Why Are People Unhealthy?

Agree that environmental factors play role, however diet, exercise, sleep, stress, social life are also equally important

I lived in an area that would be a borderline food desert. Families car pooled to places like sam's club and split the cost of one membership. Years later, I lived in a different area and with only a dollar general in early adulthood. I could never understand the desert. I bought rice and lentils until I could afford more. Dollar general has simple foods like nuts, seeds, etc. It is certainly a problem that people are eating processed junk food, but the desert argument has always been a tough sell for me.

we need an article written from a poor person s perspective on how to afford good food and motivate them to be healthy without blowing their wallets off while they work a minimum wage 12 hr shift, havent come across a post like this ever

> There are "food deserts" where due to geography/economics it's difficult to purchase healthy food.

What is a concrete example of such a place?

> It's much harder when you grew up fat, working a minimum wage job and living in a food desert.

Need examples. I've lived on 50K for 4 years and it was perfectly manageable.

> At least as an alcoholic you can go cold turkey and do total abstinence

Worth mentioning in case an alcoholic reads this and thinks it's a good idea to try:

It is, in fact, a really bad idea, because it can kill you.

I don't know how to pick a good link, so simply search "alcohol cold turkey lethal" and pick any of the non-blog links you can find. There's plenty.

You don't need to be hungry all the time. You can lose weight without hunger, and without feeling tired and cold either. You don't even need an exercise regimen.

Elevated insulin levels make you store energy in the form of body fat. In order to lose body fat you need the opposite: you need your fat tissue to release its store energy back into your bloodstream. For that to happen you need your insulin to go down low enough, and for long enough.

So what makes your insulin level to be too high? There are four key factors, three of which are under your control.

First, the fatter you are, the higher your insulin level will be. That's why it is so hard for fat people to lose weight in the first place. Nothing we can do about that, but the next three factors you can improve.

Second, the amount of carbohydrates in your diet. Starchy or sugary foods, such as bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and sugar, are very rich in carbohydrates. Carbohydrates raise your insulin levels, so you want to reduce them as much as possible. In order to prevent hunger you still need to eat, so choose foods that will not raise your insulin as much. This means eating above-ground vegetables, eggs, meat, fish and full-fat dairy like butter, heavy cream, and cheese. Choose fatty cuts of meat, instead of lean cuts.

Third, eat less frequently. Insulin levels go down a few hours after each meal. The fatter you are, the longer they take to come down. Every night as you fast during your sleep, your insulin goes down. By having early dinners and/or skipping breakfast, you extend the number of hours a day in which you are in a low-insulin state. When you consume a meal do eat until you are satisfied. Skipping meals isn't about reducing your calories, it's about reducing your insulin. When you eat a low-carbohydrate diet it becomes much easier to skip breakfast because you aren't nearly as hungry.

Fourth, if you can, introduce some exercise into your daily routine. You don't need to go crazy: you can replace some or all of your commute with walking or cycling and it will help. It is not about how many calories you burn exercising in a particular day. Instead, it's about how over a long period of time exercise makes your muscles more insulin sensitive. This means they become more efficient at eliminating excess glucose from your bloodstream, which in turn makes your body release less insulin, and thus reduce the amount of time you will have excess insulin.

Sources: Dr. Benjamin Bikman, Dr. Jason Fung, Gary Taubes, and many others.

Try liraglutide or semaglutide. You won’t think about food anymore.

Completely agree, We can't do much about genetics and environment (to a large extent), however we can focus on whats in our control

If we want to be factually correct though, then it is important to note that sugar (table sugar, the tiny white cubes people sometimes add to their drinks or cereal or baking) is not actually glucose, but rather, it is sucrose, a disaccharide made up of two monosaccharides that have been bonded together (fructose + glucose) and so sugar is not actually good for people, but yes, glucose is fundamental to the functioning of the body. The human liver can actually create glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis in the absence of consumption of glucose.

I know sugar is bad for me, yet look at how much corn-syrup or extra sugar is in everything today. The entire market is working against you.

No, obese is not the only form of “unhealthy” but the picture at the top of the article is a picture of an obese dude stuffing his face with pizza, and the article makes reference to things like weight loss. So, it’s not shocking that people would draw a link between the two and think that the article might be directed towards obesity related unhealthy, rather than say something more like substance abuse unhealthy.

And I wonder if that’s a result of an unconscious bias because what is perceived as attitudes towards eating and exercise related choices, are seen more so as just that, choices. Where as issues relating to something unhealthy like substance abuse is seen as something people have less personal choice over.