| Obesity is an epidemic in the US. The observable results are somewhat consistent with a contagious disease. Adenovirus 36 has been shown to cause long-term obesity in lab animals. Gut microbiome comparative studies have shown a marked difference between the intestinal flora of fat people and skinny people. Additional environmental factors are in play. Car culture in the US reduces the necessity for daily exercise in comparison to walkable city infrastructure elsewhere in the world. The US uses a lot of chemically altered corn syrup in prepared foods in lieu of other sugars. Agricultural practices differ between the US and other nations, particularly with respect to allowable herbicides and pesticides. Real inflation-adjusted disposable income has been declining in the US since about 1970, and poorer people have less healthy diets. Parenting culture has changed since 1970, such that children left to play outside (aka exercise) without direct adult supervision may actually get a parent arrested. People have increased their consumption of sedentary entertainments, and reduced the time that they typically sleep. The only way to really figure out which factors contribute most to increases in obesity is by objective analysis of unbiased data. That will lead to actual, testable hypotheses, which will in turn lead to solutions that actually work to reduce the public health risks represented by excess adiposity. Telling every fat person "hey fatty, go lose some fat" may seem like a simple and easy solution on its face, but it really is a lot more complex and difficult than that. No one is denying that fat people would be healtier if they were skinnier, or that they do want to be less fat. Very few fat people actually want to be fat, and most do take active measures to try to become less fat. But no one apparently knows with certainty why those measures--often the exact same measures employed by skinny people to avoid becoming fat--do not always work. When people dismiss those discrepancies as "not trying hard enough" rather than "potential research opportunity", that does not advance the human knowledge in this domain that would allow us to better address obesity on a worldwide scale rather than piecemeal. |
What I get pissed off at, is the insistence on some people around here that if you cannot quote scientific articles from memory, then you must be lying and your opinion should be disregarded.
There's lots we don't know about human biology. It does not mean we should go find somewhere to roll and die of whatever ill is affecting us. Somehow we need to make decisions and take actions under incomplete and inaccurate information.
Maybe my grandchildren will benefit from the enhanced understanding you talk about, and I will be grateful for it. But this does not change the fact that I need to address my own problem today.