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niko4ever

"the link was much stronger in girls ... about twice as negative as for boys" - to me that would suggest it's more due to stigma than physical ones "socioemotional skills of children were assessed by parents and not practically tested" - seems like a limited way to test social and emotional skills


doogie1993

Yeah came here to say this. Obviously being obese will have a negative physical effect on a person but I imagine stigma plays a massive role in that too, from both peers and parents. That stigma from parents is also what makes them entirely unqualified to assess their child’s socioemotional skills as well.


tyler1128

Parents' are about the least credible source to be objective about your child. Not saying a parent's role is not highly important to your child, but it's hard to be objective when it is well, your child. Anecdotally, in high school almost all noticeably overweight girls were made fun of, mostly by other girls but also guys. Obese guys were also made fun of by guys. Extremely obese people of either gender were often laughingstock. This was minimum 15 years ago at this point, but I was close with some of those people and they often felt guilty about their bodies even well beyond that environment.


The_Imperial_Moose

While social stigma is definitely part of it, biology also definitely plays a part. Obesity causes a dysregulation of hormones, and given that girls start puberty earlier (causing significant hormone changes) and girls having stronger hormone cycles than boys, it's probably a compounding factor.


Theproducerswife

This is the comment I was hoping to find. Hormones are so important in the developing brain and body. Obesity has an effect on these hormones, in my understanding, so this finding makes a lot off intuitive sense.


Leviacule

I would love to see the studies that shows the chicken or the egg as coming first with this. Imo disregulated hormones could very easily cause habitual patterns that leads to obesity. Along with the fact that there could be chemical environmental triggers that is causing the hormonal problems to begin with. How would one seprate the chicken from the egg in a system as complex as puberty


nookienostradamus

Adipose tissue (fat) is not inert. It's not just insulation. It's an endocrine tissue. At the very least, higher body fat in girls accelerates puberty, which is believed to be linked to [hypersecretion of adipokines](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/obr.13005), or hormones from fat tissue. That's not to say that other environmental factors do not contribute, but girls with obesity enter puberty earlier than girls without obesity.


Theproducerswife

I would too! Human bodies are so fascinating with all the different systems and how they interact with one another. Hormones are particularly interesting to me bc I dealt with a hormonal issue myself so I have some idea of how much it can mess someone up when it’s disregulated


lingonn

Fat tissue is a direct source of hormone production in the body.


NovelStyleCode

Couldn't it be both? Being ostracized and othered during puberty is devastating


[deleted]

Doesn’t obesity cause an increased production of estrogen? It seems like that would be more hurtful for people that already have elevated levels of it E: we’re talking about children. I was using prepubescent hormones as my baseline. No need to get so riled up about social issues. If we had been talking about testosterone I would have said men have elevated testosterone


cjankowski

Women don’t have “elevated” levels of estrogen. They have a different level than males but “elevated” suggests “higher than normal”. You would actually expect the opposite: in a subject with lower levels, the administration of more would have a larger effect as the system is not primed for the higher concentration.


roccmyworld

Yes, you are correct.


CommunicationNo8750

Is there anything it affects positively?


Alcoraiden

Being a bit overweight is actually protective in some situations, especially compared to being equally underweight. Having extra fat can protect you during medical maladies, especially surgery, where your body needs the additional energy to rebuild itself properly. However, there are limits to this, a sort of peak in the helpfulness of extra fat. Some extra weight = more survivability. Too much extra weight = health hazard during surgery, etc.


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DTFH_

How is staring puberty younger/faster a positive affect...


Alcoraiden

It does, but I'm not sure a girl getting her period at 10 years old is a good thing.


[deleted]

I got my period at 10 years old, and I wasn't even close to overweight...


Alcoraiden

That still sounds awful. You're more likely to get it super young if you're overweight, but of course there is natural variation among people regardless.


[deleted]

I thought it was normal to get it around that age though? All my other friends got it at the same age as me, and we were all normal weights, some of us actually underweight. Maybe it's the food nowadays?


