EmeraldAxe
Registered Senior Member
Let's find out what people think. Extra points for whomever uses evolution in their explanation.
Why are Americans obese?
- Thread starter EmeraldAxe
- Start date
How would evolution fit into the scenario?
spidergoat
Valued Senior Member
There is that evolutionary reason, combined with deregulation of our food industry leading to widespread use of high fructose corn syrup, and a landscape designed around the automobile.
EmeraldAxe
Registered Senior Member
HBO removed the interview with David Kessler MD/PhD, proprietary rights. This is all I could find.
http://fora.tv/2009/04/27/How_to_End_Overeating_Dr_David_Kessler
He just wrote a book called, The End of Overeating. I haven't read his book, but I'm guessing over the course of an hour (video above) he covers most of the main points.
So, if he's right. Do we need to take action on the food companies similar to what happened in the 90's with nicotine?
http://fora.tv/2009/04/27/How_to_End_Overeating_Dr_David_Kessler
He just wrote a book called, The End of Overeating. I haven't read his book, but I'm guessing over the course of an hour (video above) he covers most of the main points.
So, if he's right. Do we need to take action on the food companies similar to what happened in the 90's with nicotine?
Answer to OP, because we can be!
People eat too much. The food is shit generally. People are lazy and do not exercise, even with a sit-on-yer-ass job.
spidergoat
Valued Senior Member
An obesity virus, or perhaps a deficit in some kind of beneficial bacteria of the colon, leading to nutrient deficiency.
superstring01
Moderator
Because they eat too much junk and get too little exercise.
~String
Foods today contain more fatty crap than ever before as well as chemicals and other ingredients that create more fat in humans. Without exercising to remove all this excess fat humans become fatter.
superstring01
Moderator
The combination of their natural and necessarily balanced diet (veggies with a smattering of bugs they scarf up) and their mobile lifestyle keeps such things in check. I doubt you'd find an obese human being before 10,000 years ago. If so, I'd be willing to wager that they were so exceedingly rare as to be statistically unimportant.
~String
it's only the men... no such thing as a fat woman 
Eating is pleasurable, and us Americans can afford all we want. Exercise isn't pleasurable, and we've aranged our lives so that we really don't get any exercise in the course of a normal day unless we go out of our way to hit the gym.
I find exercise quite enjoyable .. I like my 5 or 6 mile bike rides everyday.
I don't want to be a sloth.
I don't want to be a sloth.
Carcano
Valued Senior Member
What happened 10,000 years ago...grain agriculture???
1) Caloric intake has remained static if it hasn't increased slightly over that last few hundred years. In the same time frame, physical activity has been slowing gradually.
2) Processed food. High fructose corn syrup has been show in rats to fatten the liver and induce type 2 diabetes when combined with a high fat diet in just 4 weeks. Also, HFCS doesn't signal to the brain that any food has been eaten. So if you down a 300 calorie Coca-Cola... your body just looks at it like it's water.
3) In a few social circles, one is applauded if they are fat.
4) The shift in our diet over the last few thousand years. Our bodies evolved to eat high protein and high fat foods. Meat, nuts, and a few berries along the way. When fruits were in season and they were plentiful.. that's when we would eat them.
Hey why not, sloths are very interesting animals that are very fit although they just "hang around" allot. They also don't get fat either.
