undefined | Better HN

0 pointsCharlieDigital3y ago0 comments

> fails to explain why people eat more calories now than they did before

Wouldn't this also intuitively be related to the fact that a calorie today is much, much "cheaper" (in terms of labor required to acquire the calorie for both the producer and the consumer) than a calorie was even 100 years ago due to advancements in agriculture and distribution?

0 comments

scarmig3y ago

To an extent, but we're 10x richer than we were in 1900; we do not eat 10x as many calories. And it's poor people who eat more calories now, not rich people.

CharlieDigitalOP3y ago

> it's poor people who eat more calories now, not rich people

That's my point; if you look at a map of obesity rates in the US overlaid with a map of poverty, there's a very strong correlation.

The cheap access to calories today makes it easier to overconsume. In the past, the high cost of calories meant that only the wealthy could really ever become obese (outside of genetic factors).

bombcar3y ago

The snide comment would be that obesity and unbearable debt are indicators of lack of control, and that poor people will have this more (because lack of control leads to being poor).

But even if absolutely true, how do you solve for that? Laws limiting what you can purchase/eat would simply be a non-starter.

2 more replies

TheCoelacanth3y ago

Possibly, but intuition is often wrong. We need actual research to prove or disprove that hypothesis.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse