Post No.: 0972
Furrywisepuppy says:
There exist genes associated with an increased risk of obesity. Therefore genes do play a role, like genes that affect how easily satisfied we feel after eating. It’s guaranteed that if one eats fewer calories than one burns off then one will lose weight but some people do find it tougher than others to maintain a healthy weight when in combination with living in a modern calorie-dense-food-rich environment.
Yet we mustn’t forget about the genes that give people the ability to adapt better to any environment i.e. the genes that gave them big brains (as well as a body with joints and muscles to move). The human brain is a massive genetic advantage. Compared to other known animals, humans are the least shackled by their raw genetic instincts precisely because their genes give them flexible brains. Maybe we’re all born with predispositions to do many undesirable things – but we can be taught and raised to control them and understand their consequences.
So these ‘obesity genes’ don’t mean that people are fated to become obese. It’s like not everyone with high testosterone is aggressive or sleeps around. That’s why some people have a high risk of obesity according to their genes yet aren’t overweight, and vice-versa.
It seems that some overweight people – after analysing their true calorific intake – ought to be even more overweight than they really are! So they’re ‘genetically lucky’ yet squander it, as it were, whilst some others are ‘genetically unlucky’ but adapt themselves (e.g. they exercise more) and/or their own environments (e.g. they stock fewer unhealthy snacks in the home).
If something runs in the family, it doesn’t automatically mean it must be genetic, just like support for a particular sports team. Parental attitudes and behaviours rub off onto one’s children. So if parents care about nutrition then chances are their children will learn to too, for instance. Beliefs passed down from generation to generation, like religious beliefs and superstitions, can be so strong that they can even inspire martyrdoms and self-mutilations. People can even adapt their brains enough to compensate for a lost sense (e.g. some blind people learn to use echolocation to ‘see’ where they’re going and, if trained from young, brain scans exhibit amazing adaptations as if they were innately born to do it).
Our natural body clocks suggest the optimal time for our main daily meal isn’t during the evenings. But cultural routines drive our habits more than anything else. You’d think that because of our genetic instincts, according to our ‘selfish genes’, we’d all want to have children as soon as possible, but culture also affects when people on average choose to have children, like later and later in their lives. Therefore culture has a huge effect on us.
Those who’ve adapted to relying on creature comforts and convenience need to adapt again to not rely on them so much. Evolution is too slow but we can adapt, many times if necessary, within our own lifetimes.
Typically, the more social and intelligent a species, the more nurture becomes pivotal. It’s not saying nature has no say – but even from that angle, nature has given people powerful brains. So there’s every reason to teach and inspire children to be healthy and active, and raise them in healthier cultures.
After the first human genome was decoded, and the more scientists collectively learned about genetics, the more we understood that it was far more complex than first thought. Speaking broadly – with most diseases, the common variants seem to only explain a fraction of the genetic risk. Now it appears to be that each common disease is mostly caused by large numbers of rare variants. Therefore analysing DNA to predict health risks is currently quite imprecise for many health conditions, although maybe this will gradually improve over time.
Scientific research should really be focused mostly on curing and treating unpreventable or less preventable diseases – problems that have no other known solution like lifestyle or environmental changes. However, it can be difficult to determine what’s totally ‘self-inflicted’ due to our genes, upbringing and environmental influences; and where shall we draw the line on what’s ‘accidental’ or ‘unwitting’ versus ‘risky’ behaviour and ‘should’ve seen that coming from a mile away’? If someone bought a value-range kettle that electrocuted them then whose fault is that? (Thankfully here, regulations mean that cheap appliances must be safe too.) And shouldn’t we help everybody in need? An expansion of legal cases regarding deciding what a public healthcare service should or shouldn’t cover would clog up healthcare.
Advances are being made but cancers have been incredibly difficult to cure, thus prevention and early detection remain the key. And the problem with smoking isn’t just personal lung damage but passive smoke and fires caused by cigarettes. The problem with alcohol isn’t just personal liver damage but road accidents and loutish behaviours caused by excessive drinking. We’ve got to think about these wider sorts of effects too. I wish other people could only harm themselves if they wished to harm themselves – but it doesn’t work that way.
One’s behaviours can directly or indirectly influence other people’s behaviours culturally, especially human children who need to be raised and nurtured (unlike many other animals), and with their highly absorbent minds that love to learn by copying. Therefore one cannot view one’s own behaviours as independent. It’s not just genes that propagate but cultural memes. Habits can start young and stick far into adulthood because neuroplasticity generally decreases with age. Unlearning bad habits is hard, never mind simply learning new ones.
Our formative years shape us in ways we may never fully appreciate or pinpoint as the precise cause(s). The majority of obese people who lose lots of weight struggle to keep it off hence preventing obesity in the first place should be the primary goal, and this starts in childhood. The earliest years are generally the most impactful for development. Are our choices therefore ever purely our own if they were shaped by things we never chose? The least we should morally do is give every child a good foundation of healthy lifestyle habits to begin from, then from there people can make their own choices as adults.