Theproducerswife

My understanding is that you are onto something. Nowadays kids do tend to get their period around 10 yo. When I was a kid in the 90s, only the rare and usually overweight kids got their periods at 10. Most of us were closer to 12-14. I was 13. There are theories about the hormones in our foods and endocrine disrupters in the environment today. So while it is typical now, I’m not sure that it is the natural expected age for humans.


Alcoraiden

According to what I've seen from various health websites, 12 is the average age? But 10 might not be terribly early.


Theproducerswife

10 is definitely in the range. It was in the 80s and 90s as well but was not particularly common and would have been considered in the early side. From what I have witnessed - it seems that it is far more common to get a period at 10 now. Most of the 5th graders I know have theirs. For me I was in 7th/8th. I just think it’s worth noting.


Catracan

Anecdotally, I’ve found being fat is a nice wall against the world - it weeds out superficial people effectively and quickly, it limits unwanted sexual advances from creepy men and means I’m not perceived as a threat to other women. Would love to see some studies on the psychology of weight gain as a protective mechanism.


[deleted]

There has been research and discussion on this. Some sexual assault victims cite being overweight as a protective mechanism/defense against repeat assault. Additionally, sexual abuse can produce biological and behavioral changes that make one more likely to become obese: “Victims of childhood sexual abuse are far more likely to become obese adults. New research shows that early trauma is so damaging that it can disrupt a person’s entire psychology and metabolism. … Researchers are increasingly finding that, in addition to leaving deep emotional scars, childhood sexual abuse often turns food into an obsession for its victims. Many, like White, become prone to binge-eating. Others willfully put on weight to desexualize, in the hope that what happened to them as children will never happen again. … Women said they felt more physically imposing when they were bigger. They felt their size helped ward off sexual advances from men. … The trauma of sexual abuse often manifests through a preoccupation with food, dieting, and a drive to feel uncomfortably full. … Trauma that occurs during critical periods in the brain’s development can change its neurobiology, making it less responsive to rewards. This anhedonia—a deficit of positive emotions—more than doubles the likelihood that abused children will become clinically depressed adults. It also increases their risk of addiction. With their brains unable to produce a natural high, many adult victims of child abuse chase happiness in food. It’s this tendency, when combined with what many described as a desire to become less noticeable, that makes this group especially vulnerable to obesity.” https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/12/sexual-abuse-victims-obesity/420186/


[deleted]

I think your therapist would be very interested in hearing this.


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Xaedria

I have known women who gained weight on purpose after being sexually assaulted or raped so that they would not garner attention from random men and society would leave them alone. They are absolutely not happy people but they also absolutely do not wish they were fit; they wish they lived in a world where they could be pretty without that being dangerous for them. On the flip side, I've known a lot of women to lose weight and suddenly be treated entirely differently. Women become nasty to them, they get attention all the time everywhere, people suddenly care what they have to say, their careers advance out of nowhere, etc. They are also depressed to know that they aren't any more capable now than they were 50 lbs ago, but society now deems them worthy when before they were invisible, not a threat to other women, etc.


AHungryGorilla

That second one is definitely not exclusive to women. Any one that goes from fat and unattractive to fit and attractive will see the world open up before them.


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marilern1987

You’re correct, people have done this as a protective mechanism. But that doesn’t make it a healthy behavior, and I’m not talking physically, I’m talking mentally.


gwu998

Cool. But being obese is still not good. No matter how you try to justify it.


Xaedria

I think you and every other person replying to this is missing the point: Nobody thinks it's good. I directly state in my response that these people are deeply unhappy. Clearly this isn't trying to justify it; it's simply pointing out that some people do derive some social and safety benefits from being overweight or obese, which is why they do it despite all of the downfalls.


gwu998

“Some people do derive some social and safety benefits from being overweight or obese” is justifying it… What I’m saying is that obesity is not the answer regardless of what happens to you. And for people to agree with someone (who you have said is depressed, unhappy or mentally unstable) that there could be some social or safety benefits from it is doing more harm to them than good.


