Question - Why is Healthy so hard for Americans (the world i

The being active part is related to technology I think. We don't have to get up and do anything because we can do it all over the computer, or talk to friends on the phone. I don't know about the food part though. I guess companies make any kind of food so we buy it, and they make money, and they make really good tasting food.

There are so many documentaries and articles that it almost makes a trend to anylize the issue you were wondering about.

Second, the average person will always take the path of least resistance, unless other factors come in. Shall i spend over an hour cooking dinner i like, or nip to the drive thru for dinner i like? They tend to prefer the easier option.

So true...I always wondered why people rather line up behind me waiting for me to open one of the 10 doors in the mall but they won't go ahead open another one themselves. LOL

I`m in the UK but I would imagine it is the same in the USA...

Food tastes good..you don`t have to hunt for it..we go out to eat socially.

It is so readily available fast food/take away/tv dinners

We eat when sad/happy it is not about eating for hunger.

I would imagine none of the people on MFP have ever experienced genuine hunger.

So it is all about control IMHO

IMO it's because Americans have it way easier than the rest of the world. To be able to go around the corner and get any food you practically want for a cheap price makes it easy to gain weight. If you look at "days of yore", Kings and royalty showed part of their success by becoming gluttons of food. I don't know if subconsciously we've adapted that, but it's not just in American culture. In Pacific Islander culture it was the same. All the skinny people had to work, while the overweight and obese were deemed RICH. So maybe we identify with food on this level. Look around the world and the poorest nations have the skinniest people.

A real can of worms, this! As others have stated, it's a complicated issue with MANY factors being involved. However, it must be said: This IS NOT just a problem with Americans!

In some countries it is a sign of wealth to be overweight. So in that, it is cultural.

In the US, we don't walk anywhere!! I lived in the UK for awhile. I did a lot more walking because gas was so expensive! Public transportation was also much easier to use.

Technology plays another big part.

But let's face it... we are lazy. In all aspects... we are just plain LAZY.

IMHO, I think there are multiple issues. One of the issues is that unhealthy food is generally less expensive and faster to prepare...which factors in especially in a society where both parents have to work,and even then sometimes there is not enough money. It's also an issue of portion sizes being blown out of control...the typical restaurant serves 2-3 times the amount of food you should eat in one sitting, so that people will perceive they are getting a good value for their money.

Another reality is that fat, sugar, and salt make food taste good, and with the epidemic of depression and stress in our country a lot of people are self soothing with food. And yes, some people are just plain lazy. Others of us tried to start ourselves thin and just ended up screwing up our metabolism.

but our society created a few lazy generations and there will be more to follow

IMO it's because Americans have it way easier than the rest of the world.

Some decent thought out answers in here, as well as a lot of BS that society and the news feeds the world.

The facts are Freedom of Choice, Greed, and Society. Feel free to debate this, but before you do...recognize this...

We have the Choice to be greedy, or not at an individual level. In turn, our own views on Greed impact the wants and needs of Society. When Society chooses Greed, comes Propserity. Prosperity has allowed the conditioning of everyone to accept that laziness is OK. It's not just Americans, though we lead the world in overweight population due to the many years of being one of the leading societies. The biggest issue within this is that humankind has been conditioned for centuries...changing Society's outlook and to recondition....will take take longer than you or I to see.

For those that think it's technology, you're a fool. You CHOOSE to be active or inactive. You CHOOSE what you eat or dont eat. Begin the change with yourself...

Hope you don't take this the wrong way cause I totally agree with you but...

for some reason your post sounds so Marxist to me. LOL!

Portion size has alot to do with it. Restaurant portion size, I mean.

One thing I always "blame" is the design of most cities here: widely spread out and very distanced from one point to the other. Unless you live in downtown, there is really an absolute need for a car. Side walks are not very common in lots of cities except a few. I have been to New York and I didn't see many over weight people walking. LOL

Way to kick a hornet's nest

Sorry in advance for the novel!

Why is living healthy so hard for Americans today?

Because most of us don't have a lifestyle which allows for a lot of activity. We sit in a car to get from our homes to work and back because most of us live too far away from our jobs to ride a bike or walk, and even if we didn't live too far I don't know of a whole lot of people who have shower facilities at their offices.

Because we don't have someone whose sole job it is to make sure we get healthy food for each meal. We have to balance that job in addition to the one that pays the mortgage. Add onto that the fact that some (a lot of?) people also have children to raise. Three full time jobs = you have to cut corners somewhere.

Because of marketing (I have a marketing degree, so yes I'm bashing myself). "You need THIS" and "All the happy, satisfied people buy THAT" and "You need to have a home that looks like THIS." So we work ourselves to the bone doing mental labor - very few urban Americans have physically hard jobs - to be able to afford the "best" and it's never good enough so we overspend and overstress trying to reach for things that are always juuuuuuuuuust out of our reach. I'm not knocking capitalism, just the "YOU MUST SPEND TO BE HAPPY" mentality being shoved down our throats.

