As a nation, we're getting steadily heavier - WHY?

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  • BandForAlyAnne
    BandForAlyAnne Posts: 321 Member
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    as animals one of our basic insticts is to eat/ store fat/ find food. and every year we have more of and abundance of food staring us in the face. we arent without. scientists say as more and more countrys become "westernized" more and more people will be fat. AND more people will have cancer because of our declining health. wonderful news, isn't it? -_-http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/19/world-cancer-toll-research
  • kater8er
    kater8er Posts: 364 Member
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    portion sizes.

    The American lifestyle is filled with quick-meals that you microwave, going out to eat at restaurants, or fast food places like McDonalds. Tell me, where is a place where you can get a reasonable portion size at any of those places?

    The only place I've been able to get *acceptable* portion sizes at is Panera Bread--and that's by ordering soup or salad. Forget any of their sandwiches.

    Most Americans eat out a lot. NO WHERE you can find a "desirable" aka non-diet meal that is less than 400 cals. Portion sizes!
  • vishk2809
    vishk2809 Posts: 20 Member
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    INDUSTRIALIZATION OF THE FOOD INDUSTRY
  • Barbellsandthimbles
    Barbellsandthimbles Posts: 205 Member
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    Larger portion sizes, addictive foods, and people don't like change or pushing themselves out of their comfort zone. When my friend starts working out, she stops as soon as her heart rate gets a little high because she doesn't like feeling uncomfortable.
  • VelociMama
    VelociMama Posts: 3,119 Member
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    I am not from the USA but live just across the border and frequently go south for shopping. One thing I have noticed that totally astrounds me is the size of the servings in the restaurants! I believe this is one of the main reasons contributing to obesity. So often two of us share a dish as there is no way one person can finish the meal. And the size of the soft drink cups! Who needs to drink four glasses of coke in one sitting!

    After traveling abroad (I'm an American), I can agree with this also. I had no idea how off the portion sizes in America are until I left and saw what people in a more healthy-weight oriented society eat and how much less of it they eat. Growing up around it, you just think that's the way things are unless you're taught differently.
  • Kristiina67
    Kristiina67 Posts: 142 Member
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    Eating more sugar vs fat.
  • calvert6183
    calvert6183 Posts: 539 Member
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    Stress, smartphones, computers, fad diets which usually mean foods are altered but has more sugar and carbs, addiction to those sugary coffee drinks, and lifestyle. We as a nation are becoming more active though but still losing the battle.
  • rextcat
    rextcat Posts: 1,408 Member
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    :huh: food- it tastes good, more "desk jobs" less fatory/farm type work......and mass media......






    also our alien over lords like us well fed :bigsmile: :laugh:
  • starracer23
    starracer23 Posts: 1,011 Member
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    I read the first page...nothing else. So this may have been covered...

    I fully believe it is because overly processed food is so much cheaper.

    We are a family of 5...when we were unhealthy we could get away with spending about $100 every 2 wks in groceries. It was all boxed/canned = overly processed crap.

    Now that we are eating better and striving to be healthier...we spend almost $200 every 2wks (we still have to make purchases through out the week...milk, bread, eggs,etc)

    Most people want it fast and want it cheap...they don't care about the effects it has on their bodies or their children. It's fast and it's cheap and it's making for an obese nation.
  • m60kaf
    m60kaf Posts: 421 Member
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    I have read things recently that suggest inactivity is not the major - whilst it may appear because of jobs we are less active than 40 years ago differing hectic life styles make us just as active

    Large portion size of refined corn sugar foods
  • Firephoenix013
    Firephoenix013 Posts: 214
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    We work longer and harder and most places do not have a good quality restaurant or grocery store near by or even a little kitchenette to cook meals in etc, so we suffer at the hands of fast food because we've probably all gotten the stay over bit in our lives.

    Plus a lot of people cannot afford good food etc, the stuff that is on sale is the bad stuff and so they go out and buy that because they can get more cheaper compared to a good quality food.

    Food portions are huge, plus we are under informed. Just like I had no idea that ONE cheese stick was 90 calories. I also was looking at my dips TWO tablespoons a serving and almost all serving sizes were 70 calories. Never would have guessed that.