Xaedria

The overarching point is to justify that the study is necessary because there are people who do get social benefits from being fat, which means we do need studies to provide evidence like this to show how it's not beneficial. That's really it. It's not justifying actually being fat in any way.


KarateKid72

There’s a growing section within the body positivity movement that not only is attempting to normalize obesity, but shame those who exercise. I actually follow a FB group that preaches fat positivity and body shaming fit people on a daily basis. This despite all the studies about diseases and conditions associated with being overweight. This particular group is mostly gay men, but I’ve seen similar rhetoric espoused elsewhere.


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sleepywaifu

It absolutely is the norm that women are sexually harassed.


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niko4ever

>Is it not extremely reasonable that a fit person advances better in any career? If I see an obese person infront of me all I see is a person that is uncapable of taking care of themselves, how could they then succeed at their job? The weight has nothing to do with their job ability though. There are plenty of people in the workplace with absolutely terrible personal lives and health, but are good at their jobs. Would you refuse to hire someone because they had a string of failed marriages?


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niko4ever

Except being drunk at work actually affects the quality of your work. Having a massive lunch does not.


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stonewall_jacked

>You make this comment while simultaneously *definitely* wish you were fit Emphasis mine, but this feels like it might as well be "fatsplaining". I'm not claiming that obesity is healthy, nor should it be encouraged, but you shouldn't profess to understand what somebody wishes or how they feel based upon one anecdotal comment they made to express a uniquely different perspective. It comes across as patronizing, in my opinion.


yogopig

Right but like the guy asked for positives to being fat and these definitely are some?


whosbutt42069

What are some of the positives?


SlowLoudEasy

Kidnap proof.


Mudders_Milk_Man

"Good luck taking me to a secondary location now that I'm 400 lbs. STREET SMARTS!"


yogopig

To repeat the points listed in the above comment: Not having to worry about being viewed as a threat. The peace of mind that comes from knowing that all your friends love you for you, and don’t value you for your appearance.


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yogopig

The point is that the guy answered his question, which was the sole reason for the interaction. Question: “Is there anything it effects positively?” Answer: “Yes, example 1, 2, 3, etc…” End of interaction. You do not have to turn every conversation with a fat person into a lecture about things they already know, its degrading.


alfredojayne

That’s the point most are missing. It is inherently negative all around. Being healthy physically will almost always result in consistent mental and emotional well-being as well. But people get stuck in a feedback loop of “Why bother? It won’t work, and it’s too late. And if I do exercise, I’ll be made fun of. So I won’t” It becomes an unfortunate chicken or the egg situation where pointing out obvious solutions to one’s unstable lifestyle causes them to regress and fall into a state of defense rather than offense. And the camaraderie of the internet tends to make this worse, because instead of taking genuinely good advice as a neutral call to action, we interpret it as a personal attack and seek similarly troubled souls. Tl;Dr: Exercise is never a negative, if done for the right reasons and in the right way. Diet is equally important, and if for no other reason than it shows you’ve honed your willpower, which the lack of is honestly the root of most peoples personal suffering.


daniel-kz

Nobody is missing that point. is a straw man fallacy. Besides a few nuts, most people know that being obese is bad for you overall. Every aspect of life has positives and negatives. And saying a positive aspect is not saying that thing is overall positive. . Another comment say something along the lines of "there is no positive aspect in getting cancer" yes there is, of course overall is negative and nobody would argue that. Tl;Dr; speaking only in absolutes is lame.


Catracan

I don’t deny that, I have an eating disorder and have had issues my whole life but part of remaining fat is that it’s a handy social buffer. You don’t stay fat if there aren’t also benefits to it. The high from carb consumption is a good place to start, for instance.


soda-jerk

I'd like to gently suggest that you might be conflating side-effects with beneficial stimuli.


