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America's problem with obesity has very little to do with the number of fast-food joints around. The issue is simply a matter of numbers.
Americans eat larger portions of food than most of the rest of the world and get less exercise because our cities and towns are built for driving instead of walking around & walking to public transit like in the rest of the world.
Fix these two issues by decreasing our portion size (less calories consumed) or increasing the ammount of walking done thru walk-able building (more calories burned) and you'll largely reduce our country's problem with obesity.
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Originally Posted by holloway1010
Yeah, we're fat...so we've been told ALREADY. Have you ever heard of a little thing called McDonald's and don't give me any of that "well, we've got those in Europe, too" jazz. Do you have any idea how many more there are in the U.S. than there are in Europe. There are MANY other countries on this planet that have similar burb areas surrounding the cities, but do not have as much fast food presence, and they don't have as much of a problem with obesity as we do. I am not denying that inactivity has something to do with it because it most certainly does. But don't try to dump the whole blame on good ol' fashioned American laziness.
Many of the older suburbs have sidewalks. Most of the newer developments in the exburbs don't have sidewalks. SWB, I grew up 30 miles outside of Pittsburgh in a area that was about 10 miles from the suburbs. This area was the exburbs. It was housing developments plopped around over torn down woods along highways and byways with no sidewalks, no playgrounds, no public pools, no place to go, no retail to even think of walking too, no where to bike other then in the development that was safe. I still detest my parents to making us move there at 12, and having to live there for 6 years of my teenage years. It is bad for the soul, and character. I really never did understand, and will understand why these exubinites, (worse then suburbinites) love driving an hour home from work, closing their garage door, not talking to anybody, watching American Idiol, going to bed, opening the garage door, and going to do it all again love about this lifestyle. It is beyond me.
America's problem with obesity has very little to do with the number of fast-food joints around. The issue is simply a matter of numbers.
Americans eat larger portions of food than most of the rest of the world and get less exercise because our cities and towns are built for driving instead of walking around & walking to public transit like in the rest of the world.
Fix these two issues by decreasing our portion size (less calories consumed) or increasing the ammount of walking done thru walk-able building (more calories burned) and you'll largely reduce our country's problem with obesity.
I'm not sure the bolded part is true. The research has shown that there is more obesity in the cities than in the burbs. I think it's important to be very careful about the "why" when looking at this issue.
Americans are fatter because we walk very little and eat enough calories to keep a lumberjack busy, but most of us walk less than 1 1/2 miles a day total. Suburbs are part of the problem. Our whole lifestyle is engineered so we do very little walking.
However, you can trip on a sidewalk, too. Especially one that's not kept up and has trees near it. Running especially is an easy way to trip because you have less balance.
You should try a stationary exercise bike rather than running, it's easier on your joints. Not as much fun as riding a real bicycle, though, but the only thing that really works in the suburbs.
I'm not sure the bolded part is true. The research has shown that there is more obesity in the cities than in the burbs. I think it's important to be very careful about the "why" when looking at this issue.
You are actually both correct in certain ways. Cities tend to have higher levels of impoverished families. Lower-income children tend to have to eat calorie-laden, unhealthy foods more often than their parents would like because that's what is most affordable. You can't shop at a Whole Foods when you're on a shoestring budget. However, you can indulge in Arby's "Five for $5" deal to fill your entire family's tummies at dinner a few nights a week for just $5 a pop. The suburbs/exurbs are home nearly exclusively to middle-class and upper-middle-class folks who have the financial means to provide their families with more nutritious options than Kraft Mac & Cheese, Chef Boyardee, and fast-food. Poverty is simply much more prevalent in urban areas, and many low-income people form poor eating habits in order to simply survive.
On the other hand, you can't argue with the fact that much of Europe, for example, is also less obese than we are because their cities are quite walkable, feature mixed-use zoning, and promote mass transit usage. If you were to track the number of daily steps of an urban-dweller in Prague, for example, and then compare that to the number of daily steps of someone in, per se, Loudoun County, Virginia, you'd be able to see the difference. People in Leesburg, VA might spend an hour or more each way commuting in a vehicle, which leaves little time for walking or exercise. Someone in a European city might take a brisk walk to a train station and then another brisk walk from another station to their workplace. People in Leesburg might only get exercise from walking from their spot in a parking garage in DC to the elevator that will take them to the floor that their cubicle is on.
Many of the older suburbs have sidewalks. Most of the newer developments in the exburbs don't have sidewalks. SWB, I grew up 30 miles outside of Pittsburgh in a area that was about 10 miles from the suburbs. This area was the exburbs. It was housing developments plopped around over torn down woods along highways and byways with no sidewalks, no playgrounds, no public pools, no place to go, no retail to even think of walking too, no where to bike other then in the development that was safe. I still detest my parents to making us move there at 12, and having to live there for 6 years of my teenage years. It is bad for the soul, and character. I really never did understand, and will understand why these exubinites, (worse then suburbinites) love driving an hour home from work, closing their garage door, not talking to anybody, watching American Idiol, going to bed, opening the garage door, and going to do it all again love about this lifestyle. It is beyond me.
