It used to be that differences in obesity rates worldwide were explained by diet: the French ate rich food, but in smaller portions; the Japanese ate lots of white rice, but didn't eat much meat; etc.
That has been found to not hold up over time and so people seemed to explain it by culture: The US was fatter, because we sit in cars all day; in most other countries you have to walk considerable distance every day, even to use transit.
Now that, too, seems to be failing the data, as other countries become fatter without any notable shift in how they get around town.
It may be time we studied to what degree the worldwide spread of obesity maps to the worldwide spread of industrial food products.
Could it be the 'lag' between obesity becoming a problem in the US vs the rest of the world was nothing more than initial cultural resistance to processed food wearing down over time?
The question of how an individual can lose weight is pretty well understood (if difficult for many to practice).
The more interesting question is what enables entire cultures to surrender their previous generation's habits seemingly en masse.
That has been found to not hold up over time and so people seemed to explain it by culture: The US was fatter, because we sit in cars all day; in most other countries you have to walk considerable distance every day, even to use transit.
Now that, too, seems to be failing the data, as other countries become fatter without any notable shift in how they get around town.
It may be time we studied to what degree the worldwide spread of obesity maps to the worldwide spread of industrial food products.
Could it be the 'lag' between obesity becoming a problem in the US vs the rest of the world was nothing more than initial cultural resistance to processed food wearing down over time?
The question of how an individual can lose weight is pretty well understood (if difficult for many to practice).
The more interesting question is what enables entire cultures to surrender their previous generation's habits seemingly en masse.