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0 pointsCalRobert1y ago0 comments

I agree with you, but people shouldn't really have to put in the effort to change diet or exercise or lifestyle habits. But the environment that produces those habits SHOULD change.

I lost a bunch of weight when I moved to Dublin and started walking everywhere. Then I moved to the Netherlands and lost even more, and got stronger. I didn't particularly try, I just lived somewhere where I used my own body to get around and the "normal" portion sizes were actually somewhat sane (a bag of Doritos here is maybe a third the size of one in the US).

I was 280 pounds when I lived in suburban California. I'm 180 pounds now.

Build bike lanes and public transport, put schools where kids can walk to them, and maybe don't sell a thousand calories of chips in a personal-sized and marketed bag, and it should get better.

As an added bonus you get a lot less air pollution (and noise pollution, etc.) and less people being run over!

0 comments

stavros1y ago

Sure, but if I'm overweight and unhealthy now, taking medication is a better bet for weight loss than lobbying for rezoning my entire city.

vincnetas1y ago

why not do both. But yes, after taking a pill it's very easy to forget about the need to improve environment. Until you need to take another pill again, and again...

philistine1y ago

It's literally the point of Brave New World. The whole populace is hooked on beneficial drugs so they don't want to improve themselves and their society.

1 more reply

stavros1y ago

I think the cost of the pill is a pretty strong incentive to want to stop taking it. If the pill is cheap and harmless, then that's just great, there's no need to spend effort improving your environment at all, you've solved the problem already.

hollerith1y ago

>you get a lot less air pollution

I know what you meant, but according to a comment here once, European city streets actually have worse air pollution than US ones because Europe went hard for diesel engines (to reduce CO2 emissions) for its cars, and diesel produces a lot of very small carbon particles, which turned out to be more harmful than most people suspected back when the diesel decision was made.

twiss1y ago

Amsterdam has banned most diesel vehicles [1], so at least this is not universally true (anymore).

[1]: https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/traffic-transport/low-emission-z...

CalRobertOP1y ago

Indeed, and I’m worried about the same old mistakes being made with EV’s. They produce lots of tyre particulates thanks to being so heavy, which then get in to our brains.

Of course, Volkswagen lying about their diesels and killing people in the aggregate didn’t help.

What we need is car-free or low-car cities, not just different cars.

bryanlarsen1y ago

Due to it being a common anti-EV talking point, tire longevity has been a strong selling point for EV tires. Longer lasting tires produce less particulates, so this natural pressure should also produce fewer particulates.

Popular EV's aren't significantly heavier than ICE vehicles. A Tesla model 3 and a BMW model 3 are both about 3500 pounds. Range is a huge selling feature for EV's and weight has a significant impact on range, so there is strong evolutionary pressure to lighten EV's. Crappy EV's like the Hummer are heavy; but popular EV's like Tesla's and Hyundai's have weight comparable to normal cars so that they can have impressive ranges without too many expensive and heavy batteries.

EV's increased tire wire is due to their massive torque at low range. If you want your tires to last, just don't drive like a hooligan. We got 70,000 km out of our first set of EV tires.

Tire particulates are an "all cars a bad" issue. EV's are not significantly worse than petrol vehicles vis a vis tire particulates. Their lack of exhaust particulates means that an EV produces about ~half the total number of particulates.

1 more reply

thefz1y ago

> but people shouldn't really have to put in the effort to change diet or exercise or lifestyle habits

Everyone is directly responsible for their own health and nobody else is. The insanity of this statement is baffling.

Earw0rm1y ago

The logic of public health and product design applied to urban/spatial planning basically. And, unsurprisingly, it works wonders.

CalRobertOP1y ago

And it’s a happier, less lonely life!

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsCalRobert1y ago0 comments

I agree with you, but people shouldn't really have to put in the effort to change diet or exercise or lifestyle habits. But the environment that produces those habits SHOULD change.

I was 280 pounds when I lived in suburban California. I'm 180 pounds now.

Build bike lanes and public transport, put schools where kids can walk to them, and maybe don't sell a thousand calories of chips in a personal-sized and marketed bag, and it should get better.

As an added bonus you get a lot less air pollution (and noise pollution, etc.) and less people being run over!

0 comments

stavros1y ago

Sure, but if I'm overweight and unhealthy now, taking medication is a better bet for weight loss than lobbying for rezoning my entire city.

vincnetas1y ago

why not do both. But yes, after taking a pill it's very easy to forget about the need to improve environment. Until you need to take another pill again, and again...

philistine1y ago

It's literally the point of Brave New World. The whole populace is hooked on beneficial drugs so they don't want to improve themselves and their society.

1 more reply

stavros1y ago

hollerith1y ago

>you get a lot less air pollution

twiss1y ago

Amsterdam has banned most diesel vehicles [1], so at least this is not universally true (anymore).

[1]: https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/traffic-transport/low-emission-z...

CalRobertOP1y ago

Indeed, and I’m worried about the same old mistakes being made with EV’s. They produce lots of tyre particulates thanks to being so heavy, which then get in to our brains.

Of course, Volkswagen lying about their diesels and killing people in the aggregate didn’t help.

What we need is car-free or low-car cities, not just different cars.

bryanlarsen1y ago

EV's increased tire wire is due to their massive torque at low range. If you want your tires to last, just don't drive like a hooligan. We got 70,000 km out of our first set of EV tires.

1 more reply

thefz1y ago

> but people shouldn't really have to put in the effort to change diet or exercise or lifestyle habits

Everyone is directly responsible for their own health and nobody else is. The insanity of this statement is baffling.

Earw0rm1y ago

The logic of public health and product design applied to urban/spatial planning basically. And, unsurprisingly, it works wonders.

CalRobertOP1y ago

And it’s a happier, less lonely life!

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse