Obesity epidemic?

freerange

Wake up people! Saying obesity epidemic, is like saying clogged artery epidemic. Obesity is a symptom not a disease, and until you start treating the problem instead of the symptom you will get nowhere. Going at obesity (or just being over weight) by simply cutting calories is treating the symptom, like taking aspirin for a migraine. You need to change what you eat, and how you look at health.

Shajsum

If obesity is a symptom then what is the disease??

freerange

If obesity is a symptom then what is the disease??

The "western" diet.

Acg67

the S.A.D is no doubt not the best diet, but it is not the cause of obesity, over eating is

Shajsum

Hmmmmmm.....well it would seem that the "western" diet would be a contibuting factor to a certain disease (obesity) not the disease itself. Kind of how tobacco is a contributing factor to lung cancer..............

freerange

That is over simplified, there really is no “disease” in the traditional sense. It’s the western lifestyle, what we eat, the lack of regular exercise, the things we are taught about health, all contribute. All the lies perpetuated by the so called “health” industry, agri business, and worst of all the Government.

xraychick77

um..ok..

me thinks you arent getting the point

Shajsum

well you have a nice evening......

Gigi_licious

:smokin:

Jean410

I think it goes much further than the western diet. It is only PART of the issue.

Taking physical education out of schools and increasing costs to participate in school sports doesn't help our youth.

As a nation, we take a 30 minute lunch, SIT and watch our favorite TV show, SIT to socialize on the computer, and SIT to play video games...

In general our cities (suburbia in particular) are designed in such a way we NEED to have a car to get from point A to point B...

We don't play games outside as kids, we don't invite people to our homes as often as we'll meet at a restaurant/bar to socialize as adults...

I often wonder how I'll approach this as my son gets older. That is why this has to start with ME. I want to be different for him. I want to be different for me. I want to do what I can to set the example for my son, my niece, my cousins, my family, and my friends. I can't change them. I can't change the direction our nation has taken, but I can change me and pray it positively influences those around me.

Gigi_licious

well you have a nice evening......

:laugh:
I like you.

ejohndrow

It's the Western diet and people asking questions like, "Can I count standing as my exercise?"

freerange

Hmmmmmm.....well it would seem that the "western" diet would be a contibuting factor to a certain disease (obesity) not the disease itself. Kind of how tobacco is a contributing factor to lung cancer..............

No disrespect, but you, no we, have heard the same line so long it’s hard to see the reality. If obesity is the disease, it would lead to western diet, but it’s the other way around, the western diet (life style) leads to obesity. Obesity is a symptom of the western diet. I guess if you take it back another step, the western diet is a symptom of being lied to by too many “experts”. So maybe it’s the lying that is the disease.

When you have a cough, if that cough is because you have pneumonia, and you treat it with cough syrup you will likely die, you my die without a cough. That is treating the symptom not the disease. If you treat obesity without treating the underlying cause, you my be skinny, but you may still be sick.

freerange

the S.A.D is no doubt not the best diet, but it is not the cause of obesity, over eating is

And that is why obesity is not a disease. And treating it as such is counter productive.

zeeeb

i think the obesity epidemic is a social issue...

we allow far too much junk food into our lives, onto our televisions, and in general life revolves around food / drink. we want to show our wealth by never being uncomfortable, never having to do anything that we don't like, so we eat what we what, when we want, and drink the same, and we don't exercise when we could be out eating and drinking, socialising, watching a bunch of other people play sports, or sitting on our couches watching someone else play sport with a hot dog and a beer in our hands.

back in my day (he he he) we used to have to work hard for 16 hours a day in the blazing sun (no sunscreen or airconditioners), and we only had the food that grew in our garden to eat... blah blah blah. these days we have everything, and flaunt it.

faithog

(To Emily_J_J) Bahaha- I have heard this before. I am SO glad I'm not the only one out there who thinks that is ridiculous!

ejohndrow

(To Emily_J_J) Bahaha- I have heard this before. I am SO glad I'm not the only one out there who thinks that is ridiculous!

It boggles the mind, it's like asking if you can count breathing as calories burned.

Lyadeia

I'm confused...are you saying that someone like myself who lives in America and used to be obese only "treated the symptoms" when I started vigorous exercise and changed my eating habits? Cause that's what I did to fight the obesity problem in my life. And I beat it by eating smaller portions, eating less processed junk, and by adding exercise to my daily activity list...

What should I have done? Moved East and adopted their lifestyle? I happen to enjoy "Western" foods, just made leaner and eaten in smaller portions. I guess even though I've lost weight and kept it off for years, I'm still not cured of obesity in your eyes.

Whatever dude.

ejohndrow

I'm confused...are you saying that someone like myself who lives in America and used to be obese only "treated the symptoms" when I started vigorous exercise and changed my eating habits? Cause that's what I did to fight the obesity problem in my life. And I beat it by eating smaller portions, eating less processed junk, and by adding exercise to my daily activity list...

What should I have done? Moved East and adopted their lifestyle? I happen to enjoy "Western" foods, just made leaner and eaten in smaller portions. I guess even though I've lost weight and kept it off for years, I'm still not cured of obesity in your eyes.

Whatever dude.

