What do you think of the obesity epidemic in the U.S.?

stackhsc

similar experiences. Sitting outside the dollar store one day last year and i estimated around 70-80 percent overweigh and over half of that would have been bmi classed at or near enough at obese.
I have started to notice that in grocery stores i tend to see a smaller percentage of overweight folks in the produce and "heatlhy" areas and more overweight in the frozen foods and snack isles...... while this makes sense on the face of it i also have started to wonder how much of it is about choices and how much is about the cost of food. Prepared foods and snacks tend to be cheap or on sale while produce and healthy foods tend not to be so much. I know since we have started eating healthier our bill has gone up a fair bit and im sure many cant afford it. I also suspect its the vicious cycle thing too of you get use to what you eat.

AllTehBeers

I've noticed that it's definitely related to family income. I drive around a lot for my job and I go to the high-end and low-end areas. In the more affluent areas, obese people are not the norm. I got stuck a school crosswalk the other day in a better neighborhood and had about 150 kids pass in front of my car, and I didn't see a single fat one. But if I'm in an area with cheaper housing, more than half would be chubby or bigger. It's cultural as much as anything. I have a theory that kids tend to be about the same size as their mom, and financially successful men don't generally marry obese women.

I wasn't fat as a kid. It wasn't until I made my own money that I got fat.

I have no comment on income related to obesity, I'm just stating my OWN circumstance.

carryingon

I feel sad for the children. The decisions are being made for them, they have no control over their food, and are creating horrible habits for adulthood.

This. My pediatrician expressed her concern to me. I was worried because a couple of my children are small and have stayed on the 25% curve since they were born (which she said is good because they are staying on the same curve). She told me that it was actually a nice change because the majority of children she sees are over.

Iceman420

What do you think of the obesity epidemic in the U.S. ?

I think it's hard to NOT be obese in this country. There is so much fast food, junk food, soda, etc. None of it is healthy but we buy it because it's cheap and it tastes good. Especially when money is tight, like it is now. I'm as guilty of this as anyone.

The food industry makes tons of money off our hunger, and the medical industry makes tons of money when we get sick. It's a win-win situation for them. So they keep shoving this cheap crap down our throats, knowing we will buy it. Until something major changes in this country, the obesity epidemic will continue.

zephtalah

I guess I don't like the term epidemic. In my mind, an epidemic is a communicable disease. I don't believe being overweigh is communicable nor do I believe it is a disease. (That is not to say there are not real diseases that cause weight gain.) It is sad to see overweight children. The adults I don't feel sad for because they chose that. As far as the economic/weight association I see often, I understand that it is more expensive to buy organic produce, but healthy foods (carrots, dried beans, apples, leaf lettuce not bagged,etc.) are cheaper than fast food. It takes more time, but that is a choice people have to make. Parents need to step up and decide what their children will or will not eat and not cave in when junior throws a fit. People need to step up and decide what they will eat and not cave in when they "don't feel like it." You have control over you. I have control over me. This isn't a country problem. This is a personal accountability and character problem. I am sure this sounds horribly caustic and mean, and I don't intend it as such. However, I think if each person takes personal responsibility instead of listing all the reasons it is difficult then we will see a change.

neanderthin

I'm reading a book called Fat Chance, by Robert Lustig, which speaks about your topic. Unfortunately, you're right.

I'm going to quote him here: " in 2001 6 million children in America were seriously overweight. That number has tripled in a decade, the numbers are now surpassing 20 million"

"Numerous diseases connected to obesity have become more prevalent over the past 30 years. What's more, all of them are now found in children as young as 5 years old. We even have an epidemic of obese 6 month olds!"

And "The World Health Organization (WHO) has shown that the percentage of obese humans globally has doubled in the last 28 years...Even people in developing countrieds are obese."

My words now, it's not just the US, it's everywhere.

The author has been a doctor and medical researcher specializing in obesity for 16 years. I haven't finished the book, but it's made a real impression on me.

With all due respect, he has a bad reputation.

He may have screwed up in presenting some facts badly, but he's no dummy and not everything he has to say should be discounted until it's read and scrutinized.

TorontoFoodist

I was born in the 1960's and it was right around that time that agricultural policies in the US and Canada were changed to one of over-production. Junk-food essentially didn't exist before then, even things like McDonalds and Burger King were few and far between when I was a small kid, but by the late-70s and early-80s it had all started to change.

