3 ms·

So are you arguing that obesity in children is happening because we are living longer?

DanBC 12y ago
It's not controversial to say that cancer is a disease of old age, and that rates of cancer are higher now because people are living longer. That makes a lot more sense than a lot of the nutrition bullshit that gets posted to HN.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- will_work4tears 12y ago
  I agree with that, but if one of those things are right (the cancer part, maybe) but diabetes sure isn't one of those.
- tokenadult 12y ago
  Dan, I know you like to check your facts. Age-adjusted rates of cancer have been going steadily down throughout our lifetimes. That information has been posted to Hacker News before. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8827382 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8827382 Yes, the absolute number of cancer cases experienced by an individual over the course of life will increase if the individual lives longer by surviving other causes of death, as cancer is mostly a disease that takes a long time to develop. But at a given age, individuals in the developed world are at less risk than ever before to have a case of cancer, and cancer cases are less likely to have fatal outcomes than ever before.
nsxwolf 12y ago
We're not really living much longer. More people are reaching old age, pushing average life expectancy up. Remember that whenever you hear a curious claim like "But back then, 40 was considered elderly!" Never was.
tedunangst 12y ago
Children are obese because they aren't chasing chickens around the yard.
will_work4tears 12y ago
I'm kind of baffled at the downvotes here, is this not a legitimate question or method of debate? I'm not spewing tropes or memes like on reddit. I thought here it's discouraged to downvote because you disagree as well as reddit, but it seems the intellectual levels are even lower than reddit. Oh, I see, you downvote people other than the hivemind comments so that they never reach the levels to downvote themselves. I get it. Kinda sad and pathetic, but whatever, Internet numbers don't mean quite that much to me. It's additonally sad that I don't have any discreditation to my comment. You know you are wrong, but you downvote me anyway.

DanBC 12y ago

It's not controversial to say that cancer is a disease of old age, and that rates of cancer are higher now because people are living longer. That makes a lot more sense than a lot of the nutrition bullshit that gets posted to HN.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
will_work4tears 12y ago
I agree with that, but if one of those things are right (the cancer part, maybe) but diabetes sure isn't one of those.
tokenadult 12y ago
Dan, I know you like to check your facts. Age-adjusted rates of cancer have been going steadily down throughout our lifetimes. That information has been posted to Hacker News before. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8827382 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8827382 Yes, the absolute number of cancer cases experienced by an individual over the course of life will increase if the individual lives longer by surviving other causes of death, as cancer is mostly a disease that takes a long time to develop. But at a given age, individuals in the developed world are at less risk than ever before to have a case of cancer, and cancer cases are less likely to have fatal outcomes than ever before.

nsxwolf 12y ago

We're not really living much longer. More people are reaching old age, pushing average life expectancy up. Remember that whenever you hear a curious claim like "But back then, 40 was considered elderly!" Never was.

tedunangst 12y ago

Children are obese because they aren't chasing chickens around the yard.

will_work4tears 12y ago

I'm kind of baffled at the downvotes here, is this not a legitimate question or method of debate? I'm not spewing tropes or memes like on reddit. I thought here it's discouraged to downvote because you disagree as well as reddit, but it seems the intellectual levels are even lower than reddit. Oh, I see, you downvote people other than the hivemind comments so that they never reach the levels to downvote themselves. I get it. Kinda sad and pathetic, but whatever, Internet numbers don't mean quite that much to me. It's additonally sad that I don't have any discreditation to my comment. You know you are wrong, but you downvote me anyway.