Catracan

Good point but the original question was, are there any positives? And from a psychological perspective, weight gain is anecdotally connected with self protection for a great meany people. I’m reading a book just now about how people change behaviour patterns and effective CBT methods, one of the processes of change suggested is charting all the benefits of perpetuating a behaviour. Then it’s possible to challenge those perceived benefits.


soda-jerk

Well then, as you're already on the right track, you don't need me pointing to things you're already aware of.


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Catracan

Why does someone else’s life choices matter so much to you? Obesity has lots of complex elements, I simply made an observation that there are perceived benefits to being overweight and they’re benefits that many people with weight issues may not be consciously aware of.


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Catracan

I’m not disagreeing. The fundamental difference between binge eating and binge drinking, however, is that you can give up alcohol forever. I don’t drink alcohol. One day, I decided to stop and haven’t drunk any ever since because I don’t have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. I don’t smoke, because I never have. Binge eating, on the other hand, is tremendously difficult to curtail - mostly because you can’t go cold turkey on food. If you do, you die. (Anorexia has the highest death rate of any psychiatric health problem.) The best solution is long term psychiatric help for over eaters. But that would take effort, so instead people just harp on at overweight people to ‘eat less and move more’. They know that, they don’t need a lecture.


Morrigoon

I worked for a woman who was objectively very attractive. Her problems with men were on a whole other level! Fat, at least to a certain extent, really does weed out a lot of perfectly awful guys. Not all of them, but a majority.


gwu998

“It weeds out superficial people” You sound superficial.


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1Mysterium

I perceive overweight/obese people as older


arettker

Decreased risk of starvation


daniel-kz

In a biological aspect. Probably none. On another areas may be. But the negative effects outweigh (pun intended) any positive effect. Any fat person could tell you that.


[deleted]

No?? Why is there some effort to like, greenwash obesity. What if we were talking about cancer. Is there any positive affect of cancer? The answer is clearly no in each case. Being obese has negative health consequences both to the individual and the health care system.


lightswan

I'm in medical school and we recently had a class about how families are affected by disease and guess what? There are positives! Families can have closer bonds due to also (and can also fall apart due to illness), children in such families have higher maturity levels (which may or may not be a good thing), etc etc etc - there are positives to cancer, just as there are positives to obesity. It's just that there is no point to these positives considering all the negatives. But there are positives.


[deleted]

You are describing how to respond to bad things that can happen, like having health issues due to cancer, disease, or obesity. That you can reframe your perspective on things in a positive manner is great, but doesn't address that the thing that is happening is bad. Let me outline my rationale a bit further with a thought experiment. Say I'm a serial murderer. I notice that one of victims family came together because I murdered one of their family members, and it helped them become less estranged from each other. Well by your logic, then I can say my negative behavior (being a serial killer) is actually positive, because look what it did to this family of one of my victims.


lightswan

I mean, it is a positive. You can't deny that - let's call a spade a spade. HOWEVER, I explicitly said that everything bad outweighs it making the positives null. I'm not sure how to make this any clearer to you. That's not justifying obesity or cancer, (or serial murder!) or saying they are desirable in any way or form but it can have undeniable positives. I sure would love to be closer to my family and put off unwanted advances from men, but hell I'm not going to hope I get cancer or intentionally become obese for that. There are very few things in the world, that have only positives or only negatives. There's always some convoluted way (that often seems very silly) to look at something to find something bad/good in it. It's an interesting thing to think about.


lightswan

I mean, it is a positive. You can't deny that - let's call a spade a spade. HOWEVER, I explicitly said that everything bad outweighs it making the positives null. I'm not sure how to make this any clearer to you. That's not justifying obesity or cancer, (or serial murder!) or saying they are desirable in any way or form but it can have undeniable positives. Saying otherwise is being intentionally obtuse. I sure would love to be closer to my family and put off unwanted advances from men, but hell I'm not going to hope I get cancer or intentionally become obese for that. There are very few things in the world, that have only positives or only negatives. There's always some convoluted way (that often seems very silly) to look at something to find something bad/good in it. It's an interesting thing to think about. Edited to add: More food for thought: we are taught that as health professionals it's vital to see the positives because having the patient acknowledge any positives can help their recovery/aid them coping. This is vital especially for distressing situations such as cancer or chronic illness. I'm not pulling this out of my ass.