Phillip-Morris the company charged with addicting people to cigarettes moved all it's money into General Mills, Nabisco, Kraft, and other corporate foods. They became almost overnight the biggest producers of junk food in the world. And they put the 'pedal to the metal' radically changing how food is marketed and sold. They developed strategies based on salt, sugar and fat to get people into 'hyper-eating'.

http://www.democracynow.org/embed/story/2013/3/1/salt_sugar_fat_ny_times_reporter

In January I was in Varadero, Cuba for a week relaxing on the beach. It was great but it was also a real eye-opener. The Cuban life expectancy is now greater than in the US, and it was really scary walking down the street in Varadero... there was no advertising.. no junk food.. no Burger King or McDonalds.. no Coca-cola... and everyone and I mean EVERYONE who was Cuban was in shape and athletic! They don't have junk food or video games, they play sports and read, they're all In Shape, it's like going back to the US and Canada in the 1950s or something. The only morbidly fat people were from Canada and Europe, the Cubans all looked like they could run a marathon, it was crazy.

Now in Canada soft drinks are in the top 3 foods purchased at supermarkets. Since when was Coca-cola a 'food staple' of people's diets?

In the mid-70s a big NFL lineman was about 6'1" tall and roughly 205 lbs. By the mid-80s you had the (approppirately named) Walter "The Refridgerator" Perry, who was somehting like 340+ lbs. People just got huge in about a decade or so period. One study I saw says we waste about 40% of all the food we buy in north america now. I could go on but it's too depressing.

squirrelythegreat

I look at my before and after picture, and I think to myself "self, what epidemic are people talking about. Clearly this country is just 90 days from being in great shape, they are just too lazy to put down their cable and workout"

Its self inflicted, like calling suicide murder. Parents are bad for raising their kids with technology. And the upcoming generation will need to fix itself all on its own since nobody is going to do it for them.

AllTehBeers

I was born in the 1960's and it was right around that time that agricultural policies in the US and Canada were changed to one of over-production. Junk-food essentially didn't exist before then, even things like McDonalds and Burger King were few and far between when I was a small kid, but by the late-70s and early-80s it had all started to change.

Phillip-Morris the company charged with addicting people to cigarettes moved all it's money into General Mills, Nabisco, Kraft, and other corporate foods. They became almost overnight the biggest producers of junk food in the world. And they put the 'pedal to the metal' radically changing how food is marketed and sold. They developed strategies based on salt, sugar and fat to get people into 'hyper-eating'.

<iframe width="400" height="225" src="http://www.democracynow.org/embed/story/2013/3/1/salt_sugar_fat_ny_times_reporter&quot; frameborder="0"></iframe>

In January I was in Varadero, Cuba for a week relaxing on the beach. It was great but it was also a real eye-opener. The Cuban life expectancy is now greater than in the US, and it was really scary walking down the street in Varadero... there was no advertising.. no junk food.. no Burger King or McDonalds.. no Coca-cola... and everyone and I mean EVERYONE who was Cuban was in shape and athletic! They don't have junk food or video games, they play sports and read, they're all In Shape, it's like going back to the US and Canada in the 1950s or something. The only morbidly fat people were from Canada and Europe, the Cubans all looked like they could run a marathon, it was crazy.

Now in Canada soft drinks are in the top 3 foods purchased at supermarkets. Since when was Coca-cola a 'food staple' of people's diets?

In the mid-70s a big NFL lineman was about 6'1" tall and roughly 205 lbs. By the mid-80s you had the (approppirately named) Walter "The Refridgerator" Perry, who was somehting like 340+ lbs. People just got huge in about a decade or so period. One study I saw says we waste about 40% of all the food we buy in north america now. I could go on but it's too depressing.

We're kids of the "if it feels good, do it" generation. I'm not surprised our feel good spilled over into food.

MaraDiaz

I can tell you with fair accuracy what demographic a given television program is aiming for based on the commercials. See ads for luxury vehicles and travel? You're watching a program geared toward the upper middle class and above. See commercials for pizza, chips, and candy-bars? You're watching programming geared toward blue collar worker and below.

It's not that the more affluent are more virtuous and informed eaters, it's simply that they have more money to entertain and enjoy themselves in ways that don't involve stimulating brain chemicals with cheap foods.

