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I've volunteered in food pantries. Many of those people wouldn't know what to do with a bag of carrots.
They come looking for the boxes of mac and cheese, cans of ravoli, etc.
Yeah, but when was the last time you saw food pantries giving out bags of carrots? Also, when was the last time you saw a farmer's market or a nice grocery store in the ghetto? Bodegas and convenience stores, at least those around me, do not sell fresh produce aside from maybe some browning, overpriced bananas and moldy oranges near the cash register.
The government has been changing the definition of obesity for quite some time, do some research on what an obese person looked like in early part of the 20th century and look at what they now consider an obese person.
I don't need the government to tell me what I can see clearly with my own eyes- Americans have been getting fatter over the past 20 years. Look through old photo albums pre-1990 and pick out the fat people, you won't find hardly any.
Look through photo albums today and you'll see a lot of them are obese.
Quote:
Originally Posted by plwhit
For sure, we need to wear white sheets and sandals and walk everywhere, ride bicycles to and from work and eat like rabbits...
Going from one extreme to the other isn't the answer. Anybody who's been alive for the past 30 years has noticed for themselves how much fatter people have become and how food choices have changed.
I grew up with a stay at home mother who cooked homemade meals every night. Lots of bread, milk, meat, and carbs. Then we went outside and played until dark. Nobody in our family was fat.
Today, how many families have stay at home moms or dads that cook meals with real fresh food? Or do they use the overly processed, 3-minute meals found in the freezer section? My guess is the latter and I have no doubt that it is part of the obesity epidemic we have today. As HappyTexan said in his post below-
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyTexan
It's not just fast food.
Look at all that pre-processed food in the supermarkets.
More people shop the freezer aisle for those prepared foods than they do in the fruit/vegetable section.
Cooking from scratch is becoming a lost art as the instant gratification generation buy the prepared foods.
It's about neither. It's about too many calories for the level of physical activity. And don't say a $3.00 bag of potato chips costs less than a $3.00 bag of carrots.
Yes, it is. Poverty correlates with poor health, lower education levels, and less access to healthy foods. It's complicated and stratified. As disparity increases in this county the further evidenced these correlates are.
Could it be that the level of mental fortitude that leads to "Body by Goodyear" is the same that leads to contentment with poverty?
I'm not sure if contentment in poverty is an honest statement. The assumptions a few are making is an "all things being equal" pov and that's just not the case. Level of education, intelligence, access, choices, are not equal.
So? If people want to be lard asses that's their business.
I have to agree with this. Between obesity and the slovenly way so many people dress, lots of them are becoming an massive eyesore, but still it's their business to be that way. For those who say, "Obese people make my health premiums and costs go up", well maybe, but so do any conditions related to personal choice. That's life. I am not obese or even overweight. I have never been shoved out of my plane seat by an obese person, but if that ever happens I will complain bitterly and demand seat reassignment. So it's safe to say I do not care about this statistic, as long as my husband and I do not become obese due to circumstances under our control.
Skinny people don't like being told what's healthy or unhealthy either, in case you haven't noticed - and I'm not just talking about that thread, it's a fact of life! Actually, I've noticed skinnier people like that even less, since they'll give you the old "obviously I can eat whatever I want & not gain weight." But as I used to say to my very thin roommate, "skinny people can have heart attacks too!" (I didn't harp on him regularly, it just came up once or twice when he tried telling ME what to eat/not eat)
Anytime you try to tell people that sugar, McDonald's, and genetically modified foods are not healthy, [MOD CUT/language] Mississippi is going to have 7 out of 10 people who are obese, yikes!!!
It's weird to see Delaware in that top ten list. Aren't the Northeastern states supposedly the thinnest states? Maybe Delaware is where the Northeast parks all it's fat people, I don't know. I can understand the old Confederate states on there but Delaware? That sounds like a goof to me.
Yes, it is. Poverty correlates with poor health, lower education levels, and less access to healthy foods. It's complicated and stratified. As disparity increases in this county the further evidenced these correlates are.
Absolutely, and anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves - or hasn't been exposed to the issues in a poverty-stricken area (as I have). The town where I used to work was very low-income, but I thought it was really nice how the farmer's market took food stamps. A step in the right direction, at least! We also had a "healthy kids" committee through the YMCA, coming up with new ideas for encouraging good eating & exercise at low costs. This isn't just about calling people fatties, and hoping they're shamed into eating less... and as you said, it's also not a simple calculation/intake issue either. WHY do they eat badly is the question, and the answers go fairly deep into sociology & economics.
I just can't wait to see what happens to our health insurance in the next 18 years. Any other fiscal conservatives concerned that the majority of Americans will be Fatty Bumbalaties? How about readiness of our military? How will train a bunch of lard asses? Scarey...
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