Why are we bigger than ever?
Replies
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snowflake954 wrote: »Portion sizes are huge in the States. Free refills on soft drinks, and "all you can eat" buffets are changes that I notice when I go back to the USA to visit.
+1
It's astounding how much food you can get in a meal in the US. We did a 6 week tour of the US in 2012 and put on enough weight that we were motivated to join a gym when we got back to Canada, for the month we were in Canada.
Here in Australia, a large soft drink is about the size of a US medium.
If restaurants and fast food places were to drop the size of their meals and drinks by 1/3, that would probably make a difference.0 -
Poison in the food supply. Fluoride, gmo, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, antibiotics, gluten, dyes, chemicals, drugs, and removal of iodine from salt. Doctors in bed with the drug companies. Plastics and bha destroying your thyroid. Monsanto roundup on your food. Government dietary guides that will make you fat sick and stupid. Vaccinations with murcury. Eat up, the government loves you!
Sorry for the rant. Research and consume real food and avoid all the junk above. Don't trust your doctor or the government and make your own conclusions. Good luck.
Is this a joke?
Sadly, I don't think it was...0 -
I'm starting to think we are doomed. Hangs head in shame
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Honestly, portion sizes. I'm an Australian currently on holiday in the US and I was absolutely shocked. Take McDonalds for example: an American medium fries and drink is the same size as an Australian LARGE fries and drink, and the American large fries and drink is probably twice the size.
Also, holy guacamole, could you guys go two seconds without adding sugar to stuff that doesn't need it? Especially your bread? Trying to find bread anything to eat here so far has been an experiment in feeling nauseous. And I felt really nauseous when I stepped into a candy aisle at Target. The size of the bags! I'd never seen anything like it.
I hear you!! We've had the same experiences!
I've travelled quite a bit, but where we really noticed it was on an 8-month round the world trip we did in 2012.
Meal sizes in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, several countries throughout Europe, and Canada were all about the same size as what you might find in Australia. Approximately normal sized, or maybe just a touch on the large size. Germany stands out as having somewhat larger meal sizes.
And then we travelled through the US and were stunned by the meal sizes and buffets and sizes of the packages of food in stores ... it just seemed like it's all about size.
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But then, this appears in the news here the other day ... to my horror!
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/this-is-what-the-supermarket-of-the-future-will-look-like/news-story/3421f891a548d8ce76bdb1456517dd4e?utm_content=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=EditorialSF&utm_source=News.com.au&utm_medium=Facebook0 -
ilovefastcarstoo wrote: »hapoy Friday everyone !
I was curious... Since we are supposedly more overweight than ever in the United States. I was wondering the key reasons why and what we can do to spread the word to help others? Thoughts?
Shakespeare nailed it centuries ago in his great farce The Merry Wives of Windsor...
Gluttony.
Like Sir John Falstaff in that play who suffered from gluttony, too many Americans have habitual greed or excess in eating.0 -
I can only speak for myself, but when I was a kid.. we weren't allowed to watch tv much during the day let a lone lap tops and video games. We spent all day outside exploring and playing, and came home when the street lights came on.
We played lots of sport.
Take away food was a very rare special treat, same as Fizzy drinks and sugary breakfast cereals. Convenience foods weren't popular.
And I agree with the mind blowingly large portion sizes AND inexpensive foods in the US. You guys would scoff at our high priced and smaller serves here in Aus.0 -
Inactive lifestyles and constantly available food in large portion sizes.
As a counterpoint to some of the posts about processed foods... I grew up in the 70's and frozen or canned convenience style food made up the majority of my diet until I was a teenager. Cereal or frozen waffles with margarine & pancake syrup for breakfast. Bologna & cheese or pb & j or grilled cheese on Wonder Bread or bagged sandwich rolls. Snacks of Hostess cupcakes or Chips Ahoy cookies. For dinner we would have hot dogs & canned beans, fishsticks & tater tots, pasta, boxed flavored rice, canned veggies, mac & cheese made with Kraft singles. Sometimes soda, chips, gummy bears, Kit Kats. You get the idea! No one in my family was overweight, or sickly. Why? We ate reasonable portions of these foods and spent lots of time in the backyard, at the park, walking to other people's backyards and parks, playing sports, etc.
My brother & I to this day have never been "technically" overweight, we just developed a little "middle-aged spread" in our 30's, which we have both now lost. I actually gained that weight eating far more whole, healthy foods. Why? I spent all day sitting at a desk or on the couch. And my parents weren't there to monitor my portion sizes, so I started over-eating for my activity level. I lost the weight by watching my portion sizes and increasing my activity level.