    Plus trying to find good food such as farmers markets, etc, is getting harder to do, and they want an arm and a leg for their foods as well. We don't live in a society like overseas where they have farmers markets constantly and where they mainly live off the land. Here in the US it's processed processed processed.
  • arbrewst
    arbrewst Posts: 18
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    The portion sizes we eat has gone up dramatically. Nobody thinks twice about getting a supersize meal at a drive thru. One super size meal has nearly all you fat and calories for the day and people will eat more than one of these a day often times. I came from a family that hated cooking so we ate out almost every meal. Funny enough i like eating more fruits and veggies now because of that.
  • rprussell2004
    rprussell2004 Posts: 870 Member
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    I didn't read all 6 pages, but I'm gonna throw in this ridiculous sense of entitlement I see all over.

    E.g: It's neither MY fault nor MY responsibility to keep MYSELF healthy. It's in my genes. I am entitled to a solution handed to me on a platter, or made super-simple (via pills, quick fixes, whatever) or I want nothing at all to do with it.

    That sort of thing. It does tie into laziness, but at the same time we're placing blame for our own situations somewhere else.
  • Art3m1s
    Art3m1s Posts: 9 Member
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    th_4a524f58.png

    this
  • bluebird321
    bluebird321 Posts: 732 Member
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    All the above.

    The trick is figuring out which part applies to you the most.
  • mfp_junkie
    mfp_junkie Posts: 359
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    I blame the proliferation of guns. In the old days, some dude broke into your house, you'd chase him down the street in your boxers, getting in a good cardio workout at the same time. Now, you just pull out your S&W and blast away. I say we reduce the guns and get people chasing each other again.

    Could be fatty foods that we used to eat as a once in a while treat, and now eat as part of our daily menu, too. I think I need a government grant to run a study.
  • jzrharv
    jzrharv Posts: 126 Member
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    more calorie dense foods.

    its not that its processed.. its just that everything presented to us, even healthy choices, are often more calorie dense, and/or in larger portions then in the past.

    so we consume more calories... makes a MUCH larger diff then 'lazyness' or 'lack of movement' if you're only considering overall weight.

    Agree for sure. More dense and more of it and relatively cheap. Not that low cost food is intrinsically bad, considering the alternative (i.e. many Third World Heckholes). And I think that nutrition is badly, if at all, taught in school. Home-Ec just fell out of fashion, I guess.
  • Sox90716
    Sox90716 Posts: 976 Member
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    It's George Bush's fault!
  • tskitzoid
    tskitzoid Posts: 51
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    The only thing Americans have to blame is themselves. Don't blame it on fast food, don't blame it on video games, or technology. It's each and every persons own fault.

    People have started eating bigger portions of food, having second or even third helpings. People sit around all day instead of going outside, or playing around with family and friends outside. Parks are less used, etc. I remember when summer was spent going swimming and to water parks if you had the money. Now its just "let's go to the movies, let's stay at home and play games or watch tv". You could say that video games and the like have a HELP in making people less active and willing to do things, but in the end it is the person's ultimate choices that make them what they are today.

    I mean, look at how the portion sizes have changed in roughly 20+ years! Not just food, but everything!
    http://www.divinecaroline.com/22177/49492-portion-size-vs-now
  • homerjspartan
    homerjspartan Posts: 1,893 Member
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    Various reasons:

    1. Technology has taken over work that used to require muscle power, thus people are not burning off the calories that they eat.

    2. Children are wrapped up in technology and no longer play outside.

    3. Crime prevents many people from taking part in activities outside and parents are fearful for the safety of their children outside, so they keep their children inside if they can't be outside to watch them.

    4. The food industry has been using many things to sale their products. Two of the major things used is sugar and fat. This makes their products taste better and people will eat more and buy more.

    5. Food is made salty in order to get people to eat more and, in restaurants, salt causes you to drink more. Bars often serve salty food to boost their sales of alcohol.

    6. The food industry has been supersizing meals and people will buy them. People buy them because they believe that they are getting more bang for their buck. Unfortunately, they don't realize that this kind of eating is costing them healthwise.

