physical jobs (construction workers) are more often obese.

yoyohello13 5y ago
Maybe it's a combination of sedentary jobs and also sedentary leisure. In the 1970s or 1980s people didn't have the plethora of activities we have today that involve staring at a screen.
- b112 5y ago
  Maybe, but, I remember newspapers saying things like "Americans now watch an average of 5 hours a day of TV", in the 80s. And the term "couch potato" was common. And all the snacks we have now, existed then...
  - throwawayboise 5y ago
    In the 1980s, fat (the dietary kind) became evil. All the prepared foods that were high in fat started to reformulate. What did they replace it with so it still tasted good? Sugar, primarily corn syrup. "Fat Free" became the label they wanted. The prepared and snack foods of the 1970s often had sugar, but by the 1990s more of the products had a lot more, and more of it was HFCS not the more expensive cane sugar.
pxeboot 5y ago
Obesity has become far more socially acceptable since the 70's/80's. Being the "fat kid" at school was a big deal back then. Now it is completely normal in many places.
- PuppyTailWags 5y ago