I honestly believe (and this is just my opinion) that if people were conscious of portion sizes, took responsibility for their food choices, and prioritized physical activity in their social and leisure time, this epidemic would not be this big a problem. I have never had a problem sticking to portion sizes of processed foods when I was paying attention and actively deciding to enjoy in moderation. It is always when I eat mindlessly or emotionally that I overeat, and that has applied to both processed and whole foods, at least that is my experience.0 -
The invention of the calorie and the proliferation of it as a concept that more and more people know. Just graph obesity since the first time the word calorie appeared. You can even see if you track calorie being mentioned more in literature, it rises, making obesity rise with it.
It is just like how the Native Americans couldn't see Christopher Columbus's boats because they didn't have the concept of sailing ships in their language.
None of you realize the more you post on this board, the more you're reinforcing that concept of calories to yourself. You're all doomed. Pity.0 -
Why are we bigger? Simple answer? An obesogenic environment.
Longer answer?
http://www.bodyforwife.com/what-is-the-solution-to-obesity/
"Long work hours spent in a chair, high stress levels, overuse of screen-based entertainment, lack of cooking skills, lack of desire to cook after a long day, the ability to hit a drive-through or dial for delivery at any time of day, emotional trauma, misinformation promoted by the weight loss industry, gigantic portions, government subsidies to fattening foods, food marketing run amok (much of which specifically targets children), ever tastier concoctions created by brain scientists working for food corporations that makes their treat foods ever more compelling, a society that places emphasis on eating for pleasure instead of fuelling your body … all these things just scratch the surface."
What do we do about it?- Subsidizing the right foods, and taxing the wrong ones
- Placing tighter restrictions on food labeling
- Restricting food advertising to children
- Stop corporate-government partnerships and rein in lobbying
- Revamp home economics in school, and make it mandatory
- Place tighter controls on the weight loss industry
- Stop promoting physical activity as the solution for weight loss
- Create better access to evidence-based weight management programs
- Create national advertising campaigns that promote healthier eating
- Make prejudice against people with obesity against the law
- Create greater access to bariatric surgery
- Continue research into weight loss pharmaceuticals
What do we do right now?
"A good first step is to realize that food corporations and most weight loss programs are lying to you. Any time something sounds too good to be true, it is. When it comes to weight loss, calories are all that matter"0 -
Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »I also think it's part of our culture and acceptable now. You see everyone else overweight, you think it's okay and normal. I know so many of my overweight friends don't think they are overweight because they are smaller than most people they see. Not to mention all the magazine and everything are now promoting plus size as healthy.
Not where I live.0 -
endlessfall16 wrote: »I disagree that portions are getting bigger. I've been eating fast foods for decades and the portions served in many places have actually shrunk.
Portions, including fast food portions, have objectively gotten larger.
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Also, holy guacamole, could you guys go two seconds without adding sugar to stuff that doesn't need it? Especially your bread? Trying to find bread anything to eat here so far has been an experiment in feeling nauseous.
My husband is from Wales and he commented that just about everything in the USA tastes sweeter than the equivalents in the UK. He's not thrilled with most restaurant food here, and that's one of the reasons. He thinks that some restaurants add sugar to sauces to hide the fact that the meats are not the very top quality so they wouldn't taste good on their own.
I wonder what restaurants he's gone to, as I don't find that to be the case with many restaurants. I get annoyed with people visiting NYC and deciding the closest Applebees (or similar) is the limit of US restaurants and food.0 -
Because there is too much food available compared to over 100 years ago, and we move less compared to over 100 years ago. If people don't learn the value of food energy, or how to say no sometimes, they will keep gaining.0
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Here in the UK, my 6 year old son has just been learning about WW2. I have had to explain ration books to him and how little food was available. There wernt any 'larger people' around then. Eat to live, don't live to eat!!!0
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http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/07/obesity-is-contagious/
Interesting premise that relates to the OP's question.
An excerpt:
"Now, researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego have found that obesity is hardly a private matter. Reporting in the July 26 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers found that obesity spreads through social ties. When an individual gains weight, it dramatically increases the chances that their friends, siblings, and spouses will likewise gain weight. The closer two people are in a social network, the stronger the effect. Interestingly, geographical distance between persons in a social network appears to have no effect."0 -
endlessfall16 wrote: »I disagree that portions are getting bigger. I've been eating fast foods for decades and the portions served in many places have actually shrunk.
But,
There are lots more options and life basically is becoming easier as years go by, contrary to the fact that older generations tend to believe that the next generation won't make it, eg they are all going to hell.
So portions are shrinking but are being outpaced by growth of choices. The comfort and sedentary lifestyle earned from advancement outpace the rate of required physicality. That's the reason.
