A commenter (“Tregagle”) on a previous smoking-related posting here mentioned this. Here’s the story, from the Independent:
A hormone that signals when the stomach is full has been found to cut the appetites of both fat and thin people by one-third in an experiment that could signal an important advance in the treatment of obesity.
Professor Stephen Bloom, of Imperial College London and Hammersmith Hospital, who headed the team that made the discovery, said it was the first time in 20 years that they had identified a compound with such potential. The finding is published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
And I wonder if this research might have a bearing also on the plight of at least some of those unhappy people who eat too little? Maybe they are producing too much of this stuff naturally. Just a thought.
Look out Atkins Diet. Here comes the Bloom Diet. Just take one of these half way through your meal, and the dog can have the rest.
In twenty years time, everyone will look like supermodels. Everyone will be beautiful. But the Marxists will then say that beauty is relative, that the only-rather-beautiful ones will be the new uglies, and that capitalism should still, as always, feel thoroughly ashamed of itself, this time for having dared to turn willpower into a commodity. Plus, the vilified Bloom will be held responsible for diminished sales of Third World agricultural produce, and for the depressed state of and mass unemployment in the sticky bun industry.
“Plus, the vilified Bloom will be held responsible for diminished sales of Third World agricultural produce, and for the depressed state of and mass unemployment in the sticky bun industry.”
Sadly, I think you are correct.
Well despite a few constants across cultures and time (like symmetrical facial features) beauty is tied to the idea of scarcitym, in other words, most people can’t be beautiful. If 95 % of women were of Gwyneth Paltrow proportions then people’s idea of beauty would shift towards more bountiful figures.
Bzzzzt. Relatively few women have say, six fingers, yet I doubt this is a major turn-on to anyone bar some tiny little fetish community. What we are attracted to is a scarce quality that is hard to achieve, and thereby signals mate worthiness.
Symmetrical facial features are usually a sign of good health, which is an expensive thing to achieve. If a trait isn’t expensive to achieve, everyone (well, nearly) will display it. Think poisonous animals and those who resemble them. One species goes through the energy of manufacturing the poison, while the other benefits from the avoidance of predators. If every animal resembled the poisonous one, the benefit would disappear. When the mass of work was outside manual labor, pale skin was highly valued in European cultures. When the work moved inside, and achieving a tan required leisure time for the vast majority of people, tanning became more popular and admired. There’s definitely other factors, like social trends and percieved cost of qualities (skin cancer probably had a large part of making tanning unattractive in the popular eye), but mate worthiness will always play a part of it.
So the question is, would becoming zaftig really signal something about the qualities of a mate? I doubt it. Shifting the topic slightly, magic weight loss pills aside, 95% percent of woman will not look like Gwyneth Paltrow. It’s not just a question of weight, but body structure. Some people just are “big boned”, and only major surgery is going to change that. It will cut down on the morbidly obese, although I suspect the major customers will be those wanting to cut down on pot bellies and fleshy theighs. As being slim becomes possible for a greater number of people with a lower cost, I expect being obviously fit rather than slim to become more attractive. Exercise still signals you have enough resources and dedication to work out, after all.
You say that the left will, be criticising this “for having dared to turn willpower into a commodity.” I would have thought the right would be worrying about another lost opportunity for people to take personal responsibility for their own actions, and it’s potential replacement with a cure-all that we might end up funding with our taxes.
Why bother starting that exercise programme and diet today, when the science may do it for you tomorrow.
This looks like another short-cut, and even this chap who weighs in at 60 stone has the insight to recognise this.
Meanwhile the French appear to stay thin because of the startling discovery that they eat less. There’s a thought.
I for one sure hope that pill works as well as the first test indicates.
I like your blog very much :))
I think I’ll try your pill and I hope it works!