Tho' TBF, I'd love to see real numbers. Intuitively I think it's right - ch causes obesity. We're mammales, heat regulation etc. But actual numbers - first from biology side, then from spread of obesity compared to c heating. Perhaps cross country comparisons?
Anthony Warner says that house temperatures rose from 13c to 18c between 1970 and 2000, which "can result in a decreased metabolic rate of around 170 calories a day". That would be a big difference. However, he says you'd expect warmer climates to be strongly associated with obesity if it was a major factor, which they aren't.
The wealthy home counties village where I now live only got mains water in the 1930s - before that you had to use water from a 'well' which was really rain water captured from the roof and fed into an underground tank. If you wanted to drink it, you needed to boil it (for tea); or drink (small) beer instead. Where I grew up, in rural Lancs in the 60s, we were 'posh' because our toilet was inside the house, but my aunt and uncle had an outside loo that was a metal tank containing disinfectant, emptied by the council once a fortnight.
How much of that central heating has contributed to obesity, I wonder?
Also, no need to buy the book, it's free! https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/DP127_1984_with-foreword_web.pdf
Oi, Oi, don't you go nicking my ideas now Matey.
Tho' TBF, I'd love to see real numbers. Intuitively I think it's right - ch causes obesity. We're mammales, heat regulation etc. But actual numbers - first from biology side, then from spread of obesity compared to c heating. Perhaps cross country comparisons?
Anthony Warner says that house temperatures rose from 13c to 18c between 1970 and 2000, which "can result in a decreased metabolic rate of around 170 calories a day". That would be a big difference. However, he says you'd expect warmer climates to be strongly associated with obesity if it was a major factor, which they aren't.
IIRR the fattest country in the world is Tonga.
I'm not sure they spend much on central heating.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38769396/
Personally I think microbiome changes are responsible for recent obesity.
difluoromethylarginine seems a lot lot cheaper than ozempic, so maybe once the population twig the shares will fall.
The wealthy home counties village where I now live only got mains water in the 1930s - before that you had to use water from a 'well' which was really rain water captured from the roof and fed into an underground tank. If you wanted to drink it, you needed to boil it (for tea); or drink (small) beer instead. Where I grew up, in rural Lancs in the 60s, we were 'posh' because our toilet was inside the house, but my aunt and uncle had an outside loo that was a metal tank containing disinfectant, emptied by the council once a fortnight.
I sometimes miss the pretty patterns the ice made on the bedroom windows when I was a child.
Indeed - and on the inside of the pane as well....
(Yorkshireman)
In 1982 we had two open fires and nothing else. Had to dig through the snow to get the coal(ite) in....
(/Yorkshireman)