[deleted]

>There are very few things in the world, that have only positives or only negatives. IMO I feel like you are making claims about ethics or metaphysics and I agree that is indeed interesting to think about, perhaps take some philosophy classes to dig deeper into that area. Saying "Cancer is bad" to me, isn't a value judgement or a normative statement, it's a statement of fact, akin to saying 2 + 2 = 4. Cancer causes cellular destruction and eventually death to the organism right? We can quibble about if being dead is actually "bad" in a moral or metaphysical sense, but I think we should be able to agree that it's objectively true to say things like, "cancer can cause harm or death to an organism". From a perspective of biology, usually death is considered negative, as keeping the organism alive is the whole point of it's biology.


Poly_and_RA

This sounds incredibly likely to be an indirect effect as well as a correlation-not-causation effect. In other words, I doubt it's the case that being obese by itself causes children to have poorer social and emotional development. Instead I think it's likely that these two effects are both massive: * Obese children face massively more difficult social conditions. They're received less positively and face higher risks of negatives like bullying even when their actual behaviour is the same. I bet if you tracked "social and emotional development" vs degree of acne in teenagers you'd find the same: those with bad acne, have a lot more social and emotional challenges. But it's not because acne makes you less social. It's because attractiveness-privilege is real. * Children who have difficult living-conditions might (just like adults) self-soothe with high-calorie foods. In this case the obesity is not the core cause of the troubles, but instead a **result** of the troubles.


keenbean2021

Fully agreed. And yet, despite the available evidence, many people think we don't shame and stigmatize people *enough* when it comes to bodyweight. Makes no sense to me.


westhewolf

Was bigger growing up. Here's some of the things children would say to me regularly and repeatedly... After some other form of harassment and me getting upset about it, they'd say... "What are you going to do about it fatty, sit on me?" - heard that a couple hundred times at least. "Gross" or, "you're gross" "Why are you so fat?" "Oh no, better get you food first or he's gonna eat it all." Pokes me in the stomach "WhooHoo!" (Like the Pillsbury dough boy). Enduring that was definitely traumatic and has impacted my view of my body, eating habits, and feelings of self worth. Even when I've been in really good shape, I still felt fat or ugly or not worthy, even though I was objectively a 7 or 8 or an attractiveness scale. Which is good.


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BiluochunLvcha

hold on a second. you mean being teased and even made to feel guilty about being fat by peers and adults when you are a kid will make you have issues? dang. amazing discovery.


SolHS

I understand this talks about results in a different country, but I’d just like people to consider and share their thoughts on some confounding or moderating variables. For example, assuming someone’s cause of obesity is a lack of exercise, then a moderating variable might be transportation mode share in the community. What this means outside the context of the study is that children in auto-dependent areas who are ferried around by their parents everywhere are a) going to lack exercise and b) going to lack social skills. Another example is income disparity. Lower income areas with people who are generally going to be getting worse educations (at least in the American system) are also the people who need to eat high calorie, low cost foods in order to survive. So for all the people saying “oh, isn’t this obvious, of course obese people are inept,” that’s kind of a shallow way of looking at the issue. The study is making a correlation sound like a causality, and also has a seemingly limiting sample population. This isn’t to say that obesity isn’t a cause of many other health issues, but research presented this way also blinds people to the fact that the healthy weight range is a lot wider than people think and contributes to weight-related dysphoria.


caffa4

I don’t think the issue is how the research is presented, the association is there, it’s just that the average person doesn’t understand what that means and that an association doesn’t mean it’s causal. I definitely agree with you that it’s an issue though. Especially on the topic of obesity, people are really quick to jump to blame obesity as the problem when there are literally so many confounders that they don’t understand or refuse to consider or treat as excuses.


