What do you think is the primary reason for obesity?

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Replies

  • JenMull44
    JenMull44 Posts: 226 Member
    Research shows that pushing stuff in your mouth results in accumulation of stuff around your gut and *kitten*.
    [/quote

    LOL....this is true !
  • NBabi91
    NBabi91 Posts: 270 Member
    My deep llove for burritos and my overeating patterns
  • bsix3
    bsix3 Posts: 291
    It is called "disease of affluence", and America has it bad!

    Meditate for 20 minutes, twice a day. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day, eat plenty of organic fruits and vegetables, spend more time in nature, less indoors, stop worrying about things you can't control.

    Ditch your TV...

    ^^^^^^ Ditto
  • kmshred
    kmshred Posts: 393 Member
    mine was the lack of knowledge on what food was really worth. not knowing what certain foods contributed to my body. so, putting whatever and however much in there not knowing the damage.
  • bberg0521
    bberg0521 Posts: 49 Member
    I thought it might be interesting to see what our site feels might be the root cause(s) to our country becoming 66% overweight or obese.

    Is it due to?

    1. Poor food choices
    2. Portion control
    3. Lack of exercise
    4. Lack of sleep
    5. Physical problems (thyroid, hormonal imbalances, diseases, chronic illnesses, genetics)
    6. Mental issues (lack of an equal quality of education)
    7. Emotional problems (stress, finances, job loss, divorcee or a bad relationship. etc.)
    8. Lack of self-control or will-power
    9. Lack of availability to get quality foods in some areas
    10. Sedentary lifestyles now common place in the work and home environments
    11. Fast food restaurants
    12. Regular restaurants who in many cases serve portion sizes twice what one should eat
    13. TV/Cell phones/Internet/Gaming
    14. Something else

    I think it is a little bit of all the above. I know that is my problem.
  • VelociMama
    VelociMama Posts: 3,119 Member
    I thought it might be interesting to see what our site feels might be the root cause(s) to our country becoming 66% overweight or obese.

    Is it due to?

    1. Poor food choices
    2. Portion control
    3. Lack of exercise
    4. Lack of sleep
    5. Physical problems (thyroid, hormonal imbalances, diseases, chronic illnesses, genetics)
    6. Mental issues (lack of an equal quality of education)
    7. Emotional problems (stress, finances, job loss, divorcee or a bad relationship. etc.)
    8. Lack of self-control or will-power
    9. Lack of availability to get quality foods in some areas
    10. Sedentary lifestyles now common place in the work and home environments
    11. Fast food restaurants
    12. Regular restaurants who in many cases serve portion sizes twice what one should eat
    13. TV/Cell phones/Internet/Gaming
    14. Something else

    Sadly, there is no primary reason for obesity in America. It's a complex and complicated problem that has significant factors that include all of the above. This is why demonizing one food group or trying to address only one of these things is not going to fix the problem. We need comprehensive and fundamental change to the way our society eats and lives to have any hope of reversing it.
  • Bob314159
    Bob314159 Posts: 1,178 Member
    All those reasons look good until I think back

    As a kid I was overweight when I was 12 till now, except for a couple of years when I was 16. and for a few months when I was 25. Over the years I went from being 30 pounds over to an extreme 150 over (I'm 90 over now).

    We had no fast food, we almost never ate in restaurants, we had no car (walked and used buses), I went to bed early, there were no cell phones or home computers, we had no TV. So I cant blame those. For me I think its because I can eat a lot without any sense of being full and probably have to count calories for the rest of my life. MFP seems to work for me.
  • reereejandro
    reereejandro Posts: 62 Member
    America.

    Do you ever look around in the gas station at the readily available things to eat and notice MAYBE a banana if anything. There are 1000s of varieties of things to eat on the go there and if you find one fruit basket, it's a shock.

    20-30 years ago people at real food. That's why if you look at your parents or grandparents wedding photo they look SKINNY to us now, but in all actuality, they would have been perfectly healthy.
  • tami101
    tami101 Posts: 617 Member
    I believe it's all of the above. A lot of it has to do with how we eat as a society now. When I was growing up, we never had soda unless it was a special occasion or going out to eat. We probably only went out to eat once a month at the most. Probably less than that. We also went outside to play and had P.E. in school. We definitely have to take responsibility for our own actions, but it is way to easy to make poor choices. I became obese because I ate really crappy food that is easy to get and cheap. I had no idea how bad some of it was ( I knew it was bad, just didn't know how bad).
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
    Please note that I understand that there are hormonal or medical reasons for obesity, my comments do not include this population as their solution is more complex and starts with getting answers for their medical issues.

    I think in many cases (not all) it has to do with societal complacency. As a society we’ve become pretty lazy and are not proactive about our lifestyles as far as activity levels and food thoughtfulness or accountable for ourselves and our decisions.

    Also, I think it has a lot to do with our society’s idea of more is more, or quantity over quality. We want bigger plates of food to “get more for our buck” when we can eat less and be more satiated with higher quality ingredients.

    We have a lack of will power or self control, we find drinking and eating as social activities as opposed to playing sports and being active, we take our food away from the table when people tend to eat more when distracted, we blame the manufacturers of our food for our health issues instead choosing to educate ourselves and take accountability for our food decisions, we are content with eating out of a bag or box, we are too lazy to put in the time and effort and instead gravitate toward the quick fixes that aren’t a sustainable fix. A change in our obesity rates requires a societal change with people wanting to be educated and deciding to be accountable about their bodies and their lifestyles.
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
    America.

