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Comment by thomasahle | Hacker News Reader

TL/DR: It's gotten harder to lose weight, because people eat more crap: artificial sweeteners, steroids, pollutants, plastic packaging, pesticides, meat, antidepressants.

A positive read would be: if you want to be healthy, don't focus solely on energy intake, but also what chemicals you are subjecting your body to.

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"Chemicals" are a scapegoat. Everything you put in your face is a "chemical". Folks just need to eat food that isn't just a bunch of empty dense calories. Stuff that actually satisfies you.

No one said "chemicals" are bad. The person you're replying to said we should be conscious of which chemicals we put into our body - which is absolutely true.

Agree, but if someone is putting all their effort and focus onto it they are missing the point. If you go out of your way to eat all "organic" and "natural" foods but you're 50 lbs overweight you need to get your priorities straight.

Artificial sweeteners are not a problem but a solution to natural sweeteners. The latter are a cause of diabetes.

Artificial sweeteners also strain the insulin system and cause fat storage to occur.Your body thinks they are sugars and treats the rest of your calorie intake accordingly

Plastic packaging makes people fat?

I assume it's a reference to BPA.

"Makes people fat" is a bit of a reach, but it has an effect on the holistic reasons why one becomes fat.

The links are dubious, but they are there. Plastic Packaging contains a high amount of BPA (Bisphenol A) which acts as a xenoestrogen - slightly unrelated: the generational drop in testosterone in males has been tied to this[0].

Back on topic, cells containing the metabolite of BPA, BPA-Glucoronide, have been found to accumulate more fat than untreated cells.[1] [2]

This is part of the reason why "BPA-Free" plastic products (think: Nalgene water bottles) use this tagline in sales.

[0] http://www.livescience.com/29401-bpa-testosterone-levels.htm...

[1] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bpa-may-prompt-mor...

[2] http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/777288

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