There are other reasons, too, of course, including availability and access to information plus the time and energy to properly absorb and put into practice healthy eating and exercise, but most of it I think boils down to food as a form of entertainment and comfort for those of us who can afford little else. For similar reasons alcohol, drug, and cigarette smoking are also higher among the poor.

quirkytizzy

I can tell you with fair accuracy what demographic a given television program is aiming for based on the commercials. See ads for luxury vehicles and travel? You're watching a program geared toward the upper middle class and above. See commercials for pizza, chips, and candy-bars? You're watching programming geared toward blue collar worker and below.

It's not that the more affluent are more virtuous and informed eaters, it's simply that they have more money to entertain and enjoy themselves in ways that don't involve stimulating brain chemicals with cheap foods.

There are other reasons, too, of course, including availability and access to information plus the time and energy to properly absorb and put into practice healthy eating and exercise, but most of it I think boils down to food as a form of entertainment and comfort for those of us who can afford little else. For similar reasons alcohol, drug, and cigarette smoking are also higher among the poor.

You're making lots of sense.

And I like you for it.

zephtalah

I look at my before and after picture, and I think to myself "self, what epidemic are people talking about. Clearly this country is just 90 days from being in great shape, they are just too lazy to put down their cable and workout"

Its self inflicted, like calling suicide murder. Parents are bad for raising their kids with technology. And the upcoming generation will need to fix itself all on its own since nobody is going to do it for them.

I would agree with most of what you are saying. However, "Parents are bad for raising their kids with technology." ? Parents should teach their children about technology, and how to use it responsibly. Some of my uses for technology - MFP and youtube workout videos. I would agree that most children would do far better to go play outside and explore the real world than be glued to some electronic devise the majority of their waking hours. Moderation is key to so many areas of live. However, if you meant raising their children by technology (i.e. no hands on parenting and sticking them in front of screen after screen so they won't be bothered) then I could agree.

Ashwee87

I live in Mississippi and you see "fat" everywhere. I guess I was so numb to it for so long growing up with it, but after living in the PNW for a couple of years and moving back, especially now that I am making this change, I have noticed it even more. It honestly makes me sad. Almost everyone in my family is overweight, most morbidly and my grandfather just recently had a heart attack and had to have a triple bypass. He is the reason I decided to change. It all boiled down to eating habits to why he had his heart attack.

What makes me even more sad, my dad is really overweight and my mom is mildly overweight. I was talking to my mom about a week or so ago because my brother is on a "diet" and she was complaining about how she couldn't eat pizza or other things. It really made me sad that even after what happened to my grandfather, they don't seem to care or want to change.

Also, I have a cousin, who just turned 17 in January who is over 300 lbs. She has been morbidly obese for most of her life. I want to cry when I see her...it truly breaks my heart....

nokanjaijo

I notice this stuff too all the time. I play a game as I am driving and count how many overweight ppl I see vs how many healthy people. Nearly everyone you see is overweight.

However, when you go to places like San Diego CA it is the opposite. Nearly everyone IS in shape. My bf and I played a game to see if we could find an overweight person. It took us about an hour and we only saw ONE. Everyone was walking, biking, skateboarding. I guess where it is warmer, there is more of an opportunity to "get out and move". In colder states we would freeze many days in the winters if we tried to walk. The ice, snow and freezing rain are also a factor. Lack of sun is yet another factor as the sun (vit D) can speed metabolism.

That is my city. I moved here from Houston where it is either too cold or prohibitively hot and muggy. Eating is just the only thing people do there. There are more restaurants than people in that city, it seems.

I know a women who moved from here to Houston for work for a few years. She put on 25lbs there and took it off again when she returned. It's crazy.

summertime_girl

People aren't all that fat in the Boston area. Of course there are some fat/obese people, but it's not pervasive, IMO. I think it's a mentality and a lifestyle that promotes it.

amyplaysflute

I feel like we don't even notice when people are overweight. You have to be obese for anyone to consider you unhealthy. It makes me sad. People don't realize how simple it is to eat normal portions and not keep gaining weight.

