Why is there an obesity epidemic?

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  • CrazyTrackLady
    CrazyTrackLady Posts: 1,337 Member
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    Because Americans aren't satisfied unless the portions of food they are purchasing and shoving down their overstretched gullets is large enough to justify the price. Because it's easier to run to the local fast food chain and buy dinner than actually learning the difference between a chiffonade and a remoulade. Because mommy and/or daddy think it's perfectly okay to set junior down in front of a video game with a cold 20 oz pop, 3 hot dogs and a bag of cheetoes and call that "dinner and a show". Because doctors aren't willing to tell said mommy and/or daddy "Your kid is obese and you need to stop letting him shove so much crap food down his gullet". And lastly, because Americans are unwilling to look the problem straight in the eyes and say: "We need to do something about this."
  • redheaddee
    redheaddee Posts: 2,005 Member
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    Blame the Americans?

    No.

    Blame your own fat lazy butt for your own personal choices.

    Accountability. Look it up.
  • CrazyTrackLady
    CrazyTrackLady Posts: 1,337 Member
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    Blame the Americans?

    No.

    Blame your own fat lazy butt for your own personal choices.

    Accountability. Look it up.

    Of which many Americans have...the obesity problem in America is far more expansive and problematic than the obesity problem elsewhere in the world. Our portions are too large, our food is too processed, and our couches are too comfortable.
  • benol1
    benol1 Posts: 867 Member
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    Or could be this...Taken at a local McDs (seriously, I took this picture myself.)
    mcdonalds_zps0f29316f.jpg

    That is what you call "truth in advertising"!
  • redheaddee
    redheaddee Posts: 2,005 Member
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    Blame the Americans?

    No.

    Blame your own fat lazy butt for your own personal choices.

    Accountability. Look it up.

    Of which many Americans have...the obesity problem in America is far more expansive and problematic than the obesity problem elsewhere in the world. Our portions are too large, our food is too processed, and our couches are too comfortable.

    True, but no one forces me to eat the entire portion. Huge proponent of personal responsibility. I do not blame Ben & Jerry for my fat butt. Or antibiotics. Or processed food. Or anything in the original post other than my own personal choices.
  • stephaniemejia1671
    stephaniemejia1671 Posts: 482 Member
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    "they" are fattening us up so that we make more filling meals.

    tumblr_m45igv2Vxk1r59dzgo1_400.jpg

    LMAO
  • stephaniemejia1671
    stephaniemejia1671 Posts: 482 Member
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    EVERYTHING can be delivered now and is available at the click of a mouse.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,072 Member
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    Why is 2/3 of the US overweight and 1/3 obese?


    But the question is there, why is there the worldwide universal increase in obesity?


    I am not in America and have never been there - but if 2/3 are overweight and 1/3 are obese, that means nobody is normal weight or underweight as 3/3 equals the whole total??

    Surely your figures are not right - absolutely everyone cant be overweight or obese?

    Secondly as others have pointed out, there is NOT a world wide universal increase in obesity - there is a first world countries increase in obesity - I dont actually think there is much of an obesity problem in, say, Ethiopia or Somalia or Bangladesh.

    Thirdly add me to the group who believe the crux of the problem is people are eating more calories and doing less excercise.
    Thats it in a nutshell.

    Sure, there may be factors leading to that, such as more sedentary jobs, more computer games, less outdoor space if people live in high density housing, less time for home cooking etc - but crux of matter is still eating too much, moving too little.


    I do not believe antibiotic use has anything to do with it at all - I think that theory belongs in the whack job blogs you mentioned in first post.
  • Mr_Bad_Example
    Mr_Bad_Example Posts: 2,403 Member
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    Because people like to eat and there is more than enough food to satisfy that desire. Eating is a pass time now, not a means to live. Not that there's anything wrong with enjoying eating - heck, I work out so I can eat more - but like in all things, moderation is the key.
  • Jennifer217B
    Jennifer217B Posts: 38
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    Like :)
  • mistesh
    mistesh Posts: 243 Member
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    Well, let's see now. "In the late 1970s, due to the development of new fructose enrichment technology, corn started being processed into high fructose corn syrup. The result? From 1980 to 2009, our intake of HFCS had risen from almost zero to 13.2 teaspoons per day." Some restaurant chains have become something more like "socially sanctioned, fully legal, heavily advertized crack houses." The Hunger Fix by Pamela Peeke.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    Because we eat too much and move too little....
    Anybody who tells you it's anything other than this is trying to tell you something.

