A very interesting article

[velvetpage]

About a very old study that nevertheless proves something most fat people would love to believe: obesity is mostly genetically determined and cannot be controlled by willpower as it is applied to diet or exercise.

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-weve-came-to-believe-that.html

Comments

[kisekileia.livejournal.com]

I remember that study from social psych class. It really struck me that the participants had such serious adverse effects from a relatively low level of calorie deprivation compared to what many people who are dieting subject themselves to. This particular article still begs the question of why there has been such a huge increase in obesity over the past few decades, but I strongly suspect there's an environmental explanation. (I've seen studies suggesting a link with sleep problems, though plenty of thin people have sleep problems and some heavy people sleep well.) I find people's inclination to blame any human characteristic they don't like on free will and lack of effort thoroughly repugnant.

[dagoski.livejournal.com]

I've often thought that we have a need to change our diets here in North America rather than go on a diet. There's also a set of behaviors that seem to lead to consuming too much. Things like plate and bowl size affect our perception of quantity a great deal. And eating fast really messes with portion sense. I fall into this trap once a week when I have to grab a sandwich for dinner. The smaller sandwich would suffice, but I always think I'm hungrier than that and that it's a long day,etc. So I invariably get the mondo sized one. Another real problem I see here in Philly a whole lot is that people, especially poor people, eat reasonable portions of very unreasonable foods. These are goods that have buttloads of calories with relatively little nutrition. I love a good cheesesteak, but I kind of get hangover after eating one. I really wish the Korean lunch shack down the street didn't use oyster sauce on everything. Other than the fact that their meals are borderline lethal, they'd provide me with the ideal dinner.