United States of Obesity
Posted On August 19, 2008
Welcome to the United States of Obesity.
According to a new study entitled “Will All Americans Become Overweight or Obese?” (read the abstract here), these scientists give us a flawless demonstration of absurdity of logic, abstracted from reality.
Here is how it goes:
The current US trends indicate an escalating rate of Overweight and Obesity. At this rate, therefore, by 2048, we will all be overweight and obese. All of us. 100%.
This illogic assumes that the trend is linier, that the acquisition
of Obesity and Overweight proceeds in isolation, and that there is no corresponding genetic predisposition to thinness — only to obesity.Even the logical caveat makes no basic sense:
“If the current trend continues, we will see X obesity by Y year ….” On it’s face, it seems like it could be true. But that’s a bit like saying, Olympic swimming events have been completed in faster and faster times.
Thus, projections show that, by 2075, those swimmers of the future will actually finish before they start, leaving them extra time for photo shoots. It’s nice, too, because they won’t have to get wet to be swimmers. What a fabulous world we’ll live in!
Obesity and Overweight are dreadful problems, particularly when you look at the increases over time. However, extrapolations into the future rely on so many unknowns, that they can proceed from telling to meaningless to just plain silly.
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