    Do you ever look around in the gas station at the readily available things to eat and notice MAYBE a banana if anything. There are 1000s of varieties of things to eat on the go there and if you find one fruit basket, it's a shock.

    20-30 years ago people at real food. That's why if you look at your parents or grandparents wedding photo they look SKINNY to us now, but in all actuality, they would have been perfectly healthy.

    Yes, and their jobs were (in general) more strenuous. For example, I believe that I read once that with the invention of the automatic carriage on the typewriter the average secretary gained 5 - 10 pounds in the first year.
  • newyearsresolutionfailure
    newyearsresolutionfailure Posts: 14
    Our biology hasn't caught up with our environment. Our bodies are used to physical work and periodic famines and simpler, less calorie dense food.

    I don't think people are lazy, stupid, weak or emotionally fragile. Or any food is evil, deadly or addictive.

    This. Grandma and Grandpa didn't go to work and then go to the gym. They didn't count calories, or check the fat intake. Their jobs were workout enough. My grandfather worked construction, the other one farmed. My grandmothers cooked and cleaned without aids of dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines. They made real from scratch food from their gardens (no canned goods, the chicken came from outside in the yard and grandma killed and dressed it, sauces in jars, made their own preserves, bread, etc.). Soda was a luxury. The concept of fast food was a new concept, and eating out to them was saved for fancy occasions. No, they weren't necessarily eating healthy (fried chicken and everything had bacon grease in it), but they burned way more calories doing their daily chores than someone working customer service 60 to 80 hours a week, who have access to fast food and soda, who is trying to get home to take care of their kids, who probably ate some processed gunk at school.
  • PLUMSGRL
    PLUMSGRL Posts: 1,134 Member
    lack of responsibility in their own lives~
  • secrets_out
    secrets_out Posts: 684 Member
    I always blamed the spoon
  • Debbe2
    Debbe2 Posts: 2,071 Member
    Eating too much due to either portion size, lack of control, illness, ignorance about food and nutrition or a combination.
  • tinksmommy2006
    tinksmommy2006 Posts: 575
    I think processed foods are engineered (yes, engineered, as in a factory or lab...) to be addictive. High-fructose corn syrup, for example, is very addictive, and it's in a TON of processed/fast food. Same with MSG. These kind of foods are manufactured to leave the consumer wanting more...hence the profit.

    Another big factor would be how our culture treats food. Think about it...cake on birthdays (not just for you, for everyone, on everyone's day of birth), big feast at Thanksgiving, big feast at Christmas (or Hannukah, breaking of Ramadan fast, etc.), big feast at Easter (or Passover), getting drunk on high-calorie brews on Cinco De Mayo, St. Patrick's Day, and Halloween, Halloween candy, ice cream or chocolate when you are sad, chocolate on Valentine's Day, big dinner dates, potlucks, BBQ's, eating contests, binge eating, eating your feelings...

    Our culture sees food as a reward and an emotional, rather than physical and nutritional, experience. I think this emphasis on food being all sorts of things it truly is not--love, comfort, reminiscence, joy, etc.--that contributes to the problem. Remember, we are a very stressed out culture as well. And most of us do stress eat.

    you pulled the words right out of my head
  • crazy_indeed
    crazy_indeed Posts: 138 Member
    I got lazy and content.
  • ceannesjourney
    ceannesjourney Posts: 250
    I think the PRIMARY reason is all of the overly processed foods available that are "convenience" foods. Our bodies just don't process them properly and they leave us unsatisfied and wanting more nutrients. Eating more "real" and "clean" foods is the best thing we can do for ourselves to leave us with more energy and vitality and feeding our bodies properly.
  • ceannesjourney
    ceannesjourney Posts: 250
    I think processed foods are engineered (yes, engineered, as in a factory or lab...) to be addictive. High-fructose corn syrup, for example, is very addictive, and it's in a TON of processed/fast food. Same with MSG. These kind of foods are manufactured to leave the consumer wanting more...hence the profit.

    Another big factor would be how our culture treats food. Think about it...cake on birthdays (not just for you, for everyone, on everyone's day of birth), big feast at Thanksgiving, big feast at Christmas (or Hannukah, breaking of Ramadan fast, etc.), big feast at Easter (or Passover), getting drunk on high-calorie brews on Cinco De Mayo, St. Patrick's Day, and Halloween, Halloween candy, ice cream or chocolate when you are sad, chocolate on Valentine's Day, big dinner dates, potlucks, BBQ's, eating contests, binge eating, eating your feelings...

    Our culture sees food as a reward and an emotional, rather than physical and nutritional, experience. I think this emphasis on food being all sorts of things it truly is not--love, comfort, reminiscence, joy, etc.--that contributes to the problem. Remember, we are a very stressed out culture as well. And most of us do stress eat.

    Yep - This!
  • jimmeezwyf
    jimmeezwyf Posts: 140 Member
    The crap they are putting and processing our foods with. The hormones, antibiotics, and who knows what else they are putting into our meats. Being more sedentary is a factor, but in all reality people have been cooking with animal fats and eating high calorie foods forever. The difference today is that our bodies are not able to process these chemical additives and the high amounts of processed sugars going into everything! WE ARE ORGANIC CREATURES...YOU CAN'T WATER A PLANT WITH GASOLINE AND EXPECT IT TO LIVE! So why would we think our organic bodies could thrive when we are loading it down with chemicals?

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