No wonder people are confused about the causes of obesity......

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  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    senecarr wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    tomteboda wrote: »
    rankinsect wrote: »
    I don't see researching various factors promoting obesity to be somehow negating personal responsibility.

    I think of it like someone who has a biological factor that predisposes them towards something like violence or alcoholism. It certainly sucks if you have it, and it means you need to work harder to control your actions, but you still have a responsibility to either control yourself or suffer the consequences.

    This was pretty much exactly what I was thinking. And for many people, understanding why they have to work harder than others can help motivate them.

    I think that would be fine if the list were shorter and culled appropriately. As it is now, it looks like they included any write in response that people submitted.

    Survey Question: in the last year, what factors contributed to your weight gain
    Multiple Choice Selections:
    A. Overeating
    B. Depression
    C. Less Exercise
    D. Stress
    E. Medications
    Other (please complete)__living with grandparents in China


    Because they included any random thing people wrote in, it's too long and now looks like a Buzzfeed article...

    That isn't what the list is though.
    The article states where the list came from and what the person compiling it used as criteria. The list is all things that the list compiler has seen research journal articles for that show a claim that X is associated with obesity. What the list, and particularly its growth shows, is that obesity research is a growing interest. More people are interested in what things could be done to influence the rate at a societal level.

    Wow - I missed that these came from peer reviewed journals. I really thought it was some sort of self reported data collection.

  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    senecarr wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    tomteboda wrote: »
    rankinsect wrote: »
    I don't see researching various factors promoting obesity to be somehow negating personal responsibility.

    I think of it like someone who has a biological factor that predisposes them towards something like violence or alcoholism. It certainly sucks if you have it, and it means you need to work harder to control your actions, but you still have a responsibility to either control yourself or suffer the consequences.

    This was pretty much exactly what I was thinking. And for many people, understanding why they have to work harder than others can help motivate them.

    I think that would be fine if the list were shorter and culled appropriately. As it is now, it looks like they included any write in response that people submitted.

    Survey Question: in the last year, what factors contributed to your weight gain
    Multiple Choice Selections:
    A. Overeating
    B. Depression
    C. Less Exercise
    D. Stress
    E. Medications
    Other (please complete)__living with grandparents in China


    Because they included any random thing people wrote in, it's too long and now looks like a Buzzfeed article...

    That isn't what the list is though.
    The article states where the list came from and what the person compiling it used as criteria. The list is all things that the list compiler has seen research journal articles for that show a claim that X is associated with obesity. What the list, and particularly its growth shows, is that obesity research is a growing interest. More people are interested in what things could be done to influence the rate at a societal level.

    Wow - I missed that these came from peer reviewed journals. I really thought it was some sort of self reported data collection.

    Yeah, with items like "living in China with grandparents" it really doesn't sound like some of these would be in journals. I don't know what the whole story there is, or what the impact factor of the journal that article came from was, so...
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
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    Good grief. So, "Eating too much (calories) for one's activity/lifestyle level" is not on the list? Because that's the only reason I got fat (and everyone else I know).

    Can't make money off books, programs, etc if everyone just followed those simple truths.
  • cross2bear
    cross2bear Posts: 1,106 Member
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    How do we explain that some cities, states or provinces, countries even - have a higher concentration of overweight or obese people than others? Recently I heard that Corpus Christi Texas is the "fattest" city in America. Or that Missississipp is the "fattest" state? What is it about those locations that allows someone to make those kinds of observations?

    The reason I ask is that the entire list (which can be summed up as "life") can and does occur everywhere (maybe not the betel nut thing). And we know that developing countries are now starting to show the ill health effects of the so called Western Diet (increased heart problems, diabetes and weight increases)
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    cross2bear wrote: »
    How do we explain that some cities, states or provinces, countries even - have a higher concentration of overweight or obese people than others? Recently I heard that Corpus Christi Texas is the "fattest" city in America. Or that Missississipp is the "fattest" state? What is it about those locations that allows someone to make those kinds of observations?

    The reason I ask is that the entire list (which can be summed up as "life") can and does occur everywhere (maybe not the betel nut thing). And we know that developing countries are now starting to show the ill health effects of the so called Western Diet (increased heart problems, diabetes and weight increases)

    Again, correlation vs. causation. Are those developing countries solely showing the ill health effects of the so-called "Western Diet", or are they showing the ill health effects of industrialization/modernization as a whole (more sedentary lifestyle, automation, motorized transportation, ready availability of food, etc., etc.)? It's a very tenuous argument to put the blame entirely upon diet.
  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
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    senecarr wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    senecarr wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    tomteboda wrote: »
    rankinsect wrote: »
    I don't see researching various factors promoting obesity to be somehow negating personal responsibility.

    I think of it like someone who has a biological factor that predisposes them towards something like violence or alcoholism. It certainly sucks if you have it, and it means you need to work harder to control your actions, but you still have a responsibility to either control yourself or suffer the consequences.

    This was pretty much exactly what I was thinking. And for many people, understanding why they have to work harder than others can help motivate them.

    I think that would be fine if the list were shorter and culled appropriately. As it is now, it looks like they included any write in response that people submitted.

