According to some sources, at least 1 in 8 of the world population is classified as ‘obese’. Since nobody in any government seems to have thought up a working solution, what do you believe can be done to solve the epidemic?
Get rid of BMI.
Is BMI perfect? No. But most people who cite its shortcomings pretend that the edge cases like extremely muscular athletes have any relevance to most of the population.
It isn’t edge cases. The BMI tells you literally NOTHING about a persons health.
In the same way blood pressure tells you nothing about a person’s health, yes. In the same way a college degree tells you nothing about a person’s intelligence, or their number of active friendships indicates their social skills.
Just because something is itself meaningless does not mean it is not a broadly useful indicator. But no, the vast, vast majority of people with unhealthy BMIs are carrying very unhealthy amounts of fat. There are some edge cases involving athletes or people with extremely odd build types. And the precise level of where we define overweight or obese really should vary a bit from person to person.
But I’m sorry, 99% of people with a BMI of 35 have a serious weight problem. People just citing Olympic athletes and other fringe cases out of cope and denial. BMI is imperfect, but claiming it’s meaningless is just wishful magical thinking.
Global food infrastructure collapse would do it
This will be unpopular, but: just stop caring. Let people be whatever size, treat them equally, and don’t sweat it. You may not like that but one way to solve an issue is to realize there is no issue.
Would people be healthier if they weren’t obese? Possibly. The evidence is a little mixed. I’m in the Middle where I think not being obese is healthier but the effect is overblown by related factors. People would be healthier if no one drank alcohol but I don’t think banning alcohol is worth it.
(Revealing my biases: I’ve been extremely fit, I’ve also been technically obese, and I’m on a GLP-1 inhibitor because I want to lose weight. But I’m not interested in telling other people how heavy they should be)
Bring on the downvotes, my body so ready.
I disagree. Obesity is medically proven to be unhealthy, and many obese people might just give up trying to improve their health, especially if they are told that there’s “no issue”.
Even if we didn’t care about them or their health, society at large still pays for the extra inevitable medical bills, since we can’t really just stop providing healthcare for medical issues caused or exacerbated by obesity.
So you agree that alcohol and automobiles should be banned because they are harmful to health and society pays substantial costs due to their negative impacts?
Thanks for this sane comment.
As you’ve been both fit and technically obese, I suspect you also realize exercise is much harder to do when you’re obese. Not just because moving your body is harder, but because you have less energy and thus it might be much harder to motivate yourself. It’s a vicious cycle where gaining weight is even easier when sedentary and being obese makes it harder to not be sedentary.
And with socialized healthcare in most countries, everyone’s paying the price. I say this as someone currently technically obese as well.
Luckily most people don’t WANT to be obese, so GLP-1 inhibitors are a bit of a godsend. Forcing anyone to lose weight I can’t condone, but giving people the best possible chances to be healthy seems like a no-brainer.
Okay i am assuming you are well meaning so i hope you have kept an open mind and are actually interested in “solutions”. I am also well meaning but my frustration will come through in my comment. I am urging you to actually read up on the issue bc you have not .
There is no epidemic. Fat people don’t need to be eradicated, be mindful about what you put out in the world, talking about fat people like THEY are a disease is incredible dehumanising. Other “unhealthy” habits we talk about are something you do not what you are.
Imagine we would treat everyone who isn’t perfectly fit like we treat fat people, imagine people commenting on your body all of the time because you aren’t jacked. We are accepting and even in favor of a level of virtriol towards fat people that would be unimaginable if done to any other kind of populace.
If you are worried for the health of people than go from there, what are the specifics you care about? Because i can guarante you thin people have all the same problems. I am thin as a stick but certainly unhealthy as fuck.
Here are some points for you to think about
- The health sector isn’t perfect, doctors can believe in myths. Just like black people and women don’t get the pain medication they need fat people often don’t get the care they need because doctors are solely focused on their health. If you listen to fat people they will tell you all about it. BMI is not a great tool since everyone is different and just having a higher BMI is not enough information to go on.
- Fat peoples higher risks often don’t go away when they lose weight. We need more studies here.
- Stress is bad for your overall health. How stressful do you think it is when everyone and their mother makes your body their problem. Poor people are more often stressed too.
- Lets be honest people don’t care about fat peoples health, they care because they don’t like seeing it. We are all unhealthier and unfitter than we could be but for everyone else it is " don’t tell others what to do"
- The constant talk about weight triggers eating disorders and make fat people gain even more weight this is a fact not an opinion.
- Everything can become a healthrisk, boxers destroy their brain, basejumpers regulary fall to their death, bodybuilders take too many drugs. Its not an epidemic people will do people things.
There is so much more to it, one of my favorite health podcasts is “maintenance phase” give it a listen they talk alot about all kinds of health myths.
So just don’t focus on weight focus on overall health and what people need to succeed and if people are still fat let them be fat. They can decide for themselves.
