this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2024
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Summary

A new Lancet study reveals nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, a sharp rise from just over half in 1990.

Obesity among adults doubled to over 40%, while rates among girls and women aged 15–24 nearly tripled to 29%.

The study highlights significant health risks, including diabetes, heart disease, and shortened life expectancy, alongside projected medical costs of up to $9.1 trillion over the next decade.

Experts stress obesity’s complex causes—genetic, environmental, and social—and call for structural reforms like food subsidies, taxes on sugary drinks, and expanded treatment access.

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[–] sparky@lemmy.federate.cc 136 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (13 children)

Not really surprising when all food is so processed and pumped full of all kinds of bullshit, from high fructose corn syrup to preservatives to you name it.

Fun anecdote - I moved to Europe from the states a year back, and lost almost 20 pounds in that time without explicitly doing anything different. Just from the better food quality, and walking more in daily life (walkable cities and good public transportation!)

[–] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 36 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's also now fully accepted to be fat or overweight. Online dating has become pretty weird to me. I'm a pretty athletic guy, so i'm looking for someone that is also a bit sporty and healthy.

Curvy on tinder has become just a blanket statement for not very skinny to wow, you look like walking must really suck. It's a very small percentage that is super athletic, a small percentage that is just "normal" and the rest just fat. I'm not trying to shame people but reading shit like: i'm not skinny and i'll never be is fucking sad to me. My dad is fat and his life is fucking garbage, and it's getting worse the older he gets. I honestly forsee a shitty future for a lot of overweight people today.

[–] TonyOstrich@lemmy.world 13 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Ugh, you just described my experience exactly. I'm mildly autistic and so online dating is my primary method since it's easy for me to misinterpret or not understand the initial stages of the courting process. A lot of my interests are also very male dominated too. Therefore most of the women on dating apps that are interested in me either have kids (I don't want any and even had a vasectomy) or are overweight since the more in shape women in the same spaces are "more desirable" and have everyone coming to them.

I'd say 90%+ of my partners have weighed more than me while being a lot shorter. Don't know if I have ever had to worry about my hoodies being stolen since they can't fit them.

P.S. I know that phrasing sounds problematic and is not how I view people or women as individuals. Game Theory does apply when it comes to dating though, and in the abstract that is one of the things that is going on.

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 55 points 5 days ago (9 children)

How is walking more not something different?

[–] sparky@lemmy.federate.cc 86 points 5 days ago

Well, I meant as in, without actively changing anything, like going to the gym more or whatever. Just passive environmental changes.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 30 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I took it to mean that they didn’t go out of their way to walk more, it was simply the better option to get around and so they just did that instead of driving a car. After moving from a car-centric city to one with a metro I totally get it and I do go for walks just for fun.

It’s not just about whether or not you can do something but about how available that thing is. Going for a walk can suck real bad in North America, surprisingly. Things like shitty food being the cheaper option, in a country racing to get its working class to be as disproportionately impoverished as possible, can make it hard to justify getting better quality stuff, too.

[–] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Yea it sucks walking next to 6 lanes of high speed traffic and basically no noise restrictions on cars. Once I moved somewhere that I could walk to the grocery store down quiet, tree lined streets most of the way, it became my preferred way. The built environment influences how you travel a lot.

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[–] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 22 points 5 days ago (4 children)

The design of our cities and culture in north america definitely doesn't help. Sit in your metal box and drive to the front door (or drive thru and don't even leave the car), sit at a desk all day unless you're in the trades, go home and sit down to consume netflix/youtube/games, order fast food delivered to your door.

Sure nobody is forcing people to live like this but parts of our society certainly feels like it is encouraged. People look at me funny and friends have questioned me if I park and walk into a business with a drive thru, even though I usually get faster service that way

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[–] USSEthernet@startrek.website 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Co-worker of mine visited Ethiopia for like 2-3 weeks. He said he actually ate more than he usually does while there and still lost 15lbs. Our food is a huge problem in the US. It's better for business to keep us unhealthy.

