[davebryand]

"We still need a lot of innovation to solve problems like malaria or obesity, but we are also going to be focusing more on improving the quality of life."

To solve obesity we need the opposite of innovation. Nature has delivered the perfect array of nutrition for the human animal to thrive. We have innovated ourself into obesity and the reversion to the simple truth of natural nutrition is the cure.

[beat]

"The simple truth of natural nutrition" is scarcity and starvation. Obesity is a result of the ready availability of the kinds of foods (carbs and fat) that are "naturally" hard to get, so our body hoards them when it has access. We innovated ourselves into effectively unlimited food. All diets are unhealthy if access isn't limited.

I like not going hungry on a regular basis. Most people do.

[tozeur]

Most healthy people I know aren’t chronically hungry. You’ll be chronically hungry if your diet consists of simple carbs (white bread, soda, chips).

[beat]

I mean hunger from a lack of available food, not from eating food that overstimulates your systems (the simple carbs). The solution to this is primarily education (so people make healthy choices), and availability of healthier alternatives.

That said, all of civilization is built on the ready availability of refined carbs brought about by agriculture. This isn't a modern phenomenon. The only modern thing is that suddenly our food production is outstripping population growth for the first time in ever.

[kup0]

A reversion that very few will undertake. Unless there is some kind of innovation that can affect that (social engineering? who knows)

So in light of the harsh reality that obesity is essentially a given, what CAN be done?

[davebryand]

I don't see why anything should be done. Obesity is your body telling you that you are doing food consumption wrong. If the human that is wearing a large body in life doesn't find the awareness to recognize that they must change their behavior, I don't believe society should try to innovate them a thinner body. Their currently large body is a gift from nature intended to signal that a course correction is needed. This enlarged body (which will usually come back to shape and health through corrected nutrition) is a manifestation of a more fundamental internal issue (mental or emotional). Innovating thin bodies while not addressing the internal issues will only cause more problems for this human and society at large.

[soared]

> is a manifestation of a more fundamental internal issue (mental or emotional)

This is false.

Food deserts and lack of financial/nutritional education are a major cause of obesity. Many Americans don't have quick access to grocery stores and can only purchase fast food / junk food. They literally don't have time or the ability to change what they eat. Some Americans have grocery stores but literally do not know that healthy food CAN be cheaper. They see Whole Foods and rich people eating healthy and intuitively it makes sense that it seems more expensive. These are problems outside of individuals that exist on a national and global scale.

> Distance to store and prices were positively associated with obesity (p<0.05). When distance to store and food prices were jointly modeled, only prices remained significant (p<0.01), with higher prices predicting a lower likelihood of obesity. Although low- and high-price stores did not differ in availability, they significantly differed in their display and marketing of junk foods relative to healthy foods.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074937971...

[kup0]

I've tried losing weight and eating healthier and I can always stick to doing it for a while, but always gradually start eating worse and worse again. So I am aware, and have tried, and yet it feels like there's something bigger always pulling me back to eating poorly.

Is it addiction? Is it some biological process (the body wanting to retain its new equilibrium)? Is it the fact that my taste buds tend to prefer the flavors of unhealthy food a majority of the time?

Clearly the problem is bigger than obese people being aware of their obesity and trying (and failing) to change it. There are other forces at play, and I think, difficult ones to overcome.

Separately, why not still try to innovate or do something to reduce the burden obesity places on the healthcare system (regardless of how you feel about the individuals)?

[Wowfunhappy]

> Obesity is your body telling you that you are doing food consumption wrong.

On the contrary, obesity likely exists because evolution optimized for the ability to survive long famines, which isn't a big problem in most developed nations nowadays.