Althouse: "A Brief History of Fat, and Why We Hate It."

August 14, 2018

"A Brief History of Fat, and Why We Hate It."

23 comments:

Michael K said...: You wouldn't hate it if you were a hunter gatherer, especially in Europe where it gets cold.; 8/14/18, 2:28 PM
Big Mike said...: Come cold winter months you need it.; 8/14/18, 2:28 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "You wouldn't hate it if you were a hunter gatherer, especially in Europe where it gets cold."

Lots about that in the video. Relevant to why we shouldn't hate it, so the title of the video is deceptive.; 8/14/18, 2:31 PM
Henry said...: Yeah, I was going to say, "Who's this 'we' kemosabe?"; 8/14/18, 2:42 PM
tcrosse said...: William Blackstone wrote a fat history of briefs.; 8/14/18, 2:42 PM
n.n said...: We love dietary fat. We hate body fat, selectively. It is visibly, as a matter of Nature, more compatible with the female sex. Although, in general, individually and mutually there is a trend for toned male and female bodies, while preserving our functional and favorite gendered attributes.; 8/14/18, 2:43 PM
Henry said...: Twenty minutes! That's a really long history of fat. I was expected 90 seconds.; 8/14/18, 2:44 PM
MadisonMan said...: "..and why we Ate it"

That's what the title should be.; 8/14/18, 2:48 PM
rhhardin said...: Firearms, alcohol and tobacco.; 8/14/18, 2:54 PM
traditionalguy said...: Rubens liked his women filled out and happy. I wonder if he invented the Reubens sandwich in foot longs. White privilege was big in the Netherlands-Spanish Empire.

Fat is a great diet to lose weight fast. Butter, rib-eye steaks, bacon, cheese and no sugar.; 8/14/18, 2:54 PM
Rabel said...: The filmmaker was annoyingly fond of [double] chin to eyebrow shot.; 8/14/18, 2:56 PM
Michael K said...: Blogger traditionalguy said...
Rubens liked his women filled out and happy

Lots of art from the Middle Ages shows fat women. It was a sign of prosperity.

Just like formal gardens in the 18th century were attractive because so much of the world was wild landscape. It took the Romantics to go back toward wilderness scenes.

These days, it is in style to hate prosperity because nobody complaining has to live that way.; 8/14/18, 3:08 PM
dreams said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/14/18, 3:27 PM
JackWayne said...: The Universal Theory of Fat is that Fat can neither be created nor destroyed. It simply moves from an entity losing to an entity gaining. Deal with it......; 8/14/18, 3:27 PM
dreams said...: We're lucky that we have an abundance of food, way more food than a lot of us had growing up in the forties and fifties but a side effect is a lot of fat teenage girls and boys. In my school class growing up we had one fat girl, an only child who one day revealed that she drank six cokes a day which was amazing to the rest of the class of normal weight kids. Most of us were lucky to get a coke over the a weekend.; 8/14/18, 3:28 PM
Webgrandma said...: As someone who has lost a lot of weight a couple of times and successfully keeping off 90 pounds now, I can tell you that losing weight after being heavy isn't the hard part; it's keeping it off. Our bodies really are made to want to regain, and those hunger hormones really do kick in. From what I've heard, that's where the real research is happening in weight loss meds, but I can tell you that just advising someone to cut calories and exercise is a tough row to hoe.

Since I've lost and gained so many times, my body now apparently requires somewhere under 1,000 calories a day to maintain a somewhat normal size. I can tell you that's not much, and it usually does not involve ice cream, cookies, or even breakfast most days. I'm not really complaining - that's life for me, but it's what it takes when you want to lose weight and keep it off.; 8/14/18, 3:52 PM
Anthony said...: I don't like the focus on sugar. It might be significant, but then again, dietary fat used to be the Big Bad Boogeyman.; 8/14/18, 3:54 PM
TrespassersW said...: dreams said...
We're lucky that we have an abundance of food, way more food than a lot of us had growing up in the forties and fifties but a side effect is a lot of fat teenage girls and boys.

It's not the abundance of food, per se. It was governmental dietary recommendations (low fat, high "complex" carbs) that are based on junk science. Carbs make you fat, along with causing a bucketload of other health problems. Read "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes for an eye-opener.; 8/14/18, 3:55 PM
dreams said...: I can remember when diabetes was called sugar diabetes, yeah maybe sugar is bad.; 8/14/18, 3:57 PM
dreams said...: "It's not the abundance of food, per se. It was governmental dietary recommendations (low fat, high "complex" carbs) that are based on junk science. Carbs make you fat, along with causing a bucketload of other health problems. Read "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes for an eye-opener."

I've read Gary Taubes.; 8/14/18, 3:58 PM
robother said...: Those Luddites were onto something.; 8/14/18, 4:58 PM
Darrell said...: Those Luddites were onto something.

Deifying ignorance.; 8/14/18, 7:15 PM
Darrell said...: Well worth the watch.
Thanks Althouse!; 8/14/18, 7:30 PM