The association being that soy, grains and oil make you fat? While this may well be true you’re failing to take into account selective breeding, total calories available and ease of getting those calories.

The pig on the right eats more calories than the one on the left. It is healthier and has a better metabolism and so burns more calories faster than the one on the left.

How can you possibly know that? The one on the right is a wild animal. And even if that is true it completely ignores the selective breeding that has happened to produce the one on the left. I’m not disagreeing with the premise that some foods are inherently bad for us but using these 2 pictures is misleading because diet is not the only reason for the difference between them.

These two Samoan men are separated by about 150 years Say 6 generations What do you think has lead to the difference in their appearance

I guess one swam a lot while the other probably never in his life. And diet. One used to eat mostly seafood, I would guess, while the other is probably on a carb heavy diet, as most people are these days

The fit guy was a chief and so did hardly any physical work. He ate meat, fish , coconut , root vegetables and tropical fruit all year round.

Like I said, I’m not inherently disagreeing on the impact of diet. This is a much more honest comparison because (I’m assuming) no-one is selectively breeding Samoans to be overweight. Total calories consumed and ease of access to those calories does till factor in though. There were no supermarkets 150 years ago so it’s highly likely that total calories consumed would have been lower and ease of accessing those calories much harder.

Actually Samoa and other pacific islands were “tropical paradises” ; food was plentiful and easily available. I know it’s hard to understand that eating lots of calories does not cause obesity. We have been programmed with this message. You may be on Nostr because you have seen through some of your programming so keep an open mind.

Maybe I’m not explaining myself well. The point I’m trying to make is distilling this differences down to one variable is inaccurate. Diet may be the main one but it is not the only one. To your point about it being a tropical paradise where food was plentiful and easily available; that may be so but hunting, fishing, collecting fruit etc takes a lot more effort / burns more calories than driving to the shop. Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not trying to argue that poor diet is not the reason so many people are overweight. What I am trying to say is that there are also other factors at play that should not be dismissed as irrelevant. To your point about calories not causing obesity. This is again oversimplifying a complex topic but to look at it purely scientifically it would be physically impossible to gain weight if the total calories you consumed were less than total calories you burnt regardless of where those calories come from. When you get right down to it you cannot cheat this equation. Calories in > calories out = weight gain. Calories in < calories out = weight loss. To your final point, I do have an open mind. That is how I am able to appreciate that the cause of obesity is not purely diet. To be honest I found this last comment a little unnecessary. You don’t know anything about me, my background, qualifications or the reason I’m here on Nostr.

No offense intended 😃That’s why I showed the picture of the chief . He didn’t do any physical work . Also the smaller pig eats more calories than the larger one.! As far as calories go the important factor is not the amount consumed but the amount burnt off. And not burnt off by exercise. The regulator of metabolic rate is the thyroid. Any thing that lowers thyroid function slows this rate. Think of it this way the amount of money in your bank account is determined more by your rate of spending than your rate of earning .

Ok, but that brings us full circle doesn’t it? Your initial assertion was that the difference between the 2 pigs was purely due to what they eat. Now you’re saying that the amount of exercise is the main factor? If you remember my initial response was that their diet is not the only thing responsible for the difference. If you had a comparison of pigs of the same breed who had the same amount of exercise but were fed different diets and you had a similar result to your initial picture that would be an honest comparison. Likewise comparing the Samoan guy from 150 years ago with someone from today is not an honest comparison because there are so many uncontrolled variables. The reasons for the differences are multifaceted and nuanced.

No Where did I say that about exercise ? It’s basal metabolic rate that is important and that is determined by thyroid function . Also about 70 years ago hog farmers in the US saw that coconut oil was a cheap food for pigs. So they fed it to the pigs and they lost weight and ate more calories. This is because the soy and grain diets lowered their thyroid function and coconut oil improved it.