    Survey Question: in the last year, what factors contributed to your weight gain
    Multiple Choice Selections:
    A. Overeating
    B. Depression
    C. Less Exercise
    D. Stress
    E. Medications
    Other (please complete)__living with grandparents in China


    Because they included any random thing people wrote in, it's too long and now looks like a Buzzfeed article...

    That isn't what the list is though.
    The article states where the list came from and what the person compiling it used as criteria. The list is all things that the list compiler has seen research journal articles for that show a claim that X is associated with obesity. What the list, and particularly its growth shows, is that obesity research is a growing interest. More people are interested in what things could be done to influence the rate at a societal level.

    Wow - I missed that these came from peer reviewed journals. I really thought it was some sort of self reported data collection.

    Yeah, with items like "living in China with grandparents" it really doesn't sound like some of these would be in journals. I don't know what the whole story there is, or what the impact factor of the journal that article came from was, so...

    Maybe it's like "living with a single parent" in the US? Something about the sociological aspects of it are what would be going on if there's something there.

    Single parents are busy, so convenience foods come into play. Maybe older Chinese generations still feed as if there's a lot of manual labor (God knows my American grandmother fed me breakfast as if I was working the family farm like my dad as a kid growing up). I could see there being something, but I don't know squat about Chinese grandparents :)
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
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    I think this list should be relabeled as "Risk Factors for Obesity" . Seriously. Being a single mother is a risk factor for obesity, not a "cause" of obesity. Being poor is a risk factor for obesity, it's not the cause. I think that's where the article has blown it out of proportion. All of these, or at least most, seem like reasonable associations for obesity, not causes, but clearly interrelated.

    I think that, as the media is known to do, this article has just sensationalized what we knew all along: It's harder not to be fat when you're limited to convenience store crap food and the government subsidizes corn and sugar up the whoo-hoo so everything is calorically dense as hell. But ultimately, any average joe, poor, single mom, or Areca nut chewer (whatever the hell that is) can lose weight by eating less and moving more
  • pislari_poljnamd
    pislari_poljnamd Posts: 45 Member
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    Ninkyou wrote: »
    Aliens. Aliens made me fat. Clearly it's not my fault.
    Ninkyou wrote: »
    Aliens. Aliens made me fat. Clearly it's not my fault.

    Ahahahahahahahahahaha LOVE this!

  • Cynsonya
    Cynsonya Posts: 668 Member
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    It's my dog's fault. He LOVES to drool while watching me eat. I can't disappoint the pup
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
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    senecarr wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    senecarr wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    tomteboda wrote: »
    rankinsect wrote: »
    I don't see researching various factors promoting obesity to be somehow negating personal responsibility.

    I think of it like someone who has a biological factor that predisposes them towards something like violence or alcoholism. It certainly sucks if you have it, and it means you need to work harder to control your actions, but you still have a responsibility to either control yourself or suffer the consequences.

    This was pretty much exactly what I was thinking. And for many people, understanding why they have to work harder than others can help motivate them.

    I think that would be fine if the list were shorter and culled appropriately. As it is now, it looks like they included any write in response that people submitted.

    Survey Question: in the last year, what factors contributed to your weight gain
    Multiple Choice Selections:
    A. Overeating
    B. Depression
    C. Less Exercise
    D. Stress
    E. Medications
    Other (please complete)__living with grandparents in China


    Because they included any random thing people wrote in, it's too long and now looks like a Buzzfeed article...

    That isn't what the list is though.
    The article states where the list came from and what the person compiling it used as criteria. The list is all things that the list compiler has seen research journal articles for that show a claim that X is associated with obesity. What the list, and particularly its growth shows, is that obesity research is a growing interest. More people are interested in what things could be done to influence the rate at a societal level.

    Wow - I missed that these came from peer reviewed journals. I really thought it was some sort of self reported data collection.

    Yeah, with items like "living in China with grandparents" it really doesn't sound like some of these would be in journals. I don't know what the whole story there is, or what the impact factor of the journal that article came from was, so...

    Maybe it's like "living with a single parent" in the US? Something about the sociological aspects of it are what would be going on if there's something there.

    Single parents are busy, so convenience foods come into play. Maybe older Chinese generations still feed as if there's a lot of manual labor (God knows my American grandmother fed me breakfast as if I was working the family farm like my dad as a kid growing up). I could see there being something, but I don't know squat about Chinese grandparents :)

    Or it could be that the grandparents are liable to have a hard time cooking with some kind of late life mobility issues and so do more convenience foods.
    Or it could be the grandparents want to preserve a connection to the child's American culture, so take them to fast food for every meal.
    Or it could be the grandparents view eating out or at fast food for every meal is a status symbol and they are locally rich due to parents sending their American wages home to pay for the child's care.
    Or it could be the child is unwilling to try so many new, unfamiliar foods, and the grandparents feed the child fast food as the only familiar option.
    I wasn't saying there aren't plausible mechanisms for it leading to overeating. I just find the wording interesting. It just sounds funny if someone submitted to Nautre: "Chinese Grandparent Care Associations with Hypercaloric Intake in Pre-Pubescent Individuals" but maybe that's an article out there in a high impact journal.