Hacker News Reader

"We’ve improved the fats in the U.S. food supply a lot in the last 20 years,”"

And yet obesity has ballooned in the same period. What could be the cause?

More sedetary life. Before most people worked in physically active jobs and past times tended to be more active too. If you work in an office and watch TV when you get home, your energy use is obviously smaller than working in a field for 12 hours.

Apparently more sedetary life does not effect the apetite of most people.

I think this is just a convenient excuse, there were plenty of sedentary office workers in the 50s and 60s, and they weren't obese at nearly the same rates. It seems pretty clear from where I'm sitting that it's something dietary or environmental.

more sedentary than 20-30 years ago?

Sorry I don't believe it. I don't see much change in people's lifestyles, in fact with alcohol and smoking on the wane, and ubiquitous healthy-diet messaging, I think people may even be living healthier lifestyles now.

It's something in the environment, most likely the food.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com