You shouldn't get upset over the 'treatment' part. You did a great job, and lost and kept weight off correctly. I think the 'treatment' more has to do with the medical treatments, and the medications that people rely on to help them through life. Many people get to a point where they are existing on these empty calories that have no nutrients at all, and instead of changing their habits to get more exercise and eat better food, they want a quick and easy fix from the doctors. It's not like there is a disease out there that is making so many people fat, all it is is laziness and people wanting something for nothing.

asyouseefit

You know what's absurd? We invent machines to do the work for us (think cars, for instance) then we realise we don't get enough exercise so we invent other machines (gym stuff) to work out...

ejohndrow

You know what's absurd? We invent machines to do the work for us (think cars, for instance) then we realise we don't get enough exercise so we invent other machines (gym stuff) to work out...

Haha so true, so true. I've recently decided to do what people did back before cars were invented, before fast food and restaurants ran our lives.

I walk to the store and I purchase food-real food, like the stuff that grows on trees, or in the ground, or on the ground etc.. I go to the produce section and buy fresh fruits and vegetables, I go to the meat section and purchase meat, today I bought a bag of rice as well. I'm by no means perfect, and I may have a fast food meal once in awhile, but I've made the decision that 1.75miles isn't too far to walk, and that a fish fillet I grilled is better than a prepackaged healthy choice meal. It's like being in the Matrix of healthfulness.

LilMissFoodie

From the dictionary: Epidemic - affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time.

I would say obesity fits that definition...

margo36

I think it's the huge amount of processed food in our diets now and lack of exercise. I was a child in the 1950's. We ate seasonal vegetables and fruit grown in the garden. Meals were bulked up with vegetables to make them go further. We played outside and thought nothing of cycling 5 miles to the nearest swimming pool. The nearest we got to processed food was bottled peas and carrots and bottled fruit that surplus to our needs when they were in season. All food was cooked from scratch with fresh food as no one had freezers or fridges. When we thirsty we drank water.

ejohndrow

The problem is that it may 'affect' a large group of people, but the reason it has gotten so bad isn't because if something everyone 'caught'. There can be an epidemic of West Nile Virus because a large amount of mosquitoes carrying said virus populated a certain area and then bit, stung, whatever you call it the people causing them to have the disease. There can be an epidemic of e coli brought on by improperly irrigated soil-causing feces to get into lettuce, thinking along these same lines-the epidemic of obesity doesn't really fit.

If everyone in the entire world ate unhealthy, fast food, high sodium foods, and processed junk they would all be overweight as well-at least the majority of them-we all know some young guys with high metabolisms-so to say ovesity is an epidemic is like saying an outside source caused us to be fat. It is of epidemic proportions perhaps, but it's something than can be fixed quite easily. It isn't something that just came and infected people over the last few days and we all need shots now.

I would say there's more an 'epidemic' of adults not being able to say yes to healthy and no to unhealthy. We aren't dogs, we don't have to eat until the food is gone and we're sick, some people have a hard time with this.

ejohndrow

I think it's the huge amount of processed food in our diets now and lack of exercise. I was a child in the 1950's. We ate seasonal vegetables and fruit grown in the garden. Meals were bulked up with vegetables to make them go further. We played outside and thought nothing of cycling 5 miles to the nearest swimming pool. The nearest we got to processed food was bottled peas and carrots and bottled fruit that surplus to our needs when they were in season. All food was cooked from scratch with fresh food as no one had freezers or fridges. When we thirsty we drank water.

I'd have to agree with that. My mother made meals from scratch, we played outside-rode bikes, didn't have cable and watched very little tv. We also had a garden and fruit trees, we had fresh veggies from the garden and my mother canned a bit too.

The problem is growing up and slowly adding things to your life and not realizing it i.e car, job, college-which lead to less time for friends and fun, which then leads to improper diet and the choice to not exercise. We think we need this stuff (junk food etc) but we don't. I used to think kids were thin and adults were fat and there was no getting around it-then I really thought about why it seemed that way. I sold my car to my sister, I've made a conscious effort to walk as much as possible and to eat healthfully. It's tough at times, but so worth it in the end.

splackk

Funny, a good majority of the people over here in Singapore eat a very "eastern" diet of rice, fish and the like and yet there is a high number of overweight people here too- these are people who cook meals for their families every day using traditional ingredients in traditional way. I would think if it were a "western diet" problem I'd have lost all this weight with no problem when I arrived long ago! Strangely enough, you can also get fat eating traditional fried Chinese and Malay food too...

freerange

I'm confused...are you saying that someone like myself who lives in America and used to be obese only "treated the symptoms" when I started vigorous exercise and changed my eating habits? Cause that's what I did to fight the obesity problem in my life. And I beat it by eating smaller portions, eating less processed junk, and by adding exercise to my daily activity list...

What should I have done? Moved East and adopted their lifestyle? I happen to enjoy "Western" foods, just made leaner and eaten in smaller portions. I guess even though I've lost weight and kept it off for years, I'm still not cured of obesity in your eyes.

Whatever dude.

I was going to leave this alone and probably should have, I hope you don’t get offended by this. But really you need to re-read my post, because you clearly didn’t comprehend it. The S.A.D is the problem, or a part of the problem (Standard American Diet). You said in your post you changed your eating habits. That is the cure, (unless you just cut your portions and kept eating the same stuff you were) so why are your panties in such a bunch?

There is a thought process running around out there that concludes that if you “just eat less calories” as in, you can still eat all the junk you did before just in smaller portions, you will be healthy, because you fixed the problem, obesity. I’m telling you obesity is not the problem, it’s the junk you are eating.

And cured of obesity? What? You really need to have someone read my post to you, and explain it. You cannot be cured of a symptom, that was the whole point I was making. By just getting lean you “may” not be curing the underlying health issues that caused the obesity in the first place. Not all people that die of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, are obese or even over weight.

Whatever back at ya. Chick.