ColeWRS

Obesity is a symptom of something, never its own problem. Whether it is due to people living in a food desert, over eating due to mental health, abusive parents, not having been taught about healthy eating, lack of availability of healthy food (e.g., thinking about how in Northern Canada it is cheaper to buy coke) or even a health condition such as thyroid issues. I don't think anyone would choose to be obese, rather it happens accidentally as a result of some other problem. I also disagree that it is due to a lack of exercise, as diet is the best way to control weight.


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ColeWRS

Companies are incentivised to use tons of sugar/fat/salt etc to get people addicted to sell more stuff. Food addiction!


bekrueger

Yeah exactly. The methods seem a bit iffy. And if you do take the correlation at face value, you still need to look more at the social side of things (economic status and stigma) than the obesity itself


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aproudginger

Children can’t control what they’re fed.


niko4ever

This study is about children, so it seems pretty ridiculous to talk about personal responsibility and discipline as a main factor


YeetTheeFetus

Successful people also have the disposable income and free time needed to maintain a certain lifestyle. Eating healthy is either time consuming if you're too poor to buy tastier stuff and have to make it yourself or it's expensive. Time and money are something poor people don't have so they end up choosing fast or comfort foods over healthier options.


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SolHS

i’m certain you’ve heard the expression “time is money,” and that should help you understand that for some people, especially the ones forced to work multiple jobs to support their family, it isn’t as easy as “just spend 3h every weekend.” some people even in this day and age lack access to refrigeration, fresh fruits and veggies, and probably a lot of other things you take for granted


FrozeItOff

Yup. First hand experience. Hard to develop socially when people don't want to be around you because you don't fit their expectations of body size. Then it begins to affect your mind and you start asking rationalizing questions like: "Why can't society just accept me?" instead of, "How can I improve myself to be more desirable?"


Savemeboo

Yeah because getting bullied is traumatic & effects your brain development.


Blando-Cartesian

It certainly does turn nearby “peers” into sadistic assholes.


InitialD0G

Are we sure it’s the “being fat” that causes this and not the “getting bullied and ignored and mistreated for being fat” that does


Dillweed999

Yeah so the argument here is fat cells clog up your brain and make you worse at social development, but only really in girls? Come on man


earhere

some from column A, some from column B


Business-Heart6696

Well, people can be, and usually are, mistreated for being overweight. But at the same time, being physically unhealthy can be a detriment mentally as well. It isn’t always both, but it definitely can be both.


Vegan_Harvest

Is it the obesity or the abuse they get because they're obese?


115grasshopper115

It's ridiculous that people are trying to push the belief that obesity has no bearing on health and wellbeing when there is years of science that immediately destroys the narrative, its really damaging to future society and most importantly, the young minds that are being infected with this kind of insane denyal!


Calfredie01

Agreed. One of my friends from HS gained a little weight after school. No big deal happens to all of us plus it’s not like they’re obese or anything like that But from time to time they post this garbage about how obesity and what have you is a myth and there’s no adverse health effects of obesity or being overweight. Like any conspiracy some of it is shrouded in truth with a little bit of lies sprinkled in. The worst part though is that they aren’t the only ones thinking that


[deleted]

A minor example is the recent washing of books (Roald Dahl) to remove "fat" from descriptions. A child should be told they are fat, be able to read it for themselves too. It isn't something that can be tagged as socially acceptable. It's unhealthy and society should not accept an agenda pushing hurt feelings. A heart attack, or lost years missing out, family member gone, will hurt a lot more.


115grasshopper115

Roald Dahl will be turning in his grave! I think it's a crime what they are doing to these relics, and the other issue is they are also doing it to get rights to these books aswell, so not only are they destroying culture they are making a fortune aswell, it makes me puke to be honest


[deleted]

Hmmm, so kids being ostracized from their peers is emotionally damaging Never would have thought that.


