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But they were relatively expensive and scarce. And no-one is getting fat by drinking litres of olive oil or eating tubs of butter. It's a combination of more

But they were relatively expensive and scarce. And no-one is getting fat by drinking litres of olive oil or eating tubs of butter. It's a combination of more high-calorie convenience foods and a more sedentary lifestyle than even just 50 years ago.

kragen 3y ago
the fact that no-one is getting fat by drinking litres of olive oil would seem to conclusively disprove your hypothesis as previously stated the cost of edible oil has not been a bar to access to calorie-dense foods for at least centuries if not millennia clearly the proximate cause of obesity is eating more and metabolizing less (both by way of lower exercise and lower basal metabolism). but why are people doing that? did they lose the gene for willpower in a single generation? that seems implausible it seems to closely follow industrially-mass-produced foods, but the relevant feature of those foods is clearly not that they are more convenient or higher in calorie density than a can of crisco or an amphora of olive oil; they aren't
- nullindividual 3y ago
  Olive oil is a natural laxative. If you're gaining weight on olive oil, I'd be impressed, beyond how one would keep it down due to taste and texture. People aren't gaining weight on olive oil because people aren't consuming it in mass quantities required to gain weight, if one could even do so after having your intestines coated by oil. But many are consuming highly processed foods which is shown to lead to less optimal health outcomes. > clearly Clearly a post on HN doesn't make for a scientific study!
  - kragen 3y ago
    clearly it's true about the laxative effect! you'd have to use a different oil. and it's true that steatorrhea ensues if you try to get all your calories from fat but things like halvah, lemonade, buttercream frosting, and white chocolate are still a lot older than the obesity pandemic
    - nullindividual 3y ago
      None of those would have been common as we know them today. Refined sugar was expensive until ~industrialization. And HFCS simply didn't exist, which is what people are really discussing when they talk about sugar, refined foods, and the obesity epidemic.
      - kragen 3y ago
        industrialization was still 100 years before the obesity pandemic the hypothesis that hfcs is significantly different in its nutritional effects from sucrose was interesting and has some anecdotal support but is not well supported by evidence so far 'refined foods' have many other nontraditional ingredients introduced around the same time as hfcs, like polyethylene glycol, and we might actually be talking about those instead
cyclever 3y ago
Right, no one is getting fat because of fat! It's the catbohydrates that make you fat! And humans eat butter and olive oil since climbing down the trees. Eating fruit and cane is a world domination scheme by the oppressing caste.

kragen 3y ago

the fact that no-one is getting fat by drinking litres of olive oil would seem to conclusively disprove your hypothesis as previously stated the cost of edible oil has not been a bar to access to calorie-dense foods for at least centuries if not millennia clearly the proximate cause of obesity is eating more and metabolizing less (both by way of lower exercise and lower basal metabolism). but why are people doing that? did they lose the gene for willpower in a single generation? that seems implausible it seems to closely follow industrially-mass-produced foods, but the relevant feature of those foods is clearly not that they are more convenient or higher in calorie density than a can of crisco or an amphora of olive oil; they aren't

nullindividual 3y ago
Olive oil is a natural laxative. If you're gaining weight on olive oil, I'd be impressed, beyond how one would keep it down due to taste and texture. People aren't gaining weight on olive oil because people aren't consuming it in mass quantities required to gain weight, if one could even do so after having your intestines coated by oil. But many are consuming highly processed foods which is shown to lead to less optimal health outcomes. > clearly Clearly a post on HN doesn't make for a scientific study!
- kragen 3y ago
  clearly it's true about the laxative effect! you'd have to use a different oil. and it's true that steatorrhea ensues if you try to get all your calories from fat but things like halvah, lemonade, buttercream frosting, and white chocolate are still a lot older than the obesity pandemic
  - nullindividual 3y ago
    None of those would have been common as we know them today. Refined sugar was expensive until ~industrialization. And HFCS simply didn't exist, which is what people are really discussing when they talk about sugar, refined foods, and the obesity epidemic.
    - kragen 3y ago
      industrialization was still 100 years before the obesity pandemic the hypothesis that hfcs is significantly different in its nutritional effects from sucrose was interesting and has some anecdotal support but is not well supported by evidence so far 'refined foods' have many other nontraditional ingredients introduced around the same time as hfcs, like polyethylene glycol, and we might actually be talking about those instead

cyclever 3y ago

Right, no one is getting fat because of fat! It's the catbohydrates that make you fat! And humans eat butter and olive oil since climbing down the trees. Eating fruit and cane is a world domination scheme by the oppressing caste.