[–] skyspydude1@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Oh, I can totally believe it. Ethiopian food is so damn filling, while not being insanely calorie dense like a lot of what we're used to in the US. Beans and veggies are filling but not calorie dense, so just adding more of those, even cheap canned ones to your diet can make it much easier to lose weight. I had a buddy that lost almost 30lbs in college literally just by replacing a meal with a can or two of green beans and hot sauce every day for a couple of months. He's managed to keep it off too, as it helped him realize just how much more his hunger was sated by a couple 60cal cans of beans vs some huge 800 calorie meal from Taco Bell, which was his preferred junk food of choice at the time. Fun fact, it also works extremely well on overweight dogs, minus the hot sauce.

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[–] MellowYellow13@lemmy.world 42 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

When I bring my rice and veggy curry to lunch I become a spectacle for everyone. Because they are all either ordering fast food, not eating, or just eating junk and snack food. This is a huge problem, why am I spectacle for doing something so basic?

There are actually microaggressions from people to me just because I eat healthy.

[–] BigBenis@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago (7 children)

People hate being reminded that the conveniences they enjoy are unhealthy/unethical/etc. All it takes is somebody else choosing differently to trigger defensiveness and denialism. Rather than making changes to their own life they choose to ridicule those who are making better decisions.

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Business school calls it Escalation of Commitment.

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[–] apocalypticat@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Some previous coworkers I had were blown away by a pear that I brought as part of my lunch. A pear!!!

edit: duh, not pair

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 6 points 4 days ago

I can't tell if you're kidding, but the homonym you're looking for is pear.

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[–] Subtracty@lemmy.world 47 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (4 children)

I have noticed the general public is now very tolerant of sweet drinks. I know that is not the only problem. I was never allowed soda or coffee or sweet tea growing up, so don't have much of a tolerance for them now. But when I try popular coffees (pumpkin spice this or vanilla chai that) or cocktails at most restaurants, I am surprised that people don't send them back and ask for less sweetener.

As an infrequent treat, I can understand it. But if you are drinking that much sugar on a daily basis, it must seriously screw with your system. I am sure lots of people are drinking a huge amount of calories and don't register how different that is from past generations.

[–] TonyOstrich@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I(M) am an actually healthy weight (I believe I'm almost exactly average for my height and build for a man in the 60s or 70s), but my brain has absolutely been hijacked by sugar, and I can tell. Even avoiding over sweetened stuff for months and months I will still get cravings and having something I know a European would find sickeningly sweet I find is very similar to how junkies describe a relapse.

Despite all of that, I refuse to give in. I enjoy the freedom having a relatively healthy body gives me. Makes finding a partner with a similar mindset and goals hard though. It's worse than a Thanos snap, 3/4 of the population just gone.

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[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 19 points 4 days ago

The shitty US labor laws (piss poor working conditions) are one of many problems associated with obesity.

[–] Dettweiler42@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Every time I visit Germany, I eat and drink a ton. I'll lose about 5 lbs that week just from the higher quality food and walking convenience.

[–] PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That's interesting. Germans certainly aren't known for their healthy food when you look at the prevalence of cured meats and things like currywurst.

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

contrary to conventional wisdom, quality of food isn’t really considered a primary instigator of the obesity epidemic. rather, environmental factors such as poverty, failures in education/access to diet information, and car-centric urbanization are proven to be much bigger factors in the ongoing health crisis.

in other words, america could be totally healthy eating the exact same food if we built society around people living healthy lives, but that is far from the primary goal for a country living under capital.

[–] SanitationStation@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I slightly disagree.

If I suddenly started eating 15000 kcal of mostly sugar and fat each day, it would have a detrimental impact on my health. Regardless of my education or income.

So to me it seems like the effect is in reverse. If we changed society to make it easier for people to make healthier choices, then the general health would improve. But the actual improvement would come from calorie intake, food quality and activity levels.