Like with other traits, trends or behaviours – seeing lots of obese people around us makes it appear normal to be obese. Within certain social subgroups however, like catwalk models or certain gym-goers, the current ‘norm’ is to be (unhealthily) skinny or obsessed with muscles (which risks body dysmorphia or steroid abuse). It’s definitely culture that influences what’s the ‘ideal/aspirational’, as well as the ‘normal’, like regarding size or skin tone. Overweight norms on one side, and (manipulated) images of body ideals on another, is a world where impressionable children grow up and develop in. Cultures are shaped by whatever we and the media talk about and show. Seeing our peers and role models doing something – especially when more of them do it – makes it appear more acceptable for us to do it too. Their attitudes towards certain things, like taking recreational drugs, shape our attitudes towards these things.
We’re social creatures in an interconnected world, thus free choice still morally needs to consider others. One must evaluate one’s actions not in isolation but with the expectation that the world will react to whatever one does. (Should we also include the emotional hurt we can cause our family and friends if we deliberately harm ourselves or is this going too far? These are all philosophical questions.) We’re all part of a surrounding culture that we shape and that shapes us; and instead of therefore passing the responsibility onto others, we must take responsibility for our part in it and lead with good examples.
Every time anyone does anything, it contributes to the normalisation of that behaviour in society. No one can shape a culture alone but everyone’s actions all add up (just like one person’s carbon emissions isn’t an issue yet we can’t therefore say it’s okay for everyone to not care because every little bit from everyone adds up). Some costs and/or benefits are always passed onto others from our personal choices and actions, in public or private, because we don’t live in truly enclosed systems. From a fundamental physics perspective – nothing on Earth in reality occurs in perfectly isolated systems. No one succeeds, or thus logically fails, on their own. We affect others and others have affected us. We have responsibilities towards each other – including towards yet-born children.
What past experiences influence us consciously, never mind unconsciously, today? We don’t have someone else’s genetics or epigenetics, and we won’t really know how we’d have turned out if we lived with their upbringing and early life experiences. Yet we mustn’t discharge all personal responsibility – it just means we should be more empathic than judgemental.
Obesity should neither be encouraged nor stigmatised. Our biases against the obese (or anyone who looks different or isn’t considered culturally attractive) develop when we’re very young unless we’re taught against them – but we don’t raise ourselves. People don’t fat-shame (or any kind of shame) others because they care about those they shame – they’re just being bullies. Being ‘straight-talking’ doesn’t necessarily make what one is saying right. An honest opinion doesn’t make a fact. Some attempt to retroactively rationalise that they’re trying to motivate the obese by mocking them but this doesn’t work even if this were their intention. And attempting to mock obese people who are in the gym or otherwise being active in public is myopic – they should be praised or left alone. Woof!
Being harsh, unsympathetic and judgemental doesn’t motivate most people in most contexts except transiently through threat; and threats don’t work when you’re not there. They’ll feel that quitting or not even trying will protect their self-esteem from rejection or failure better. Change isn’t easy and requires confidence so you’ve got to build up their confidence, not put them down. Care to understand their background, internal hurts and hidden fears. You’ve got to get them onboard before they’ll voluntarily row with you. Get on their page before trying to bring them onto yours. Preferably help them find their own way rather than think there’s only one way (e.g. there are so many different healthy fibre sources or physical activities). Take the time to connect with them, be on their side, show instead of tell to inspire them, support them, treat them as an individual, and respect and listen to what they say and they’ll respect and listen to what you say. ‘Tough love’ still includes love.
Crash diets can also be quite stressful thus trying to suddenly and drastically change one’s lifestyle and habits can lead to emotional eating itself! Banning something can make that thing appear more desirable too. After the initial success, the maintenance of a restricted diet can be quite stressful, especially when experiencing the natural effect of diminishing returns. And if someone has missed a weigh-in or target, they may think they’ve blown it and so binge because they think they’ve failed anyway (we don’t distinguish between narrow failures or massive failures as much as between narrow failures and narrow wins).
So crash diets can lead to a vicious cycle of rapid successes then tough maintenances that frequently fail, hence the common yoyo pattern to dieting. When dieters start to feel good and do the things they used to do again, like socialising and drinking, they can devolve back to their old fuzzy ways. So crash diets being stressful in themselves could be another reason why so many fail. They could even be harmful long-term by reinforcing the ‘stress and emotional eating’ association. Dieters need to somehow be aware of their consumption yet not make it a stressful endeavour.
Woof. But the principal message is to surround people with a healthy culture, instil a routine of healthy habits from young, and help them associate positive experiences with behaving healthily.
Comment on this post by replying to this tweet:
