What do you think of the obesity epidemic in the U.S.?
Options
Replies
-
I think alot of it is that people are so busy now that they eat out more. Or else they eat cheap cuz food is expensive and buy alot of boxed foods and things higher in sodium and higher calories to save money. And alot of stuff in schools prob are loaded with preservatives cuz they come in bulk and that prob is part of it. And the new thing for kids is gaming systems and i pods and such so they spend less time in activities that gets them outside and moving around instead they spend more time in front of a computer or a screen. They should make healthy foods cheaper for people that would help alot. Would be a good thing if they put the actual nutrition info along side all the restaurant foods also and if they offered healthier drink options other than soda at fast food places.0
-
Americans are fat because we are too PC of a country to tell someone they are fat and need to change.
This includes doctors not addressing the problem with parents of obese children. We hand-hold too much.
As the average weight increases to do those that are over average. In the past 100 years many have moved from depending on their fitness for work as local agriculture has all but disappeared and corporate agriculture is mechanically streamlined.
Most Americans will do just enough to meet the status quo. Health and fitness don't directly affect most peoples livelihoods and thus there is little incentive to maintain our bodies beyond self desire.0 -
What I would like to know is if people are eating more calories and being sedentary because they are unwell and feeling sluggish? Or are they unwell because they are eating too much and exercising too little? And, if so, why is this just a recent phenomenon? And even our pets are obese? I wish they would make serious epidemiological studies on this.
People eat more and move less because society doesn't demand them to do more. When left to our own devices many will self-destruct. It this point the "epidemic" is so advanced that most people don't even know how to start to change. It is really quite sad.0 -
The obesity "epidemic" is a symptom of a greater epidemic in the United States; the stress and anxiety epidemic.
Americans are more stressed and anxious than ever and turn to food because of it's short term impact on mood. Obviously this is not the ONLY cause but it should be on the radar.
Here is an excerpt from a story regarding the link between parental stress and childhood obesity:
"Elizabeth Prout-Parks, M.D., a physician nutrition specialist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and lead author of this study, published in the November issue of Pediatrics, says: "Stress in parents may be an important risk factor for child obesity and related behaviors. The severity and number of stressors are important.""
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/251804.php0 -
After reading a few pages of this topic, I have just suddenly felt so lucky to have CHOICES. Choices in what i eat, what to teach my children, how to raise my children, and what to feed them. I am fairly young, just starting out. I do not plan to have children until "i can afford to put them in any sports team they would want" (haha that is my "sign" i can afford children).
But though it is sad to see others fall, I have always been one to think "Survival of the Fittest"...and that is all it is. Some care, some don't - those that CHOOSE not to change, don't survive as long as those who do.0 -
I don't really understand this whole obesity epidemic in the US. To be honest, I don't understand why it just gets that bad. One thing I thought of when I read through this thread a little was this documentary on obesity I saw 2 yrs ago. It showed how people walk differently as they gain more and more weight. They start to waddle. It really breaks my heart when I see young children already doing this waddle-walk. Children should be running around, having fun, moving, playing, being kids, getting in trouble -- being kids! Not having a difficult time walking, laying on the couch all day, etc.
It seems like in the US we don't understand moderation. I don't think it is healthy to make a child eat only healthy food, make them workout a ton, make them feel concerned about their weight. But today it seems to be going in the opposite direction, children are eating more junk, playing more video games, not able to go run around outside as safely as before.
Of course we should be given our 'natural right' to make choices on what we eat, how much we eat, and what not. But why can't people make sensible decisions anymore? Are we just so obsessed with this freedom to do whatever the heck we want that we don't realize how stupid our choices can be?0 -
Allele frequencies are not altered by longevity.But though it is sad to see others fall, I have always been one to think "Survival of the Fittest"...and that is all it is. Some care, some don't - those that CHOOSE not to change, don't survive as long as those who do.0 -
I blame the Food Pyramid .0
-
I blame the Food Pyramid .
that's actually a huge part of it. misinformation is a killer. people have been force fed that they were supposed to eat 11 servings of pasta and white flour A DAY!
couple that with the computer age and people sitting on their *kitten* all day and you get a helluva lot of fat people.0 -
Allele frequencies are not altered by longevity.But though it is sad to see others fall, I have always been one to think "Survival of the Fittest"...and that is all it is. Some care, some don't - those that CHOOSE not to change, don't survive as long as those who do.
If it means myself, and my future kids not dying by the age of 60 because of a heart attack, or getting their legs chopped off by age 50 because of diabetes - Ill consider that a win.0 -
What I think is sad about the obesity problem is that instead of helping the problem, businesses are adjusting to the problem by making bigger everything. There are buffet places I used to love going to for sentimental reasons, and also because sometimes I can't decide what I want to eat so I stare at the selection until my mouth waters at the sight of something and then I help myself to a small portion of it. But, it's hard to keep going when most of the people there are obese and it shows physically how their bodies are hurting, yet they fill these plates to heaven and simply cram this stuff in. Is it my place to judge? No, but I think the problem with it is that we are a country that loves food and have zero self-control with anything. There's no moderation. When you diet, moderation plays a big part in your success. Most people just don't know that concept anymore.0
-
I blame the Food Pyramid .
that's actually a huge part of it. misinformation is a killer. people have been force fed that they were supposed to eat 11 servings of pasta and white flour A DAY!
couple that with the computer age and people sitting on their *kitten* all day and you get a helluva lot of fat people.