angmarie28

its so sad and scary, I worked at Burger King 6 years ago, and there were quite a few families that would come in and all of them wold order like double whoppers with king sized fry and drink, and they would come in and do this like 2-3 times a week. I could never let myself or my family go like that, when I was 172 lbs my skin would fold over and touch on my side and it drove me absolutly insane, i obssesed over it, which was help when I decided to lose weight. but I am determined to teach my kids how to be healthy. Im a vegetarian, and although the rest of my family is not, they still eat alot of my meals so they eat quite healthy, and I dont let them eat whenever they want, like my nephews have free range of their kitchen and I always see them with soda, cookies, candy ect, and it makes me want to cry, my kids get breakfast (cereal, oat meal, toast and yogurt, or sometimes bacon and eggs, pancakes, or poptarts) then a snack (has to be healthy, they choose either an apple, orange, banana or grapes) then lunch (sandwich, pizza bites, corndogs, basicly something kid friendly but not super unhealthy) then a snack (normaly like cheez its sometimes a couple cookies) then dinner is almost always healthy, always have a vegetable, and if they eat their dinner they sometimes get desert, like tonight they had popsicles. they have pop maybe once or twice a week, but they share a can.
I was never taught to eat healthy, so I had to learn for myself, and I want my kids to learn now.

walkdmc

I think it's sad and scary too. I wonder where the "fat" people are when I take my kids to their sport practices. I'm usually the fattest person there. So, I think overweight/obese people avoid the activities that would benefit them and their kids. It kinda makes me sad for the kids whose lives could be improved with more activity and the parents who avoid those activities, for whatever reason.

I agree with PP who claims Boston doesn't have many overweight people. There's definitely a regional fattness factor. I visited Albuquerque and Santa Fe a couple of years ago and saw very few overweight people.

MorganLeighRN

I was born in the 1960's and it was right around that time that agricultural policies in the US and Canada were changed to one of over-production. Junk-food essentially didn't exist before then, even things like McDonalds and Burger King were few and far between when I was a small kid, but by the late-70s and early-80s it had all started to change.

Phillip-Morris the company charged with addicting people to cigarettes moved all it's money into General Mills, Nabisco, Kraft, and other corporate foods. They became almost overnight the biggest producers of junk food in the world. And they put the 'pedal to the metal' radically changing how food is marketed and sold. They developed strategies based on salt, sugar and fat to get people into 'hyper-eating'.

<iframe width="400" height="225" src="http://www.democracynow.org/embed/story/2013/3/1/salt_sugar_fat_ny_times_reporter&quot; frameborder="0"></iframe>

In January I was in Varadero, Cuba for a week relaxing on the beach. It was great but it was also a real eye-opener. The Cuban life expectancy is now greater than in the US, and it was really scary walking down the street in Varadero... there was no advertising.. no junk food.. no Burger King or McDonalds.. no Coca-cola... and everyone and I mean EVERYONE who was Cuban was in shape and athletic! They don't have junk food or video games, they play sports and read, they're all In Shape, it's like going back to the US and Canada in the 1950s or something. The only morbidly fat people were from Canada and Europe, the Cubans all looked like they could run a marathon, it was crazy.

Now in Canada soft drinks are in the top 3 foods purchased at supermarkets. Since when was Coca-cola a 'food staple' of people's diets?

In the mid-70s a big NFL lineman was about 6'1" tall and roughly 205 lbs. By the mid-80s you had the (approppirately named) Walter "The Refridgerator" Perry, who was somehting like 340+ lbs. People just got huge in about a decade or so period. One study I saw says we waste about 40% of all the food we buy in north america now. I could go on but it's too depressing.

We're kids of the "if it feels good, do it" generation. I'm not surprised our feel good spilled over into food.

THANK YOU!!!! We absolutely are a "if it feels good, do it" generation. Honestly, I don't feel sorry for them. They have made the choice to eat that way. All I can do it be accountable for myself and teach my son how to have a healthy life style and hope that he continues that with his own kids.

dwalt15110

I live in an economically depressed city where 90% of the students qualify for free lunch. I taught in this area for over twenty years and lived here all my life. I would see children in first grade who weighed close to 120 pounds. A lot of obesity can be related to culture. It only takes a trip to our local grocery store to see how much junk food is packed into the shopping carts. For some reason, people prefer to buy generic forms of doritos and chips and pop because they feel they can get so much more for their money. In reality, these foods make us crave more and more. I also have seen where children follow the weight pattern of their parents mainly because the parents cook the foods they grew up with. It becomes a vicious cycle, one that requires education to break. Unfortunately, schools can only do so much. Children learn about nutrition, know what is good for them, only to go home and be told eat what's before you or you can go to bed hungry. There is no simple solution to this problem. All we can do is model what is right and invite others to try it with us.