Common explanations for the cause of the obesity epidemic put forward by the food industry and policymakers, such as inactivity or lack of willpower, are not only erroneous fallacies, but actively harmful.
Obesity is not new, but the obesity epidemic is. Us was from a few portly kings and queens, such as Henry VIII or Louis VI (known as Louis the Gros or “Fat Louis”), to an obesity pandemic, now considered be “possibly the most serious and poorly controlled public health threat of our time.” As you can see below and at minute 0:34 of my video. The role of diet versus exercise in the obesity epidemicabout 37 percent of American men are obese and 41 percent of American women, and there is no end in sight. Previous reports had He suggested that the rise in obesity was at least slowing, but even that doesn’t seem to be the case. Similarly, we had thought that we were turning The childhood obesity corner[a]After 35 years of incessant bad news,” but the bad news continues. Childhood and adolescent obesity rates have continued increasing, already in the fourth decade.
Over the last century, obesity appears to have leap tenfold, from about 1 in 30 to now 1 in 3, but it was not a steady increase. As you can see in the graph below and at 1:15 in my videosomething seems to have happened around the late 1970s, and not just in the United States, but all over the world. The obesity pandemic took at around the same time in the 1970s and 1980s in most high-income countries. The fact that the rapid rise “seemed to begin at about the same time” across the industrialized world suggests a common cause. What could have been that trigger?
Any possible driver would have to be global and “coincid with the rebound of the epidemic.” So the change would have had to start about 40 years ago and could have spread rapidly throughout the world. Let’s see how the various theories compare. For example, as you can see below and at minute 1:55 in my videosome have blamed changes to our built environment and changes to urban planning that have made our communities less conducive to walking, cycling and shopping. not that meet However, our criteria for a credible cause, because there was no universal, simultaneous change in our neighborhoods within that time period.
When the researchers respondent Hundreds of policymakers, most of them, blamed the obesity epidemic on a “lack of personal motivation.” Do you see how little sense that makes? In the United States, for example, obesity Shooting in the entire population in the late 1970s, as you can see at 2:26 in my video. I agree with researchers who “believe it is implausible that each age, sex, and ethnic group, with enormous differences in life experiences and attitudes, had a simultaneous decrease in willpower related to healthy nutrition or exercise.” More plausible than a global change as our characters would have it be some global change like our lives.
The food industry blames inactivity. “If all consumers exercised” saying The CEO of PepsiCo, “obesity would not exist.” Coca Cola was a step further, spending $1.5 million to create the Global Energy Balance Network to downplay the role of diet. Leaked emails show that the company planned to use the facade to “serve as a ‘weapon’ to ‘change the conversation’ about obesity in its ‘war’ with public health.
This tactic is so common among food and beverage companies that it even has a name: “lean wash.” You’ve probably heard of greenwashing, where companies deceptively pretend to be environmentally friendly. Leanwashing is the term used to describe companies that try to position themselves as helping to solve the obesity crisis when, instead, they are directly contributing to it. For example, the world’s largest food company, Nestlé, has “renowned as the “global leader in nutrition, health and wellness.”“ Yes, Nestlé, makers of Nesquik, Cookie Crisp, and historically over a hundred different candy brands, including Butterfinger, Kit Kat, Goobers, Gobstoppers, Runts, and Nerds. Another of their mottos is “Good food, good life.” Their Raisins may have some fruit, but Nestlé seems more Willy Wonka than wellness to me.
The constant corporate drumbeat of putting too much emphasis on physical inactivity appears to be working. In response to the Harris Poll question, “Which of these questions do you prefer?” think What are the main reasons why obesity has increased?”, a “vast majority of 83% chose lack of exercise, while only 34% chose excessive calorie consumption.” “Confusion has been generated about the effect of exercise on energy balance.” identified as one of the most common misconceptions about obesity. The scientific community hascome to a fairly decisive conclusion” that the factors governing calorie intake most powerfully affect overall caloric balance. It’s our fast food rather than our slow motion.
“There is “There is considerable debate in the current literature about whether physical activity has any role in the obesity epidemic that has swept the world since the 1980s.” The increase in caloric intake per person is more than enough to explain the obesity epidemic in the United States and also explain Worldwide. In any case, the level of physical activity in recent decades has Obesity has increased slightly in both Europe and North America. Ironically, this may be a result of the extra energy it takes to move our heavier bodies, making it a consequence of the obesity problem rather than the cause.
“Formal exercise theater plays a very small role in the total daily energy expenditure of physical activity.” Think about how much more physical work people used to do in the workplace, on the farm, or even at home. It’s not just about the color change of the collar from blue to white. Increasing automation, computerization, mechanization, motorization, and urbanization have contributed to increasingly sedentary lifestyles over the last century, and that is the problem with theory. The occupational shifts and the arrival of labor-saving devices “have been gradual and largely preceded the dramatic increase in weight gain in the developed world in recent decades.” Washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and the Model T were invented before 1910. In fact, when put According to the test that used state-of-the-art methods to measure energy in and out, it was caloric intake, not physical activity, that predicted weight gain over time.
The common misconception that obesity is primarily due to lack of exercise may not simply be a benign fallacy. Personal theories of causality seem impact the weight of people. Those who blame insufficient exercise are significantly more likely to be overweight than those who blame poor diet. If those who believe that lack of exercise causes obesity are placed in a room with chocolate, they can be observed surreptitiously consuming more sweets. However, those who hold that view may be different in other ways. You can’t prove cause and effect until you put it to the test. And, indeed, as you can see in the following graph, and at minute 7:22 of my videopeople random who read an article implying inactivity ate significantly more sweets than those who read about research indicating dieting. A similar study found that those presented with research blaming genetics subsequently ate significantly more cookies. The title of that article? “An Unintentional Way the Fat Gene Might Be Making You Fat.”
When I sat down to write How not to diet, I knew that “what triggered the obesity epidemic” was going to be a big question I would have to confront. Was it inactivity (just kids sitting around playing video games or browsing on their phones)? Was it genetic? Was it epigenetic (something that turns on our fat genes)? Or was it just the food? Were we suddenly eating more fat? More carbs? More processed foods? Or were we simply eating more, period, due to larger portions or more snacks? Inquiring minds wanted to know.
This is the first in a series of 11 videos to answer this question, which I originally published in a two-hour webinar in 2020. See the digital download of the webinar. here. Or check them out in the related posts below.
