Re:After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain ...
by dragonwriter on Monday May 02, 2016 @06:40PM
(#11616323)
> Fifty years ago, two-thirds of the USA were not obese.
2/3 are not obese now.
(2/3 are overweight, including about 1/3 that are obese.)
> Biology has not changed in that time.
Assumes facts not in evidence, but lets assume that's true.
> What has?
Well, the sharp uptick in obesity (which pretty much drives the overweight including obese upward trend, the overweight-but-not-obese proportion has stayed pretty flat) starts in the late 1970s, immediately following the peak in real hourly wages. Given that (ironically, given that richer countries have higher rates of obesity than poor countries) individual obesity in the United States is correlated with poor economic status, its not entirely implausible that there's a significant economic contribution to the obesity epidemic.
2/3 are not obese now.
(2/3 are overweight, including about 1/3 that are obese.)
> Biology has not changed in that time.
Assumes facts not in evidence, but lets assume that's true.
> What has?
Well, the sharp uptick in obesity (which pretty much drives the overweight including obese upward trend, the overweight-but-not-obese proportion has stayed pretty flat) starts in the late 1970s, immediately following the peak in real hourly wages. Given that (ironically, given that richer countries have higher rates of obesity than poor countries) individual obesity in the United States is correlated with poor economic status, its not entirely implausible that there's a significant economic contribution to the obesity epidemic.