Is being obese a mental health problem?

[Wyrt]

Obesity can be caused by mental health problems. People with anxiety or depression might overeat as a way to cope with it.

But I wouldn't say it's always the result of a mental health problem. It's also a nutrition problem, an education problem, a time problem, a food desert problem. It's a difficult thing to just assign a 1 size fits all diagnosis. Sometimes the causes will be personal, other times they'll be communal, and some times it'll be a mix of both.

[belfpala]

Now try the same by withholding everything sugary from people who love their chocolate and fast food

Add: whilst recalling that almost everything we eat is reduced to glucose, and is therefore sugar.

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Junk food = cheap
Healthy = Expensive

Not always mental health issues.

Carbs = cheap
Protein and fats = not as cheap.

Do it right, if you're concerned about your macro nutrients.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

If it were, for the sake of argument, what are you going to do?

Lock up all fat people and starve them until they are skinny? Haha.

I am down with 3 hots and a comfortable cot that I don't have to pay for.

Lock me up, I will go willingly!

See if you can figure out where your plan is going to go wrong.

[Freighter]

Junk food = cheap
Healthy = Expensive

Not always mental health issues.

What? Eating healthy isn't expensive.

[Daedius]

No... it's mostly down to people being fucking lazy, be it not exercising and/or cba to prepare healthier food resorting to ready-made junk foods. Laziness isn't a mental health problem...

[Xandrigity]

It can be. Addiction, depression poor coping mechanism and abuse may all contribute to it.

[LiiLoSNK]

Being obsessed with weight is a mental health problem. I love a lot of fat people and a lot of skinny people. I'd be labeled the weirdest of the bunch if they went through my pc and saw the topics I look at on these socially retarded forums.

[Lightwysh]

I would say its a mental health issue but more an educational issue.

The US is taught the Food Pyramid, where carbs are the bulk of your recommended intake. This might have been fine 50 years ago when people weren't stuck at computers for hours on end due to work work/personal reasons, driving instead of walking and binging Netflix/TV all the time. With our currently levels of activity, they need to readjust the Pyramid to account for the changes in lifestyle. Because sugar is addictive and food companies know this, the amount of added sugar in food is disgusting.

I switched to a low carb/high protein/high fat diet and have dropped over 100lbs in less than a year. I also track everything and monitor my caloric intake to stay under 1500 per day. A typical normal American fast food meal is usually 1000-1500 calories mostly made up of fat, sugar and high glycemic starches/carbs. Some people eat these meals 2-3 times a day but are not active enough to burn off the excess calories/carbs, thus leading to your typical fat American.

[willtron]

Junk food = cheap
Healthy = Expensive

Not always mental health issues.

Nope. It depends how you shop. I can make a weeks healthy and exciting food for much less than junk food for a week.

Obesity is a mental health problem exacerbated by poor education and false truths floating around the industry.

[pionock]

Nope. It depends how you shop. I can make a weeks healthy and exciting food for much less than junk food for a week.

Obesity is a mental health problem exacerbated by poor education and false truths floating around the industry.

Right there with ya. I spend an average of 80 bucks a week on groceries and that feeds me plenty of food for body, and I'm lifting 5 days a week. Potatoes are cheap, rice is cheap, provided you know serving sizes and stick to them. Most of my food is stuff I make, like scrambled eggs with peppers, onions, and cheese. I cook all my chicken breasts on the weekends so I can throw it in a Tupperware container before work. Much cheaper than if I bought junk food or ate out every day.

[Vargulf the Happy Husky]

it's the governments fault for not regulating junk food.

blame them.

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Nope. It depends how you shop. I can make a weeks healthy and exciting food for much less than junk food for a week.

Obesity is a mental health problem exacerbated by poor education and false truths floating around the industry.

"healthy" and "exciting" foods usually suck. well, they suck to eat eeeeveryday. besides, to make those foods exciting, what do you add? salt? i bet its salt.

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No... it's mostly down to people being fucking lazy, be it not exercising and/or cba to prepare healthier food resorting to ready-made junk foods. Laziness isn't a mental health problem...

i would disagree. lacking the will to fix oneself is a mental problem.

oh and the government made us fat

[AkundaMrdal]

Junk food = cheap
Healthy = Expensive

Not always mental health issues.

If you are home cooking you can eat cheaper and healthier than trash food from fast food. Vegetables aren't expensive, as well as a slice of meat. But this require some effort and buying a pizza or burger is easier.

[Daedius]

i would disagree. lacking the will to fix oneself is a mental problem.

What a load of bull, that's just called poor self discipline. That is not a mental problem... else you might as well, for example, say all people that did bad at education have a mental problem because they couldn't be bothered to study, or a person getting fired because they were just lounging around doing nothing... are you going to tell me he's mentally impaired too?

No.. it's mostly down to curbing their laziness with some self-discipline. People have become lazier and lazier over the generations with more conveniences coming into effect.

[Vargulf the Happy Husky]

What a load of bull, that's just called poor self discipline. That is not a mental problem... else you might as well, for example, say all people that did bad at education have a mental problem because they couldn't be bothered to study, or a person getting fired because they were just lounging around doing nothing...

No.. it's mostly down to curbing their laziness with some self-discipline. People have become lazier and lazier over the generations with more conveniences coming into effect.

you're a hardass i get it, and i can respect it. hell, until recently, i would've said the same thing. but you don't know why a person has an eating problem. there are tons of real life, mental problems that can lead to over eating.

it's addiction, as much as a heroin or anything else.

[Deleted]

No, no it's not. Are there psychological or mental issues that might impair your ability to make healthy choices? Sure.
But most obese people are obese because they make shitty choices - some lack the will, strength or means to change their habits, some simply don't know what's healthy and what's not. If you're put through a school system that classifies a slice of pizza as a vegetable because there's tomato(ish)sauce on it, what do you expect?

[Daedius]

you're a hardass i get it, and i can respect it. hell, until recently, i would've said the same thing. but you don't know why a person has an eating problem. there are tons of real life, mental problems that can lead to over eating.

it's addiction, as much as a heroin or anything else.

Say what you will, it wasn't an epidemic prior to the 60s... After then ready-made meals [for eating at the TV] and junk were becoming increasingly more common, and it's only gotten worse over the decades when conveniences was cropping up everywhere. It's the side effect of convenience, it turns people lazy all the while binge eating on said junk foods, watching TV, being in front of a screen 24/7 and what have you.

Those people aren't mentally impaired... they've just became fucking lazy. A person can be thin and not exercise by just watching what they eat, but that's already too much of an effort for said lazy people.

[Dhrizzle]

What a load of bull, that's just called poor self discipline. That is not a mental problem... else you might as well, for example, say all people that did bad at education have a mental problem because they couldn't be bothered to study, or a person getting fired because they were just lounging around doing nothing... are you going to tell me he's mentally impaired too?

No.. it's mostly down to curbing their laziness with some self-discipline. People have become lazier and lazier over the generations with more conveniences coming into effect.

If it's not a mental issue what is it then, spiritual? Is stronger willpower the result of having a shinier soul or something?

[Daedius]

If it's not a mental issue what is it then, spiritual? Is stronger willpower the result of having a shinier soul or something?

By that i was referring to mental disorders... laziness and poor self discipline is not that, it's a bad habit.

[Osmeric]

It's more a symptom of criminally flawed government dietary policy (high-carb food pyramid).

[Hammerfest]

I think if you're the kind of person who eats a normal amount of food and can't lose weight or gains weight, then it's not a mental health problem.