Why is there an obesity epidemic?

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  • RMNPHike
    RMNPHike Posts: 89 Member
    Yes, you are right - we are all personally responsible. And part of it is taking responsibility for the society we have created, one that makes it so easy for people to find excuses and abandon accountability.
  • cindyhoney2
    cindyhoney2 Posts: 603 Member
    my work put a credit/debit card reader on our vending machine at work....smfh
  • jknops2
    jknops2 Posts: 171 Member
    OK, I have summarized this post below. Note I also made a seperate post of this under

    Why is there an obesity epidemic, part 2.












    My question was about large populations, not individuals. Reading all this, it seems the overwhelming opinion of the question why individual are obese is that:

    1. It’s the persons own fault. If you eat crap or too much, or both, you get obese. Your own fault and you yourself are to blame for this and you yourself have to solve this.
    2. Secondary, to some degree the food industry is blamed with giving us too much and not good enough food. But again the opinion is you don’t have to eat it, and you are weak if you do eat too much of it.
    3. And there are some outlier opinions that this is all a Monsanto/ USDA conspiracy to make us sick, so they make more money.
    4. And a few deny that there is an obesity epidemic, it is just a government/scientist conspiracy to get more research money.


    But the fact remains, 2/3 of the US is overweight and 1/3 is obese. And many countries worldwide are not far behind this statistic. If can’t believe that 2/3 of the entire US are just weak, spineless overeaters.

    We also need to keep in mind that 2/3 of the US being overweight is going to have catastrophic health consequences which all of us will have to pay. Tobacco clearly also has bad consequence for people and we have severely restricted tobacco, by taxing it, outlawing in for kids and restricting where you can use it. Tobacco use was at a maximum of 40% of the US, weight is now an issue for 70% of the US. How much longer are we going to wait until we deal with this?

    But, reading the above discussion, I see virtually no support for any government intervention here. Again as an individual, yes you can make a choice, but as a society where 2/3 of the entire country is overweight, I do think that we need to do much more than leave it up to the individual. I do think that similarly to tobacco use, we need to:

    1. Regulate what are where the food industry can offer us. As many posters say we can’t help ourselves.
    2. Outlaw food advertising, especially for children.
    3. Tax, added sugar/fat, soft drinks, fast food, etc.
    4. Stop subsidizing corn, and instead subsidize vegetables and fruit.


    These are just some suggestions, but I see virtually no support for this in the US, even on MFP, where everyone is much more aware of weight and health than the general public is in the US. Any ideas why this is, or how we can change this? Or should we even address this?
  • oh_em_gee
    oh_em_gee Posts: 887 Member
    The guy behind Fat Head attacks the claim that there is any epidemic. Because of the redefinition of obesity and the influx in the USA of populations that tend to be heavier, it just looks like an epidemic
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member

    These are just some suggestions, but I see virtually no support for this in the US, even on MFP, where everyone is much more aware of weight and health than the general public is in the US. Any ideas why this is, or how we can change this? Or should we even address this?

    Other than everyone suddenly eating all fresh and clean food, thereby forcing the food/fast food industry to change what they're selling us based on what we spend, I'm not sure I see it changing much.
  • RobynMWilson
    RobynMWilson Posts: 1,540 Member
    Has it occurred to anyone in this world that back in the 50s and 60s, most moms were stay at home moms who had the time to prepare REAL food for their families. Then, in the 80s and 90s women were increasingly joining the workforce. A lot of women don't get home until 5-7pm each night. Kids have sports, homework, CCD, etc etc etc and the quick, prepackaged convenience foods and fast foods have become a very attractive thing!
  • AlongCame_Molly
    AlongCame_Molly Posts: 2,835 Member
    Watch "Hungry For Change" on Netflix. It will answer a lot of questions.
  • MsPudding
    MsPudding Posts: 562 Member
    But, reading the above discussion, I see virtually no support for any government intervention here.

    The problem that often happens with Government intervention is the line it takes. Here in the UK we have a Government (whomever is in power) who love to intervene in just about every aspect of our lives. They are intervening in health....however some of their interventions are positively mind-boggling; such as doctors on the NHS being able to refer patients to Weight Watchers and local gyms with money off vouchers if they are on welfare benefits. Weight Watchers? Monster corporation chiefly concerned with the marketing of its diet frankenfoods?

