Why is there an obesity epidemic?

carolyn000000

The 1/3 obese would also be in the overweight. I agree about the antibiotics. I think it is just another attempt avoid accountability by blaming it on something else. Everyone who is overweight needs to just say, Yes. I am fat, and it is my fault." No excuses.

DebbieLyn63

Not everyone who is overweight is eating 5000 cals a day. It only takes eating 100 cals over your TDEE per day to gain 10 pounds in a year. In 10 years, you are now 100 pounds overweight. It can happen that easily. But that doesn't negate the fact that we are eating too much and moving too little. That is how the science of weight management works.

I have known many people who are naturally thin and eat a lot of food, and much of that food is sugar and junk food. Their bodies naturally burn sugar at a higher rate than other people's do. But we are not all blessed to have that metabolism. Life's not fair. What we have to do if figure out how many calories we DO need to maintain or lose and stay within those guidelines. It is often very hard to say no to donuts, and cheeseburgers, and pizza and fries, when we can't work them into our goals. We have to make hard choices sometimes, and that is just the way it is.

We have to find ways to become more active thru out the day. Like someone else said, we can't go spend an hour on the treadmill then sit on our butts the rest of the day and expect to lose weight.

We have to educate ourselves on how many calories are in the food we eat. Restaurants are a big problem, because professionally prepared foods are generally higher in calories than we think, and the portion sizes at sit-down restaurants have gotten completely out of control. At least with fast food, the portions are generally smaller.
And the super sized portions have become the norm in many people's eyes. I recall clearly back in the 70s when McDonalds advertised that you could get a burger, fries and a drink for under $1. The commercial showed a grown man walking in and ordering the meal, and receiving change back from his dollar. The meal he ordered is what is now the SMALL Happy Meal, sold to 3 yr olds!.

I went to Panda Express with my daughter last week and was so thrilled to see the calorie content posted beside each dish. That made it so easy to choose our lunch and stay within our goals for the day. We didn't spend less money, just made better choices. I would like for this to become standard among all restaurants. It will help so many people to realize how many calories are in the food they eat.
It is the law in this country that packaged foods you buy at the grocery store must have a nutrition label attached to it, so why is it not required for the same info to be posted on restaurant foods?

And another problem is the acceptance of being obese in this country. I don't agree that overweight people should be abused or discriminated against, but we have gone so overboard in 'fat acceptance' that now there is really no motivation to NOT become overweight. In the 70s, there were very few obese people around. For those of us who were not naturally thin, we would need to diet if we gained a few pounds to stay down in a healthy weight. Otherwise we would get picked on at school. Peer pressure worked well for most of us then. But now, if someone goes on a diet to lose 10 pounds, they are accused of having an eating disorder, and mocked for thinking they are 'so fat'. Young girls who are at a normal weight are being bullied more than those who are 50-100 pounds overweight.

Is it an epidemic? Yes, I believe so, because obesity has become such a huge health issue, costing millions of dollars in added health care costs, and for the first time in History, this next generation is not expected to live longer than their parents. That is just so sad.

There is not just one quick easy answer to fix this. There are many reasons to why we have gotten to this point. Everyone will have to take responsible for their part in creating this problem and find ways to turn it around.

It starts with education.

mistesh

We have to ...

Yes, we have to, but we won't, because stressing moderation to addicts is a moot point, and addiction to processed foods is a very real thing.

It starts with education.

Yes. Still, people form and cling to false beliefs despite overwhelming evidence. It's called motivated reasoning.

LiftAllThePizzas

Not everyone who is overweight is eating 5000 cals a day. It only takes eating 100 cals over your TDEE per day to gain 10 pounds in a year. In 10 years, you are now 100 pounds overweight. It can happen that easily. But that doesn't negate the fact that we are eating too much and moving too little. That is how the science of weight management works.

Not exactly. Your TDEE increases as your weight increases, so you would also have to keep ramping up your intake to continue eating TDEE+100 and keep gaining. Otherwise you reach an equilibrium point where your eating matches your body's expenditure.

smantha32

What was that Milkshake that became big news a few years back, it contained 2000 calories on its own! I mean, good God, people drink that and then wonder why they can't lose weight!!!

I won't even get started on that 5000 calories breakfast.

Seriously, people need to stop being so greedy.

The amount of calories in a meal doesn't add up to "greed". Ignorance maybe if you eat it.
Some of those insanely high calorie meals aren't even large.

smantha32

I won't even get started on that 5000 calories breakfast.

Seriously, people need to stop being so greedy.