Hi, OP here. First of all, yes I am absolutely keeping an open mind. Second of all, I wasn’t ever suggesting that fat people were ‘lesser’ or anything like that, and I certainly never said any of the things you suggested I said in the post, I get that people do do that, but I’m not one of them and that is not the point of my question. As for your question about what specific things about their life do I care about, well quality of life would be one. And make no mistake: I’m not suggesting that every case of obesity means negative effects/quality of life. However, as I stated in the post above, 1 in 8 people are classified as obese, which amounts to approximately one billion people worldwide (I don’t know if you’d classify that as an epidemic) and I can imagine that a portion of those suffer from diminished QOL. Most studies I’ve read don’t contain figures for this, but they do conclude that there is evidence of a direct link between obesity and lower quality of life. If that’s not motivation to seek help for them (providing they want it, and I’m fairly sure a lot of them would) then I don’t know what is. I’m not doubting that thin/average/anything else people can also be unhealthy, but the root cause and therefore the solution is different for poor health due to obesity compared to poor health from lack of weight. We have to tailor solutions/treatment to help those asking for it depending on weight because each cause of poor health warrants a different solution. It’s not a case of singling them out as a group, it’s a case of tailoring treatment to that specific issue. And by the way: Im not the one who decided to classify obesity (not the people) as a disease. The World Health Organisation (and others) are the ones who classified obesity as a disease. They are the ones who classify it as an epidemic, stating on the website linked above. Heck, they literally have a page called ‘controlling the global obesity epidemic’. Furthermore, I’m not saying that we should force the cure on all obese people — if they are overweight, and have no issues, then no problem. But it’s estimated that 2.8 million people a year die due to complications of obesity. You say the problem doesn’t exist — 2.8 million people a year might disagree. What I’m saying is we should work for a cure so as to offer it, not force it. In any case, it’s their choice, but I still believe we should strive for a remedy so everyone at least has the option.
Stop subsidizing animal feed. I’m not opposed to eating meat but it’s easy to get too many calories per bite from it. Farm subsidies for human crops in order to keep farms stable is semi reasonable though. Local food forests (such as community maintained gardens along walking paths where people live and parks) I think are a great supplement to peoples diets and amenities for communities but aren’t replacing staples anytime soon.
Limit food advertising for any meal over 800 calories. Limit the amount of money that can be paid for food advertising per business.
Mandatory cooking classes in schools for all genders.
The rest requires more radical solutions. Unfortunately a big part of it is our socioeconomic situation. One example low worker bargaining power leading to too few meaningful after work hours. Another is the push for hyper individualism, cooking 3 meal for 7 people once a week is easier then cooking 3 meals for one person everyday forever. Few of our living arrangements are built for potluck or communal cooking though. The resteraunt experience just isn’t it either because of the strong dehumanization between staff and customer.
The other being mental health. Both in part from above but also constant comparison with imaginary people (advertisements, celebrities, and social media profiles for example). Better crisis support(I.e. not just cops and grippie socks). Community support. More access to therapy and pychiactrics (including for this topic peptides like glp-1). I am biased towards the last ones being “last resort”. Not in a “oh you’re at a breaking point and need help, let’s try talking to your friends first before we can prescribe you something” kind bs way, but more so assume we, as a society, are already doing the rest first but also have easy access to professional services.
Walkable cities would help probally both improve community potential and exercise.
Lastly, if we drastically improve work life balance, have better self esteem and community support, improve our food, we could see exercise be a lot easier to solve. Access to physical game spaces is one way to help (again IF people have time and friends). Physical involvement with the community (cooking, collecting food, cleaning up the community garden, etc) honestly would be a huge step away from sedimentary lifestyle for a lot of people.
Add glp1s to all sugar ingredients in processed food.
education about food would help. nutrition courses starting from a young age (veggies=smart choice, fried cheese=bad choice) carrying right through high school (insoluble fiber=smart choice, saturated fat=bad choice) that steadily increases the depth/complexity of what is essentially the same information would help.
caloric density is the main factor in choosing healthy options, but what is equally important is giving people the free time and resources to devote to both preparing food and the act of choosing itself (planning/prepping meals, grocery shopping, logging or otherwise tracking intake). when both of a family’s adults’ work day has to include an 8.5-hour shift with 2 hours of commute/preparation time, child care, cooking, cleaning, exercise, reading a couple of books per month, and more, you have to start prioritizing. the first things to go are cooking, exercise, reading, recreation. so the more the working class gets squeezed, the more a work day starts to look like: a 10-hour shift if you’re lucky enough to qualify for overtime, eat on your commute from a fast food place, get home and feed said garbage to your children whom you are steadily poisoning now (just look into the effects of the ingredients and additives that go into a mcdonalds meal and tell me you would ever eat there again if you weren’t hopelessly addicted to those ingredients and the convenience), and then half-assing the rest of your life’s upkeep because you have no energy from being overworked, getting no exercise, and eating trash day in, day out.
the obesity epidemic is 100% a problem of modern capitalism. it stems from min-maxing your life’s profitability in terms of how you use your time and money. gym memberships are expensive and a routine requires 10 hours a week you don’t have. hiking trips and other outdoor activities take time and equipment you can’t afford. proper diet and cooking take time and money you don’t have. it self-reinforces when you no longer have energy to develop new habits and can no longer see a way out of it.
it’s gotten so bad that now people are cutting children and social interaction out of their lives because they don’t have the time, money, or energy.
instead of improving these conditions, the current US regime’s solution is to force us to submit by outlawing abortion and probably contraceptives at some point, to tie healthcare to employment status, to reduce public assistance and welfare, among other social paradigms that isolate us and disempower us.
