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adventured10/11/20240 repliesview on HN

Yes. Looking out 30, 50, 100 years science will further resolve the obesity problem that has plagued the US since the 1980s. There is no scenario where you radically alter such a gigantic, disconnected, complex culture such as the US has. The old joke was that the US would solve this with pills (so to speak), and that's what is going to happen.

If you have a tiny, homogeneous culture it is still very difficult to radically alter it in the span of a couple decades (think: Sweden, Finland). For something the scale of the US, with the diversity of the US, there is no possibility. Anything suggested as comprehensive would be fantasy. There are only small changes that could be done, eg relating to sugar consumption limits in drinks and food; some would have a meaningful impact, however you still won't fundamentally change the culture's calorie problem.

Getting thinner will do extraordinary things for rebooting the malfunctioning US. Obesity does a lot of harmful things to work ethic, longevity, quality of longevity, productivity, mental capabilities, to say nothing of course diabetes and cancer and so on.