As a nation, we're getting steadily heavier - WHY?
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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-research0
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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!0 -
INDUSTRIALIZATION OF THE FOOD INDUSTRY0
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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.0
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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.0 -
Eating more sugar vs fat.0
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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.0
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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:0 -
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.0 -
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 foods0 -
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.0 -
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.0
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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.0 -
this0 -
All the above.
The trick is figuring out which part applies to you the most.0 -
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.0 -
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.0 -
It's George Bush's fault!0
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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-now0 -
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.0 -
Read the book "Wheat Belly" - it explains it all. I've given up wheat as a result and it's worked wonders.
I disagree. I was in Paris this year for the first time and they serve bread and pastry with literally every meal....sometimes it is the whole meal....and usually it's white, not whole wheat. Yet most Parisians are fairly thin. Why? It's called portion control.
On that note, I was in Prague as well and they mostly eat non-lean meat and dumplings, etc.....yet they also do not experience nearly the level of obesity there as the U.S. does. Again, portion control....
I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just pointing out what I've observed....0 -
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So mid 90's and before what was going on?
I think...
1. Overweight kids of the 90's (myself included) who spent a lot of time at home on the new computer and that new internet thing grew up to be overweight adults.
2. I remember riding my bike and walking to school all the time. You don't see that as much anymore.
3. If I'm correct we were in an economic upswing that was the dot.com revolution and there was money available and
4. Don't think we had as much convience food back then. There was no such thing as prepackaged salad mix. You had to stand and cut your veggies.
5. Seemed there were more venues for physical activity. I could rave all night around the city, gym memberships were relatively cheap, and there were more community activities such as building bike trails or opening community rec centers. A lot of that has been stopped d/t crime, police force, terrorist paranoia, and huge government cut backs on community.
6. You actually had PE in school
7. Supersize was a new word
8. Baby boomers were younger than. Now they are getting older and more sedentary
9. Giant chicken breasts were introduced
10. Crime/terrorist paranoia and more reliance on technology. Back in the 90's you had to go down to the DMV and stand in line to renew your license now you can do it online along with everything else.
I don't know if the food producers have more regulation or less today, but I do know back then we didnt know what GMO or organic foods where.0 -
fixed it for you:flowerforyou:0 -
the weight problem in america is due to high fat diets (fast food, junk food, etc.) and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle thanks in part to tv and computers
This clashes with the facts - the amount of fat if anything is declining, as carbs increase. If fats are increasing in grams per day it will be as a smaller percentage of a bigger food intake.
The daily energy expenditure of slow moving fat westerners is the same as skinny hunter-gatherers tearing around the savannah.0 -
Just look at how many events we have that are all about food. Its part of our social structure its really crazy!0
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I think that a lot has to do with the foods available, eating out being cheaper, more processed foods, etc. But it also has to do with a lot of the attitudes that I see that I think are very dangerous:
1. Attitudes that say that skinny people don't work at it and those who are overweight are that way because of glands, metabolism, etc. There is some truth to this, as with all stereotypes, but it's mainly complete bunk. People are grossly overweight if they eat more calories than they burn, period, and it's hard to lose weight no matter who you are. People need to stop giving themselves this excuse.
2. Adds and sayings that valorize being overweight. Pictures of nude 300 lb women, "Somewhere inside me is a skinny person wanting to get out, but I kill her with cookies," that kind of crap. I think that there was a reaction against people being anorexic because of poor body image, and I completely agree that we should have more normal weight women as models, etc., but this has gone way overboard. Being overweight kills you and restricts what you can do in life. If you know that and are trying, that's one thing, but if you somehow imagine that being overweight is a good thing, I find that a very insidious attitude.0 -
Its just our culture.
Its not safe for kids to be outside and phys ed in school is too expensive. Kids have to pass tests in schools so less play more work. The kids come home to fast food and a night of video games. It is the safest and easiest way for their parents.
Parents are increasingly becoming zombies who work so many hours to pay for the house that is too big for them to afford, driving cars too expensive for them to afford. This overworking for their nice material things leads to half as much sleep as they need, thus a general almost stoned state that is the norm of life where they don't have the energy to be good parents or care for themselves, instead all they are physically capable of doing after an unproductive day at work sitting at the computer is to come home and sit on the couch all night watching some can't miss shows and chatting online. This of course keeps their attention too effectively, they stay up too late, wake up a zombie the next day and do it all over again.
Life in America.
Make as much money as you can. Move as little as possible. Live a life of convienience in a big house and don't miss a second of American Idol.0 -
Lack of knowledge and personal responsibility. I refer to it as the Wall-E Effect. Everyone points the finger at someone/something else. It's not my fault, it's not my job, let's just take the easy way. Don't complain when you have the power to change with in you! I hear a few family members say all the time I just wish there was a pill I could take that would make me loose all the weight and make me healthy again as they eat a double cheese burger or 4.0
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Some factors are laziness; being uneducated about the food we put in our bodies; not understanding portions; not taking exercise serious; and not listening to our bodies, many suffer from serious illnesses that may cause weight gain but refuse to listen to their bodies (example: hypothyroidism). These traits are being passed down to our children making it more acceptable.0
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