> We need to think about obesity as more than just a lack of self control
Do we? I've seen no stats and received no reasons to believe that the majority of obese people have such a distorted appetite that lack of willpower can't be inferred from their state. Also, exercise exists, even for large eaters.
But as always, I don't expect HN (like most places full of Overton prisoners) to react well to the now heretical notion that responsibility is more than a social construct and that the new religion of hedonism is wrong and destructive.
Exercise isn't an effective method of weight loss. Naturally having a labor intensive job can be, but it's basically a waste of time to try and exercise something off when it would've been better to not eat it.
Anyway, "lack of willpower" isn't a cause nor does it fit the evidence very well. For instance, obesity in the US is geographical, correlated with lower altitudes[0], and it happens to animals as well as humans[1].
Chinese large cities are way more polluted than in the US yet they aren't particularly known for their obesity issues.
As usual, correlation isn't causation and my best bet is that there are more cities at lower altitude, which means more sedentary and/or "Western" urban way of life (including eating bad food in too large quantities and office jobs).
Anyway, I don't think that anyone rational and arguing in good faith can say that low willpower isn't the predominant ingredient in the 1st world's obesity crisis. Especially anyone coming from said 1st world and having interacted with some of the "victims".
> Chinese large cities are way more polluted than in the US yet they aren't particularly known for their obesity issues.
You might be confusing China with Japan. China has well known issues with obesity. Particularly the male population does look far from healthy in any major city. Women not so much, but that can mainly be attributed to beauty standards where having a slim figure is extremely important. Somewhere around ~40% of the male population and 25% of the female population in cities are overweight. For obesity it's 20% and 10%.[1]
Also I'm pretty sure that certain healthier groups hide the extent of the problem a lot. Be out and about at the right time and you'll wonder whether there's any healthy guys at all.
Why? Even ignoring that pollution argument for a minute, China was a place where I actually struggled to not overeat. If you live and work in a city, eating every major meal at restaurants/street food places is perfectly normal there, and almost all of that food is ultra-processed and full of chemicals that will make you want to keep eating. With cheap, near-instantaneous, and ubiquitous delivery of almost everything, there's no financial, time, or logistical reasons to prepare your own food even while at home. By comparison the conveniences that we have in the west (Uber et al.) are laughable, as are any complaints that it is oh-so-hard to find affordable healthy nutrition.
Thanks for the heads-up, honestly, I wouldn't have thought so. Don't think I was wrong in saying that they aren't "known" for it (at least here, in Europe), though, but that's besides the point.
Korea absolutely has an obesity problem - it's about a third of the population, but ~40% in men. Japan doesn't. But both also have issues with high suicide rates, alcohol abuse, and general overwork.
Of course you can, because while gluttony has always existed, both absurd abundance and tolerance taken to its extreme haven't. You can guess the interactions between all of these, I wager.
Do we? I've seen no stats and received no reasons to believe that the majority of obese people have such a distorted appetite that lack of willpower can't be inferred from their state. Also, exercise exists, even for large eaters.
But as always, I don't expect HN (like most places full of Overton prisoners) to react well to the now heretical notion that responsibility is more than a social construct and that the new religion of hedonism is wrong and destructive.