4 ms·

That's not quite a tautology. A tautology would be: the reason people are rich, is because they are wealthy. What he's essentially saying is: people are fat, b

• rhinoceraptor 4y ago
  The answers that are interesting and worth discussing, are things like the introduction of hyperpalatable foods, excess oxidized omega 6 polyunsaturated fats, excess carbohydrates, excess fructose, etc., the debates rage on. The answer that is not interesting is simply saying that people take in more calories than they expend, because it it tautologically true. People now are more health-conscious than at any point in human history. Basically no one wants to be fat, yet most people are, and we have far higher rates of chronic disease.
  • Rury 4y ago
    You're entitled to find his or anyone's answer not interesting, but what he said is not a tautology. Just because it's obvious does not make it tautological. But in any case, the matter really is as simple as people eating too much nowadays. Evolutionary speaking, we didn't eat 3 meals every day, let alone all highly calorie packed ones. Food was also relatively quite scarce for much of civilization, until modern preservation techniques like refrigeration came along. Heck, we didn't have many of the palatable foods that we have today, just 50 years ago, and those which we did were not in the same abundance as they are today. Fact of the matter is, no one wants to accept that they eat too much, nor do they want to eat less when it is pleasureful, nor do they want to work at changing their habits. But it is very much a cause behind modern diseases.
    • Retric 4y ago
      Our ancestors often had an abundance of food and ate quite a lot every day even if it was relatively more expensive. But, it’s harder to be obese and have by todays standards an extremely active lifestyle. Not only do you run into limits on the digestive system but carrying extra weight means spending more energy moving that weight around. The classic lumberjack breakfast is just an insane amount of food, but you didn’t see a lot of fat lumberjacks in the 1850’s.
      • Rury 4y ago
        Our ancestors did not often have an abundance of food or eat a lot every day. Most Romans only ate 1 meal a day, and our evolutionary ancestors regularly faced days without food. Fatness was historically a signal of wealth. It was even rare to find someone fat as recent as the 1800s as you noted (and the reason had less to do with exercise than caloric intake). Really, the abundance of food didn't start happening until recent times with modern preservation techniques, industrial farming, and food processing (which also allowed for more calorie packed foods). The tractor wasn't even widespread until the 1910s, when it took 1.5 hours for horses to plow an acre of farmland. Nowadays it takes 5 minutes.