What can we do about the obesity epidemic?

[jeff47]

34. Step 1: Ignore the morons that try to use shame and other negative tactics

Last edited Sat Jul 19, 2014, 01:48 PM - Edit history (2)

I can assure you from my lifetime as a fat-ass, shame just leads to the overweight person thinking "Fuck it, I'm never going to get there. So I might as well eat this gallon of ice cream and entire large pizza".

Step 2: Have "ideal" weight based in reality.
"Ideal" weight was selected more-or-less based on the opinions of some researchers. They didn't really have the long-term data to back up where they drew the line.

Long-term data is now in. You live longest if you're mildly overweight - roughly 20 lbs over where they drew the line for "ideal".

Step 3: Realize that different people are different.
Height-weight charts are utterly fucking moronic. BMI is just a height-weight chart. Neither are a good basis for calling someone "overweight". They massively oversimplify weight to just how tall you are. Unfortunately, there's a lot more going on - some people are supposed to be larger due to things like muscle and bone mass.

Instead, you need to get a fat percentage on the person, and use that to measure how overweight they are. It's a direct measurement of what you actually want to control - excess body fat.

However, it takes more than a second to do, so people keep using BMI charts instead. BMI chart says I should weigh 140. Fat percentage says I should weigh 200. Which would make me quite obese on the BMI chart.

Step 4: Raise minimum wage.
Cheap food is crappy food. So people struggling to get by eat crappy food. More income means more money, with which then means they can actually buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

ETA Step 5: Stop pretending there is a magic demon chemical that is making people fat.
It's not eating fat that makes people fat. Low-fat foods do not magically make people thin.
It's not eating sugar that makes people fat. Low-carb foods do not magically make people thin.
Eating too many calories makes people fat. It doesn't matter what food makes up those calories.

It's really easy to eat too much low-fat food. It's also really easy to eat too much low-carb food. It's also really easy to eat too much low-protein food. Because it's easy to eat too much low-(whatever) food.

The people pushing solutions keep looking for the single magic food to solve the problem. There isn't one. It's calories in vs. calories burned. But that doesn't stop them from constantly changing the magic food.