What do you think of the obesity epidemic in the U.S.?

SanteMulberry wrote: »

We moved from Boston to Charlotte 3 yrs ago. The number of fast food places in this place is crazy!! Outside the apartments where we first stayed, these are the places I can list right away: Dominos, Dunkin Doughnuts, Starbucks, Bugerking, One Chinese buffet, Two Chinese takeaway places, Hungry Howes, Wings, Red robin, a Mexican place. Across the road there was Macdonalds, Applebee's, Ihop, Paneras, Arby's, Chiptoles, Chick Fil A, O'Charley's,. On the other side was Bojangles. Driving down the other way less than a mile was Jack in a box, Cookout, Sonics, which brings you right into another plaza full of restaurants like Fridays etc. There is a pandas another Chick Fil A, Macdonalds, Starbucks . Across this plaza there is a Quiznos, Chinese food, that place that sells pizza for five bucks and other places. The smell of fried food was nauseating and stagnant in the air.

We moved into our house to a suburb area where you'd expect some quiet and not a lot of fast food. Wrong! On my way to the grocery store less than two miles I pass a Sonics, Then outside the grocery store is a Bojangles, Wendy's, Pizza Hut. Across the street is Subway, Dominos, Chic Fil A, Macdonald. Oh, and a Chinese buffet and Mexican restaurants are next to the grocery store.

Now lets drive down to the Mall area by Target which is like 3 miles from the grocery store. You are right in the middle of a bunch of restaurants like Olive Garden, Red Robin, on the border etc. I can't name them all. Throw in Paneras, Wendy's , McDonald's, Chick Fil A and the food court in the mall.

When I take my daughter to the park, there's a Dominos, Subway right next to it. Then a few miles down the road there is a Taco bells, Chic Fil A, Macdonalds, KFC. Next town over which is 15 minutes drive, there is a blvd of every fast food joint you can think of. It's crazy.

The junk mail we get is coupons to fast food places. I had never seen this in Boston and some of these places are not up there. This city is supposed to be small but it surprises me. The other day I drove out to a town you'd expect to be rural but Lo and behold it was so busy with tons of restaurants and fast food. There is no shortage of places to eat no matter where you are. It's like they have a code to throw in these joints even in the suburbs. They even have restaurant week downtown. And every church usually has a barbecue or fish fry for the public.

Oh the amount of junk food places is crazy. I pass 2 edos, 2 subways, 2 mcdonalds, burger king, dq, mucho burrito, extreme pita, a&w, canadian pizza, boston pizza, 2 chinese food places, fat burger, pizza hut, all on the way to the grocery store. Those are all off just the top of my head lol. it's crazy!

Yep--it does seem that we have never before had such easy access to calories. Those of our ancestors who had to work very hard to get enough calories to avoid starvation would be agog at the plentiful bounty that is set before all of us today.

Wow...this is too deep what you've all said, and especially about our ancestors who had to work VERY hard to get enough cals--something I never considered and for me to think about for sure!

Yes, you don't have to go very far back into history to note the gnawing hunger that was a regular part of the life of the average person in urban areas (and in rural areas during times of crop failures), and that it was especially the lot of children. The writings of Charles ****ens presents a fairly bleak picture of 19th century England and the struggles of the average citizen to live a life of dignity. More than a talented writer, he was a social critic of his times and had thinly veiled disgust for the stinginess of many in the privileged classes. This comes through strongly in his classic work, "A Christmas Carol". His own life had been marked by dire poverty when his father was cast into debtor's prison and Charles was forced to go to work in a factory at the tender age of eleven to help support the family. The cruel and exhausting conditions there (he worked six ten-hour days per week) left an indelible mark on him and his writings.

It was a bit better in the U.S., largely because we did not yet have a private central bank run by the privileged elite (such as those who ruled and robbed Europe in those days). We also had the advantage of a tremendous food bounty and Americans saw this as God "shedding His grace" on this continent. What is interesting about that period is that the U.S. was on the ascendancy much the same as China is today. Cheap food exports from the U.S. to Europe drove European farmers from their land and sent many of them to settle here, in the great waves of immigration that characterized the tumultuous decades of the 19th century. Immigrants believed that the streets here were literally "paved with gold" as they escaped cruel oppression and poverty. Because we did not have a class system here, they knew that they could eat reasonably well IF they worked hard---which they were determined to do. They would be amazed to see our lives.