[bear141]

I have a theory that our natural state is “hungry”. We haven’t evolved past a time where getting enough food to be “full” would be a pretty rare occurrence. Everyone’s obsession with being perfectly comfortable at all times is why such an incredible amount of people die of obesity and its comorbitities every year in America.

[agumonkey]

Yeah I think so too. We were not made for comfort (especially not that amount, not that often), there needs to be a cycle between getting satisfaction and waiting/working for it.

[dontlaugh]

Plenty of people lived entire lives without being hungry most of the time, but also without obesity being common.

[bear141]

My theory is fairly broad and vague, but your comment has taken those two things to an extreme.

[dontlaugh]

I'm just pointing out that your theory is trivially disproven.

An excess of comfort is probably still bad, but I doubt it's the main cause of obesity.

[agumonkey]

It all hinges on how we define comfort. A comfy villager 500 years ago, with fruits and meat nearby was probably never really hungry, but, I'd argue:

- never the amount of processed calories at hand - had to consume these calories on a regular basis.. no vehicles, no powered tools except the occasional mill, most things required walking of lifting

[amanaplanacanal]

Obesity in the US didn’t really start taking off until the 1970s. There are plenty of people still alive from the before times. I believe that studies have been done, and people aren’t generally less active now than they were then.

[agumonkey]

But the generations prior didn't necessarily have a car. And a lot of jobs were manual labour.

I know that since I dropped using a car I'm living very different days. Less fat, better cardio, more calm.