Hi. In today's episode, Katy Stoll looks at America's obsession with weight, how social media has made this obsession worse, and how we can be more empatheti...
The focus should be on nutrition and exercise, not aesthetics. Just cooking 80-90% of my meals, not eating or drinking a bunch of empty calories, and going for a walk/run/bike ride at least 4 times per week was enough to lose 25lbs a few summers ago. But I wasn't focused on weight, I just wanted to stop feeling like shit all the time. I had a ton of energy and my sleep was better, too. Kind of fell off the wagon but I'm getting back there after I started cooking again recently.
While individuals can find space for weight loss regimes, it really is a society-level problem.
Consider an experiment with two populations of rats. One population gets a normal amount of food, the other gets the same food with a bunch of added sugar. Of course the population with added sugar gets fatter. But, while the average rat may have gained 10% weight or whatever, on an individual level you'll see a wide range of results - some rats aren't effected by the increased sugar, some gain a small amount of weight, some gain a lot.
This is basically exactly what we've done to ourselves in capitalist society over the past seventy-ish years, taken our previous diet and jacked it up with a ton of sugar (and other additives and a lot of increased volume). But while with the rats it's easy to see that all you have to do to return the overweight population to normal is to stop adding sugar to their food, with humans we can't see that because we've created a system that blames you for getting sick.
It's like building a coal power plant in the middle of a neighborhood, and then blaming the residents when they start getting asthma or worse, and holding up the people who won the genetic lottery and don't get lung disease as the example we should all strive to replicate.
I've been focusing on nutrition and especially on running, lifting and stretching, and I feel a hell of a lot better than I did a couple of years ago. Hard to get into the habit, but super worthwhile. What it didn't do is cause any loss of weight, which is frustrating... but upon reflection, I would rather feel better than look slimmer.
I was eating absolutely terribly. Like half a dozen donuts or a bunch of cookies every day. And for savory foods it was all processed trash and fast food. So it was an extreme change when I went to all home cooked clean meals.
The focus should be on nutrition and exercise, not aesthetics. Just cooking 80-90% of my meals, not eating or drinking a bunch of empty calories, and going for a walk/run/bike ride at least 4 times per week was enough to lose 25lbs a few summers ago. But I wasn't focused on weight, I just wanted to stop feeling like shit all the time. I had a ton of energy and my sleep was better, too. Kind of fell off the wagon but I'm getting back there after I started cooking again recently.
While individuals can find space for weight loss regimes, it really is a society-level problem.
Consider an experiment with two populations of rats. One population gets a normal amount of food, the other gets the same food with a bunch of added sugar. Of course the population with added sugar gets fatter. But, while the average rat may have gained 10% weight or whatever, on an individual level you'll see a wide range of results - some rats aren't effected by the increased sugar, some gain a small amount of weight, some gain a lot.
This is basically exactly what we've done to ourselves in capitalist society over the past seventy-ish years, taken our previous diet and jacked it up with a ton of sugar (and other additives and a lot of increased volume). But while with the rats it's easy to see that all you have to do to return the overweight population to normal is to stop adding sugar to their food, with humans we can't see that because we've created a system that blames you for getting sick.
It's like building a coal power plant in the middle of a neighborhood, and then blaming the residents when they start getting asthma or worse, and holding up the people who won the genetic lottery and don't get lung disease as the example we should all strive to replicate.
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we need new urbanism and to murder all the food industry lobbyists so we can all be healthier
I've been focusing on nutrition and especially on running, lifting and stretching, and I feel a hell of a lot better than I did a couple of years ago. Hard to get into the habit, but super worthwhile. What it didn't do is cause any loss of weight, which is frustrating... but upon reflection, I would rather feel better than look slimmer.
I was eating absolutely terribly. Like half a dozen donuts or a bunch of cookies every day. And for savory foods it was all processed trash and fast food. So it was an extreme change when I went to all home cooked clean meals.