Historically obesity have not been a huge problem as food was scarce. If there isn't enough food around to cover your energy needs you will lose weight, no matter what your genetic dispositions are. Today however there is an abundance of food in the imperial core and no periods of hunger to use the energy stored as body fat.
Obesity is a problem in all core countries but there are significant differences. Some of them can be ascribed to the kind of food you have in different places but I don't think the difference in obesity between for instance the US and France exists solely because French food is better than American.
I have a pet theory that part of the reason the US has so high levels of obesity is that it is a very unsafe country compared to those in western Europe. There is no healthcare, no social safety net, there's guns everywhere, the police is more violent etc. etc.
Another explanation for the difference lies in what kind of activities society encourages and enables. For instance a place with walkable cities, lots of bike infrastructure and a culture that teaches children to walk and bike from an early age is going to have a healthier and less obese population than a car-centered place.
I agree with a cultural approach to endemic obesity a lot more, not 100% sold on it because societies like Japan have low obesity rates, despite being alienated as fuck
Well I'd say the fact that there's such a difference between Japan and the US shows that the root is cultural, as otherwise you're left with "Japanese are better at personal responsibility than Americans". It's just that alienation isn't the only important factor. I'd say that having a highly alienated population isn't, on its own, sufficient to cause high obesity rates, but fixing it is necessary to seriously address obesity in the US.
Historically obesity have not been a huge problem as food was scarce. If there isn't enough food around to cover your energy needs you will lose weight, no matter what your genetic dispositions are. Today however there is an abundance of food in the imperial core and no periods of hunger to use the energy stored as body fat.
Obesity is a problem in all core countries but there are significant differences. Some of them can be ascribed to the kind of food you have in different places but I don't think the difference in obesity between for instance the US and France exists solely because French food is better than American.
I have a pet theory that part of the reason the US has so high levels of obesity is that it is a very unsafe country compared to those in western Europe. There is no healthcare, no social safety net, there's guns everywhere, the police is more violent etc. etc.
Another explanation for the difference lies in what kind of activities society encourages and enables. For instance a place with walkable cities, lots of bike infrastructure and a culture that teaches children to walk and bike from an early age is going to have a healthier and less obese population than a car-centered place.
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Well I'd say the fact that there's such a difference between Japan and the US shows that the root is cultural, as otherwise you're left with "Japanese are better at personal responsibility than Americans". It's just that alienation isn't the only important factor. I'd say that having a highly alienated population isn't, on its own, sufficient to cause high obesity rates, but fixing it is necessary to seriously address obesity in the US.
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