Shouldn't being active and eating good quality food be normal?

In an ideal world, suuuuuuuuuure.

However, this is my normal:
I spend at least 30 minutes in my car driving to/from my job where I sit for 8-9 hours each day typing and answering phone calls and dealing with deadlines. I leave work, fight traffic, get home to a house that always needs something cleaned/fixed, go back and forth with hubby about what to make for dinner, take the dog for a walk, take a shower, help with dinner, do the dishes, pick out clothes for the next day (if I'm feeling ambitious!), do a load of laundry, try to catch some sort of "downtime" because I'm mentally exhausted from my day so I watch a tv show, log my food/excercise since I left work, check personal email, try to have a phone convo w/ one of my parents or a friend or a real convo w/ the hubby, and then get in bed to do the whole thing the next day. And I don't even have kids!

It seems like this - or some similar variation - is "normal" for most Americans. I have to try very hard to work any sort of activity into my day. I've managed to make walking/running with my dog an almost daily thing, but it's getting dark earlier now and I don't feel comfortable going to night runs where I live. I've got a treadmill, but I feel like a rat in a cage on that thing even when I'm watching TV and walking/running. Also my dog is going to hate not being able to go on our walks

Why is it more appealing to overeat and be lazy?

I think that you are categorically insulting people, but I don't think that you mean to.

When you're ALWAYS going going going, it's really hard to make "healthy" decisions.

Which is the healthier choice here:
A - Sitting on the couch catching up with your significant other or child for 30 minutes.
B - Going out for a 30 minute run but making your family member feel ignored and unloved.
C - There is no C. Stop looking here - you have to pick A or B! Sometimes you don't have the option to take that person with you on your workout. Yes, that would be ideal, but not always possible.

Also, it's not necessarily the overeating that bites people in the butt, IMHO - it's the quality of food that they're consuming because they're frazzled and don't want to spend hours chopping and preparing food. They want a meal that comes out of the freezer and onto the table in 30 minutes or (hopefully!) less. I'm sure most people would eat healthier if they didn't have to spend $5 on a veggie that is going to go bad in 2 days. I know that I've gotten so ticked and frustrated at myself for going shopping on a Monday with a "Let's eat more veggies this week!" attitude and filling my buggy up with fresh (and expensive!) foods only to find by Wednesday half of the stuff is questionable at best.



I think that overall, Americans are just ignorant (ignorant =/= dumb, if that word offended you please go look it up) of basic nutrition and exercise principles.

We aren't taught how to eat healthy. We're given zero nutritional education except from our parents, but if our parents don't teach us, we're screwed. Yes, I think most people know that a salad is healthier than a box of Mickey D's chicken nuggets. But which is easier, faster, and less of a fight to get your kid to eat? We don't realize how much exercise is necessary to burn off those nuggets.

I do think that most of us are too lazy to educate ourselves, and that's the biggest problem. I know that was my issue before I found MFP…."I'm eating cereal and a sandwich for lunch, and pasta with a half a chicken breast for dinner - how am I gaining so much weight?!?" Because, genius - that sandwich you just ate was 800 cals, and you had the entire bag of a two-serving bag of Cheetos and a 20 oz coke with it. I don't know everything, but I am learning and I am getting better.

This is exactly the topic of the book, "The Pleasure Trap" by Douglas Lisle, Ph.D. It explains in great detail our biology and how we are programmed to seek out calorie and nutrient dense foods and why they give us pleasure. It is the artificially manufactured foods that are high in sugar and sodium and fat that short circuit our pleasure centers and keep us feeling unsatisfied and needing more. Unfortunately, these foods are the cheapest to produce and the most profitable for agribusiness, so our society is now living the consequences of this rapidly growing problem.

It takes a lot more effort to be healthy.

It doesn't take a lot more effort to be healthier.

It just depends on what you're after. Many people simply don't have a reason to get in shape, as nothing in their life requires it. People need a reason to lose weight. Saying "your health will let you down in x years" isnt much of an incentive for a lot of people, as its something in the future they never worry about. All of us on here i assume came here and started because we had a reason we wanted to do it, and im guessing not many of us had "To make sure im healthy in 40 years time" as a reason.

People will come to their own conclusions, but it seems they have to be immediate reasons to really stoke their fire.

There are obviously a lot of reasons- one that jumps out for me though is lifestyle change over time.
Both my grandparents and parents walked over a mile each way to school every day, rain, snow whatever. Now, it is very rare to see kids who live more than a few blocks away to have to walk to school. I know I never did. That was the norm back in the day.