Psychohistorian comments on The Obesity Myth - Less Wrong
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Comments (59)
Being fat is unhealthy because it does leave you more susceptible to disease. The American health care system wastes billions of dollars each year on diseases and conditions that are a direct cause of obesity. Diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease are just a few of the conditions that could be completely avoided by millions of Americans if they just ate/exercised better. It seems that easy access to high calorie junk food and absolutely no exercise (never taking the stairs) is just too much of a temptation for many people... and in evolutionary speak, is a good indicator of that person's genes.
Obesity rarely occurs in nature because obese animals are targeted quickly by predators and quickly dispatched. The fat rabbit cannot escape the lean, muscular leopard chasing after it. In the event of a massive human starvation scenario I would argue that the fat people would be killed off first (possibly by the lean/muscular humans or predators) as the lean humans would require less resources and would be more capable of gathering food for the tribe. What good are obese/severely obese people in the hunter/gatherer world?
Think about all the benefits staying fit yields. It is easier to sit down, get up, row a boat, hunt for food, have sex, run, participate in sports, attract mates (good genes), defend your tribe, etc.
I would love to see evidence of this. I was under the impression that obesity is uncommon in the natural world because vast supplies of food are uncommon in the natural world.