An interesting read

[tankyguy]

Forgive me if this was already posted.

http://www.aeonmagazine.com/being-human/david-berreby-obesity-era/

Basically, they're saying that there's an obesity epidemic world wide and that it can't simply be explained by over consumption and lack of exercise/will power.

Some interesting things the article says:

-It has not just been the average weight of humans that has been increasing. Dogs, cats and rats are getting heavier too on average. And it can't just be explained by them eating our table scraps and garbage. Animals, especially primates, in laboratory conditions with strictly monitored diets have been getting fatter over the decades.

Such a global hidden factor (or factors) might help to explain why most people gain weight gradually, over decades, in seeming contradiction of Bloomberg’s thermodynamics. This slow increase in fat stores would suggest that they are eating only a tiny bit more each month than they use in fuel. But if that were so, as Jonathan C K Wells, professor of child nutrition at University College London, has pointed out, it would be easy to lose weight. One recent model estimated that eating a mere 30 calories a day more than you use is enough to lead to serious weight gain. Given what each person consumes in a day (1,500 to 2,000 calories in poorer nations; 2,500 to 4,000 in wealthy ones), 30 calories is a trivial amount: by my calculations, that’s just two or three peanut M&Ms. If eliminating that little from the daily diet were enough to prevent weight gain, then people should have no trouble losing a few pounds. Instead, as we know, they find it extremely hard.

 

[Dr. Feelgood]