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Even the average Wal-Mart has healthier choices. You don't need to buy soda and cookies and chips.
Just buy FOOD. It doesn't have to be organic or fancy. Bread, eggs, milk, pasta, rice, beans, protein, unsweetened cereal. Throw in frozen veggies a few times a week. Stop drinking sugar.
Obesity seems to tie pretty heavily with socioeconomic status. Seriously, walk into a Wal-Mart and then go to a high end store and see the difference. When I walk into Sprouts or even a local Super Target, the baskets contain mostly healthy food with a smattering of junk, like maybe one pie. If I look in the basket of the average Wal-Mart shopper, it's mostly processed meats, cookies, soda, ice cream, chips etc.
Poorer people "can" eat healthier I guess, but we all know that healthy grocers and good produce is hard to find in less upscale neighborhoods. Even when factoring in good diet, those that struggle financially will have a more difficult time exercising. I'm not sure I've ever seen a doctor that was overweight. That isn't just because they are doctors, it's because (despite being super busy), they can afford higher quality food and probably have access to top-notch training facilities for exercise.
That seems to be an issue in the U.S. Foreigners who visit us are surprised that the rich are slim while the poor are overweight. Visit a less developed country and they have the opposite issue. Poorer people are either at an average weight or starving. I came back from Bali earlier this year, and I have never eaten such healthy foods before. Everywhere I went, there were fresh fruits and vegetables. Eating raw over there seems to be quite popular. They also serve the most delicious and beautiful smoothie bowls too. People there are much more active either doing physical labor, farming, surfing, or swimming. Very few Balinese people could afford iPhones and cars.
Our society has become too spoiled, too ignorant, and too lazy to even WANT to learn about basic health. Just read all the reasons (excuses) listed on this thread. It all comes back to personal responsibility. Anyone remember or watched that Disney movie, Wall-E, where the future consisted of overweight people, and everyone is riding electronic chairs? I feel like that movie is actually not too unrealistic anymore.
I don't give excuses. The main reason why many people are overweight are due to unhealthy lifestyles and overconsumption. But I'd be foolish to not give credence to legitimate medical problems. You can't paint with broad strokes.
It is so funny how we think obesity is a personal problem, but we are will to accept things like drug abuse are a societal problems. For some reason we can't seem to consider the structural issues in our society that lead to poor health.
As long as we keep treating it as an individual problem with will power, nothing will happen. In case you haven't noticed, those "obesity related diseases" are increasingly impacting those of "normal weight" too. So obviously something deeper is going on.
It is so funny how we think obesity is a personal problem, but we are will to accept things like drug abuse are a societal problems. For some reason we can't seem to consider the structural issues in our society that lead to poor health.
As long as we keep treating it as an individual problem with will power, nothing will happen. In case you haven't noticed, those "obesity related diseases" are increasingly impacting those of "normal weight" too. So obviously something deeper is going on.
What should society do that will result in people eating a proper number of calories and intentionally getting exercise? Aren't those things under individual control?
Yup, there really wasn't much intentional exercise. Surely not in the 60s, 70s and event the 80s.
I went through puberty 6-7 years earlier than my mom did. My sister went through puberty 1-2 years before I did. Something is really up with our food.
As I have mentioned in other threads, today's slim people are much bigger than yesterday's. Our waist sizes across the board have increased a lot. I have to blame something in the composition of our food.
My mom was pretty skinny, as were her sisters in their teens and 20s. Think 20 inch waists (at my mom's smallest is was 18 inches - she looked small but not unhealthy and my slightly tall as well - 5'7.5"). And that was "normal" for Hollywood starlets too. Marilyn Monroe and her contemporaries all had sub 20 inch waists. Now our thinnest starlets and models are more like have 23-24 inch waists. I am not saying that is "big" but it is quite a bit bigger than the previous generations of starlets.
Why don't people have tiny waists anymore? Women from a few generations ago were shaped very differently. Everyone was pear shaped, not it seems like apples are most common. And weight gain around the waist tends to be hormonal. This waist size increase lines up with the increased use of hormones in our foods, BPA in our packaging and other hormone disruptors.
Marilyn Monroe did not have a sub-20" waist. Back in those days, only petite women had that, and she was not petite; she was about 5'6", with fairly typical measurements for that height, except for a larger than average chest. Smaller-boned women at that height were around 34-24-34, and she was a 36 on top, but otherwise 4-34. Larger boned women at that height were slightly bigger; 35-24-35, or maybe an inch larger on each count. Plenty of women these days still have those measurements at that height.
Here's something from a site about Marilyn's size. And for awhile in the late 50's, she gained quite a bit of weight and went up a couple of sizes, but later trimmed back down. Also, her clothing throughout her lifetime tells a slightly different story; her skirts and belts had waistbands that measured 27", which means her true waist size must have been around 26" for much of her life.
first modeling contract verifies her measurements:
August 2, 1945 Blue Book Modeling Agency 5’ 6”, 120lbs 36-24-34 “Size 12”
February 8, 1954 DOD ID Card 5’ 5 1/2”, 118lbs
August 5, 1962 LA Coroner Medical Report 5’ 5 1/25”, 117lbs
I think I was quite clear. You don't have an illness that requires such medications and you're not a health professional. You speak on a subject that you have little knowledge. Anyone who is on prednisone knows that weight gain is real and if you had a bad disease that can be life threatening (even more than obesity), it's not even a choice.
You're "no excuses" shpiel knows no bounds.
Obviously there are drugs that cause weight or appetite gain, I took one of those myself and gained quite a bit of weight before making some lifestyle changes to counteract it and I'm still not back to my former weight. However, only the minority of the 70% of overweight and obese Americans can blame their weight on taking such a drug (or on other medical conditions).
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