Americans and obesity

Alright as long as we're asking the question and not jumping into the racial genralities

Theres a lot of factors why America is the fattest nation but like others have said they are only the first warning sign and Nobody seems to be picking up on it. Most every country is getting fatter and fatter.

Its all down to lifestyle changes. For example if you go most places in the United States you quickly realise your fairly screwed without a car. There are paths everywhere but the distance between locations is a lot greater too: because of the popularity of cars there is no incentive to build things in congregations anymore. And depending on the weather people are more inclined to use a treadmill over walk the dog. I went to the doctor over christmas and instead of ask my mom to get off work to lift me home she freaked when I walked all of 25 minutes to get back. Nobody walks. I spent 25 minutes walking down a road populated only by cars. Never once saw another pedestrian that wasn't 15 feet from the gas pump.

And oh god, the food. Its too cheap. If we were smart we'd tax food based on its fat content. As it is such foods tend to be ridiculously cheap. If i go down the road and around the corner I can eat at the chinese buffet for $9 ... and it aint too bad either. I can only imagine what people who were never trained on common sense and willpower would do with such things. For the same amount of food I ate that day in there I would have paid close to 50 euro here: totally worth it. Sesame Chicken is supreme. They get away with it through bulk purchase and preparation. Made to order food like here, obviously adds a fair bit of cost.
The thing is, if youre in the states you notice almost immediately that the healthy choices almost always out-cost the unhealthy choices. