Why is there an obesity epidemic?

Or could be this...Taken at a local McDs (seriously, I took this picture myself.)

That is what you call "truth in advertising"!

And we thought our horsemeat in burgers scandal was big news.................

I was also under the impression the government redefined what "obese" and "overweight" was awhile ago

"they" are fattening us up so that we make more filling meals.

I believe this if anyone can answer this question you will be the next nobel peace prize winner. Scientist have been working on this question for the last 30years.

It's a cookbook!

And I hasten to add that that is just one side of things because I know Americans are hugely keen on exercise. I've never seen a 24hour gym in the UK and the concept kind of baffles me. Who wants to work out at 4am?

We have them in Australia too - good for shift workers.

Epidemic? 2/3? An epidemic is classified as something that spreads quickly from person to person- I don't know why I caught the fat and my 110lb mother...

You are absolutely right - it's not an epidemic. The word is being misused to try to hammer home the point. It's a bit like when you hear that a population has been "decimated" by a flood. Decimated means one in ten, when only 25 people were killed out of 100,000.

Who would benefit from misrepresentation of facts about obesity statistics? Medical providers- Diet companies- companies that specialize in "light" or healthy options. Organizations that get funding from these things. Lobbyists, Political figures using it to further there social stature, Media, documentary creators, etc.

Absolutely correct. But if you catch them out doing it, people say you are a conspiracy theorist and then disregard everything you say forevermore.

When I go Any where- I can 100% say that the ratio is not 2 out of 3 for obese people vs people of a standard size. Can you? It's ridiculous to propagate such trash. and that is what that figure means- is that for every 2 obese people there is only 1 standard size person.

I have sat on my seafront and watched people walk past me and about 1 in 50 are obese. BUT it's not just because some people who aren't even fat are "technically" listed as obese, but also because the obese tend to stay at home more, drive in cars instead of walking past, etc.

Fact: A Gastric by pass costs 100k dollars. With follow up treatment and complications it can get into the 500k range very quick.
Fact: Organic and "healthy food" both LOOSE standards due to our corrupt FDA is a 31 billion dollar industry (has grown 25 billion in the last 13 years... I wonder what spiked that?) Thats a lot of revenue with little to no advertisement dont you think?

I agree that surgeons are making a LOT of money out of us. However, a GB in the UK only costs £5,000.

The last time I went into a grocery store an orange was around 10c A dinky bag of chips was 1.25- about an ounce of chips. ... People always say this- but it's ridiculous

No it's NOT ridiculous.

When *I* last went into a supermarket, I saw multipacks of carbage on sale at 2 for the price of one. You can get HEAPS more carbage for your money in the UK than any other foodstuffs.... PLUS as we all know, carbage is ADDICTIVE and comforting and filling in a way that an orange is not.

They love the blend of high sugar and those creamy, wheaty, oaty sort of textures on their tongues. They are driven by their tastebuds, their emotions and their wallets, not by rationality or nutritional knowledge.

People's palates become ALTERED by eating carbage, and an orange just tastes bland and ugh to them.

On top of that, the KIDS won't eat fresh fruit because THEIR palates have also been ruined by carbage. Poor people practically MEDICATE their children with carbage. The last time I was in a queue at my local post office I saw a mother give a jam doughnut to her 2-year-old daughter to stop her whining. I wished I could report her for child abuse, but apparently you cannot.

I read the above post and thought you'd mis-spelt cabbage as carbage. It didn't quite make sense. Cabbages are cheap, but are they really that bad? By the time I got to the end I understood! However, giving a child an occasional jam doughnut is not child abuse!

I think education and culture has so much to do with this "epidemic" too. I get so sad because I see parents stock up on chicken nuggets and wedges for their kids, instead of educating themselves about how to feed their kids. There is a perception that healthy food is more expensive, but that's BS. The german overlords (Aldi and Lidl) have made good, honest, whole foods much more accessible, but it's just laziness and lack of knowledge that gets in the way. Even breakfast cereals are a complete scam, yet most parents buy into it.

Don't you find, though, that if you buy "healthy" food and cook from scratch, you end up eating more of it? I got fat on healthy, homecooked food I'm afraid! For one thing, I think it's easy to overestimate and cook a little bit too much, and for another thing, it tastes nice so you end up eating more!

Personally I don't find that, no. My problem has never been the home-cooked meal, but the bottle of wine I swilled it down with, neatly adding another 1,500 un-needed calories a day.

I try to avoid processed foods wherever possible and that's simply because I find the idea of them utterly bizarre. I seem to shock people when I say that I've never had a fast food burger, taco or chicken piece. The nearest I've got to fast food was a Subway I had once...and I found it repulsive. For me it seems odd that people would want to eat that stuff - but I also recognise that my ideas are informed by my childhood in 70s Britain whichi involved living in a rural village with no fast-food joints or supermarkets. We had a butcher, a fruit & veg shop, a bakery and a fishmonger and that was IT. The food we ate was grown by my Mother, bought from a local butcher (or shot by us or friends) or foraged. I can remember very clearly that a bag of crisps was a treat that I had once a week after swimming in the nearest town. Pudding was something you had only after Sunday lunch (which, being the UK, was a roast) and sweets (candy) were a very occasional treat - generally Christmas, Birthdays or if you did something pretty special that deserved a reward. We didn't have fizzy drinks either. I remember my amazement at sight of a Soda Stream at my Grandmothers and being told that if I was very, VERY good she would make me a Coke with it.

Now when I look around me what I see is parents who think that a normal everyday lunch box for their child should have a bag of crisps, a sandwich, a chocolate bar, a yogurt and a ruddy fizzy drink. Well no wonder our children are suffering from the worst of the obesity problem....they're consuming stuff every day that were once weekly or rarer treats. The average kid's sugar intake is bloody eyewatering!

Don't you find, though, that if you buy "healthy" food and cook from scratch, you end up eating more of it? I got fat on healthy, homecooked food I'm afraid! For one thing, I think it's easy to overestimate and cook a little bit too much, and for another thing, it tastes nice so you end up eating more!

Personally I don't find that, no. My problem has never been the home-cooked meal, but the bottle of wine I swilled it down with, neatly adding another 1,500 un-needed calories a day.

I try to avoid processed foods wherever possible and that's simply because I find the idea of them utterly bizarre. I seem to shock people when I say that I've never had a fast food burger, taco or chicken piece. The nearest I've got to fast food was a Subway I had once...and I found it repulsive. For me it seems odd that people would want to eat that stuff - but I also recognise that my ideas are informed by my childhood in 70s Britain whichi involved living in a rural village with no fast-food joints or supermarkets. We had a butcher, a fruit & veg shop, a bakery and a fishmonger and that was IT. The food we ate was grown by my Mother, bought from a local butcher (or shot by us or friends) or foraged. I can remember very clearly that a bag of crisps was a treat that I had once a week after swimming in the nearest town. Pudding was something you had only after Sunday lunch (which, being the UK, was a roast) and sweets (candy) were a very occasional treat - generally Christmas, Birthdays or if you did something pretty special that deserved a reward. We didn't have fizzy drinks either. I remember my amazement at sight of a Soda Stream at my Grandmothers and being told that if I was very, VERY good she would make me a Coke with it.

Now when I look around me what I see is parents who think that a normal everyday lunch box for their child should have a bag of crisps, a sandwich, a chocolate bar, a yogurt and a ruddy fizzy drink. Well no wonder our children are suffering from the worst of the obesity problem....they're consuming stuff every day that were once weekly or rarer treats. The average kid's sugar intake is bloody eyewatering!

sugar is not the evil bogeyman you are trying to make it out to be.

Really good information here. A lot of people have done their research on this topic. I got a lot of information from the responses on this thread. All I can tell you is I'm a child of the 60's. My upbringing was poor. My mother had to stretch every penny to feed us healthy meals. She was so good at it that we knew what was for dinner every night of the week. For example, Sunday was always macaroni and meatballs. Friday was fish sticks etc Of course veges and a large salad for all 7 of us. Beef ha hardly ever. Dessert was only for special occasions and soda was never in the house. Enough of my tangent.

All of us kids noticed a huge difference when we hit Sophmore year in High School. This was 1977. More snacks were hitting the market and they were readily available. As the years went on, there was a climb in obesity. Now mind you this is pre-internet. Fast forward say 20 years. If you pay attention to the price of food and how much the cost has risen in comparison to junk food, the junk is way more affordable. I believe there's an economic factor here. To buy fresh vegetables, fruit and meat to prepare a well balance meal is probably double if not triple the cost of fast food. Fast food is cheap, filling and tastes great.

All of their calories in these establishments kept the calorie content hidden from consumers for decades. Also, over time, people lost site of what a "normal" portion is. Many had and still have the perspective of "WOW look at all I'm getting for such and such number of dollars. You can't beat this!" Unknowingly we're consuming high calorie, fat, carbs and lord know what else (meat fillers come to mind). By the time all of this knowledge became public, this was deeply imbedded in our culture.

Culturally, hmmmmm how many of us were raisesd with our parents brow beating us: You better finish everything on your plate. Don't you know there's people starving in China. There's the guilt factor. Remember when we were kids and we dropped a piece of food the 5 second rule or kissing it up to God and still eat it????

The food consumed in the US is over processed. There are good carbs and bad carbs. Same with fat, sugar and protein. The overprocessed food really has no nutritional value and is easily converted to sugar. There are so many different studies, viewpoints and opinions out there. I didn't see anyone post on the economics, cultural and era in which we were raised so I'm throwing in my 2 cents lol

Great thread!