This gallery explains why millions of Americans are obese…

We're obese because we eat too much and sit on our butts all day.

Personal responsibility for our health? Whaaaaat?!

Everyone quit your office jobs and go get a job on a farm. Sunshine, exercise, fresh air, personal responsibility. I bet the farmers won't care if we eat the occasional fresh fruit or veggie straight out of the ground, either.

So what's the answer then?

Overhaul our society and system. Cut work hours to 30, then 20 gradually, since both parents are working outside the home now. People will then have more time to cook and exercise.

Start subsidizing expensive healthy foods.

You really think people are going to use their extra time to cook and exercise? People are lazy.

Generalization.

Why is thinness considered beautiful in some societies and overweight or even obesity in others? Because in societies where the cheap food makes you fat, being thin is a sign of wealth because you can afford better food and the time and energy allotment to exercise. In societies where all food is scarce, being overweight or obese is a sign of wealth.

So say anthropologists. If you think they're wrong, take it up with them.

I would if I knew any.

The second part I can agree with - plenty of cultural basis for fat being synonymous with wealthy. The first, not so much. Being thin isn't a sign of wealth. Walk the streets - lots of rail-thin homeless people. You need some money to get fat regardless of what food you're buying.

Being fit, and really well groomed I could see. It would indicate that you have the time and inclination to take good care of yourself, and that your fitness isn't likely the result of manual labor.

right, get the government MORE involved in our lives...because they are already doing such a great job of ruining all the stuff they already control....

Ever read "The Jungle"? Government sucks. No regulations sucks far more.

People don't get fat because food gets bigger. Food gets bigger because people demand it.

Has anyone seen the new 1-lb Snickers bars? 2,070 calories! Sure, the wrappers say "Slice and Share", but b]you know the manufacturers are just making them bigger because "King size" isn't enough anymore.[/b]

I'm not sure I know that is why they are doing it. So what if you can buy a giant Snickers bar with (ZOMG) 2,070 calories? I think it's awesome, and I would buy one. What is different from that bar and buying 6 small bars?

I'm no marketing expert, but my guess is they're doing it so they stand out from the rest of the candy bars on the shelves. More visibility usually == more sales == more profit.

I think we are watching evolution going on right now. People who can no longer say 'no' to food, are not living as long and procreating less. Eventually we will whittle out all the cravers and over eaters and adapt to our opulent life styles.

*only partly tongue in cheek

From what I'm hearing from researchers lecturing, you aren't at all wrong.

But can any society survive the cost of this transition?

You guys aren't mentioning the "all you can eat" restaurants. My husband is from Italy and when I brought him home to Minnesota he was agast at the "all you can eat" places. He would spread his arms wide out from his sides and say--all you can eat!

right, get the government MORE involved in our lives...because they are already doing such a great job of ruining all the stuff they already control....

Ever read "The Jungle"? Government sucks. No regulations sucks far more.

ever read "the road to serfdom" - government involvement sucks more.

I haven't. I'll check it out.

But nothing will convince me that a return to pre-1940s working and living conditions for the average worker and purchaser is a viable option.

Maybe there is another way that doesn't involve government or corporations that are free to do as they please?

My mom was a single mom and for the first 12 years of my life, we were poor. My mom knew how to stretch a dollar at the grocery store and she cooked every day. Even when she started going to school during the day and working nights, she always cooked dinner. Fast food was a once a month treat.

You know when I became a fast food/junk food fiend? In middle school when my mom graduated nursing school and started making more money. We started eating out more because she could afford it then. We also had more things around the house like cookies and chips. When economics made it a choice between fresh food and snack foods, those types of food weren't an option often.

And that is why it always puzzles me when I hear reports that poor people rely on fast food. Unless they are buying solely from the dollar menu, how do they afford it? Having lived it, it doesn't make any sense to me.

I ate at McDonald's with my mom a few weeks ago. She had a Big Mac "value" meal and I had a Filet O' Fish, small fries, and ice water. The bill came to $13.00 and I felt ripped off. I could get three times as many meals out of that amount at the grocery store buying fresh food. Cheaper?

We're obese because we eat too much and sit on our butts all day.

Personal responsibility for our health? Whaaaaat?!

Everyone quit your office jobs and go get a job on a farm. Sunshine, exercise, fresh air, personal responsibility. I bet the farmers won't care if we eat the occasional fresh fruit or veggie straight out of the ground, either.

So what's the answer then?