    1. Regulate what are where the food industry can offer us. As many posters say we can’t help ourselves.
    2. Outlaw food advertising, especially for children.
    3. Tax, added sugar/fat, soft drinks, fast food, etc.
    4. Stop subsidizing corn, and instead subsidize vegetables and fruit.

    Over here in the UK we have very strict rules about advertising towards children and taxing sugar and fat in drinks gets raised in Parliament often....it wouldn't surprise me if that one went ahead as we're in economic straits and it's another revenue stream. We're also talking about a minimum price for alcohol as the other issue we have in the UK is heavy drinking; especially amongst young people.

    Farmies subsidies is a whole can of worms. Here in the EU they are done on land ownership rather than on land being activity farmed. The rights to subsidies can also be traded and attached to different land, resulting in speculators buying up cheap non productive land in places like Scotland, then buying the rights to EU subsidies to attach to that land, gaining themselves massive profits into the bargain. Meanwhile small tenant farmers struggle.
  • msleanlegs
    msleanlegs Posts: 188 Member
    Fat does not make people fat, excess carbs and a sedentary lifestyle are what make people fat. One day, perhaps 50 years from now, this will be common knowledge.

    I thought this for several years. I read the books by Taubes, Wolff, and Sisson. It made sense, but when I tried a low carb primal diet I didn't get any weight loss results and I'd repeatedly end up going off the diet after a few weeks because food choices didn't satisfy me. Now that I've ditched meat and dairy for a vegan diet (started it for ethical reasons), the weight is dropping and I don't feel deprived of anything. My calorie intake is a couple hundred calories higher than when I did low carb primal and my carb intake nears 300 grams most days. I'm so curious to get my cholesterol and blood sugar taken in April to make sure I'm not doing any damage.
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
    Has it occurred to anyone in this world that back in the 50s and 60s, most moms were stay at home moms who had the time to prepare REAL food for their families. Then, in the 80s and 90s women were increasingly joining the workforce. A lot of women don't get home until 5-7pm each night. Kids have sports, homework, CCD, etc etc etc and the quick, prepackaged convenience foods and fast foods have become a very attractive thing!

    Well, there were a lot of packaged convenience foods in the 50s and 60s, actually -- rice a roni, boxed cake mixes, instant mashed potatoes, canned everything...

    But even those weren't as processed as the crap we eat as convenience food today. And there was a lot less added sugar -- we hadn't perfected corn syrup extraction yet, so sugar wasn't essentially *free*

    In fact, one of the big factors is probably that food was, in constant dollars, a LOT more expensive back then. Working families spent something like 25% or more of their income on food -- a number that was down to 10 percent by 2005. We did this by industrializing food production both at the farm and in the food factories. Which means we can just plain afford to eat more.

    But cheaper food isn't necessarily better food. Yes, we can fatten a steer to slaughter weight in half the time it used to take - but it changes the composition of the meat, including the type and amount of fat. Yes, sugar is pretty much free -- but that means it's being put in everything, even things it was never in before.
  • juicyisme
    juicyisme Posts: 6 Member
    There seems to be a lot of "simple solutions" posted. For some, they may be simple. For others it's as difficult as lifting the Empire State building. I've read many of the posts. Simple as what you eat and how much you burn. You clearly have overlooked medical issues including chronic pain, metabolic disorders and physical challenges/disabilities. It may be easy for you to move around however for others it's not so "simple" Something as simple as "taking Prednisone" causes weight gain. . Being overweight with chronic pain issues makes it very difficult to move. These are only small examples of medical issues to take into consideration. No one knows others life circumstances yet people still perpetuate the stigma of being over weight. Even in our own communtiy.

    As a new member, I'm a little discouraged seeing self righteous posts, prejudicial comments and talking down to others. On the other hand, I appreciate the educational posts geared towards helping others. Posts that have some really good points and ideas that are supportive.

    We're all here for the same reason. We can finger point all day and get nowhere or provide helpful information to help each other.

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