More Than Half of the World Will Be Obese by 2035, Report Says | Hacker News Reader

More Than Half of the World Will Be Obese by 2035, Report Says

time.com

17 pointspaulpauper14 comments

I'm a white American guy who is a longterm resident of Japan, which has one of the world's lowest rates (~8%). When comparing Japan to the US, the three possible factors that stand out to me (anecdotally!) are 1) smaller portion sizes for most meals, 2) lower consumption of sweetened drinks, and 3) the greater use of public tranportation, necessitating more walking in daily life. Of course the disparity could be attributable to some other factors, such as genetics or other social attitudes, but the effectiveness of a system that gets people to eat a little less and move a little more every day seems intituitively plausible.

Conversely, Colorado has the lowest obesity rates in the US and has horrible public transportation, and the same food and drink as the rest if the US.

Instead they have plentiful access to outdoor activities and beautiful nature. I think public transportation would help a lot in urban areas, really anything to keep people walking around and active instead of sitting and consuming.

I would be skeptical of such figures. Asian populations tend to have a lot of abdominal fat despite normal BMI, resulting in a lower FFMI. of course ,this is common with whites too, but body compoistion matters too. Obese whites and blacks in the US tend to have more muscle too. Regarding exercise, why does walking in the context of commuting or 'daily life' have weight loss properties, but going to the gym does not? Gym attendance in the US is at record highs but this is not enough to stave off obesity. People eat too much, I guess.

Sixty seconds of eating can be a couple hours in the gym. I assume the smaller portion sizes and culture around that do most of the work.

How is the smell?

Ozempic is a brand name for semaglutide which is already being mass manufactured in Asia for dirt prices.

This will flood the globe just as Viagra has and we’ll see a turnaround in obesity in the next 20 years.

I doubt it. even if this drug were free, about 15-30% of people do not lose much weight or any. A 300 pound man who loses 30 pounds is still fat. Others stop due to side effects.

This medicine is intended to be taken for the rest of your life, right? Don't patients discontinuing it re-gain any lost weight?

> The new projection marks a sharp jump from current 2023 numbers. Right now, about 3.12 billion people (39% of the global population) have obesity.

I am surprised to learn that it is that high already.

> No country has reported a decline in obesity prevalence across their entire population.

> While preventing and treating obesity requires financial investment

Has there been a discovered way of treating obesity at a population level? As far as I can tell, only Ozempic and stomach surgery has succeeded in leading to any meaningful long term weight loss for an entire cohort.

An effort by Dr Robert Lustig and Kuwaiti Danish Dairy Company may be an example. Not targeted at obesity specifically but more general metabolic health: https://agfundernews.com/dr-robert-lustig-unveils-strategy-t...

Edit: Kuwait because it is small enough and has higher obesity rate than US (8th and 9th place as of 2016) https://web.archive.org/web/20071016062334/http://www.forbes...

There is tons of hype and investment regarding Ai, but little for food engineering, such as making food that is less calorie dense but still filling, or other solutions to obesity, save for these drugs. I wish there was as much enthusiasm for solving obesity as there is for making smarter language models.

Satiating food with a low glycemic load is available in any supermarket [0]. People need to cook plain meat, fish, pulses, and vegetables instead of microwaveable cheese stuffed things if they want to feel full without excess calorie intake [1]. Keeping ready-to-eat foods out of the home also introduces some useful friction; a person has to decide if they're hungry enough to cook instead of eating due to boredom and having the Hot Pockets right there.

The problem as I see it is that more people want to lose weight than want to change habits in a way that will lead to lasting weight loss, so "dieting" is usually a temporary intervention and has a low success rate in the long term. It's like someone who wants to smell freshly showered every day without bathing regularly. They can't actually get the good outcome without the good habitual behavior.

[0] It's admittedly not available in food deserts, but obesity has exploded among middle-income Americans too, not just among those too poor to shop at supermarkets.

[1] This won't work for everyone, but it seems to be the biggest difference between food habits (and obesity rates) of Americans in the early 1960s vs. now: https://usafacts.org/articles/obesity-rate-nearly-triples-un...

This does not surprise me much. It's so easy to overeat and get fat, especially as you get older and the pounds insidiously creep on. Even a small amount of food, like buttered bread, has 300-400 calories. it does not even have to be ultra-palatable modern food. Food overall is too calorie dense, and too abundant.

Great problem to have

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