I disagree with your disagreement. A small Coke in the US is as big as a large in Germany and I doubt it has been that way since the beginning. Also I think I've seen a direct comparison of Hamburger size back in the day and today and it was quite a difference.0 -
Consuming more calories than the body needs plain and simple.0
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Skip one meal a day, eliminate sugar and anything highly processed, count your calories and stay in motion
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C6D0LCK?keywords=the obesity code&qid=1458381479&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1-6 -
I feel like it's a combination of education standards reducing the amount of time spent on nutrition education and cooking skills, an increase in time spent sedentary, an increasing emphasis on more gourmet and high-calorie foods being an everyday occurrence instead of a "sometimes food" (eg. 500+ calorie Starbucks drinks), and a high abundance and convenience of food.
One of the things that shocked me is that not many schools are placing an emphasis on nutrition education. I went to a fairly competitive school district, and the only nutrition education and cooking skills class we received was in middle school (and even then it was a part of a 9-12 week long home-ec class, so not much time was spent on the material. The most advanced thing we did in three years of that class was making an omelet). I had to take a college nutrition class for nursing, and one of the things I really benefited from was doing a 3-day diet analysis project and finding ways I can modify my diet so that I am more able to meet my macronutrient and micronutrient needs. Part of me wants to see graduation standards change so that all students need to take a basic nutrition/cooking/home-ec class and pass a project where they analyze their dietary needs, create a three-day/weekly menu that meets their dietary needs relative to their budget, and then cook 4 of those meals (maybe a breakfast, a lunch, a dinner, and a snack).
I might be weird, but I think the USDA's "2000/2500 calorie general guideline" for calculating food label percentages might also skew people into believing their CO is much more than what it is. I'm a 5'6 young female who is at a healthy BMI, and I need to walk over 13,000 steps in order to have a CO of 2000 calories. If I was less active (my BMR is around 1350) or older, my CO would be significantly less, and I would be in a calorie surplus if I followed the USDA's 2000 calorie general guideline.0 -
I might be weird, but I think the USDA's "2000/2500 calorie general guideline" for calculating food label percentages might also skew people into believing their CO is much more than what it is. I'm a 5'6 young female who is at a healthy BMI, and I need to walk over 13,000 steps in order to have a CO of 2000 calories. If I was less active (my BMR is around 1350) or older, my CO would be significantly less, and I would be in a calorie surplus if I followed the USDA's 2000 calorie general guideline.
I, too, feel like this is part of the issue. I'm pretty large at 5'7'' and on a good active day my CO is barely 1950.0 -
MommyL2015 wrote: »Poison in the food supply. Fluoride, gmo, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, antibiotics, gluten, dyes, chemicals, drugs, and removal of iodine from salt. Doctors in bed with the drug companies. Plastics and bha destroying your thyroid. Monsanto roundup on your food. Government dietary guides that will make you fat sick and stupid. Vaccinations with murcury. Eat up, the government loves you!
Sorry for the rant. Research and consume real food and avoid all the junk above. Don't trust your doctor or the government and make your own conclusions. Good luck.
I spent some time on a conspiracy website. I had to quit because I felt my brain imploding. I suggest you get out before it's too late.
^ This. Just don't do it to yourself. I spent a whole year being paranoid and irrationally critical of everyone's motives because I kept obsessing over conspiracy theories. I don't think they're all bullcrap or anything like that, but the less I dwell on such things, the more my sanity remains intact.0 -
More disposable income
More mental health problems
Busier than our forefathers away from family0 -
Food has definitely gotten larger over the years. Yes, there are times when there is a slight reduction in size or quantity, but you have to compare with 5 or 10 years ago, not just last year.
As for other restaurants, the amount of food consumed is huge. Look at something like the Cheesecake Factory...how many people go an have a drink while waiting, then an appetizer, then a main (which is huge) and then a dessert. The amount of calories is staggering.
Anyway overall:
Portion Size is almost nonsensical in many instances.
Lack of Exercise
Too much time driving - 1-2 hour commutes (just silly)...the obsession with living in suburbia and driving into the city is just crazy...it always surprises me how many US cities and downtowns are ghost towns at the end of the business day.
Driving everywhere (a product of Suburban life)
I do find that we are not quite as bad here in Canada...but not far off from the US.
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I remember as a kid with 5 rambuncious brothers jumping around in the house and my mother yelling "go outside and play"! We played outside rain or shine or snow--always because we were too wild in the house. Now kids quietly play with video games--problem solved. People also eat out alot more than 30 years ago. Some peple rarely eat at home. With the portion sizes of today--you got it.0
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When I travelled in the US I was astonished at the portion sizes. I could never finish anything. Believe me I love my food but just the sheer size of burgers or steaks was just phenomenal, then the vast amount of fries you get, these buckets of cola which you can refill for free if you want a few litres more...
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Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Poison in the food supply. Fluoride, gmo, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, antibiotics, gluten, dyes, chemicals, drugs, and removal of iodine from salt. Doctors in bed with the drug companies. Plastics and bha destroying your thyroid. Monsanto roundup on your food. Government dietary guides that will make you fat sick and stupid. Vaccinations with murcury. Eat up, the government loves you!
