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HappySqurriel on 20 November 2011
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Farmageddon said:
HappySqurriel said:
As much as I'm disturbed by this, I'm also disturbed by the demonstrated ignorance of the vast majority of people who don't seem to understand that obesity is caused by excessive intake of food not from eating nutritionally deficient foods. While it would be ideal to have nutritious food served to children in school, as long as the children are eating an appropriate number of calories and are active enough obesity should not be a problem.


While techinically this may be true, I think it's a lot more complicated.

I mean, eating nutritiously deficient foods may quench your hunger at the time, but it probably means you'll be hungry again earlier, causing you to either have to keep restricting yourself (which might bring other problems, I don't know, but it's not like your body makes you hungry just to screw with you) or to eat too much - in calories, but not in nutrients.

Either way it may make the whole "eat less, exercise more" mantra a lot harder to live by.

As someone who lost more than 80 pounds and has kept it off for over 10 years, and has helped several people lose weight while eating a moderate diet that includes their favourite foods, I can say with confidence that it really is that simple.

There is a multi-billion dollar industry that exists primarily to misinform people to sell their quick fix solutions and snake oil that is highly successful. While there usually is a grain of truth to their claims they are often taken to a level far beyond what the studies claimed to convince people that they’re fat because of some dietary evil du jour.

 

Or to put it another way, very few people eat excessive calories out of hunger; they eat these calories because eating is an enjoyable activity that can often be done socially. People will often admit that they're not hungry when they sit down to watch a movie with a big bowl of popcorn or a big bag of potato chips but they do so anyways because it is enjoyable to watch a movie with snacks. On an occasional basis this is not a significant problem, but when people have made a habit out of snacking when they're not hungry while doing something (like watching TV or playin games) on a daily basis it rapidly leads to significant obesity.