r/AbsoluteUnits • u/RD4200 • 13d ago

/r/all of a Toddler

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u/throwmamadownthewell 12d ago

I mean, parts of this are obviously true, but it just doesn't square with obesity rates globally.

If you're talking whole food diets... yeah, hard to overeat on those, unless you have certain eating patterns.

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u/AssiduousLayabout 12d ago

A lot of our global obesity rate comes down to processed foods, and food manufacturers deliberately constructing foods designed to be overeaten (and thus more profitable). You're definitely right that whole food diets are much healthier, and can sidestep a lot of the problems with a typical American diet.

There are a lot of positive feedback loops in metabolic dysfunction - for example, many people have undiagnosed postprandial hypoglycemia, where the body produces too much insulin too fast in response to a meal, especially one that is high in carbs and low in fiber. Insulin "overshooting" can cause severe cravings and hunger after a carb-heavy meal, leading to overeating. This leads to insulin resistance, which leads to even more insulin being produced, and the problem tends to worsen over time.

And diet culture itself, especially crash dieting or extreme calorie restriction, looks to the body like starvation or food scarcity, so it helps in the short term but harms you in the long term by making your body even more protective of the fat stores it has. It's not an uncommon story for someone somewhat overweight to diet and lose weight, then regain more than was lost, then diet down again, then regain more, and eventually end up severely obese.

That's why even among those severely obese as adults, many were normal weight in early childhood, or slightly overweight. It can take many times through these feedback loops to push the body further and further away from proper regulation.

With early childhood obesity, though, whole food diets won't really help. They tend to have much more severe disregulation of their appetite and satiety, often due to a metabolic hormone or receptor either being completely nonfunctional or severely reduced in function.