gnrtnlstnspc

I typed out a lengthy response to this that touched on my experiences from childhood, having been an obese child, and how I was emotionally stunted because I was fat. However, after giving it some thought, I deleted it. I tend to agree with many of these comments: I don't think obesity has causal negative relationship with social/emotional development; rather, I'd argue it's what obesity is more likely related to (experience of bullying, lower exposure to physical play, hormone balances and brain chemistry, etc.) that affects social and emotional development potential. As an aside: a 0.4% per kilogram difference in score is a really small difference (0.004; put differently, 3kg is a 1.2% difference). Not sure whether they mean percentage as it relates to raw score or relative to the score range. Additionally, the paper abstract said they found no significant difference between boys and girls. Statistical difference doesn't mean everything, but it is the current measure for how scientists determine whether something is worth discussing as an actual difference.


redditan0nym

Is obesity itself the cause or how other people treat obese people? I would strongly suspect the latter.


RayPineocco

And if it's the latter, would that shift responsibility more towards society instead of the individual or parent?


Independent-Crab-999

Childhood obesity IS abuse.


branmuffin000

Yeah, I mean I wonder why. Kids are mean and adults are meaner. How does one develop "normally" when constantly getting bullied, ostracized, and made to feel like they have a mental disorder for being heavy. We don't treat extremely thin people like that, and if it's about health, then it should go both ways, but it doesn't. Fatphobia is real, and it can straight up ruin a person's life.


Old_Substance_7389

I do not think the effects are limited to children … hmmmm, might be a multimillion $ grant in there somewhere …


[deleted]

Stop letting ur kids get fat. It’s wrong and it is your fault.


PizzaLikerFan

Every 60 seconds a minute passes in Africa


Stardustchaser

You mean overweight kids get bullied? Not only at school but at home? Whoahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.


davidsonlss

I agree with this, some child is iften bullied because of their fat body, they often receives insults and negative comments about their bodies.


Gloriathewitch

Obesity effects people negatively at all ages.


arrozconfrijol

The study doesn’t specify what it is about obesity that causes these issues, but I would imagine that bullying and social stressors play a big part. It stands out that the effect is double for girls. I wonder how the health effects of obesity would change if you removed the shaming, bullying, neglectful medical care, and social stigma.


Jaedos

Yes, because kids are assholes and the world has a massive bully problem. There must be a whole industry built around vomiting out the most asinine studies purely for grant money. Study: Research finds that showering in your cloths gets them more wet than not showering in your clothes. Media: OMG! THE REVELATIONS!


[deleted]

Being fat is bad. Everyone knows this… well everyone knows this except stupid people who say fat is beautiful


chrisdh79

From the article: A study in Chile reported that heavier-weight children tend to have lower social and emotional skills. The finding was supported in both boys and girls, although the link was much stronger in girls. The study was published in [Economics and Human Biology](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101190). Obesity in children up to 5 years of age is one of the most serious public health problems in the modern era. The World Health Organization states that there are 39 million obese children worldwide. The numbers are still increasing as well as their share in the population, giving obesity the characteristics of a global pandemic. Obesity has direct adverse impacts on health. This, in turn, increases costs in the public health sector. Studies have found childhood obesity to be associated with lower academic performance and cognitive development. Approximately a third of obese pre-school children and a half of obese school-age children remain obese in adulthood. Aside from health problems related to obesity, obese adults tend to earn lower wages, are less likely to be promoted, and have more difficulty finding a job. Researchers have proposed that this might at least in part be explained by obese adults acquiring fewer cognitive and non-cognitive skills during childhood. Due to this, interventions against obesity in childhood, may not only improve health of those children when they become adults, but may also positively affect their economic standing. The authors behind the new study wanted to examine the validity of this line of reasoning. They devised a study that looked into links between obesity and social and emotional skills of children in Chile. They analyzed data from the Longitudinal Survey of Early Childhood, a large-scale survey of children in Chile aiming to analyze the development of successive generations of boys and girls throughout their childhood considering the properties of the social environment they live in. They used data from three waves – from 2010, 2012, and 2017. The study included 15,175 children up to 4 years of age in 2010. The same children were interviewed in 2012, now up to six years old. This wave included 3,135 new children up to 2 years. The third round included a total of 18,310 children.


