Great article about the "obesity epidemic"

[firecat]

And not only because it uses my favorite example of confusing correlation with causation:

Killing Turkeys Causes Winter by Sandy Szwarc

(Those of you participating in the current LJ fat flame war, feel free to use this as ammo.)

Comments

Re: fat flamewars

[ailbhe]

I did say "avoid becoming fat" rather than "not be fat". I see no reason why people's natural born-with bodyshape would be changed by being healthy all the time. And I didn't say "could have avoided", either, because how the hell would I know?

Re: fat flamewars

[firecat]

A theory I believe, although I don't have citations for it in front of me, is "set point theory." It says that most people have a natural weight range of about 30 pounds. If they eat a lot and don't exercise, they'll hang out at the higher end of the range. If they don't eat a lot and do exercise a lot, they'll hang out at the lower end.

This doesn't seem to apply to people with Syndrome X (a condition that includes insulin resistance and sometimes leads to diabetes). But these people tend to be fat to begin with.