The obvious objection to my comment would be, what if people who are really obese are obese for different reasons than the reason obesity has increased over time? (With the latter being what I assume jimrandomh is trying to figure out.)
I had thought of that counter but dimissed it because, AFAIK the rate of severe obesity has also increased a lot over time. So it seems like severe obesity would have the same cause as the increase over time.
But, we could imagine something like, contaminant → increase in moderate obesity → societal adjustment to make obesity more feasible (e.g. mobility scooters) → increase in severe obesity.
Studying the diets of outlier-obese people is definitely something should be doing (and are doing, a little), but yeah, the outliers are probably going to be obese for reasons other than “the reason obesity has increased over time but moreso”.
Wait, no.
The obvious objection to my comment would be, what if people who are really obese are obese for different reasons than the reason obesity has increased over time? (With the latter being what I assume jimrandomh is trying to figure out.)
I had thought of that counter but dimissed it because, AFAIK the rate of severe obesity has also increased a lot over time. So it seems like severe obesity would have the same cause as the increase over time.
But, we could imagine something like, contaminant → increase in moderate obesity → societal adjustment to make obesity more feasible (e.g. mobility scooters) → increase in severe obesity.
Studying the diets of outlier-obese people is definitely something should be doing (and are doing, a little), but yeah, the outliers are probably going to be obese for reasons other than “the reason obesity has increased over time but moreso”.