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Originally Posted by Fotzlid
I think the obesity epidemic is more related to the food supply than actual over-eating and lack of self control.
Go through your food cabinet and look at the ingredients. How many chemicals are in all those boxes and cans? How far do you have to drive to get a healthy meal vs a double cheeseburger with a supersized fries? How many different hormones are the cattle and chickens injected with to make them plumper with a bigger yield of meat?
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That's a total cop-out. 'Blame the industry' is another way of boycotting personal responsibility. Regardless of the accuracy of the argument ('chemical' does not equate to unhealthy any more than 'organic' equates to healthy, despite what the marketing people at Trader Joe's tell you) it still doesn't address the fact that the vast majority of obese people do have healthier lifestyle options that they simply forego.
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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
In the study, published in the January/February issue of General Hospital Psychiatry, researchers interviewed 4,641 female health-plan enrollees, ages 40 to 65, by phone. The women responded to items on height, weight, exercise levels, dietary habits and body image. They also completed the Patient Health Questionnaire, a measure of depression symptoms.
Women with clinical depression were more than twice as likely to be obese, defined as having a body-mass index (BMI) of 30 or more; likewise, obese women were more than twice as likely to be depressed.
—"Obesity, Depression Often Coexist In Middle-Aged Women," Science News
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Results of the research showed, that people, having adiposity, suffered from anxious and emotional disorders, including depression, 25% more often. At the same time, fatty people abused alcohol and drugs 25% less frequently, than their slenderer brothers.
Now scientists are still not ready to answer a question, whether depresion is a reason or result of adiposity, as both variants are quite possible. It’s known, that depressed people experience fall of physical activity. Moreover, medicines, used for its treatment, can cause weight gain. On the other hand, fatty people become butts more often, what surely affects their mood.
Both depression and adiposity are widespread. About one third of adult Americans suffers from adiposity, and depression is detected in 10% of population (about 21 millions of people).
—"Overweight people suffer from depression more often," Woman’s Passions: Women’s Lifestyle Magazine
Things aren't quite as cut and dried as I've read here so far. It's not just about caloric intake and energy output. People aren't machines. This here doesn't apply to everyone, but it does apply to a significant proportion of overweight people. But depression is another one of those things that some people find hard to swallow.
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Respectfully disagree with that. Machines are precisely what people are; incredibly complex ones, granted, but organic machines all the same.
You're right, the formula isn't as simple as calories in/calories out, but modern food supplies allow us to effectively reduce it to that level in the vast majority of the cases. There are exceptions to every rule and this one is no exception; all the same, I'm generally inclined to blame the individual unless evidence contraindicates it.
I'm a big believer in personal responsibility. Depression is crippling and difficult to fight, but millions of people manage that. Using it as an excuse does nobody any good. If a person is suffering from untreated depression which makes weight management difficult, my first question is going to be why they aren't seeking treatment. If they are and are still overweight, then we're right back at square one.