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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe obesity era (fascinating article)
As the American people got fatter, so did marmosets, vervet monkeys and mice. The problem may be bigger than any of us
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Of course, thats not the impression you will get from the admonishments of public-health agencies and wellness businesses. They are quick to assure us that science says obesity is caused by individual choices about food and exercise. As the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, recently put it, defending his proposed ban on large cups for sugary drinks: If you want to lose weight, dont eat. This is not medicine, its thermodynamics. If you take in more than you use, you store it. (Got that? Its not complicated medicine, its simple physics, the most sciencey science of all.)
Yet the scientists who study the biochemistry of fat and the epidemiologists who track weight trends are not nearly as unanimous as Bloomberg makes out. In fact, many researchers believe that personal gluttony and laziness cannot be the entire explanation for humanitys global weight gain. Which means, of course, that they think at least some of the official focus on personal conduct is a waste of time and money. As Richard L Atkinson, Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Wisconsin and editor of the International Journal of Obesity, put it in 2005: The previous belief of many lay people and health professionals that obesity is simply the result of a lack of willpower and an inability to discipline eating habits is no longer defensible.
Consider, for example, this troublesome fact, reported in 2010 by the biostatistician David B Allison and his co-authors at the University of Alabama in Birmingham: over the past 20 years or more, as the American people were getting fatter, so were Americas marmosets. As were laboratory macaques, chimpanzees, vervet monkeys and mice, as well as domestic dogs, domestic cats, and domestic and feral rats from both rural and urban areas. In fact, the researchers examined records on those eight species and found that average weight for every one had increased. The marmosets gained an average of nine per cent per decade. Lab mice gained about 11 per cent per decade. Chimps, for some reason, are doing especially badly: their average body weight had risen 35 per cent per decade. Allison, who had been hearing about an unexplained rise in the average weight of lab animals, was nonetheless surprised by the consistency across so many species. Virtually in every population of animals we looked at, that met our criteria, there was the same upward trend, he told me.
It isnt hard to imagine that people who are eating more themselves are giving more to their spoiled pets, or leaving sweeter, fattier garbage for street cats and rodents. But such results dont explain why the weight gain is also occurring in species that human beings dont pamper, such as animals in labs, whose diets are strictly controlled. In fact, lab animals lives are so precisely watched and measured that the researchers can rule out accidental human influence: records show those creatures gained weight over decades without any significant change in their diet or activities. Obviously, if animals are getting heavier along with us, it cant just be that theyre eating more Snickers bars and driving to work most days. On the contrary, the trend suggests some widely shared cause, beyond the control of individuals, which is contributing to obesity across many species.
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The article goes on to explore the many factors that may go in to what is causing, not just Americans, but all of humanity and other species gaining unhealthy amounts of weight. It's really a fascinating read.
https://aeon.co/essays/blaming-individuals-for-obesity-may-be-altogether-wrong
Deep State Witch
(10,478 posts)I was obese all of my life. I lost weight on a strict diet in college, but gained it all back and then some. I am now 56, and have lost about 100 pounds doing keto. I have come to understand that, while poor eating habits, heredity, and just not giving a f*ck caused the majority of my weight, there had to be some hidden trigger in there. Perhaps it was because my parents grew up during the Depression and had food insecurity in their childhoods? IDK. But this is - pardon the pun - food for thought.
unc70
(6,126 posts)I have posted a lot about this over the years. Don't have time right nw to update. Look it up.
Mysterian
(4,602 posts)I don't think there's much of a mystery regarding widespread obesity.
unblock
(52,494 posts)malaise
(269,286 posts)unblock
(52,494 posts)Without details though, yes, can't be sure.
Response to unblock (Reply #5)
malaise This message was self-deleted by its author.
unblock
(52,494 posts)I'm one of the lucky ones who never struggled with weight. But I've been around with people of all different weights, and shared meals with them, enough to notice some things.
Mainly, people who don't struggle with weight simply do not have the same hunger as those who do.
Personally, I consider food a chore. I like some foods better than others, and I can appreciate a particularly well-prepared dish, but if someone told me when I woke up that I had to fast the entire day, I'd shrug and say ok, I'm fine with that.
But I understand I'm not wired the way other people are. I've been to restaurants with people who were anxious for me to quickly find a parking spot, then who were impatient to get seating and scanned the room for the waiter, wondered where the bread was, etc.
What I realized is that other people simple feel hunger far more intensely than I do.
So when thin people insult overweight people by saying it's all due to willpower and choices, they're being judgmental about conditions they've never faced. "Willpower" is easy for me because my body never screams at me to eat. But I can certainly imagine what it must be to have your body telling you something far stronger because it's all over their faces and their tone of voice. Hunger is an imminent crisis for them.