Nope nope and nope.0 -
I blame the Food Pyramid .
that's actually a huge part of it. misinformation is a killer. people have been force fed that they were supposed to eat 11 servings of pasta and white flour A DAY!
couple that with the computer age and people sitting on their *kitten* all day and you get a helluva lot of fat people.
Nope nope and nope.
? i didn't read the whole 20 pages... sorry i don't already know your position...0 -
I am a school teacher and the lack of exercise and recess in school is dismal. My school gives 10 minutes of recess at lunch and that's it, PE on a rotating 3 week schedule. Parents drive their kids to school, this is so unnecessary. And kids just don't play outside anymore.0
-
I blame the Food Pyramid .
that's actually a huge part of it. misinformation is a killer. people have been force fed that they were supposed to eat 11 servings of pasta and white flour A DAY!
couple that with the computer age and people sitting on their *kitten* all day and you get a helluva lot of fat people.
Nope nope and nope.
? i didn't read the whole 20 pages... sorry i don't already know your position...
I simply don't believe that government recommendations impact the public. There has been a "war on obesity" for quite some time and the problem has gotten worse. If everyone ate 2000 calories a day and followed the serving fromthe food pyramid we would be a much healthier country. (I think the pyramid is a load of crap when it comes to overall health but you can't blame it for obesity.)
I think that a large portion of Americans are lazy. They do enough to get by. They don't need to be fit to survive day to day or to increase their livelihood. Once it became PC to be fat the problem multiplied and most people in the "overweight" category are actually average thus lowering the fitness standard.0 -
I blame the Food Pyramid .
that's actually a huge part of it. misinformation is a killer. people have been force fed that they were supposed to eat 11 servings of pasta and white flour A DAY!
couple that with the computer age and people sitting on their *kitten* all day and you get a helluva lot of fat people.
Nope nope and nope.
? i didn't read the whole 20 pages... sorry i don't already know your position...
I simply don't believe that government recommendations impact the public. There has been a "war on obesity" for quite some time and the problem has gotten worse. If everyone ate 2000 calories a day and followed the serving fromthe food pyramid we would be a much healthier country. (I think the pyramid is a load of crap when it comes to overall health but you can't blame it for obesity.)
I think that a large portion of Americans are lazy. They do enough to get by. They don't need to be fit to survive day to day or to increase their livelihood. Once it became PC to be fat the problem multiplied and most people in the "overweight" category are actually average thus lowering the fitness standard.
except i CLEARLY remember learning about the food pyramid when i was a kid - as young as 4, 5, 6 years old. does that mean everyone kept it in mind every time they ate? absolutely not - but the basic PRINCIPLES of "eat a lot of flour-based products because they're most important" were ingrained in people. I thought it. my parents thought it.
think about it this way. this concept of counting calories. when did it start? i'd argue it started within the last 20 years. up until about 1950/60 people ate when they were hungry, never counted calories, and were a helluva lot healthier. the biggest reason is they were more active, but the second biggest reason (most likely) is that they didn't eat refined processed white flour products in such massive amounts as people did in the 70s 80s and 90s who all thought it was good for them!
edit: agree with you on the lazy part0 -
I blame the Food Pyramid .
that's actually a huge part of it. misinformation is a killer. people have been force fed that they were supposed to eat 11 servings of pasta and white flour A DAY!
couple that with the computer age and people sitting on their *kitten* all day and you get a helluva lot of fat people.
Nope nope and nope.
? i didn't read the whole 20 pages... sorry i don't already know your position...
I simply don't believe that government recommendations impact the public. There has been a "war on obesity" for quite some time and the problem has gotten worse. If everyone ate 2000 calories a day and followed the serving fromthe food pyramid we would be a much healthier country. (I think the pyramid is a load of crap when it comes to overall health but you can't blame it for obesity.)
I think that a large portion of Americans are lazy. They do enough to get by. They don't need to be fit to survive day to day or to increase their livelihood. Once it became PC to be fat the problem multiplied and most people in the "overweight" category are actually average thus lowering the fitness standard.
except i CLEARLY remember learning about the food pyramid when i was a kid - as young as 4, 5, 6 years old. does that mean everyone kept it in mind every time they ate? absolutely not - but the basic PRINCIPLES of "eat a lot of flour-based products because they're most important" were ingrained in people. I thought it. my parents thought it.
think about it this way. this concept of counting calories. when did it start? i'd argue it started within the last 20 years. up until about 1950/60 people ate when they were hungry, never counted calories, and were a helluva lot healthier. the biggest reason is they were more active, but the second biggest reason (most likely) is that they didn't eat refined processed white flour products in such massive amounts as people did in the 70s 80s and 90s who all thought it was good for them!
edit: agree with you on the lazy part
agree to disagree, I guess. I'd be willing to guess that if the average overweight person ate the food pyramid with 2000 calories that they would lose weight.
