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Nothing to do with Barack, but yes, America is indeed to blame. America built the modern world: mass production, mass marketing, mass consumption. America gave to the world cheap calories, durable packaging for those calories, reliable refrigeration for transporting and storing those calories, and then the fitness-craze for burning off those calories, and the self-help industry for feeling OK about not burning off the calories.
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Originally Posted by BellaLind
..it's pretty much been always known that as one gets older metabolism slows down and it's harder to keep weight off/people tend to put on weight. It's also been known that America is "aging" meaning the average age of someone in the United States is older than it used to be 10, 20, 30 years ago. While it's certainly not the only reason, I have to think that an aging population is part of the reason.
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Originally Posted by nurider2002
Here's the deal - as we age, our metabolisms slow down BUT, out appetites do not. ...
For another slant on this discussion, consider the example of Eastern Europe. I don’t have statistics, so please pardon the anecdotal evidence. And this is: kids, teens and young-adults tend to be thin. Weight is put on in middle-age, so that say by age 50-60, it’s likely that the median Eastern European is just as corpulent as his/her American counterpart, if not more so. But at say age 25, there is no comparison. So the question is, why are younger Americans fatter than their counterparts elsewhere in the First World? If everyone were fatter -regardless of age – we could blame American habits or American societal realities, such as processed food. But the variation with age, belies such simple explanation. Keep in mind, that the Eastern European diet is heavy in lard, pork, butter, fried foods in general, and alcohol.
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Originally Posted by JerseyGirl415
I think there is generally a correlation with socioeconomic status.
Indeed. Is it prejudiced to say, that poorer people in America tend to be heavier, while the more affluent tend to be thinner?
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Originally Posted by Serious Conversation
...Around here, you can get your basic meat and vegetables at the grocery store. Everything is more expensive. In the rural areas in southwest Virginia where I used to work, many stores may have no fresh vegetables or fruits beyond apples, grapes, tomatoes, onions, and a few other staple items.
That’s an important point. I live in the small-town/rural Midwest. We’re surrounded by farms – soybean or corn – exclusively! But where are the farmers’ markets? Where are the roadside vegetable stands? Nope – wrong kind of farming. Yes, there are decent supermarkets in the local city and its suburbs, but in town, the offerings are decidedly second-rate. The grocery store is aisle upon aisle of food packaged in cardboard boxes. The produce, deli and even bakery areas are sparse and dilapidated. That describes the available options. Then there’s the question of what people actually select. There is a remarkable contrast between the shopping-cart contents at the checkout-line in the small-town Wal-Mart, vs. the suburban Kroger.
-Laziness
-large meal sizes
-unhealthy meal choices
-Reaching a point of no return
-Health issues preventing or limiting exercise
-Apathy to health and fitness
What are some more reasons?
Kids allowed to have soft drinks on a regular basis, along with sweets and carby snacks, while leading a very sedentary lifestyle, due to pastimes online/videogames. Adults indulging in those foods regularly.
I don't know if you're counting the 60+ crowd; hormonal change in men and women after a certain age. But this is "normal", and typical around the world.
American subcultures with unhealthy culinary traditions: deep-frying in the South, starchy stuff in large quantities in the mid-West (lots of corn, potatoes, etc.), and deserts.
Poverty, resulting in people living on cheap, non-nutritional starches.
The healthiest longest living populations eat a high % of their diet in carbs. Demonizing carbs has no physiological basis (they are rarely if ever stored as fat in humans)
Yes and no. The healthiest places eat very few processed foods and lots of veggies.
The carb heavy diet promoted in the US gives nearly equal weighting to super processed refined carbs and veggies.
Why is this such a "mystery"? I think it's simple and obvious, physical work and survival are becoming less, and abundance of processed food is becoming greater. Calories in/calories out. When we were kids, play was physical, kick ball, bicycles, playing army (OMG!), playgrounds, today they're entertained by electronic toys and phone apps. It's not uniquely American either, it's global as the information age spreads.
I see food as being a major hobby for some. Eating to feel happy and entertained is not good.
Also, there is a real drive to make everything taste incredible - "better eating through chemical additives!". I have started telling my kids that sometimes it's just food and you need to nourish your body. It doesn't need to be the best thing you've ever tasted.
Food companies have trained our taste buds to expect amazing flavors all the time. And we've let them...
And that's never going to happen, because when you carry more weight than your body is designed to carry, you are going to deal at some point with knee, foot, ankle and leg problems. I've had them all - shin splints, plantar fasciitis, tendinitis, heel spurs... it's not fun when it hurts just to walk. I finally decided I've had enough of that, because it is getting in the way of activities that I enjoy doing.
You missed my point. I know that fat causes a variety of issues, but I don't think people are concerned about that. I think they just don't like fatness in general and "health" is a good cover.
Many of the comments reflect a level of disgust that has nothing to do with health and everything to do with aesthetics and some ingrained hatred of fat people that doesn't seem especially rational. If they're fat, they're fat. That won't keep me from going to the gym, lifting weights, jogging, trying to eat a little healthier etc.
Well being obese is a health concern and as 1/3 of our population is obese medical costs have skyrocketed to treat them. A huge population is suffering from diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, osteo problems such as knee replacements, cancer, to having to make bigger wheel chairs, gurneys and even coffins to accommodate our growing population. So your post is pie in the sky wishful thinking.
Medical costs would skyrocket with or without obese people. We have a large and aging population with a healthcare system that's designed to increase costs.
Maybe you're one of the unicorns that's truly concerned with people's health, but I think this is more about people just not liking fatness and using other reasons to make their point not seem shallow. Too many irrationally angry posts in this thread and I seriously don't think we have that many health and wellness SJW's in this country. If we did, we'd all have 6-packs and look like fitness models.
I see food as being a major hobby for some. Eating to feel happy and entertained is not good.
Also, there is a real drive to make everything taste incredible - "better eating through chemical additives!". I have started telling my kids that sometimes it's just food and you need to nourish your body. It doesn't need to be the best thing you've ever tasted.
Food companies have trained our taste buds to expect amazing flavors all the time. And we've let them...
Portion Sizes Too Large
Sedentary Lifestyles
Modern Wheat
High Fructose Corn Syrup
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