Sorry for the rant. Research and consume real food and avoid all the junk above. Don't trust your doctor or the government and make your own conclusions. Good luck.
None of the above.
Eating too much and not moving enough. That's the reason right there.
Quoting this because out of all the posts here, this is the one that is the most accurate. The problem is excess everything.
Sure, we can say that things like internet, television, video games, etc. are the reasons but they really aren't. To me, that goes along the same lines as blaming video games and heavy metal music for school shootings. Technology may have an influence on the behaviors of an individual, but it all comes down to self-control. I play video games all the time, it's one of my favorite hobbies. I'm not overweight though; I'm 113 pounds. I'm not overweight because I have proper time-management skills and I make sure I balance leisure and physical activity. If people balance all aspects of their lives, things become easier. I used to be that person lying in bed the second I got home from work until the morning. I used to be that person suffering from depression, unable to focus or do much of anything aside from sleeping and eating. I changed because I became tired of being that person. When I changed my outlook and did better for myself, I felt better. You'd be amazed what structure in your life can do for you. The person I was and the person I am now are completely different people.
When I wake up in the morning, I play a video game while I drink a glass of water, then two cups of coffee. Then I exercise and get ready for work. I'm at work all day moving around and then I'll either walk the five miles home from work or take the train home depending on the day. When I get home, I'll straighten up, eat dinner, do whatever else needs to get done, then I'll play games again or maybe watch something for an hour or two, then sleep. I don't eliminate anything from my diet. I eat a BBQ chicken pizza once a week. Earlier this week, I had half a pizza and two donuts and it did no damage whatsoever. It's not sugar, it's not GMOs, it's not gluten; it's people eating way too much and not moving around enough to compensate. Period.
ETA: I also agree with @lemurcat12 about the US portion sizing. I'm not sure about where these people are eating, but buckets of soda are not everywhere in the US. You're thinking about 7-Eleven and chain restaurants. That would be like me taking a trip to France, finding the nearest McDonald's and saying the food in France isn't as good as I thought. I'm not a fan of most fast food in general, but if I do go out to eat and I get something that is a big portion size, I eat until I'm satisfied and take the rest home. That's what you do when you have a healthy appetite.0 -
Why are we bigger? Simple answer? An obesogenic environment.
Longer answer?
http://www.bodyforwife.com/what-is-the-solution-to-obesity/
"Long work hours spent in a chair, high stress levels, overuse of screen-based entertainment, lack of cooking skills, lack of desire to cook after a long day, the ability to hit a drive-through or dial for delivery at any time of day, emotional trauma, misinformation promoted by the weight loss industry, gigantic portions, government subsidies to fattening foods, food marketing run amok (much of which specifically targets children), ever tastier concoctions created by brain scientists working for food corporations that makes their treat foods ever more compelling, a society that places emphasis on eating for pleasure instead of fuelling your body … all these things just scratch the surface."
What do we do about it?- Subsidizing the right foods, and taxing the wrong ones
- Placing tighter restrictions on food labeling
- Restricting food advertising to children
- Stop corporate-government partnerships and rein in lobbying
- Revamp home economics in school, and make it mandatory
- Place tighter controls on the weight loss industry
- Stop promoting physical activity as the solution for weight loss
- Create better access to evidence-based weight management programs
- Create national advertising campaigns that promote healthier eating
- Make prejudice against people with obesity against the law
- Create greater access to bariatric surgery
- Continue research into weight loss pharmaceuticals
What do we do right now?
"A good first step is to realize that food corporations and most weight loss programs are lying to you. Any time something sounds too good to be true, it is. When it comes to weight loss, calories are all that matter"
Sorry, big fail on the "what do we do now". All of the "solutions" blame/put the responsibility on others. How about the individual eats less and moves more at the top of the list in red, bolded?0 -
@kimny72 that's a good point; I was born in 1976 and ate a ton of processed food growing up. My mom would go on random health kicks but we ate a LOT of frozen convenience foods. DH didn't eat those as much but his family was bigger on cooking from scratch.
@Packerjohn great point.
Also a great point about the US RDA being based on 2000+ calories. I'm 5'7" which is something like 75th percentile for a woman in the US, and in my 30's (for a couple more months at least
), and my TDEE is probably around 1700-1800. 0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »endlessfall16 wrote: »I disagree that portions are getting bigger. I've been eating fast foods for decades and the portions served in many places have actually shrunk.
Portions, including fast food portions, have objectively gotten larger.
(I don't know why this article was written way in the future.)
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=4798717&page=1
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2013/04/15/are-portion-sizes-shrinking
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/homestyle/04/19/shrinking.your.food/
The "common folks'" feedbacks
http://www.yelp.com/topic/chicago-whats-with-all-the-shrinking-food-portions
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