Slashdot Mirror
The Mathematics of Obesity
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that Carson C. Chow, an MIT-trained mathematician and physicist, has taken a new look at America's obesity epidemic and found that a food glut is behind America's weight problem, with the national obesity rate jumping from 20 percent to over 30 percent since 1970. 'Beginning in the 1970s, there was a change in national agricultural policy. Instead of the government paying farmers not to engage in full production, as was the practice, they were encouraged to grow as much food as they could,' says Chow. 'With such a huge food supply, food marketing got better and restaurants got cheaper. The low cost of food fueled the growth of the fast-food industry. If food were expensive, you couldn't have fast food.' Chow and mathematical physiologist Kevin Hall created a mathematical model of a human with hundreds of equations, boiled it down to one simple equation, and then plugged in all the variables — height, weight, food intake, exercise. The slimmed-down equation proved to be a useful platform for answering a host of questions. For example, huge variations in your daily food intake will not cause variations in weight, as long as your average food intake over a year is about the same. Unfortunately, another finding is that weight change, up or down, takes a very, very long time. Chow has posted an interactive version of the model on the web where people can plug in their information and learn how much they'll need to reduce their intake and increase their activity to lose."
The term "Junk Food" used to denote things like potato chips, but with the arrival of food glut since the '70s in the States, "Junk Food" now includes the following:
* TV Dinner
No matter how good they look on TV ads, no matter how "nutritious" we are told, TV Dinners are still packed with preservatives, flavor enhancers (MSG), processed starched, and so on
* Take Outs
No matter it's "Moo Goo Gai Pan" from Chinese restaurants or that super yummy pizza from your neighborhood Italian joints, take outs contain super-duper dose of MSGs
* Deliveries and Drive Through
Even the biggies, from Mickey Dees to Pizza Hut are jumping on the bandwagon trying their best to stuff your face - as long as you got the $$$
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
The norms upsetting the fatties again? They should stop. Stop it. Stop it now.
"I'd go to the gym but gas prices make it too expensive a journey"
"I can't afford fresh food"
"My genetics make me eat birthday cake"
"They don't make push-bikes large enough for my frame"
"The objects on my desk have started to orbit me"
"I don't like sports; I only like birthday cake"
"It's my birthday and it's my cake"
"Fatties run in my family! Well, actually they waddle, and the scooter only travels at a walking pace"
"Nom, nom, nom. Birthday cake."
"I haven't seen my cock in years"
"I have cake; who's birthday is it?"
"Using the Type-two-diabetes diet, I lost 20 kilos and a leg"
"Birthday cake!"
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
lol breaking news......man moving to foreign country finds the local cuisine unpalatable. Wishes he could eat normal things, like blutwurst.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."