Comment by mbivert | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mbivert | Hacker News Reader

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> So what's your proposed solution?

To take the time to study the root causes of obesity more closely, and treat the genuine causes, instead of slapping medicine on top of it, for an undetermined period of time to millions of people. It's insane.

Obesity at that scale is a recent issue[0], I'm sure we're clever enough to figure it out.

Think about it: as far as we know, the human body has evolved slowly over many thousands of years; how can drafty-patching it at scale over a few decades works? When something as inconspicuous as switching from stale bread to softer bread has had a drastic impact on dental issues[1]?

It's like a junior dev undertaking a major rewrite on his first day of work.

I'm reluctant to argue much further, I doubt it'll change much for either of us.

[0]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44656/

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wWg9Jx-Byw (French, English papers in the description if you want to dig)

> To take the time to study the root causes of obesity more closely, and treat the genuine causes, instead of slapping medicine on top of it, for an undetermined period of time to millions of people. It's insane.

What if medication is treating the genuine causes? What if we find out that there are genetic or biological reasons that increase your likelihood of being obese and decrease your ability to take action to resolve it? Medication still no go there?

But either way, your solution is effectively "Leave millions of people in a state that makes them significantly more likely to die until we find a nebulous ~right~ way to treat it."

> Think about it: as far as we know, the human body has evolved slowly over many thousands of years; how can drafty-patching it at scale over a few decades works?

I listed multiple examples of us draft patching the human body in ways that have been overwhelmingly positive in the prior response. Humans did not get iodine supplementation at the levels iodine salt provided until modern history. Regular and consistent access to caffeine for any significant portion of the population is something that we measure by centuries, not millennia. Even if we look at the populations that started getting more irregular access in 1000 BC or so, they don't have statistically significant outcomes than the rest.

> When something as inconspicuous as switching from stale bread to softer bread has had a drastic impact on dental issues

That's an interesting example. Do you think we should make everyone switch back to stale bread and refuse giving them dental and orthopedic work if their issues are caused by not eating soft bread now that we know the cause?

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