this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
52 points (93.3% liked)
Europe
8484 readers
1 users here now
News/Interesting Stories/Beautiful Pictures from Europe ๐ช๐บ
(Current banner: Thunder mountain, Germany, ๐ฉ๐ช ) Feel free to post submissions for banner pictures
Rules
(This list is obviously incomplete, but it will get expanded when necessary)
- Be nice to each other (e.g. No direct insults against each other);
- No racism, antisemitism, dehumanisation of minorities or glorification of National Socialism allowed;
- No posts linking to mis-information funded by foreign states or billionaires.
Also check out !yurop@lemm.ee
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
You are correct in everything you said.
But let's be real here. 40% of the US population isn't obese because they have a medical problem. They just eat too much and eat the wrong things. People eat for entertainment, not because they're hungry. Others make no difference between "wanting to eat" and "being hungry", probably because they have never experienced actual hunger in their lifes.
We evolved in a way that we really like calorie dense food. In the past that was a feature. The modern world by itself isn't harmful. But human demand will ( and in the us has) shift supermarket offerings away from what we evolved with and towards what our brain rewards. It's subconscious, and no one is really to blame. Some people with a more conscious approach are less affected, the rest just follows instinct.
Whole grain rye bread is very calorie dense. But many US people eat white toast- so full of fructose syrup it tastes more like cake than bread - instead.
It's not the calorie density. It's choosing to eat garbage.
I recommend you to go read or watch anything including the geneticist Giles Yeo. There are reasons people eat more than they should and it has lots of variables including genetics, personal variance, food environment and the composition of foods.
Bashing americans is fun and all, but if you want to solve a social problem you need a social solution, not blaming individuals.