I agree with you as far as processed/refined food wrecking havoc on our health as a country but I simply can NOT academically or logically draw a definitive line between processed foods and obesity EXCEPT that processed food are an express way for large caloric surplus that causes weight gain. The average person if eating within their caloric threshold will maintain a relatively healthy weight regardless of where the calories come from.
ETA: NOT lol0 -
It seems like in the US we don't understand moderation. I don't think it is healthy to make a child eat only healthy food, make them workout a ton, make them feel concerned about their weight. But today it seems to be going in the opposite direction, children are eating more junk, playing more video games, not able to go run around outside as safely as before.
Off note, kinda related: I was sitting at dinner during a visit to my grandparents house about 5 years ago and stated that I was full and thus finished. He said to me that I hadn't eaten all the food on my plate and that I should finish and I was cajoled by my family for wasting food. I laughed and looked around the table and *obnoxiously* stated that since I was the only person within my BMI sitting there that perhaps they should follow my lead rather than me follow theirs.
I guess this relates in the sense that the depression era mentality was "waste not want not." That mentality was passed to our parents (I'm 31) who forced food consumption on their children. The difference is that the food we were consuming was far more calorically dense than the rations during WWII.
I can't really blame the epidemic on this but I can relate this to America's generally f'd up relationship with food.0 -
I blame the Food Pyramid .
that's actually a huge part of it. misinformation is a killer. people have been force fed that they were supposed to eat 11 servings of pasta and white flour A DAY!
couple that with the computer age and people sitting on their *kitten* all day and you get a helluva lot of fat people.
Nope nope and nope.
? i didn't read the whole 20 pages... sorry i don't already know your position...
I simply don't believe that government recommendations impact the public. There has been a "war on obesity" for quite some time and the problem has gotten worse. If everyone ate 2000 calories a day and followed the serving fromthe food pyramid we would be a much healthier country. (I think the pyramid is a load of crap when it comes to overall health but you can't blame it for obesity.)
I think that a large portion of Americans are lazy. They do enough to get by. They don't need to be fit to survive day to day or to increase their livelihood. Once it became PC to be fat the problem multiplied and most people in the "overweight" category are actually average thus lowering the fitness standard.
except i CLEARLY remember learning about the food pyramid when i was a kid - as young as 4, 5, 6 years old. does that mean everyone kept it in mind every time they ate? absolutely not - but the basic PRINCIPLES of "eat a lot of flour-based products because they're most important" were ingrained in people. I thought it. my parents thought it.
think about it this way. this concept of counting calories. when did it start? i'd argue it started within the last 20 years. up until about 1950/60 people ate when they were hungry, never counted calories, and were a helluva lot healthier. the biggest reason is they were more active, but the second biggest reason (most likely) is that they didn't eat refined processed white flour products in such massive amounts as people did in the 70s 80s and 90s who all thought it was good for them!
edit: agree with you on the lazy part
agree to disagree, I guess. I'd be willing to guess that if the average overweight person ate the food pyramid with 2000 calories that they would lose weight.
I agree with you as far as processed/refined food wrecking havoc on our health as a country but I simply can academically or logically draw a definitive line between processed foods and obesity EXCEPT that processed food are an express way for large caloric surplus that causes weight gain. The average person if eating within their caloric threshold will maintain a relatively healthy weight regardless of where the calories come from.
Right. I'm not disputing that. The point is that the average person doesnt count calories and has no concept of how much food 2000 calories is. Fair? So all they DO know is that they're supposed to eat a lot of bread and pasta and, yes, they overeat. The point is, had they been engrained with correct nutritional knowledge growing up instead of the food pyramid, it's entirely possible they wouldn't be as overweight because it's much EASIER to overeat in processed carbs than it is whole grains, fruits and veggies, which take up more volume in the stomach while having fewer calories.
You're absolutely right about people losing weight on a 2000 cal food pyramid diet, but I just don't think that takes reality into account when the majority of people have never even considered counting calories until they're already in trouble.0 -
It seems like in the US we don't understand moderation. I don't think it is healthy to make a child eat only healthy food, make them workout a ton, make them feel concerned about their weight. But today it seems to be going in the opposite direction, children are eating more junk, playing more video games, not able to go run around outside as safely as before.
Off note, kinda related: I was sitting at dinner during a visit to my grandparents house about 5 years ago and stated that I was full and thus finished. He said to me that I hadn't eaten all the food on my plate and that I should finish and I was cajoled by my family for wasting food. I laughed and looked around the table and *obnoxiously* stated that since I was the only person within my BMI sitting there that perhaps they should follow my lead rather than me follow theirs.
I guess this relates in the sense that the depression era mentality was "waste not want not." That mentality was passed to our parents (I'm 31) who forced food consumption on their children. The difference is that the food we were consuming was far more calorically dense than the rations during WWII.
I can't really blame the epidemic on this but I can relate this to America's generally f'd up relationship with food.
Great point and so true.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 392K Introduce Yourself
- 43.6K Getting Started
- 259.8K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.7K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 403 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.8K Motivation and Support
- 7.9K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.4K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 999 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.4K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions