Editing 1744: Metabolism

For obese people, losing weight is often an enormously difficult task.  Standing in stark contrast, there are also lean people who do not seem to ever gain any weight even though they appear to eat whatever and however much they want.  This leads some people (including the lean people themselves) to believe that one can have a special {{w|metabolism}} where excess food energy somehow does not affect the body.  This belief is common, though not supported by scientific evidence.  The comic makes fun of that kind of notion.  While [[Cueball]] describes to [[White Hat]] how his metabolism is "special" (the phrase "one of those" implicitly meaning unusual), he is in fact only describing the normal case: no matter what he eats, his body converts the food to energy and stores any excess food as fat which stays in his body for future use.

For obese people, losing weight is often an enormously difficult task.  Standing in stark contrast, there are also lean people who do not seem to ever gain any weight even though they appear to eat whatever and however much they want.  This leads some people (including the lean people themselves) to believe that one can have a special {{w|metabolism}} where excess food energy somehow does not affect the body.  This belief is common, though not supported by scientific evidence.  The comic makes fun of that kind of notion.  While [[Cueball]] describes to [[White Hat]] how his metabolism is "special" (the phrase "one of those" implicitly meaning unusual), he is in fact only describing the normal case: no matter what he eats, his body converts the food to energy and stores any excess food as fat which stays in his body for future use.

Obesity has only fairly recently become a public health issue due to lifestyle changes brought on by technologies such as industrialization and trade.  Human bodies evolved under conditions where it was hard to ever find enough to eat, so to store as much excess energy as possible as fat was a beneficial adaptation.  Historically, stored fat would be consumed during hard times that was sure to come.  The act of collecting food through farming or hunting/gathering also demanded physical labor which limited the amount of excess energy that would remain.  In comparison, people nowadays hardly need to expend any energy to buy their food from a nearby market.  They also have much more sedentary lifestyles and rarely ever go hungry.  Without an active commitment to exercise more or eat less, there would almost never be a shortage of energy and no chance for body fat to be used. Randall has previously shown how bad his health becomes when he starts eating lots of fat (or sweet) food in [[418: Stove Ownership]].

Obesity has only fairly recently become a public health issue due to lifestyle changes brought on by technologies such as industrialization and trade.  Human bodies evolved under conditions where it was hard to ever find enough to eat, so to store as much excess energy as possible as fat was a beneficial adaptation.  Historically, stored fat would be consumed during hard times that was sure to come.  The act of collecting food through farming or hunting/gathering also demanded physical labor which limited the amount of excess energy that would remain.  In comparison, people nowadays hardly need to expend any energy to buy their food from a nearby market.  They also have much more sedentary lifestyles and rarely ever go hungry.  Without an active commitment to exercise more or eat less, there would almost never be a shortage of energy and no chance for body fat to be used. Randall has previously shown how bad his health becomes when he starts eating lots of fat (or sweet) food in [[418: Stove Ownership]].