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The "Chemical Hunger" hypothesis suggests that PFAS are a prime candidate for triggering the obesity epidemic. They started being introduced to the environment

The "Chemical Hunger" hypothesis suggests that PFAS are a prime candidate for triggering the obesity epidemic. They started being introduced to the environment in large quantities just as obesity rates started to rise in the late 70s and 80s, the health effects are poorly understood but seem to have an impact on weight and the endocrine system, and they can be carried downstream (obesity rates are globally higher at lower altitudes). The other best candidate is lithium grease, which has the same distributional attributes but has also been proven to increase weight and explains some of the occupational discrepancies in obesity. https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-part-i-mysteries/ https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-p...

polalavik 3y ago
Interesting, but i'd really like to see some figures on fast food growth in the 70s onwards. Not only growth in fast food, but some sort of metric of quality of ingredients (probably doesnt exist).
- hannasanarion 3y ago
  People are quick to blame fast food, but it doesn't really make sense. Fast food is as old as society, before there was hamburgers there was fish and chips, waffles, pies, pastries, fried chicken, doner, kebab, and curry, many of which can be more calorie-dense than modern fast food burgers. Ready-to-eat food restaurants were even common in ancient rome, and drive-thru burger chains blew into the mainstream in the 1920s and 1930s, but obesity didn't start rising until the 70s and 80s. It's not like sweets and calorie-dense foods were rare before the reagan administration. Just look at an old cookbook, tons of sugar and fat everywhere. Despite the availability of calorie-dense foods many people struggled to raise their weight above 23 BMI because their bodies naturally made them eat fewer calories, to the point that most weight-management pharmaseuticals were geared towards helping people gain weight. You can't explain that with fast food and food culture alone.
csours 3y ago
As an alternative, there is no one single cause of the obesity epidemic. People are made of confounding factors, and the world is very complicated. The world does not owe you simple explanations. Two books have helped me understand the obesity epidemic: Burn by Pontzer - https://www.amazon.com/Burn/dp/0241388422 https://www.amazon.com/Burn/dp/0241388422 Podcast about above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CSNS45RJL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CSNS45RJL0 Hungry Brain by Guyenet - https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Overeat/dp/125008119X https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Ov... Podcast about above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlWriMdYuKk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlWriMdYuKk
arrosenberg 3y ago
The best candidate is corn syrup and other high-calorie foods and drinks combined with an massive expansion of the road networks and the number of people working desk jobs, so fewer people are being active daily. We don't need some magic explanation for people being sedentary and fat.
- autoexec 3y ago
  You don't need magic, but you do need something that also explains why lab animals are getting fatter even when they've been on controlled diets and their activity levels haven't changed. 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...
- hannasanarion 3y ago
  But that explanation doesn't hold water. Look at any old cookbook and you'll see that the calorie content in a typical "healthy" meal has gone down not up, people used to load up every dish with tons of fat, sugar and syrup, and still struggled to gain weight. Mechanics, cops, security guards, firefighters, janitors, handymen, and personal service workers are twice as likely to be obese as high school teachers, professors, natural and social scientists, cooks, programmers, and lawyers. How can that possibly be if the principal factor is activity level? Why is obesity higher at lower altitudes if it's just about the availability of cars? Treating obesity as a cultural problem of personal moral failing is ignoring the cold hard facts: the epidemiological contour of the obesity epidemic points to a chemical contaminant that some people are exposed to more than others, not a cultural shift.
  - anonuser123456 3y ago
    > Look at any old cookbook … >not a cultural shift I think your statements are in conflict. There have been enormous shifts in food production and consumption over the last few generations.
    - hannasanarion 3y ago
lacy_tinpot 3y ago
The thing is we've introduced so much pollution into the environment that it's now incredibly difficult to see what's going on. We really need to put limits on introducing new chemical compounds into the environment.

polalavik 3y ago

Interesting, but i'd really like to see some figures on fast food growth in the 70s onwards. Not only growth in fast food, but some sort of metric of quality of ingredients (probably doesnt exist).

hannasanarion 3y ago
People are quick to blame fast food, but it doesn't really make sense. Fast food is as old as society, before there was hamburgers there was fish and chips, waffles, pies, pastries, fried chicken, doner, kebab, and curry, many of which can be more calorie-dense than modern fast food burgers. Ready-to-eat food restaurants were even common in ancient rome, and drive-thru burger chains blew into the mainstream in the 1920s and 1930s, but obesity didn't start rising until the 70s and 80s. It's not like sweets and calorie-dense foods were rare before the reagan administration. Just look at an old cookbook, tons of sugar and fat everywhere. Despite the availability of calorie-dense foods many people struggled to raise their weight above 23 BMI because their bodies naturally made them eat fewer calories, to the point that most weight-management pharmaseuticals were geared towards helping people gain weight. You can't explain that with fast food and food culture alone.

csours 3y ago

As an alternative, there is no one single cause of the obesity epidemic. People are made of confounding factors, and the world is very complicated. The world does not owe you simple explanations. Two books have helped me understand the obesity epidemic: Burn by Pontzer - https://www.amazon.com/Burn/dp/0241388422 https://www.amazon.com/Burn/dp/0241388422 Podcast about above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CSNS45RJL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CSNS45RJL0 Hungry Brain by Guyenet - https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Overeat/dp/125008119X https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Brain-Outsmarting-Instincts-Ov... Podcast about above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlWriMdYuKk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlWriMdYuKk

arrosenberg 3y ago

The best candidate is corn syrup and other high-calorie foods and drinks combined with an massive expansion of the road networks and the number of people working desk jobs, so fewer people are being active daily. We don't need some magic explanation for people being sedentary and fat.

autoexec 3y ago
You don't need magic, but you do need something that also explains why lab animals are getting fatter even when they've been on controlled diets and their activity levels haven't changed. 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...
hannasanarion 3y ago
But that explanation doesn't hold water. Look at any old cookbook and you'll see that the calorie content in a typical "healthy" meal has gone down not up, people used to load up every dish with tons of fat, sugar and syrup, and still struggled to gain weight. Mechanics, cops, security guards, firefighters, janitors, handymen, and personal service workers are twice as likely to be obese as high school teachers, professors, natural and social scientists, cooks, programmers, and lawyers. How can that possibly be if the principal factor is activity level? Why is obesity higher at lower altitudes if it's just about the availability of cars? Treating obesity as a cultural problem of personal moral failing is ignoring the cold hard facts: the epidemiological contour of the obesity epidemic points to a chemical contaminant that some people are exposed to more than others, not a cultural shift.
- anonuser123456 3y ago
  > Look at any old cookbook … >not a cultural shift I think your statements are in conflict. There have been enormous shifts in food production and consumption over the last few generations.
  - hannasanarion 3y ago

lacy_tinpot 3y ago

The thing is we've introduced so much pollution into the environment that it's now incredibly difficult to see what's going on. We really need to put limits on introducing new chemical compounds into the environment.