What needs to be done and what will be done are unfortunately never going to align as long as someone stands to get rich on it.
What needs to be done:
- Healthier food options
- Healthier work/life balance
- Education on what is healthy and unhealthy
- Encouragement to daily physical
Why this will never be done:
- Too much money to be made on “tasty” premade meals, which “tasty” and “profitable” require lots of flavor enhancers and preservatives, both very calorically imbalanced / dense and also toxic in large quantities (toxicity is how preservatives work). If you don’t flavor enhance, your competitor will for cheaper and people won’t buy your option. Also each growing industry insisting their food in solo is the healthiest when it is not. I’m pointing at you corn and grain industries.
- 40 hr 9-5 8/5 work week is only office workers. Servicemen and retail sales often work 10-12+ hours per day or have all hours on call.
- points at every part of the American education system and its exported policies other countries sometimes take up
- Point 2 is the reason a lot of people don’t exercise. There is no time to do so.
- Healthcare is expensive. When there is money to be made, it is always in healthcare. If you can’t afford a consumer product, you don’t buy it. If you can’t afford a surgery or medicine to save your life, you die. This simple fact makes it nearly impossible to have any say in how much a treatment costs.
This is not just an American problem. Other western countries have this issue as well, and I hope people in other nations see the danger and keep themselves healthy.
Idk man but the root issue is people have a massive lack of discipline. With discipline and will, almost anything personal like this can be solved. I guess it’s an issue of the education system… Not sure exactly
Ah yes, just discipline and will yourself to better access to nutrition and exercise science, balanced food options, and opportunities to do physical activities.
Ban every food and drink invented in the last hundred years
Dr Pepper was invented in 1885 and Coca-cola a year later in 1886.
Thread over. This is clearly the answer.
Theres a whole host a of issues, many of which are already mentioned, but two other big ones are treating it more as a health issue rather than a moral one, and improving healthcare - especially mental health care.
People don’t realize, but a lot of obesity cases are tied into other health issues - especially mental health. This is doubly true for more extreme cases. For a very simple example, those who are neurodivergent often struggle with specific stimulations including food textures (limiting food options), especially in combination with food deserts or areas with little selection. On the other hand, this can often be improved or worked around with medication and/or therapy. Medication such as antidepressants or antipsychotics causing weight gain is another very common example, and while it isn’t as easy to avoid, better medical support can make it easier to manage, especially if you need to change diet as a result. For a more extreme example, trauma is very closely tied to weight gain and eating disorders. Watch any episode of My Six-Hundred Pound Life (or better yet, don’t), and you’ll notice that almost all of them have significant trauma. For example, childhood abuse can lead to difficulty self-regulating, or sexual abuse can cause someone to feel that being “”“ugly”“” will help prevent future assaults. These examples just scratch the surface too, and things only gen messier when you have comorbid conditions. Just imagine, for example, someone with OCD affecting how they eat, depression treated with a weight-gain causing medication, and PMOS (a hormonal issue common in women, which often makes it extremely difficult to lose weight). Doctors often ignore or struggle to treat any of these individually, nonetheless all three together, and thats before we open the conversation around affordability.
Given this, and just how sensitive and defensive humans are in general, that makes it all-the-more important that we treat people respectfully and kindly. Even ignoring basic decentcy, demonizing or mocking people for their weight delegitimises efforts to change systematic barriers, makes accessing care more difficult or unfriendly, often wastes time or confuses with “advice” that is unhelpful or outright destructive given the context of someone’s medical background (I.E. telling someone with an eating disorder to control their eating more), and increases stress, which in turn, makes medical issues worse and harder to cope with. Instead, if we treat it as a medical issue, we avoid all of this and stop moralising or hurting people already struggling.
Hormone shots seem to be the most effective. Diet works but good luck convincing many people of that let alone getting them to actually stick to it.
Teach children how to eat. In school. Countries that do this have much lower obesity rates.
I was taught how to eat in school, from a food pyriamid modified by producers of breads, dairy and sugar. :(
The US food pyramid was made by the USDA to sell grain and dairy.
Travel to Europe, watch how people eat.
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They eat meals, they don’t graze all day
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They eat proper portions.
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They don’t drink a pail of soda with a meal.
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I don’t think there is a solid answer but the current political chaos points to one step
- make junk and fast food more expensive - vice taxes
Looking at myself, I see portion size is the number one issue. Mental state also contribute, although I can’t claim anything treatable. So I eat too much and it’s a comfort thing but I don’t see a way for government to help me do the right thing there
Exercise. While exercise isn’t the main contributor to being overweight, it does go to state of mind. I’m much less likely to overeat when I’ve been active. This is where we ought to be able to do something to keep people moving
I stopped eating animal products and lost 50 lbs, so that’s a start
Then meat being made largely unaffordable by the inflation crisis ought to bend the curve.
