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bingobangomonk t1_iya8kuy wrote

Reply to comment by nesquikchocolate in ELI5: Why can't you just not eat if you're overweight? by Ok_Ad_9188

I mean, there are a whole buttload of reasons people are overweight other than mental health issues - I'd wager that the majority aren't caused by stress eating.

Poor food literacy, poor understanding of health, poor access to fresh food and an over abundance of processed/sugary etc foods in the modern Western diet are probably a much larger cause than stress eating.

I do agree with your underlying point, however, that without identifying which of these points is the persons issue and addressing it there is no way they are going to lose weight healthily and consistently

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nesquikchocolate t1_iyaa58d wrote

In a "mentally healthy" human, the desire to eat goes away almost immediately after you start eating, and it doesn't come back for another 4-8 hours, so it's really difficult to consume more than you'd need without purposefully choosing to eat more. This is why I list it as a "mental health concern", specifically avoiding the word "issue".

I'm trying to distance the thought train away from the "practicality of just eating less", because it doesn't work that way anyway.

Poor food literacy and understanding of health usually relates to an unstructured upbringing or trouble at home, also raising a mental health concern.

There are also significant cultural considerations. In my country, for example, male obesity is highly regarded as a sign of success and abundance, and these men prefer "curvy" women - our per capita obesity is worse than USA, even though we don't have access to high fructose corn syrup at all, and we have a massive government imposed sugar tax, so almost nothing has sugar in it anymore!

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