Is obesity a disease or a symptom?

And for everyone who wants to blame capitalism for Obesity in America: Take off the tinfoil hat and grow up. No one is sitting in a boardroom going, "Man, how can I rip off America and slowly kill it's people today for my own selfish needs?"

I agree with most of what you're saying. A disease can certainly be self-inflicted. It's my fault if I get an STD after unsafe sex and it's my fault if I become obese after having an unsafe diet.

I don't blame capitalism for obesity, but it certainly isn't helping. People are certainly sitting in a boardroom asking themselves "Man, how can I convince a bunch of people that they need something that not only do they not need, but is actively harmful to them? I need them to buy as much as possible so that I can make money." This is the nature of a consumer culture and the purpose of advertising. Capitalism has a vested interest in making it as easy and stigma-free to consume vast quantities of goods, particularly goods that need to be consistently replaced. It's how companies survive.

And for the record, I like my tinfoil hat. When I feel depressed, I put it on and look at myself in the mirror. It's impossible to take one's self seriously while wearing a tinfoil hat. Try it. You'll thank me.

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Its a disease just like alcoholism is a disease.

:huh:

Mental Illness.


Compulsive excessive drinking = alcoholism (slightly different from the physical dependence that comes about, as if it were about the dependence, people would stop being alcoholics after the first detox)

Compulsive overeating = obesity


I agree that the word obesity usually describes the symptoms of overeating rather than the act of getting there. But the principle is sound - it's a mental health problem, just like other compulsive detrimental behaviours are.

[/quote] So, sometimes it is not simply "throwing sunshine at people," it is truly an addiction.
[/quote]

You're right - it's throwing sunshine at people AND redefining "disease" so that insurance will cover the costs. I'm okay with the 2nd part.

I'll probably get drilled for saying this but I think obesity is simply the result of bad decisions. Bad decisions about what to eat, whether to work out, whether to deal with stress by eating, etc. I've been there and that's why I was overweight.:ohwell:

I know I'm replying late, but I think this is a pretty important topic and I didn't want to not reply to these.

I also find huge issues with some people in this thread who automatically assume that obesity squarely sits on the shoulders of those who are obese. Yes, personal responsibility is a factor, but there are other deep psychological and physiological reasons that keep people from losing weight. Losing weight is not an easy thing. It's not as simple as "put down the doughnuts!"

Losing weight is pretty simple and you don't even have to put down the doughnuts when losing weight

No, you don't have to put down the doughnuts, but to pretend that losing weight is a simple concept and that the millions of people who are struggling with it and have tried countless times to lose weight only to have failed simply weren't trying hard enough because it's easy is completely moronic.

What about the fact that sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup (which has found its way into basically everything) reduce the amount of leptin (the chemical that makes you feel full) in the blood, and if you're not mindful of that you will continue eating even though you have had enough. That has nothing to do with personal responsibility, but moreso being the victim of greedy corporations who want you to buy more of their product. Here is the science behind that:

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/4/537.long

Lol Bray. So where does it say it will reduce the amount of leptin in the blood? Unless you're talking about reference 24, in which case leptin was reduced compared to a high glucose diet. But if you want to go by fructose = bad cause "reduces that amount of leptin in the blood", everyone should stay away from fruit, right?

Umm... right here? This says absolutely nothing about needing a high glucose diet.

Insulin release can modulate food intake by at least 2 mechanisms. First, Schwartz et al (18) have argued that insulin concentrations in the central nervous system have a direct inhibitory effect on food intake. In addition, insulin may modify food intake by its effect on leptin secretion, which is mainly regulated by insulin-induced changes in glucose metabolism in fat cells (19, 20). Insulin increases leptin release (21) with a time delay of several hours. Thus, a low insulin concentration after ingestion of fructose would be associated with lower average leptin concentrations than would be seen after ingestion of glucose. Because leptin inhibits food intake, the lower leptin concentrations induced by fructose would tend to enhance food intake.

If we were eating fruits in the same amounts that we are eating HFCS, then yes, I would say stay away from fruits. But we're not, so eat fruit. The point that I was making is that HFCS is in pretty much everything, and has disastrous effects when compared to natural sweeteners.

And since junk food has been deliberately designed to be addictive we can talk about how, when someone does decide to go on a diet and quit junk food, they go through the same symptoms as drug withdrawal--on par with cocaine and meth. Here is an article about the science behind that:

http://www.livescience.com/25588-junk-food-withdrawal.html

When you say someone, did you mean your pet mouse, since that article was talking about a study on mice.

There is a reason that scientists use mice for dietary research. Even though the digestive systems between mice and humans are not completely alike, there are enough similarities to make substantive preliminary judgments. If you are going to throw out all scientific conclusions because they were based on studies on mice, have fun living in the dark ages, I guess.

And for everyone who wants to blame capitalism for Obesity in America: Take off the tinfoil hat and grow up. No one is sitting in a boardroom going, "Man, how can I rip off America and slowly kill it's people today for my own selfish needs?"

There is a direct correlation between obesity and poverty:

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/1/6.full

So yes, I would blame capitalism to some extent for obesity. Large food conglomerates may not be saying "How can I rip off America?" but they are saying "What can we do to sell the largest amount of product to increase our profits?" The answer to that question is largely "Remove expensive natural products from our recipes and replace them with cheaper chemical alternatives such as High Fructose Corn Syrup," which directly links to obesity.

I don't know if obesity is a disease but I definitely feel that over eating or eating to much, how ever you want to word it is an addiction. You can't control yourself just like a person with a drinking problem can't control them selves. Disease to me is something that can be caught from some one and cured, being bigger than what society deems you is not a disease and its not everyone else problem. Its your own. Its not like you can breathe on someone and they become obese.