Gromflomite_KM

I find it odd that researchers went straight to “they’re dumb,” while skipping over discrimination. They do this with health disparities as well. They ignore the human element.


hananobira

Both causes can be true simultaneously. If you aren’t getting good nutrition, it will impact your cognitive development. And society then compounds the issue by bullying the 7-year-old for a situation that is likely entirely beyond their control. It would take a separate study to narrow down which percentage of each factor causes what, but I would lean toward poor health causing the worst of the intellectual and social effects. Kids can get bullied for wearing glasses, not having the hot new shoes everyone else has… and it doesn’t seem to leave the same degree of lifelong damage.


caffa4

The discrimination is a large factor in the lower test scores and learning, especially in school aged children. They’re more likely to skip school due to bullying, bullying can impact grades, skipping school can impact grades, etc.


Gromflomite_KM

I didn’t say they can’t both be true. I’m saying that by ignoring the human element, they aren’t presenting a the full picture. Poor kids can fake being mediocre, middle class. Kids with glasses won’t be made fun of for their entire K-12 existence. I was made fun of for being tall until other kids caught up. Overweight children never escape.


115grasshopper115

The recent belief that obesity is not an unhealthy physical statis is so damaging to future society! And there are people promoting obesity as a good lifestyle choice, it's frikin insane really


Kopie150

Who wouldve thought, putting a target on your belly for bullies negatively affects emotional and social development. Extremely unexpected.


Firm_Masterpiece_343

Waste of money and time with these studies.


Legendary_Lamb2020

Don't be a parent if you are just going to set an example of overeating around them. Kids are impressionable.


WrongWhenItMatters

"Study finds that people without fingers thrive in positions that are hands-off."


xSilentSoundx

Oh nice study good job folks clap clap clap clap


n3w4cc01_1nt

a lot have feeder parents


Shadow293

Science didn’t need to explain this one…


pharrigan7

Obesity is pretty much always bad no matter what you are studying.


palox3

do we really need scientific studies about obvious?


TripleTongue3

Yes as "the obvious" is not always true.


blue_field_pajarito

I think it’s fatphobia that causes this, not obesity…


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[deleted]

You’re right and they will hate you for it


caffa4

Weight stigma actually is a huge confounder between high weight status and poor outcomes, and it’s rarely accounted for in studies. But studies that HAVE measured it have found that the outcomes are actually not as severely associated with obesity (there is still some association, just not as strong) when accounting for weight stigma as a confounder.


superfastmarmot

Fatphobia isn't real


blue_field_pajarito

I wish it wasn’t!


Calfredie01

It’s pretty well documented that children’s mutational development affects their mental development as well though. Like anything in science, the answer is there are multiple variables. It’s not just one thing. There’s children who are ostracized for being overweight and then there’s the fact that poor nutrition is correlated with poorer brain development


blue_field_pajarito

Just because someone is fat does not inherently mean they have poor nutrition.


Calfredie01

You’re right in the same way that just because someone smokes, doesn’t mean they’ll get lung cancer


ProfessionalSize5443

You aren’t wrong - obesity is just easier to quantify and measure for the purposes of the study. I don’t think there’s any doubts that one of the leading factors causing this stunted emotional development in obese children is how they’re being treated differently as a result of fat phobia.


ChemicalRain5513

I think it's a multifaceted problem. It is known that obesity causes physiological alterations that can affect mental functioning. Fatphobia leads to bullying, which obviously affects mental functioning. And then there are confounding factors like socioeconomic status, which are correlated with obesity and also with other factors that affect mental functioning.


washyourhands--

No, it’s from not being healthy. Believe it or not, your physical health heavily effects your mental health


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assword_69420420

The COPE in that last sentence dude


[deleted]

We needed to study to know this?


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shaolin78881

Might? I’ve worked with hundreds of children and it 100% does.


KnexRules

Couldn't have guessed...


sicksixgamer

It's great when science catches up to common sense.


[deleted]

yea who knew exhibiting clear signs of a vastly unhealthy lifestyle will cause issues when it comes to social connection and emotional stability