    7. Food is less nutritious than it was in the 1940s and 1950s. It takes two apples today to match the nutrition of one apple from the 1940s. The calories are the same, but your body is going to be screaming for the nutrients, causing you to eat more. The reasons for this are several, one being that the ground is being stripped of its nutrients and the second being that GMO food is often less nutritious than organic.

    8. Animals are being raised in feedlots and confined barns. This means the animal is not moving around and will have more fat than animals that are raised in open pastures. This fat is passed off in the food we eat. In the 1960s, chicken used to be about 13%-17% fat. Now they are around 25% fat.

    9. Hormones that are given to animals to make them grow bigger and faster are passed down through the food chain and being eaten by humans. Thus, those hormones are affecting the growth patterns of humans.

    10. Wheat has been hybridized to the point that the gluten content is very high. This is because when wheat is bred, the total number of gluten genes will be from the combination of both wheat forms used to hybridize the wheat. In order words, if wheat A has 12 gluten genes and wheat B has 5 gluten genes, then the new form of wheat will have 17 gluten genes. Why is this important? Because gluten has detrimental effects on the pancreas and insulin levels. It causes the body to store fat more readily, especially around the waist. Fat around the waist places the person at high risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Think of all the foods you eat that is made from flour and you will understand why this is affecting the weight of Americans.

    11. Hidden sugar, high fructose corn syrup, flour, and other elements in our food. Sugar is a poison to the body. It affects just about every system in the body, but mostly the pancreas, liver, and nervous systems. If sugar is a poison, then high fructose corn syrup is the devil itself. HFCS is not metabolized the same way sugar is metabolized. The body is not satiated when HFCS is used, thus leaving the person hungry. HFCS is deposited as fat on the body. This means that the person has ingested 150-200 calories of HFCS and they are still hungry. That's 150-200 calories that are empty calories.

    12. People are ignorant about what the food industry is thrusting upon us as food. Many 'foods' that people eat are actually food-like materials concocted in a laboratory. Like that yogurt that comes in the tube: It is all chemicals without one ingredient that even resembles real food.

    13. People are so busy running here and there that they don't have time to cook. So these people pull out the latest convenience food that is loaded with either sugar or fat, or maybe both, to make them taste good and think that they are eating healthy. Additionally, labeling is deceptive. Something that is marketed as 'fat free' may not be any better for a person that the original that has fat in it. With all the running around that people do, they may be eating out more often. I look at some of my friends' journals and some eat out or use package foods all the time. They may not cook a single meal! Maybe they cook for Thanksgiving.

    14. Deceptive packaging doesn't help. If you buy a package of chips, it may say that it contains 2.5 servings. Are you going to eat just under half the bag in order to get that 1 serving or the whole bag, since they taste so good?

    In general, it is not about laziness or over-eating. There are a myriad of reasons why people are getting fatter and the food industry doesn't help with their deceptive advertising and making foods taste good so that they can sell more and more of the product. It used to be that even a simple-minded person could eat healthy. Now you almost need a PhD in order to understand the various reasons why people are obese and how to avoid becoming so yourself.

    Books that I have read: (Ones with * are very good. The more *, the better the book.)

    ****Food, Inc. (edited by Karl Weber) The movie is good, too)
    ****Eating Animals (Jonathan Safran Foer)
    ***The Omnivore's Dilemma (Michael Pollan)
    *****Food Politics (Marion Nestle) I can't push this book enough. You have to read it.
    Fast Food Nation (Eric Schlosser)
    ****In Defense of Food (Michael Pollan)
    ******This Crazy Vegan Life (Christina Pirello) Not just for vegans.
    ***Animal Factory (David Kirby)
    Body Ecology Diet (Donna Gates)
    *******What to Eat (Marion Nestle)
    *******Mindless Eating (Brian Wansink)
    ***Diet for a New America (John Robbins)
    ****Wheatbelly (Currently on loan, so can't tell you the author and too lazy to look it up. LOL)
    ****Whitewashed (Currently on loan, so can't tell you the author and too lazy to look it up. LOL)

    I started to read this, but got tired so I had to stop and have a doughnut.

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