Rep points for you! I'm glad someone else is able to empathize with the sterile, far-flung exurban environment I've grown up in. Granted I could have fallen just as easily while tripping over an uneven sidewalk in the city with the same bloodied knee to show for it, but that doesn't excuse exurbs for not having sidewalks and for having poor urban planners who see no benefit to mixed-use zoning.
As I've said in the past I actually like PittNurse70's suburb of Louisville, CO because a journey around the community via Virtual Earth showed me that every cul-de-sac was lined with sidewalks, and every subdivision was linked via wide sidewalks/bike paths to adjacent subdivisions, schools, and other points of interest, making it POSSIBLE to walk to at least some destinations. Urban planners in her suburb get the nod from me. Urban planners here in PA's exurbs should be strung up from a flagpole by their boxer shorts! My one friend's subdivision is actually adjacent to my alma mater, yet children there couldn't walk to school due to private property boundaries. How disgusting is that?
While on my daily run today through the suburbs I detest like the plague due to their lack of infrastructure, it was as if God suddenly gave me a "sign" to hate them even more when THIS happened to me as a direct result of the negligence of elected officials in the suburbs to address the needs of their residents:
I know it only looks like a meager wound, but nevertheless it could have been EASILY avoidable if Pennsylvania's suburbs had sidewalks. There I was a mere mile into my run minding my own business when my foot got caught in a rut in the road, and I went flying down right onto my left knee. I likewise tried reaching out with my right palm to break my fall, and I skinned that up royally as well. I was bleeding and wincing in pain, and a number of motorists passing me on the roadway saw me fall (yet not one stopped to help, which likewise showcases just how sterile and uncaring the suburbs are). After screaming profanities at the top of my lungs for a few moments loudly enough to wake the dead to voice my disgust and disdain for our suburbs, I hobbled up and continued the remaining five miles of my run, limping along the way.
I'd like to see pittnurse70, SpeedyAZ, toobusytoday, and the others who think suburbs are the best things since sliced banana bread justify not only why the suburbs are NOT providing basic infrastructure (SIDEWALKS) for their residents, but also as to why not one of these "friendly" suburbanites who saw me wipe out could have put their flashers on for a moment, pulled to the roadside, and asked if I was okay. For all they knew I could have broken my left leg, but I suppose that doesn't matter here in suburbia, the land everyone on City-Data holds so near and dear to their hearts.
I'm going to blow this picture up, print it off, and make copies of it (in full color to show the blood) in order to present it at the next council meeting in hopes that SEEING that their willful neglect in providing sidewalks for residents is actually HURTING them. I'm also planning to blog about this on both MySpace and FaceBook in order to further ridicule this suburb's inability to provide basic infrastructure to its residents. If I'm given the runaround by city council, I'll threaten to SUE the next time I trip and fall on a pothole or rut in the road because sidewalks and shoulders are non-existent (and the ones that do exist are blocked by people who are permitted to ILLEGALLY park on them day in and day out while the cops just drive by).
Your only rant against all suburbs in the United States is because a specific suburb in your local area didn't put in sidewalks. That's an awfully broad generalization. Does that then imply that every urban area in the United States has well maintained infrastructure and you wouldn't have tripped and hurt yourself? Don't think so.
If you have an issue with a specific suburbs sidewalk policy then start that discussion in that specific state forum, but don't make a sidewalk complaint against all suburbs in the US.
The area I live in is a suburb and by planning policy DOES require sidewalks on all rezoned lots. They also have ordinances on keeping them maintained.
A legitimate discussion on public planning policy and suburban vs urban could occur in a General US forum, but not one that says ALL suburbs are bad because you tripped in the street.
The suburb I'm in (and a couple around me) also is pushing all developments to include mixed use developments, it is also requiring trail connectivity between all parks being built, it is also requiring connectivity between all trails. Life is not all bad in the suburbs.
You are actually both correct in certain ways. Cities tend to have higher levels of impoverished families. Lower-income children tend to have to eat calorie-laden, unhealthy foods more often than their parents would like because that's what is most affordable. You can't shop at a Whole Foods when you're on a shoestring budget. However, you can indulge in Arby's "Five for $5" deal to fill your entire family's tummies at dinner a few nights a week for just $5 a pop. The suburbs/exurbs are home nearly exclusively to middle-class and upper-middle-class folks who have the financial means to provide their families with more nutritious options than Kraft Mac & Cheese, Chef Boyardee, and fast-food. Poverty is simply much more prevalent in urban areas, and many low-income people form poor eating habits in order to simply survive.
On the other hand, you can't argue with the fact that much of Europe, for example, is also less obese than we are because their cities are quite walkable, feature mixed-use zoning, and promote mass transit usage. :
I'm not sure the researchers know exactly WHY people in the cities have higher rates of obestiy. Granted the above first paragraph is true, but you don't have to shop at Whole Foods to feed your family well. Nor do you need to eat at Arby's to feed them inexpensively. You can do it more cheaply if you shop at the local Safeway. Prepared foods and restaurant foods almost always cost more than fixing it yourself.