A 5,000 calorie breakfast???

What is it - a pig on a stick?

How about this one in the UK - 6,000 calories and eaten by one man in 26 minutes

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097707/Kidz-Breakfast-Great-Yarmouth-diner-eats-6-000-calorie-fry-26-minutes.html

Yeah ok, this one is definitely greed.

Gwen_B

Amazingly there are too many people addicted to Fast Food and Sodas, thankfully that has never been me :-)

RMNPHike

It does come down to education, personal choice, and yes, economics. The food and advertising industries are definitely no help. And children don't actually study "health" in public schools - I know I didn't!! It took 40 or so years of figuring it out myself and navigating all the B.S. out there. And junk food is cheap in this country, plus a lot of junk is marketed as healthy. So it takes a lot of personal determination and persistence not to give in and to keep one's eyes open. As I write this, directly above my post is an ad for Trix, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Cinnamon Toast Cereal! Big bucks are being made from keeping people fat! Not saying that is ever an excuse. But I do think it will take a lot of demand from a lot of people to bring up awareness of other people and turn things around. I do think there is more awareness than there was in the '70s, when I was a preteen and teen. People still have to look at all the information available though.

fitfreakymom

most ( not all) over weight people eat to much and don't exersize hard enough and don't move enough.
serving sizes are also bigger than before and so are our dinner plates, I personaly eat off a side plate or slightly larger than a side plate and I am full on that. People see bigger plates, they want to fill that plate and then eat everything on it.

gooseberrypink

People are excuse makers, and we live in a culture that teaches us that nothing is our fault, nothing is our responsibility, and every opinion is valid. You can see it all over MFP, even in this thread. People who got severely obese who are here to lose weight but still REFUSE to accept responsibility. The carbs made me fat, sugar made me fat, wheat made me fat, low-fat made me fat, processed foods made me fat, sodium made me fat, HFCS made me fat, the government made me fat, the food pyramid made me fat, my stressful job made me fat. Whine, whine, whine.

You made you fat. You and only you. You were lazy and gluttonous, as was I.

In our society we use words like fat, lazy, and gluttonous as personal insults. Why can't we just treat these as statements of fact? You're not a bad person if you eat too much, but if you are fat you do eat too much and why can't it be said?

RMNPHike

Yes, you are right - we are all personally responsible. And part of it is taking responsibility for the society we have created, one that makes it so easy for people to find excuses and abandon accountability.

cindyhoney2

my work put a credit/debit card reader on our vending machine at work....smfh

jknops2

OK, I have summarized this post below. Note I also made a seperate post of this under

Why is there an obesity epidemic, part 2.












My question was about large populations, not individuals. Reading all this, it seems the overwhelming opinion of the question why individual are obese is that:

1. It’s the persons own fault. If you eat crap or too much, or both, you get obese. Your own fault and you yourself are to blame for this and you yourself have to solve this.
2. Secondary, to some degree the food industry is blamed with giving us too much and not good enough food. But again the opinion is you don’t have to eat it, and you are weak if you do eat too much of it.
3. And there are some outlier opinions that this is all a Monsanto/ USDA conspiracy to make us sick, so they make more money.
4. And a few deny that there is an obesity epidemic, it is just a government/scientist conspiracy to get more research money.


But the fact remains, 2/3 of the US is overweight and 1/3 is obese. And many countries worldwide are not far behind this statistic. If can’t believe that 2/3 of the entire US are just weak, spineless overeaters.

We also need to keep in mind that 2/3 of the US being overweight is going to have catastrophic health consequences which all of us will have to pay. Tobacco clearly also has bad consequence for people and we have severely restricted tobacco, by taxing it, outlawing in for kids and restricting where you can use it. Tobacco use was at a maximum of 40% of the US, weight is now an issue for 70% of the US. How much longer are we going to wait until we deal with this?

But, reading the above discussion, I see virtually no support for any government intervention here. Again as an individual, yes you can make a choice, but as a society where 2/3 of the entire country is overweight, I do think that we need to do much more than leave it up to the individual. I do think that similarly to tobacco use, we need to:

1. Regulate what are where the food industry can offer us. As many posters say we can’t help ourselves.
2. Outlaw food advertising, especially for children.
3. Tax, added sugar/fat, soft drinks, fast food, etc.
4. Stop subsidizing corn, and instead subsidize vegetables and fruit.


