Quote: (06-22-2015 07:51 PM)scorpion Wrote:
There's a large percentage of the population that simply does not possess the requisite future time orientation (an inborn personality trait that strongly correlates with IQ) to regulate their eating in today's overabundant food landscape. The vast majority of these people will inevitably become obese over time, because they are literally incapable of the self-denial necessary to turn down delicious junk food. There's nothing that can be done to fix this problem short of 1) a widespread, long-lasting famine, 2) passing ultra-draconian food laws that outlaw the sale of junk foods or 3) rounding up all fatties and forcing them into work camps until they lose weight. None of these outcomes are desirable in the least (Ok, well, maybe the third
). I suppose it might be possible to alleviate the problem if brutal social fat shaming became a cultural norm, but that seems as unlikely as the other options at this point. I think fatties are here to stay. It's just too easy and tempting to gorge on junk food. It takes extraordinary willpower to turn down a delicious donut or bowl or ice cream, especially when society encourages such consumption. A lot of people simply can't do it. They cave in almost every time and as a result become land whales.
No need to be draconian to effect change, but those proposals could do it:
1. Ban all highly toxic and almost criminally licensed ingredients incl. high fructose syrup in the current form
2. Start at school teaching children what constitutes healthy food, healthy eating habits, right exercise - do it with a strong dose of fat shaming there
3. Fill the media & entertainment with the same message (not with plenty of contrary propaganda and children's movies which teach you to avoid broccoli and love pizza)
4. Stop subsidizing large crappy meat, dairy, staple and GMO producers - start subsidizing small organic farmers instead
5. Enact policies which make home cooked meals and ingredients cheaper than fast food - something that is logical and prevalent in most countries in the world. Salad and fruit should cost much less than pizza and cake.
6. Finance actual short- and long-term studies on food and nutrition free of intervention and bias testing out multiple diets, exercise routines to find out once and for all what the optimal diets for humans are. Currently there are so many opinions and directions that medical science on nutrition is utterly and completely scatter-brained.
Those changes do not even touch upon the freedom to choose unhealthy food. It just corrects the current ills and manipulations.
I am certain that all of this would correct the problem faster than anyone thinks, but of course it's utterly unrealistic in our system.