Overhaul our society and system. Cut work hours to 30, then 20 gradually, since both parents are working outside the home now. People will then have more time to cook and exercise.

Start subsidizing expensive healthy foods.

Stinks of Big Government to me. :frown:

We're obese because we eat too much and sit on our butts all day.

Personal responsibility for our health? Whaaaaat?!

Everyone quit your office jobs and go get a job on a farm. Sunshine, exercise, fresh air, personal responsibility. I bet the farmers won't care if we eat the occasional fresh fruit or veggie straight out of the ground, either.

So what's the answer then?

Overhaul our society and system. Cut work hours to 30, then 20 gradually, since both parents are working outside the home now. People will then have more time to cook and exercise.

Start subsidizing expensive healthy foods.

You really think people are going to use their extra time to cook and exercise? People are lazy.

Generalization.

Why is thinness considered beautiful in some societies and overweight or even obesity in others? Because in societies where the cheap food makes you fat, being thin is a sign of wealth because you can afford better food and the time and energy allotment to exercise. In societies where all food is scarce, being overweight or obese is a sign of wealth.

So say anthropologists. If you think they're wrong, take it up with them.

I would if I knew any.

The second part I can agree with - plenty of cultural basis for fat being synonymous with wealthy. The first, not so much. Being thin isn't a sign of wealth. Walk the streets - lots of rail-thin homeless people. You need some money to get fat regardless of what food you're buying.

Being fit, and really well groomed I could see. It would indicate that you have the time and inclination to take good care of yourself, and that your fitness isn't likely the result of manual labor.

Good point about homeless people. Although I've seen portly homeless people, too. Doesn't mean they're well fed, just overfed, possibly fat and malnourished.

But if you're homeless you are suffering from a food scarcity the working poor are not experiencing. So you then fall into a situation more like our past than our present, and you might be skinny as a depression era sharecropper. Or fat and still as malnourished as one.

Ah, but we weren't talking about whether any of these people, wealthy or poor are properly nourished. Just whether thin or fat is a cultural signal of wealth. Like I said, plenty of cultural evidence that being fat is, or was (still is in some cultures). It's the thinness I question. Kind of hard to automatically view thin as wealthy with signs of thin people asking for help for impoverished groups, you know?

We're obese because we eat too much and sit on our butts all day.

Personal responsibility for our health? Whaaaaat?!

Everyone quit your office jobs and go get a job on a farm. Sunshine, exercise, fresh air, personal responsibility. I bet the farmers won't care if we eat the occasional fresh fruit or veggie straight out of the ground, either.

So what's the answer then?

Overhaul our society and system. Cut work hours to 30, then 20 gradually, since both parents are working outside the home now. People will then have more time to cook and exercise.

Start subsidizing expensive healthy foods.

You really think people are going to use their extra time to cook and exercise? People are lazy.

Generalization.

Why is thinness considered beautiful in some societies and overweight or even obesity in others? Because in societies where the cheap food makes you fat, being thin is a sign of wealth because you can afford better food and the time and energy allotment to exercise. In societies where all food is scarce, being overweight or obese is a sign of wealth.

So say anthropologists. If you think they're wrong, take it up with them.

I would if I knew any.

The second part I can agree with - plenty of cultural basis for fat being synonymous with wealthy. The first, not so much. Being thin isn't a sign of wealth. Walk the streets - lots of rail-thin homeless people. You need some money to get fat regardless of what food you're buying.

Being fit, and really well groomed I could see. It would indicate that you have the time and inclination to take good care of yourself, and that your fitness isn't likely the result of manual labor.

Good point about homeless people. Although I've seen portly homeless people, too. Doesn't mean they're well fed, just overfed, possibly fat and malnourished.

But if you're homeless you are suffering from a food scarcity the working poor are not experiencing. So you then fall into a situation more like our past than our present, and you might be skinny as a depression era sharecropper. Or fat and still as malnourished as one.

Ah, but we weren't talking about whether any of these people, wealthy or poor are properly nourished. Just whether thin or fat is a cultural signal of wealth. Like I said, plenty of cultural evidence that being fat is, or was (still is in some cultures). It's the thinness I question. Kind of hard to automatically view thin as wealthy with signs of thin people asking for help for impoverished groups, you know?

You're absolutely right on that. Being thin isn't necessarily a sign of health. But people perceive it as a sign of someone who not only does control their food choices and possibly physical activity, but who also CAN choose it.