Note that Korea and Japan have very low obesity rates (around 2-3%), despite being highly developed and having widespread availability of hyper-palatable food. Definitely worth to check whether some chemicals are more present literally everywhere else than in those two countries.
Contra the obvious genetic hypothesis, genetically similar China and Taiwan have very high rates of obesity. I don’t know whether Koreans and Japanese might be genetically closer to each other than to Han Chinese.
Given the Confucian influence on the culture of Korea and Japan, maybe it is peer pressure that keeps people from becoming overweight? Plausible, so it might be worth to look into the case of hikkikomoris, which is the Japanese phenomenon of refusing to leave your room/apartment for months or years while being supported (usually) by your parents. As such, they are likely not actively managing their weight. They are obviously a hard group to survey, but thesestudies looked into characteristics of hikkikomori and neither mentioned overweight, so that is a point for cultural or genetic reasons.
However, your linked paper says that Japanese that move to America do tend to gain weight, so it cannot all just be genetics.
I wonder whether Asian kids adopted by non-Asian parents are more often overweight than kids raised by Asian parents.
This is very interesting. You certainly can’t argue with the availability of hyperpalatable food in these countries. To the extent they are less available in stores, that would be the result of people wanting them less.
Perhaps the consumption is lower because of their culture (mimesis effects). People eat what those around them eat, and the traditional diet is culturally sticky enough in Japan and South Korea that, in spite of the availability of hyperpalatable foods, people still follow it for the majority of meals. However, this explanation requires a reason why this is not the case in other places, especially genetically and (I’m guessing somewhat) culturally similar places like China and Taiwan.
It’s not like South Korea and Japan have failed to pick up on the addictive aspects of other areas of modern culture, like the internet. So I don’t understand why diet would be different for them.
How do hikikomori plan their meals? If their parents are handling a lot for them, are the parents also implicitly regulating food they provide? Alternatively, is a habitual clockwork pattern of delivery food an implicit form of regulation?
Note that Korea and Japan have very low obesity rates (around 2-3%), despite being highly developed and having widespread availability of hyper-palatable food. Definitely worth to check whether some chemicals are more present literally everywhere else than in those two countries.
Contra the obvious genetic hypothesis, genetically similar China and Taiwan have very high rates of obesity. I don’t know whether Koreans and Japanese might be genetically closer to each other than to Han Chinese.
Given the Confucian influence on the culture of Korea and Japan, maybe it is peer pressure that keeps people from becoming overweight? Plausible, so it might be worth to look into the case of hikkikomoris, which is the Japanese phenomenon of refusing to leave your room/apartment for months or years while being supported (usually) by your parents. As such, they are likely not actively managing their weight. They are obviously a hard group to survey, but these studies looked into characteristics of hikkikomori and neither mentioned overweight, so that is a point for cultural or genetic reasons.
However, your linked paper says that Japanese that move to America do tend to gain weight, so it cannot all just be genetics.
I wonder whether Asian kids adopted by non-Asian parents are more often overweight than kids raised by Asian parents.
This is very interesting. You certainly can’t argue with the availability of hyperpalatable food in these countries. To the extent they are less available in stores, that would be the result of people wanting them less.
Perhaps the consumption is lower because of their culture (mimesis effects). People eat what those around them eat, and the traditional diet is culturally sticky enough in Japan and South Korea that, in spite of the availability of hyperpalatable foods, people still follow it for the majority of meals. However, this explanation requires a reason why this is not the case in other places, especially genetically and (I’m guessing somewhat) culturally similar places like China and Taiwan.
It’s not like South Korea and Japan have failed to pick up on the addictive aspects of other areas of modern culture, like the internet. So I don’t understand why diet would be different for them.
How do hikikomori plan their meals? If their parents are handling a lot for them, are the parents also implicitly regulating food they provide? Alternatively, is a habitual clockwork pattern of delivery food an implicit form of regulation?