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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   44984 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022

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But on the other hand... I kinda figure that intent-to-treat is a fairer representation of real life? In the sense that in real life people don't have the option of getting locked in the nutritionist-box indefinitely. And if two treatments are both effective as-prescribed, but the first one has much worse intent-to-treat efficacy, I want the second treatment.

Sure, but that wasn't the point I was making. The point I was making is that obesity is caused, in the first place, by poor diet and lack of exercise.

Yeah, sorry, went on a bit of a tangent there. Anyway.

I feel a lot of skepticism about bad diet and exercise habits being the primary causal drivers of obesity, since on a personal level I know some people who struggle to lose weight in spite of vigorous and frequent exercise and a diet heavy in foods traditionally considered healthy.

I expect that genetics has a hell of a lot to do with whether somebody becomes fat or not, and that "well you probably have bad diet and exercise habits" is a close-to-hand explanation that is both extremely difficult to falsify and which satisfies our instincts toward the Just World Hypothesis. There might also be chemical contaminants involved.

There might be some sort of interaction between genes and environment, where some people are more susceptible to modern lifestyles causing obesity. But the obesity rate has increased rapidly across many countries, so whatever it is, is not wholly genetic.

(Not sure if you got the chemical contaminant hypothesis from Slime Mold Time Mold, but apparently a lot of their claims are not well supported.

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