The Real Reason America -- And The Developed World -- Is Overweight Is Not What You Think

The developed world has a health problem on its hands.

According to the CDC, a shocking 70.4% of all Americans are obese or overweight. While there are two components to this problem -- diet and exercise -- this will focus more on the latter than the former.

At its core, the reason we have a health problem in the developed world is that our reaction to the sensation of hunger no longer has real benefits.

That’s it. Fix this one, simple problem and I would argue that the “exercise” part of the equation would be forever solved.

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To understand where I’m coming from, there are three key mental models I’ll be using, one each from the books that are foundational.

From Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael, I learned that for any major maladies we face in modern times, I should first ask: “Could the difference between how we’re living now, and how we evolved as hunter-gatherers, explain what’s happening?”

From Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile, I learned that we humans were designed to get stronger from acute stress and lots of rest.

From Benjamin Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh, I learned that all big problems were at one point small problems. Catching problems while they are small is the key.

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Let’s apply these three mental models to the problem of most humans not getting enough exercise.

From Ishmael → Our “natural state” is a healthy one -- otherwise there’s no way we’d still be here. Hunter-gatherers had tons of leisure time (more than anyone would think) but they also moved around at a low level all day long. There were no computers to sit at or machines that could transport us from one place to another

From Antifragile → Most exercise problems can fall into two categories. In the first, we get no exercise at all (no stress, too much rest). The other category comes from too much exercise (all stress, no rest) -- a problem that is probably far less common.

From Tao of Pooh → We often don’t become aware of the problem of lack of activity until major maladies start surfacing. Listlessness, heart issues, depression -- these all can occur if we simply aren’t moving around enough.

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The next step is taking this information and then asking: How is our feedback loop broken? When I think of feedback loops, I often think about going into a shower and trying to find the right temperature. The feedback loop looks something like this:

If the water’s too cold when we step in, we don’t automatically turn it to the hottest setting. If we did, we’d get burned and end up in the hospital (perhaps that’s dramatic, but you get the point). Instead, we take small steps to find the right balance. We solve the problem while it’s still small so that when we realize it, we avoid disasters (burning or hypothermia).

Let’s apply that to how a hunter-gatherer would live.

What natural forces get a hunter-gatherer to stop working/moving around/lifting heavy things when they’ve met their limit? The answer is pretty easy: we stop and rest. Our bodies still send us those messages today, it’s just that sometimes we don’t tune in or ignore it at our own peril.

But the real problem arises on the other side. When you sit back and ask yourself: what natural force spurred hunter-gatherers to move? What made it impossible to do something equivalent to sitting on your couch all day long? The answer isn’t depression or heart disease -- those are the effects which happen when the problem has gotten too big.

The real answer is simple: hunger.

If I was hungry, perhaps I would go looking to gather nuts and berries. Nothing too stressful, but just the right amount of movement that my body was made for. Or perhaps I would go hunting, a process that might involve one or two bursts of acute stress (sprinting, throwing, etc) followed by lots of rest (and feasting).

We simply don’t have that mechanism in our lives anymore. If we feel hungry, we can go to the fridge, or get in the car and drive to the fast food joint. We expend no where near the same amount of energy that we evolved to expend when we are hungry.

Even if you argue that the feeling of hunger -- in and of itself -- is only meant to get us food, not move around, it doesn’t matter. The fact of the matter is, for hundreds of thousands of years, the main effect was built in: it made us move.

I don’t have any concrete ways to use this approach to “solve” any health issues (actually, I do, but that’s for another article). The idea of writing this is simply to put this concept out there and see if it eventually leads to novel solutions aimed at this simple solution:

If we can tie the sensation of hunger to mandatory movement, we will simply (and without much cost) eliminate a huge portion of health problems.

Fin.

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