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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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The Arab countries, like the pacific islands, have their own issues with a sudden surge in availability of food, newfound prosperity and biological adaptation to long periods of fasting (in the desert / remote islands respectively) combining to lead to a big surge in obesity. In large parts of MENA there is also a big gender divide in obesity, women are much fatter than men precisely because women are extremely, almost unfathomably (to Westerners) sedentary in those cultures. Overweight women are also considered less unattractive in those regions.

It’s a mistake to assume the cause of obesity is always the same. Nevertheless, when looking at western countries where male and female obesity rates are quite similar, and where beauty standards (correctly) favor slim bodies, and where almost all people have been rich enough to buy more than enough food to get fat for 75+ years, lack of shaming is the most likely explanation.

Pacific islanders also have the additional issue that they are genetically predisposed to higher BMI. In a lot of the rest of the world since the agricultural revolution there has been selection against high BMI over the last 10,000 or so years (we know this by comparing modern vs ancient DNA), however pacific islanders haven't seen the same thing happen. As such today they have more high BMI alleles so it's no surprise they just balloon when exposed to modern highly processed western food.

IIRC the Native Americans who are still full blooded and not just white people with interesting family histories have the same issue.