> From my subjective experience in life, what they very often lacked was parents who set the right examples around food.
No amount of education will change who your parents were or how you were raised. Have you observed a strong correlation between how well educated someone is vs. obesity?
> I speculate that better awareness of diet/nutrition might help to prevent passing on such behaviours, like not feeding the family exclusively a bucket of KFC or McDonalds, or using food as a reward, etc. etc.
I'd encourage you to talk to any reasonably intelligent obese parent to see if they need better awareness of diet/nutrition. Better still, do a survey of obese and non-obese people to compare awareness of diet/nutrition between the two groups.
> I mean, medication won't actually solve what is caused by behaviour, right?
Saying that obesity is caused by behaviour and therefore can't be solved with medication is a bold statement to make in the context of a story about a drug that has been clinically proven to help obese people to lose weight.
Medication is often prescribed to help people who suffer from behavioural problems with positive results. I wouldn't presume medication can solve all problems caused by behaviour, but there is empirical evidence that for some problems it does help. As near as we can tell, human behaviour is regulated by a electrochemical brain & nervous system. Dumping chemicals into that system can of course change human behaviour. We see evidence of that (for better or for worse) all the time. If you have doubts and you don't even need to get a prescription, try taking a hit of acid/cocaine/alchohol and see if behaviour changes.
> If parents know their habits around food are basically ensuring their kids will struggle with obesity, maybe they'll make the effort to do something different?
The US has had a dramatic increase in obesity within a single generation (as in, people who were not obese for much of their lives have become morbidly obese at a rate far exceeding previous generations), let alone cross generational. While food/nutrition/health habits can certainly have a profound effect on someone's weight, there are clearly other factors at play.
Consider, for a moment, the reality of an obese person living in the US today. You get negative feedback about your weight all the time. You suffer negative social outcomes, let alone all the physical ones, so few, if any, want to be obese. There is no lack of motivation to seek out information on how to avoid being obese. There's a $300+ billion industry diet/health/nutrition industry constantly seeking to inform you about products they offer to help with your diet/health/nutrition... and that's not counting the doctors that you are no doubt interacting with regularly. Of course, that's not counting all the education (solicited or otherwise) you get from friends, family, acquaintances and even random strangers. It's hard to get through a day without being "educated" about diet, nutrition and health.
There's a cultural bias to think the problem is simply about behavioural/willpower/education, much the same way we look at poverty. It demonstrates a profound lack of understanding of and empathy for the plight of people who are suffering from obesity.
I didn't say "obesity is caused by behaviour and therefore can't be solved with medication". You're arguing against a straw man. I'm suggesting the idea that maybe we as a society should better educate around our relationship with food. I believe it would make a difference - just not immediately.
You're right. You didn't say that. You said (and I quoted) "I mean, medication won't actually solve what is caused by behaviour, right?" in commentary to an article about a medication used to treat obesity, while discussing the need for better awareness about food/nutrition.
> I'm suggesting the idea that maybe we as a society should better educate around our relationship with food. I believe it would make a difference - just not immediately.
It's a bit tautological that if we did something better things would be better. Better education around our relationship with food would start with people understanding that better education about our relationship with food won't help people suffering from obesity.
Yeah, my original post is focused on the idea that "getting everyone on ozempic" isn't a long-term sustainable solution to obesity. It is a reactive, band-aid workaround that will never tackle the underlying causes. It will help someone survive and live a better life, but the moment they stop taking ozempic they are back at square one, haven't gained the wherewithal/discipline to fight the constant urges to eat, and will be right back where they started. I mean, unless this is some miracle drug that has residual/lasting effects?
In light of that, and barring the many other ways one can combat obesity themselves, it would probably be beneficial if everyone, in general, knew all about the pitfalls of disordered eating and knew more about how to combat that trap, and knew why that actually matters for themselves and the people they care about. I've observed people enable each others' obesity over and over. I've observed people reinforce horrible habits and be unsupportive of others' efforts to combat those habits. People don't know shit about diet and food and spread their ignorant, lazy attitudes and behaviour to those around them. Why make a real meal when you can just order $50 of takeout to feed the whole party? Then, if you don't eat "enough", everyone is on your case because "you must be starving" and "why are you eating so little?", because they are totally uneducated about the possible challenges people face when it comes to food. The more people know about this stuff, the more it benefits everyone. I still think this also circles back to the "passing it to your kids" thing, because it's now a multi-generational problem.
No amount of education will change who your parents were or how you were raised. Have you observed a strong correlation between how well educated someone is vs. obesity?
> I speculate that better awareness of diet/nutrition might help to prevent passing on such behaviours, like not feeding the family exclusively a bucket of KFC or McDonalds, or using food as a reward, etc. etc.
I'd encourage you to talk to any reasonably intelligent obese parent to see if they need better awareness of diet/nutrition. Better still, do a survey of obese and non-obese people to compare awareness of diet/nutrition between the two groups.
> I mean, medication won't actually solve what is caused by behaviour, right?
Saying that obesity is caused by behaviour and therefore can't be solved with medication is a bold statement to make in the context of a story about a drug that has been clinically proven to help obese people to lose weight.
Medication is often prescribed to help people who suffer from behavioural problems with positive results. I wouldn't presume medication can solve all problems caused by behaviour, but there is empirical evidence that for some problems it does help. As near as we can tell, human behaviour is regulated by a electrochemical brain & nervous system. Dumping chemicals into that system can of course change human behaviour. We see evidence of that (for better or for worse) all the time. If you have doubts and you don't even need to get a prescription, try taking a hit of acid/cocaine/alchohol and see if behaviour changes.
> If parents know their habits around food are basically ensuring their kids will struggle with obesity, maybe they'll make the effort to do something different?
The US has had a dramatic increase in obesity within a single generation (as in, people who were not obese for much of their lives have become morbidly obese at a rate far exceeding previous generations), let alone cross generational. While food/nutrition/health habits can certainly have a profound effect on someone's weight, there are clearly other factors at play.
Consider, for a moment, the reality of an obese person living in the US today. You get negative feedback about your weight all the time. You suffer negative social outcomes, let alone all the physical ones, so few, if any, want to be obese. There is no lack of motivation to seek out information on how to avoid being obese. There's a $300+ billion industry diet/health/nutrition industry constantly seeking to inform you about products they offer to help with your diet/health/nutrition... and that's not counting the doctors that you are no doubt interacting with regularly. Of course, that's not counting all the education (solicited or otherwise) you get from friends, family, acquaintances and even random strangers. It's hard to get through a day without being "educated" about diet, nutrition and health.
There's a cultural bias to think the problem is simply about behavioural/willpower/education, much the same way we look at poverty. It demonstrates a profound lack of understanding of and empathy for the plight of people who are suffering from obesity.