But I absolutely agree that having limited access to healthy food, and living in a area where walking could be unsafe makes it incredibly hard to be healthy.

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

that’s the difference between primary and secondary causes, individual cases and epidemics.

while you may be able to imagine an instance where food quality is a primary factor in an individual’s wellbeing doesn’t challenge the empirical evidence that overall the epidemic affecting massive swaths of people is borne primarily out of a context of low income, low education and urbanization.

[–] SanitationStation@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Well, the smugness is impressive. I'll have to give you that.

You specifically said: "in other words, america could be totally healthy eating the exact same food if we built society around people living healthy lives, but that is far from the primary goal for a country living under capital."

I just disagree with this statement. I don't think we could eat the exact same diet in a different society and expect food-related health issues to significantly improve.

So where on the list of causes would you place calorie intake, food quality and inactivity? Secondary? Tertiary? Completely unrelated?

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

me: in other words, america could be totally healthy eating the exact same food

you: I don’t think we could eat the exact same diet

notice the key difference in language. makes 100% of the difference. i choose my words with care.

[–] SanitationStation@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So, I'm I to assume that you wanted to say that calories are more important than food quality?

Sure. I agree with that.

Regarding your careful choice of words. If you wanted to make a convoluted post in order to smugly debate some random person on the internet, then you have done an excellent job and I congratulate you sir.

If you are trying to actually communicate clearly then you have some improvements to make.

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 1 points 3 days ago

i’m sorry that you misunderstood my post. i’m blocking you because i don’t like to be told how to hang out and talk about topics when plenty of others got it without having to tell me how smug i am for correcting terminology errors.

[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

5 lbs is literally just a hydration and glycogen difference. You tend to have about 5 lbs of glycogen of which each pound is holding 2 lbs of water so 5 lbs is within normal fluctuations. Carb and fat profile of diet and a lack of gluconeogenesis can have you eat the same amount of calories while "losing" weight. Additionally, the amount of salt that you retain from your food can have a significant difference. If you're going from a high salt diet to a low one, you could expect to lose water weight.

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[–] Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 34 points 5 days ago

Under-educated overweight people with guns. Everything's gonna be alright.

[–] WoahWoah@lemmy.world 55 points 5 days ago (17 children)

To be fair, I don't think many of us would recognize someone who is a BMI of 26 as "overweight." It technically is, but you've probably seen people regularly that are "technically" overweight but would never realize it. You yourself might be (and, statistically, are likely to be) overweight according to BMI and not realize it.

The really staggering thing is obesity. From 1960 until about 1992, it was between 15-20%. By 2000 it was 30%. These days it's getting close to 45%.

[–] HamsterRage@lemmy.ca 29 points 5 days ago (4 children)

That's the thing 40 years ago you would realize that they were overweight.

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[–] aviationeast@lemmy.world 58 points 5 days ago

Don't worry congress is going to make Obese 50% body fat in response to the crisis...

[–] Naz@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

My family survived a famine, 80% of them died in the Holodomor.

I've got literal famine resistance genes.

I now live in the United States with access to delivery food and extra cheese pepperoni pizza.

Checkmate natural selection 👉😎👉

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[–] aeharding@vger.social 11 points 4 days ago
[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 28 points 5 days ago

Can confirm. 3/4 of my body is fat while the rest of it is skinny AF.

[–] tee9000@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Is that better or worse?

[–] GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee 9 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Social/environmental - life is fucking terrible and I have to take anxiety meds to survive it without panicking and breaking down. My last meds made me hungry CONSTANTLY. Sadly, I didn't know it was the meds until about 3 months ago. New med calms the anxiety and doesn't make me starving all the time.

I am not built for modern society.

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 6 points 4 days ago

I am not built for modern society.

No one is. Modern society wasn’t even built for you. We are just means to an end under capital.

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[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days ago (6 children)

In 1990 half were overweight or obese? That's the real news, I would have thought much lower.

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