    It's all about personal responsibility. Sure portions are bigger, packaged food is quick and easy (and tastes good, in many cases) and our jobs/lives require less activity than in the past. That doesn't absolve us of responsibility for our actions. Nobody says we have to eat ALL of those huge portions, buy Ding Dongs, Mac & Cheese and Doritos, or sit on our butts all day. What it all comes down to is that (at least in industrialized countries) being fat is easy, not being fat isn't. It involves making tough choices and having some self-discipline. Blaming it on carbs, HFCS, processed food or whatever else is nothing but a cop-out.
  • redheaddee
    redheaddee Posts: 2,005 Member
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    meanwhile-in-america-meme-26_zps7b118510.jpg
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,306 Member
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    Just read a great article that says that as the low fat..no fat craze started..so did the size of Americas waist. We got fat when we got away from natural food. period.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    Well, let's see now. "In the late 1970s, due to the development of new fructose enrichment technology, corn started being processed into high fructose corn syrup. The result? From 1980 to 2009, our intake of HFCS had risen from almost zero to 13.2 teaspoons per day." Some restaurant chains have become something more like "socially sanctioned, fully legal, heavily advertized crack houses." The Hunger Fix by Pamela Peeke.
    Past generations ate just as much, or more, sugar than we do today. Candy bars, sodas and other sweets weren't just invented within the last 30-40 years. With the advent of artificial sweeteners, there are many more options to avoid sugar nowadays. And despite all the HFCS quackery and propaganda, HFCS is approximately 50% fructose and 50% fructose, which is identical to sucrose (table sugar).
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    I dont know what the hell all that science crap was....but I will tell you the culprit ...breakfast, yup that is right all that crap you consume first thing in the morning is making you pack em on ....
  • Ed98043
    Ed98043 Posts: 1,333 Member
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    I am not in America and have never been there - but if 2/3 are overweight and 1/3 are obese, that means nobody is normal weight or underweight as 3/3 equals the whole total??

    Surely your figures are not right - absolutely everyone cant be overweight or obese?

    2/3 are overweight and OF THOSE, half are obese. America isn't alone - in the UK 39% of the population is overweight and an additional 22% are obese. The real brain teaser is why poor people in both the US and UK have a much greater likelihood of obesity than middle or upper income people. People like to say it's about high calorie food being cheaper, but I seriously doubt that poor obese folk are sitting around snarfing up fried pork rinds but wishing they could afford broccoli. So are people fat because they're poor, or are they poor because they're fat? Some of each, I think.
  • Mr_Bad_Example
    Mr_Bad_Example Posts: 2,403 Member
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    Just my experience... but it's funny that there are all of these ideas and theories out there about how overly processed and unnatural food has become, and that this has led people to gain weight and be generally unhealthy - yet when I started out to lose weight and get healthy, I didn't give up any foods except for sugary beverages.

    That was nearly 4 years ago.

    I simply eat up to my allotted caloric intake every day (except for the days when I let myself indulge, like today) and make sure to work in the right amount of exercise that has been working for me all these years. If all of these foods are designed to make me fat, get me addicted, and keep me on the couch munching, then either I'm a freak of nature, the master plan just isn't working, or choices that people make actually have an influence on their lives.
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
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    I can see that within a normal gut microbial population, evolution will favor those microbes that use energy/nutrients most efficient, which may lead to lower energy available for the host. Whereas antibiotic use will select for antibiotic resistance and not energy efficiency.

    This premise is faulty. Selection is not one dimensional and does not simply choose one trait per generation. This would only be relevant in a case where energy efficiency and antibiotic resistance (to the specific one being used) are simultaneously varied in opposite directions by different alleles at the same locus, or linked loci.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    I am not in America and have never been there - but if 2/3 are overweight and 1/3 are obese, that means nobody is normal weight or underweight as 3/3 equals the whole total??

    Surely your figures are not right - absolutely everyone cant be overweight or obese?

    2/3 are overweight and OF THOSE, half are obese. America isn't alone - in the UK 39% of the population is overweight and an additional 22% are obese. The real brain teaser is why poor people in both the US and UK have a much greater likelihood of obesity than middle or upper income people. People like to say it's about high calorie food being cheaper, but I seriously doubt that poor obese folk are sitting around snarfing up fried pork rinds but wishing they could afford broccoli. So are people fat because they're poor, or are they poor because they're fat? Some of each, I think.

    want to know why americans are obese three words = Breakfast & Fast Food

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