I have to think that if I had my body telling my food was an emergency situation 3 times a day, i probably wouldn't have the "willpower" to resist that for long.
Something (or somethings) is causing hunger to have a different intensity in different people. Which makes it seem much more like a disease than a lack of "willpower".
former9thward
(32,146 posts)Why has this "intensity" for food happened in the last generation or two? What has changed?
unblock
(52,494 posts)How is it that people only lost their "willpower" in the last few generations?
On the contrary, quite a lot has changed over the last century that could affect body chemistry, hormones, appetite, our gut bacteria, and so on.
former9thward
(32,146 posts)I think 100% of the problem is processed food. That is what has changed in the last two generations. Processed food contains more calories per ounce than any other part of the food we might consume.
unblock
(52,494 posts)I know a number of people, mrs unblock included, who eat basically zero processed foods. Can't be entirely sure about restaurants we go to but certainly nothing at home.
Switching to organic and healthier food choices at home has made her feel better and healthier, but it hasn't brought her weight down. And we have many friends in the same boat.
FakeNoose
(32,897 posts)Yes it is our diet, that's the biggest factor. Other lifestyle choices such as not enough exercise, driving rather than walking, taking the elevator rather than walking up steps, etc. It's partly hereditary, partly environmental, but mostly our food and lifestyle choices.
obamanut2012
(26,182 posts)And, other countries are very close. This isn't a US thing.
Coventina
(27,223 posts)FakeNoose
(32,897 posts)Coventina
(27,223 posts)I have been to the following countries (in no particular order):
England
Scotland
Netherlands
Belgium
Germany
Italy
Japan
China
Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam
Canada
Mexico
Bettie
(16,147 posts)seeing them as human beings or reading the article.
Crunchy Frog
(26,715 posts)WhiskeyGrinder
(22,515 posts)About 40 years ago, Americans started getting much larger. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 80 percent of adults and about one-third of children now meet the clinical definition of overweight or obese. More Americans live with extreme obesity than with breast cancer, Parkinsons, Alzheimers and HIV put together.
And the medical communitys primary response to this shift has been to blame fat people for being fat. Obesity, we are told, is a personal failing that strains our health care system, shrinks our GDP and saps our military strength. It is also an excuse to bully fat people in one sentence and then inform them in the next that you are doing it for their own good. Thats why the fear of becoming fat, or staying that way, drives Americans to spend more on dieting every year than we spend on video games or movies. Forty-five percent of adults say theyre preoccupied with their weight some or all of the timean 11-point rise since 1990. Nearly half of 3- to 6- year old girls say they worry about being fat.
(snip)
The second big lesson the medical establishment has learned and rejected over and over again is that weight and health are not perfect synonyms. Yes, nearly every population-level study finds that fat people have worse cardiovascular health than thin people. But individuals are not averages: Studies have found that anywhere from one-third to three-quarters of people classified as obese are metabolically healthy. They show no signs of elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance or high cholesterol. Meanwhile, about a quarter of non-overweight people are what epidemiologists call the lean unhealthy. A 2016 study that followed participants for an average of 19 years found that unfit skinny people were twice as likely to get diabetes as fit fat people. Habits, no matter your size, are what really matter. Dozens of indicators, from vegetable consumption to regular exercise to grip strength, provide a better snapshot of someones health than looking at her from across a room.
The terrible irony is that for 60 years, weve approached the obesity epidemic like a fad dieter: If we just try the exact same thing one more time, we'll get a different result. And so its time for a paradigm shift. Were not going to become a skinnier country. But we still have a chance to become a healthier one.
Long read, but the tl;dr is, when we address obesity through programs that promote better nutrition and more exercise, people don't get skinnier, but they do get healthier and have better outcomes.
Scrivener7
(51,084 posts)built it up to where I am walking 25 miles a week most weeks for a few months now.
I track everything I eat, and have been careful not to eat any more than before I started walking. Nevertheless I have lost ZERO pounds!
I am definitely healthier and I am enjoying it a lot, but I am shocked that I have not lost weight.
marie999
(3,334 posts)MY A1C came back at 6.4 and my husband's at 6.6. Our doctor asked us do we want medication for the rest of our lives or do we want to lose weight. We both went on a diet. In June, my husband had gone from 215 to 160 and I went from 205 to 142. Both of our A1Cs are now 5.6. Our blood pressures, cholesterols, blood glucose, and triglycerides are normal. My husband has 6 bulging disks in his lower back. He is no longer in any pain. We are both in our 70s and glad we lost the weight. We intend to keep it off. The thing is, our family keeps harping on how we are too thin, he is 5'8" and I am 5'6".