More plausible model for why in present day so many are overweight:
--cheap calories that taste good widely available with very low effort to obtain
--tasty food is, other things equal, an easy exploit to reward / motivation loops, so it tends to get used in exactly this way which results in excess calorie consumption and of course this is habit forming. there is probably also a lower threshold to “get into” food vs something else in this class like drugs since eating is already universal and not taboo or otherwise particularly regulated.
--fewer obligatory opportunities for caloric expenditure to balance intake possibly mostly as a result of modern transport and trend toward less need for physical labor in general
Maybe this is off-base, and it may not apply to the lithium hypothesis, but it seems there are a lot of really implausible ideas for why obesity is common which are motivated by a desire to not blame the obese person. Common perceptions of agency might infer that the above model blames the consumer, but the intention is exactly the opposite; since it’s predictable that humans in the above environment will tend to act this way, who can blame them?
I was, and still am, tho much less, excited about the contamination theory – much easier to fix!
But I think I’m back to thinking basically along the lines you outlined.
I’m currently losing weight and my model of why is:
I’m less stressed, and depressed, than recently, and I’ve been able to better stop eating when I’m satiated.
I’m exercising regularly and intensely; mainly rock climbing and walking (with lots of decent elevation changes). It being sunnier and warmer with spring/summer has made this much more appealing.
I’m maybe (hypo)manic (or ‘in that direction’, i.e. ‘hypohypomanic’; or maybe even ‘euthymic’). I’m guessing recent sunlight-in-my-home changes triggered this (as well as the big recent drop in stress/depression).
I would love to see a study of weight gain in modern hunter-gatherer people that provides an experimental group with ‘very palatable’ food. I think I would be willing to bet that they would gain some weight.
I do also suspect that hunter-gatherers engage in a LOT of fairly strenuous physical activity. Walking – and living in a dense urban walkable city (in my case NYC) – does seem like maybe one of the most feasible ways to try to match that much higher level of overall physical activity. (Rock climbing is also pretty strenuous!)
More plausible model for why in present day so many are overweight:
--cheap calories that taste good widely available with very low effort to obtain
--tasty food is, other things equal, an easy exploit to reward / motivation loops, so it tends to get used in exactly this way which results in excess calorie consumption and of course this is habit forming. there is probably also a lower threshold to “get into” food vs something else in this class like drugs since eating is already universal and not taboo or otherwise particularly regulated.
--fewer obligatory opportunities for caloric expenditure to balance intake possibly mostly as a result of modern transport and trend toward less need for physical labor in general
Maybe this is off-base, and it may not apply to the lithium hypothesis, but it seems there are a lot of really implausible ideas for why obesity is common which are motivated by a desire to not blame the obese person. Common perceptions of agency might infer that the above model blames the consumer, but the intention is exactly the opposite; since it’s predictable that humans in the above environment will tend to act this way, who can blame them?
I was, and still am, tho much less, excited about the contamination theory – much easier to fix!
But I think I’m back to thinking basically along the lines you outlined.
I’m currently losing weight and my model of why is:
I’m less stressed, and depressed, than recently, and I’ve been able to better stop eating when I’m satiated.
I’m exercising regularly and intensely; mainly rock climbing and walking (with lots of decent elevation changes). It being sunnier and warmer with spring/summer has made this much more appealing.
I’m maybe (hypo)manic (or ‘in that direction’, i.e. ‘hypohypomanic’; or maybe even ‘euthymic’). I’m guessing recent sunlight-in-my-home changes triggered this (as well as the big recent drop in stress/depression).
I would love to see a study of weight gain in modern hunter-gatherer people that provides an experimental group with ‘very palatable’ food. I think I would be willing to bet that they would gain some weight.
I do also suspect that hunter-gatherers engage in a LOT of fairly strenuous physical activity. Walking – and living in a dense urban walkable city (in my case NYC) – does seem like maybe one of the most feasible ways to try to match that much higher level of overall physical activity. (Rock climbing is also pretty strenuous!)