<story><title>Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults</title><url>https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1171-x</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tosser0001</author><text>For whatever reason, I was struck watching the special on PBS, &amp;quot;Woodstock: 50 Years Later&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Everybody was thin.  It was sort of amazing when you stopped and really noticed it, then contrasted it to what you see on a day to day basis out on the streets.  There just weren&amp;#x27;t any overweight people to be seen, at least nowhere near approaching the magnitude you see walking around today.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s got to be some cultural component to all this too.  I&amp;#x27;m not sure the built environment is really all that much different than from what it was when I was a kid in the suburbs.  It&amp;#x27;s as if people just collectively stopped using their bodies and started consuming more calories.</text></item><item><author>shadowtree</author><text>As the article states, once automation hits a rural area, people there spend less energy than in cities.&lt;p&gt;Very much observable in the US, where rural and suburban population never WALKS. You need to supply artificial sources of movement (aka sports) to make up for the delta.&lt;p&gt;In cities, you walk more by default - your baseline energy expenditure is higher. Take the stairs to the subway, walk to work, get out for lunch ... all of that counts.&lt;p&gt;Driving around in your F150 and have everything as a drive through? You&amp;#x27;re the slob from the movie &amp;quot;Up&amp;quot;.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>idoubtit</author><text>The demographics is worse than what is seen in the streets, because of the correlation between overweight and outdoor activities. The CDC facts are that 39% of the American adults are obese and 75% are overweight (including obesity). So overweight is the norm, and thin people are the exception. As the tendency is stable, I wonder if a &amp;quot;hidden minority&amp;quot; lobby will emerge in a few years, claiming that TV speakers and movie actors are too thin to represent the average citizen.</text></comment>
<story><title>Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults</title><url>https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1171-x</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tosser0001</author><text>For whatever reason, I was struck watching the special on PBS, &amp;quot;Woodstock: 50 Years Later&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Everybody was thin.  It was sort of amazing when you stopped and really noticed it, then contrasted it to what you see on a day to day basis out on the streets.  There just weren&amp;#x27;t any overweight people to be seen, at least nowhere near approaching the magnitude you see walking around today.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s got to be some cultural component to all this too.  I&amp;#x27;m not sure the built environment is really all that much different than from what it was when I was a kid in the suburbs.  It&amp;#x27;s as if people just collectively stopped using their bodies and started consuming more calories.</text></item><item><author>shadowtree</author><text>As the article states, once automation hits a rural area, people there spend less energy than in cities.&lt;p&gt;Very much observable in the US, where rural and suburban population never WALKS. You need to supply artificial sources of movement (aka sports) to make up for the delta.&lt;p&gt;In cities, you walk more by default - your baseline energy expenditure is higher. Take the stairs to the subway, walk to work, get out for lunch ... all of that counts.&lt;p&gt;Driving around in your F150 and have everything as a drive through? You&amp;#x27;re the slob from the movie &amp;quot;Up&amp;quot;.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>okmokmz</author><text>I wonder if the industrialization of food and agriculture and the increase in processed foods is part of the reason</text></comment>