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GoodGoodGoody t1_iy042k0 wrote

Reply to comment by Interesting-Month-56 in Why do children with a higher bmi start puberty earlier? by -LoveMeMore

Your bias is interesting: the post topic is obesity which you call “well fed” and everything else you call “underweight”.

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A_Boojum_Snark t1_iy09fpb wrote

Not the one you replied to, but I've always heard "well fed" used with an implication of excess, not as to the quality or correctness.
That said I took their post as spoken from an evolutionary perspective: well fed = resources = begin reproduction sooner. In regards to the "goal" of evolution being reproduction, more food is always a good thing.

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GoodGoodGoody t1_iy0bhe6 wrote

Youre really trying to square peg-round hole that one. Topic is obesity which they rounded down to well fed. They say everything else is underweight.

Then you went off topic; if the topic was well fed it would be just that. A morsel too much or a morsel too little would be immaterial with no automatic assumption of excess (which is entirely irrelevant to the topic at hand anyhow).

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mothman83 t1_iy0d6gq wrote

you are completely misunderstanding the point.

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Until 200 years ago, famine was a real issue even in wealthy nations. The body does not "understand" obesity. The body " goes" ( i mean no actual thought is involved obviously) " this is a time of plenty, better reproduce ASAP while the going is good".

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bad_apiarist t1_iy100et wrote

This is true. In the pre-civilization past, substantial obesity was almost impossible. This is due to several aspects of modernity, and not just food availability:

- compared to us, ancient humans had to spend a LOT of energy just to survive. You want clothing? tools? food? Shelter? You're making it. You're finding it. You're preparing it. Every day. Or else you don't make it.

- Parasite & pathogen load. A substantial amount of body resources used to go to parasites like helminths, as well as to fighting off infections. In modern, post-industrial societies almost all parasites are simply eradicated. When you do get infections, you get medical care (antibiotics, vaccinations, antivirals, etc) that drastically reduce the strain on the immune system and energetic resources required.

- Obesity, at a certain point, is debilitating. But modern society makes such a life quite manageable. This was far less true in the distant past. No rascal scooters on the savanna. Many groups of humans were nomadic. If you can't walk and run reasonable well for hours at a time, you're in a lot of trouble.

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