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Other first world nations also deal with sleep, debt, pollution, climate-controlled environs, medicine, heredity. etc. However, they're nowhere near as obese as Americans.
That tells me one thing....most Americans are obese because they just can't stop shoveling super-sized food down their gullets.
It's pretty simple.
It's well known that the US has an obesity problem. What is NOT so well known as so do many other first-world countries.
Here is a list of OCED countries that exceed the OCED average for overweight/obesity. In alphabetical order except where otherwise stated. It's too hard to arrange these by percent when the table is in alphabetical order.
The OCED average for overweight/obese is 52.7%.
Mexico is the most overwt/obese with 69.5%. Other countries above the OCED average are:
Australia: 61.2%
CANADA: 60%
Chile: 64.5%
Czech Republic: 55%
Finland: 59.2%
Greece: 55.7%
Hungary: 61.6%
Iceland: 58.5%
Ireland: 61.1%
Luxembourg: 59.1%
New Zealand: 64.7%
Slovenia: 55.1%
Spain: 53.6%
UK: 62.8%
US: 69.2%
EU Average: 52.7
Other countries that come close to being "above average" (over 50% overwt/obese)
Germany 51.4%
Israel: 50.1%
Poland: 52.2%
Portugal: 51.6%
Slovak Republic: 51.6%
I have checked these numbers until my eyes were swimming, but I apologize for any errors.
You know what I find startling? Teenage obesity. I don't mean those kids who are clearly severely overweight, but those who really should not be. Just last weekend, I found myself at a dance recital of the best dance schools around. I quickly noticed that many dancers had a certain swollen look in the midsection despite their clear devotion to dance and thus, to exercise.
To me, there is something in our foods that contributes to the obesity problem. It's not just huge portions and lack of exercise. These dancers should have been thin as rails, but they were not. Looking at old movies, it seems painfully apparent that men and women had much smaller waistlines. Now, they are excessive.
The following numbers are from a study:
The average woman aged 18-25 has a figure that consists of 38-32-41. And these are the young ones!!!
In the late thirties group the figures jump to 41-34-43, for a black woman 43-37-46.
The "standard" chest size for men of 40 inches seems rather out-of-date. The traditional average has always been (for a man) 40-34-40 (chest-waist-hips).
Not even average young men can fit into this size. The average 18-25 male statistics are now 41-35-41.
The average 36-45 white male has a 44-38-42 figure. The average 36-45 black male is slightly slimmer at 43-37-42.
- Women are on average 5 feet 4 inches tall.
- Women weigh on average 148 pounds
- Men are on average 5 feet 9 inches tall
- Men weigh on average 180 pounds
- Men and women have increased their average weight by about 4 pounds since 1994 (last CDC survey)
I often wonder when I see what people buy in the grocery store - it is mainly processed food. A "home cooked" meal often involves stuff like "Hamburger Helper" or jars of tomato sauce instead of anything made from scratch.
Even chocolate milk, by and large, contains cornstarch. Try to find one that doesn't - Horizon Organics is one of the few widely available brands that do not contain this crap. Just about all other brands contain it. Why?
And if an item as innocuous as chocolate milk contains crap that really has no place in it, what's in all the other super processed foods that people consume?
Other first world nations also deal with sleep, debt, pollution, climate-controlled environs, medicine, heredity. etc. However, they're nowhere near as obese as Americans.
That tells me one thing....most Americans are obese because they just can't stop shoveling super-sized food down their gullets.
It's pretty simple.
Clearly, one country in the OCED (and many others not in OCED) exceeds the US rate, and many are close. Interestingly, a lot of English-speaking countries, e.g. Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the US, and the UK are at or over 60% overwt/obese.
Clearly, one country in the OCED (and many others not in OCED) exceeds the US rate, and many are close. Interestingly, a lot of English-speaking countries, e.g. Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the US, and the UK are at or over 60% overwt/obese.
They all have awful food and people prefer fries and burgers.
You don't see so many heavy guys in France or Italy.
Over the years I have noticed a significant increase in the number of over weight teens.. When I was young there were a few over weight kids that I went to school with but very few. Our culture has changed significantly over the last 4 decades and our waist lines are showing it. Virtually every teen I see today has a bulge around the mid section. I shutter to think of the health issues that will face these young people in the future.
I went into my high school annual a year or so ago and was thumbing through it.. I noticed that the majority of the girls I went to school with at the time had flat stomachs. There were probably 6-8 kids in the school that could have been considered obese by todays standards and probably 2 dozen or so that could have been considered over weight. That is out of about 800 kids in the entire school. Today when I go to pick up my grand-kids, almost all of the kids I see are over weight.
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OMFG!! No way!
