4 ms·

Highly unlikely. The obesity epidemic is very well explained by diet and lifestyle choices, and regional variations in average body mass correlate with these e

Highly unlikely. The obesity epidemic is very well explained by diet and lifestyle choices, and regional variations in average body mass correlate with these explanatory variable pretty well.

mitchdoogle 4y ago
So people just started making different choices the last fifty years?
- appletrotter 4y ago
  Yes! People eat differently now than in the 70s!
  - aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
    It's a feedback loop.
- throwawayboise 4y ago
  Yes. People and jobs are more sedentary. Kids sit in front of screens instead of riding bikes to the park and playing ball or just running around. Fat in prepared foods has been reduced, replaced with corn syrup. Portion sizes for food and drink at restaurants have probably close to doubled since the 1970s. We are less active and we're eating more. Thus we got fat.
  - higgsbozo 4y ago
    Exactly. Fats were deemed the enemy #1 and the problem with corn syrup has relatively only recently been brought to public's attention. A friend of mine from Europe spent the summer in Florida riding bike all day long under a swelling sun, selling encyclopedias. He should have lost weight, but he came back with puffy cheeks and belly. I blame corn syrup for that :)
    - meowzero 4y ago
      Not corn syrup. He probably ate well while he was vacationing in Europe. Exercise doesn't really burn as much calories as people think. I did similar things where I probably had 10k steps a day in Europe because we walked everywhere all the time. We also ate a lot and often. So my weight didn't change. Heck, I thinks some people gained.
- Melatonic 4y ago
  Plot the rise of computer related desk jobs on a graph and then overlay that with the same graph for obesity. Obviously not the sole cause but they line up pretty nicely
  - mcguire 4y ago
    You might try adding the number of McDonald's locations and their revenue. I have a hypothesis.
    - olyjohn 4y ago
      God, now I want a Big Mac.
      - pbhjpbhj 4y ago
        Advertising, it's an insidious evil.
jnwatson 4y ago
This is largely debunked by a paper posted on HN a while back I can’t seem to find right now. Even our pets are getting fat. Previous experiments both natural and manmade indicate that homeostasis prevents long term weight gain in situations of high caloric availability. The conclusion of the paper was that something was introduced into the environment in the 70s that is disrupting humans’ and nearby mammals’ homeostasis mechanisms.
- titzer 4y ago
  Lazy people have lazy pets.
- spywaregorilla 4y ago
  You mean the dogs eating corn based diets?

Highly unlikely. The obesity epidemic is very well explained by diet and lifestyle choices, and regional variations in average body mass correlate with these explanatory variable pretty well.

mitchdoogle 4y ago

So people just started making different choices the last fifty years?

appletrotter 4y ago
Yes! People eat differently now than in the 70s!
- aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
  It's a feedback loop.
throwawayboise 4y ago
Yes. People and jobs are more sedentary. Kids sit in front of screens instead of riding bikes to the park and playing ball or just running around. Fat in prepared foods has been reduced, replaced with corn syrup. Portion sizes for food and drink at restaurants have probably close to doubled since the 1970s. We are less active and we're eating more. Thus we got fat.
- higgsbozo 4y ago
  Exactly. Fats were deemed the enemy #1 and the problem with corn syrup has relatively only recently been brought to public's attention. A friend of mine from Europe spent the summer in Florida riding bike all day long under a swelling sun, selling encyclopedias. He should have lost weight, but he came back with puffy cheeks and belly. I blame corn syrup for that :)
  - meowzero 4y ago
    Not corn syrup. He probably ate well while he was vacationing in Europe. Exercise doesn't really burn as much calories as people think. I did similar things where I probably had 10k steps a day in Europe because we walked everywhere all the time. We also ate a lot and often. So my weight didn't change. Heck, I thinks some people gained.
Melatonic 4y ago
Plot the rise of computer related desk jobs on a graph and then overlay that with the same graph for obesity. Obviously not the sole cause but they line up pretty nicely
- mcguire 4y ago
  You might try adding the number of McDonald's locations and their revenue. I have a hypothesis.
  - olyjohn 4y ago
    God, now I want a Big Mac.
    - pbhjpbhj 4y ago
      Advertising, it's an insidious evil.

jnwatson 4y ago

This is largely debunked by a paper posted on HN a while back I can’t seem to find right now. Even our pets are getting fat. Previous experiments both natural and manmade indicate that homeostasis prevents long term weight gain in situations of high caloric availability. The conclusion of the paper was that something was introduced into the environment in the 70s that is disrupting humans’ and nearby mammals’ homeostasis mechanisms.

titzer 4y ago
Lazy people have lazy pets.
spywaregorilla 4y ago
You mean the dogs eating corn based diets?