Believe me, the American Journal of Public Health is full of articles about this issue; I've read a lot.
Re: Europe - Britain for one is catching up with the US in the obestiy area. It's really hard to separate all this stuff out and point to one specific "cause". It's a lot of things put together.
Yes, Louisville has done a good job. Colorado is one of the thinnest states in the country. There is a huge emphasis on outdoor activities here. Yet there is a huge car ownership, too, which shows what I mean. Multifactorial, as the researchers say. BTW, most midwestern and western suburbs have sidewalks. It's mainly from Ohio east that they don't.
Your only rant against all suburbs in the United States is because a specific suburb in your local area didn't put in sidewalks. That's an awfully broad generalization. Does that then imply that every urban area in the United States has well maintained infrastructure and you wouldn't have tripped and hurt yourself? Don't think so.
If you have an issue with a specific suburbs sidewalk policy then start that discussion in that specific state forum, but don't make a sidewalk complaint against all suburbs in the US.
The area I live in is a suburb and by planning policy DOES require sidewalks on all rezoned lots. They also have ordinances on keeping them maintained.
A legitimate discussion on public planning policy and suburban vs urban could occur in a General US forum, but not one that says ALL suburbs are bad because you tripped in the street.
The suburb I'm in (and a couple around me) also is pushing all developments to include mixed use developments, it is also requiring trail connectivity between all parks being built, it is also requiring connectivity between all trails. Life is not all bad in the suburbs.
I'm guessing Papillon is in Nebraska since that's the only one I'm familiar with. There is a very discernible difference between many newer suburbs in the Eastern 1/3 of the nation as opposed to the Western 2/3. I'm glad to hear that your suburb is so strict in promoting a walkable atmosphere. I truly am. However, please don't tell me that I can't air proper grievances about newer suburbs/exurbs on the East Coast, which you don't seem to be very well-acquainted with.
I myself have eaten crow in the past on this issue. This is an old thread that was resurrected out of the blue for some odd reason by someone who sought to re-ignite the debate. Since then I have spent many hours on Virtual Earth zooming in very closely to various suburbs and exurbs in every part of this nation, and I have indeed noted that suburbs/exurbs in my state are amongst the worst-planned in the nation. Louisville, CO is planned better. I've never scanned Papillon, NE, but I'll take your word for it and assume it too has sidewalks connecting various subdivisions to one another and that schools, houses of worship, businesses, etc. are all in reasonable and safe walking distance to one another.
I'm actually going to post a new thread soon on the "About the Forum" section to see if it is permissible to post satellite snapshots taken from Virtual Earth or Google Earth. If so, I'll post some close-up snapshots of the exurbs/suburbs in my area as seen from above to show you how horribly-planned many of them are. Did you grow up being unable to walk to friends' homes, parks, schools, playgrounds, etc.? If not, then you truly don't know what it was like to walk in my shoes growing up (oh yeah I couldn't walk in my own shoes here anyways). If you did, then I'd love to know how you avoided insanity being confined to your home because you couldn't walk/bike anywhere and your parents were often too busy to drive you to destinations.
I'm commited to raising my own future adopted children in a better environment, which is why I'm scoping out homes in a tree-lined walkable neighborhood convenient to elementary schools, parks, churches, and businesses. Just what are people in these non-walkable East Coast exurbs going to do once gasoline prices spike to unaffordable levels? After all, mass transit isn't an option out here.
Yes, someone resurrected this thread after it seemed like the issues had been resolved or at least died down.
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There is a very discernible difference between many newer suburbs in the Eastern 1/3 of the nation as opposed to the Western 2/3.
I agree with the above and I started a thread to that effect a while back. Many easterners took issue with me, even though they were posting pictures on other threads of sidewalk-less burbs. The thread died out.
SWB indeed has eaten crow about this issue. It is not a good idea to generalize from one's own experience to the entire US. He deserves a rep point for saying as much.
I was recently in Papillion, NE as my mother-in-law now lives there in a senior residence. Papillion is actually a very old town; MIL said she and FIL (now deceased) went there to the Sarpy County Courthouse get married in 1940!
That brings up another one of my points about suburbs: they didn't all spring into existence post WWII. Many of them are actually small cities with all the amenities of other cities of their size. Many of the anti-suburbanites should get out of their ivory towers and visit these places. It's easier than ever with Google Maps.
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I'm glad someone else is able to empathize with the sterile, far-flung exurban environment I've grown up in. Granted I could have fallen just as easily while tripping over an uneven sidewalk in the city with the same bloodied knee to show for it, but that doesn't excuse exurbs for not having sidewalks and for having poor urban planners who see no benefit to mixed-use zoning. 
My one friend's subdivision is actually adjacent to my alma mater, yet children there couldn't walk to school due to private property boundaries. How disgusting is that? 
After all, mass transit isn't an option out here.
