obesity

Dee

Don't you just know you will claim garlic,honey  and hypnosis are the cure

MayCaesar

Who are "we"? The overwhelming majority of people become obese willingly for they prioritize comfort and convenience over health and responsibility, and I fail to see how it is any of my business whether they should change their priorities or not. The rare cases in which obesity is a direct consequence of some organismic disfunction can be treated as necessary by qualified doctors.

I will presume then that you are asking about those people who are obese and desperately want to get healthier, but are too stuck in their bad habits and mindsets to take massive action towards that objective. My take is that the best (the only?) thing anyone can do without compromising anyone's freedom is to promote awareness and good habits. Someone who systematically overeats and under-exercises is not just doing it because he can: there are underlying issues that have to be uncovered and addressed. One of the common ones, for instance, is eating as a coping mechanism to deal with psychological hardships - the most obvious solution here is finding a better coping mechanism, such as physical exercise, and reframing food consumption as the means of acquiring nutrition versus a facilitaror of escapism.

On a larger note, people underestimate the importance of microhabits. When one chooses to eat "one more cookie", there is much more going on here than eating this particular cookie: there is reinforcement of a very harmful pattern that propagates throughout the person's entire life and goes far beyond overeating. Something as seemingly minor as replacing "one more cookie" with "one more victory" (achieved by refraining from eating the cookie) can transform one's life. And a few such replacements quickly snowball into the difference between being fat and miserable and being fit and happy.

All this is predicated upon a very fundamental mentality: that one is a master of his own life, rather than a victim of his circumstances. A victim cannot do much about his predicament: after all, he has a very limited control over his cirvumstances. A master, however, has the power to do something today that will put him closer to his goal tomorrow. As soon as an obese person accepts and internalizes the idea that his obesity is his own doing and, furthermore, that he can fix his obesity with enough dedication and hard work, the solution will present itself. No one else can do this for him, and the best any of us can do is to help him embrace this idea.

maxx

Sometimes, it is his own doong, yet that still is a mental problemthat they could seek help with . It's like being depressed,  it is a mental situation and should be Treated.  Yes it is up to the person.  Sometimes it's genetic.  Many diseases are genetic.  No matterhowyou look ar it, it is almosta world wide issue and should be addressed,  rather than simply saying that people should be strong enough to change on there own.. i fail to see it changing much by that attitude.  It is a problem.  Ignoring it will not change anything.  We should encourage them to seek help, and food companies should be held to blane in the same way that cigarette companies do. Heck, at least they have health warnings on the pack.@MayCaesar

MayCaesar

@maxx

It is an individual problem that does not have any direct impact on anyone else: obesity is not contagious. I may have compassion for obese people and want them to become lean, yet it is ultimately none of my business what they do to their body and I do not have a reason to expend a single cent to do something about their condition. "We", as in a society, have absolutely no obligation to help someone who has not learned how to take their own nutrition and exercise habits under control.

As for your last suggestion, there is already a ton of information on food labels out there. It does not exactly take a genius to pick up a frozen pizza pack, flip it, read the amount of calories per serving and the number of servings, and multiply the two. This is not what chronically obese people do, which is why I said that promotion of awareness and good habits is how you help them. On the technical level having a healthy diet is extremely easy: type in "healthy diet" in Google, open the first link and follow whatever dietary plan you find there - in 99% cases that will be good enough for 99% of the population. The problem is not technical, but mental, and it has nothing to do with lack of information or warnings.

For fun, I asked GPT 4 yesterday to come up with a healthy meal plan for my friend. Took me a few minutes to arrive at something that should work for everyone, from the most sedentary individual to a world-class athlete. It is not rocket science, and while 5,000 years ago lack of warnings on the food you eat could be a valid excuse to use when explaining why your diet is lousy, today it makes zero sense.

bjinthirty

Obesity is the result of a complex change in our society that involves personal choices in diet, consumable product ingredients, company regulations, and the political oversight in the food and drug administration’s capability to keep consumers safe.

Its just as much political as its to hold the responsibility for your own health. But it is difficult to distinguish the two without ruling the cause of it out. People are obese because they choose to eat more than they normally should or because of a genetic trait not associated with food intake. But they choose to eat more than they normally should because of the colossal availability of food to them. To make things worse, government aid for free food can also contribute to this problem but its hard to regulate a program for needy families and controlling the outcome of obesity in people. Ofcourse we cant protest to make lawmakers regulate the amount of food put out there to eat. It will always be free reign to produce for consumers. And without strict regulations on the amount of food available and tougher guidelines for company product ingredients, this area will always have to be a thing you work around in and find ways to work with it.

Among the other manic reasons for obesity the availability to treat it is a possible one. But why are people still obese even when treatment is possible except those sitting on the tipping scales defying human autonomy.




The wat to treat obesity starts at the local level of government to receive federal funding to provide better nutrition to children in schools and educate them more on nutrition, including the parents. It may be almost impossible to prevent obesity but you asked how to treat it and for obesity there already exists treatment. I think you wanted to ask how to reduce the amount of obesity. I think theres a lot of options for this question and all effective but if you ask me what i would do to prevent it i would say,


1)
Require the country to enlist at 18 military reserve service for 3 years.

2)
Mandate the regulations on companies and the ingredients used followed by restricting the amount of food purchased at groceries.

3)
Work on government services that are contributing to obesity such as family court, justice and support for innocent victims or close relatives, improving the standard of living by creating jobs and raising wages, and fund more research on company oversight. 



Obesity can be profitable for the medical industry but a negative one for society. Whatever the issue is atleast obesity is a treatable one but to prevent requires a lot more of a fairy tale than becoming a reality.

maxx

nice reply and i agree@bjinthirty