These are just some suggestions, but I see virtually no support for this in the US, even on MFP, where everyone is much more aware of weight and health than the general public is in the US. Any ideas why this is, or how we can change this? Or should we even address this?

oh_em_gee

The guy behind Fat Head attacks the claim that there is any epidemic. Because of the redefinition of obesity and the influx in the USA of populations that tend to be heavier, it just looks like an epidemic

smantha32

These are just some suggestions, but I see virtually no support for this in the US, even on MFP, where everyone is much more aware of weight and health than the general public is in the US. Any ideas why this is, or how we can change this? Or should we even address this?

Other than everyone suddenly eating all fresh and clean food, thereby forcing the food/fast food industry to change what they're selling us based on what we spend, I'm not sure I see it changing much.

RobynMWilson

Has it occurred to anyone in this world that back in the 50s and 60s, most moms were stay at home moms who had the time to prepare REAL food for their families. Then, in the 80s and 90s women were increasingly joining the workforce. A lot of women don't get home until 5-7pm each night. Kids have sports, homework, CCD, etc etc etc and the quick, prepackaged convenience foods and fast foods have become a very attractive thing!

AlongCame_Molly

Watch "Hungry For Change" on Netflix. It will answer a lot of questions.

MsPudding

But, reading the above discussion, I see virtually no support for any government intervention here.

The problem that often happens with Government intervention is the line it takes. Here in the UK we have a Government (whomever is in power) who love to intervene in just about every aspect of our lives. They are intervening in health....however some of their interventions are positively mind-boggling; such as doctors on the NHS being able to refer patients to Weight Watchers and local gyms with money off vouchers if they are on welfare benefits. Weight Watchers? Monster corporation chiefly concerned with the marketing of its diet frankenfoods?

1. Regulate what are where the food industry can offer us. As many posters say we can’t help ourselves.
2. Outlaw food advertising, especially for children.
3. Tax, added sugar/fat, soft drinks, fast food, etc.
4. Stop subsidizing corn, and instead subsidize vegetables and fruit.

Over here in the UK we have very strict rules about advertising towards children and taxing sugar and fat in drinks gets raised in Parliament often....it wouldn't surprise me if that one went ahead as we're in economic straits and it's another revenue stream. We're also talking about a minimum price for alcohol as the other issue we have in the UK is heavy drinking; especially amongst young people.

Farmies subsidies is a whole can of worms. Here in the EU they are done on land ownership rather than on land being activity farmed. The rights to subsidies can also be traded and attached to different land, resulting in speculators buying up cheap non productive land in places like Scotland, then buying the rights to EU subsidies to attach to that land, gaining themselves massive profits into the bargain. Meanwhile small tenant farmers struggle.

msleanlegs

Fat does not make people fat, excess carbs and a sedentary lifestyle are what make people fat. One day, perhaps 50 years from now, this will be common knowledge.

I thought this for several years. I read the books by Taubes, Wolff, and Sisson. It made sense, but when I tried a low carb primal diet I didn't get any weight loss results and I'd repeatedly end up going off the diet after a few weeks because food choices didn't satisfy me. Now that I've ditched meat and dairy for a vegan diet (started it for ethical reasons), the weight is dropping and I don't feel deprived of anything. My calorie intake is a couple hundred calories higher than when I did low carb primal and my carb intake nears 300 grams most days. I'm so curious to get my cholesterol and blood sugar taken in April to make sure I'm not doing any damage.

savithny

Has it occurred to anyone in this world that back in the 50s and 60s, most moms were stay at home moms who had the time to prepare REAL food for their families. Then, in the 80s and 90s women were increasingly joining the workforce. A lot of women don't get home until 5-7pm each night. Kids have sports, homework, CCD, etc etc etc and the quick, prepackaged convenience foods and fast foods have become a very attractive thing!

Well, there were a lot of packaged convenience foods in the 50s and 60s, actually -- rice a roni, boxed cake mixes, instant mashed potatoes, canned everything...

But even those weren't as processed as the crap we eat as convenience food today. And there was a lot less added sugar -- we hadn't perfected corn syrup extraction yet, so sugar wasn't essentially *free*

In fact, one of the big factors is probably that food was, in constant dollars, a LOT more expensive back then. Working families spent something like 25% or more of their income on food -- a number that was down to 10 percent by 2005. We did this by industrializing food production both at the farm and in the food factories. Which means we can just plain afford to eat more.

But cheaper food isn't necessarily better food. Yes, we can fatten a steer to slaughter weight in half the time it used to take - but it changes the composition of the meat, including the type and amount of fat. Yes, sugar is pretty much free -- but that means it's being put in everything, even things it was never in before.