Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Every idiot yuppie is also running marathons and 10Ks. I just want to slap the taste out of their mouth and be like "god, do something fun in your free time instead of making every aspect of your life competitive".
There are some Sean Hannity lobbyist types who gorge on Ruth's Chris every night and become fatsos. But most people in DC are very thin, due to the incredible stress of the jobs and possibly from skipping meals in order to pay sky high rents.
The stats don't support your claim, unless you only consider white politicos "most people in DC" and ignore about 560,000 others. Poverty is a far greater indicator of obesity than political power.
That said, people can live on rice and beans and a few vegetables for minimal money, so we can't deny the cultural aspects that, for example, make the Southern US generally obese and New England not. The processed industrial food system certainly doesn't help.
The stats don't support your claim, unless you only consider white politicos "most people in DC" and ignore about 560,000 others. Poverty is a far greater indicator of obesity than political power.
That said, people can live on rice and beans and a few vegetables for minimal money, so we can't deny the cultural aspects that, for example, make the Southern US generally obese and New England not. The processed industrial food system certainly doesn't help.
If you re-read the post you will see I said some are fat but most people in DC are thin...
If you do not acknowledge that there are some fat, wealthy lawyers and lobbyists, then I don't believe you live in DC.
I'm all for health and not living in denial if you've got weight issues, but man do I get weary of white women in DC obsessing over every little thing they eat. The white women at my job are forever talking about what they "can't eat" or "don't eat", measuring salad dressing by the teaspoon, scooping all the bread out their morning bagel, and going into conniptions when we have birthday cakes or ice cream for some celebration.
I'm all for health and not living in denial if you've got weight issues, but man do I get weary of white women in DC obsessing over every little thing they eat. The white women at my job are forever talking about what they "can't eat" or "don't eat", measuring salad dressing by the teaspoon, scooping all the bread out their morning bagel, and going into conniptions when we have birthday cakes or ice cream for some celebration.
Kind of a double-sided coin though.
On the flip side, it's also annoying to see people stockpiling junk food at their desk, gorging non-stop, talking about last night's desserts they eat, etc.
If you re-read the post you will see I said some are fat but most people in DC are thin...
If you do not acknowledge that there are some fat, wealthy lawyers and lobbyists, then I don't believe you live in DC.
Something that hasn't been mentioned yet is age demographics. A lot of the thinner people that live in DC are 20-30 y.o. and single. Then they get married, have kids, and move to MD/VA. Meanwhile their metabolism slows down and all those Potbelly sandwiches and sedentary office-drone lack of activity starts to pack on the pounds.
If you re-read the post you will see I said some are fat but most people in DC are thin...
If you do not acknowledge that there are some fat, wealthy lawyers and lobbyists, then I don't believe you live in DC.
I read what you wrote and never said there aren't some fat, wealthy lawyers / lobbyists. But you said:
"But most people in DC are very thin, due to the incredible stress of the jobs and possibly from skipping meals in order to pay sky high rents."
I realize you were just trying to cram a political point into the discussion, but the statistics presented in this very thread do not support your claim. Most people in DC aren't very thin. Vast stretches of the population - particularly in the poor and immigrant areas - are obese. Being poor is a far stronger indicator of obesity than being powerful, and DC's far more than lawyers and lobbyists. A very small percentage of the population actually fits into that caricature outsiders have of the District based on what they see in the national media.
Perhaps your statement would hold true for Arlington or Bethesda (I don't know), but not DC.
Huh, I'd never seen a county-by-county map of obesity before. It raises some interesting questions about whether states may be reporting things differently -- state lines shouldn't be quite that obvious on a map like that. It also highlights some curious sub-regional trends: why is the eastern slope of the Appalachians less obese than the western slope? Or maybe the sharp differences are because only four percentage points separate the five shades (probably quintiles).
It's not surprising to see that obesity is much higher in the eastern half of DC, but I wasn't expecting a nearly 4:1 spread!
Excellent point about the state boundary disparities. Allamakee County in Iowa, according to this map, extremely high obesity rates--more than 25%.....meanwhile, Hancock County in Illinois, directly across the state line, has 0% obesity? I don't buy it. If the same measurements are used everywhere, then the map colors should show regional differences and the state boundaries shouldn't be distinguishable.
Also, the global map seems to indicate that it's more than a national culture that contributes to obesity. All of the Americas have higher rates of obesity. It could be that Europe and Asia simply define obesity differently, just as the states apparently do.
But it seems far more likely that the difference is genetic--that hispanic and indigenous genes of the Americas tend to contribute to obesity while Caucasian genes are less likely to obesity. With the hispanic population in the US growing this might then suggest that our national obesity issue is not worse habits of our population but the shifting demographics of our population. Of course, accepting this theory means accepting that obesity is not something 100% within our control, something our culture is particularly loathe to accept.
Excellent point about the state boundary disparities. Allamakee County in Iowa, according to this map, extremely high obesity rates--more than 25%.....meanwhile, Hancock County in Illinois, directly across the state line, has 0% obesity? I don't buy it. If the same measurements are used everywhere, then the map colors should show regional differences and the state boundaries shouldn't be distinguishable.
Also, the global map seems to indicate that it's more than a national culture that contributes to obesity. All of the Americas have higher rates of obesity. It could be that Europe and Asia simply define obesity differently, just as the states apparently do.
But it seems far more likely that the difference is genetic--that hispanic and indigenous genes of the Americas tend to contribute to obesity while Caucasian genes are less likely to obesity. With the hispanic population in the US growing this might then suggest that our national obesity issue is not worse habits of our population but the shifting demographics of our population. Of course, accepting this theory means accepting that obesity is not something 100% within our control, something our culture is particularly loathe to accept.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
