[kiba]

We're going to need to medicate our way of the problem while waiting for a public healthy policy that actually works.

It's not like we didn't try, but what we tried didn't work and never really iterated toward something that works.

[tourmalinetaco]

The reason nothing has worked is because food companies, who pay out massively to regulators, rewire our basic desires to make us buy more of their sugary slop. And now, we have medical companies, who also pay out heavily, trying to cash in even more. I highly suggest reading “ Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us“ by Michael Moss, and “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite” by David A. Kessler, former head of the FDA.

[thefz]

Replace obesity with smoking as a simple exercise to understand how absurd these takes sound.

"It's not that I don't want to stop smoking, but the cigarette companies put chemicals in that keep me addicted"

"I live in an environment that pushes me to smoke"

"I wish the policymakers would stop me from smoking"

"I smoke because my genes tell me so"

[kiba]

Life is more complicated than a simple of binary of having responsibility and not having responsibility for a certain affliction such as smoking addiction. Often it's a varying mixture of both.

We should be working to pragmatically solve problems, not playing unhelpful blame game. Doctors don't go around trying to make sure that their patients are first virtuous in their self care. They get on with the business of medicine and do their best.

We now have a powerful drug that help with obesity. Let's make use of that when nothing else accomplish the job as we work on other alternatives such as better regulations, psychological health, etc.

[saagarjha]

This is actually how we tackle smoking in a large part. There's a lot of regulation on smoking!

[kwhitefoot]

> "It's not that I don't want to stop smoking, but the cigarette companies put chemicals in that keep me addicted"

> "I live in an environment that pushes me to smoke"

But those two things are true. The nicotine is addictive and being surrounded by other smokers, smoking materials, smoking in films and on television, all compounded to make smoking more attractive. Plenty of smokers offered me cigarettes when i was in my teens.

[snapcaster]

This is a very simplified view of the world. You realize humans aren't rational automatons right? Everything you mockingly posted is a real factor in real humans lives regardless of how "dumb" you think it is. When designing policies for society/everyone you have to meet people where they are. Your strategy of claiming everything is personal responsibility has provably not worked so maybe propose a different idea instead of just mocking the things that actually have worked

[tourmalinetaco]

I’m sorry, what is even your point? Are you trying to claim that obesity is not a problem caused by megacorps by pointing to a health problem that was and is caused by megacorps? Are you trying to say that cigarettes don’t actively contain an addiction chemical, namely nicotine? I actually have had people claim this, as they were tricked by cigarette companies, so it wouldn’t shock me if you thought something so stupid.

[tomcar288]

It works for me. The secret is simple: Eat food, real food. the trick is to know what real food is (6 main food groups: Beans, whole grains, veg, fruits, nuts/seeds, tubers)

[tourmalinetaco]

Ignoring the fact that half of those are the same things, science has proven beyond any doubt that a high variety diet of animal and plant-based foods, at a caloric deficit, is best for the body. Choosing one or the other is slowly killing yourself by removing important vitamins and nutrients from your diet.

[JumpCrisscross]

> secret is simple: Eat food, real food

This is modern voodoo.

I’ve eaten terrifically and exercised regularly. I’ve also been a slob and ordered Uber Eats from bed for a week. I don’t gain much weight either way. When I have, I can lose it within a week. (My figure changes. But not enough that clothes don’t fit.)

This isn’t because I follow some magic (ex post facto obvious in some way) diet. It’s my biology. Other people have different biologies that will save calories irrespective of the source and use; their basal metabolism adjusts to ensure they’re burning less than they eat, all the way to starvation.

In a calorie-deficit environment, or one stricken by plague that disease out digestion while the immune system goes full blast, I die first. In a calorie-rich and vaccinated world, they do. (Even then, mortality is higher amid low BMIs than moderate ones, largely due to disease outcomes.)

[jghn]

Indeed. Around the time that Supersize Me came out I was looking to lose some weight. To prove a point to my friends I did this by going on a fast food diet. Unlike Spurlock, I actually tracked my calorie intake and this affected what I ordered. However, every meal came from one of McDs, BK, or Wendy's as there was one of each in my neighborhood.

I did indeed lose the belly fat I wanted to shed.

I'm sure it wasn't the healthiest thing I ever did, but from the perspective of fat loss it worked AOK

[thefz]

> t’s my biology. Other people have different biologies that will save calories irrespective of the source and use

There is zero scientific evidence about this.

[kiba]

I have eaten real food for weeks and yet fast food come back with a vengeance.