Double Arrow Metabolism

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Links for July 24, 2017: Athletes and their pee habits, mobile farmers' markets, and surgery as a placebo

Athletes are very resourceful at finding places to go when nature calls

Bill Walker at Kansas State (hail alma mater) was well-known for urinating into towels on the bench. He's not alone:

Mobile farmers' markets are hitting the road.

Food trucks are a surprisingly durable trend. So maybe it's no surprise. 

Surgery is one hell of a placebo.

You should still avoid it whenever possible. The average American has eight (8!) surgeries in his/her life. That's too many. 

This doesn't happen naturally.

Anabolic steroids are an integral part of the bodybuilding scene.

Why does this matter? Because they make people die young. An astonishing fraction of pro wrestlers, who also abuse performance-enhancing drugs in large numbers, die before age 60, and they die of things we associate with androgen abuse: liver cancer, suicide, risky behavior, and heart disease.

Michael Oher, subject of "The Blind Side," cannot pass a physical because of concussions.

I'm short on the long-term future of football in its current form.

Do Americans spend on health care just because we're a nation of consumers?

I'm skeptical. I hold out hope that Americans, if given the right version of price transparency, might spend less. But this series of graphs is pretty convincing to Tyler Cowen's argument:

ADDENDUM (7/24/17 11:28 AM): Is the President fit?

I suspect the headline is a double-entendre, but at least in terms of physical fitness, the answer is very clearly "no." But I'm not sure it matters that much, especially in the context of the swirl of controversy that surrounds the rest of the administration.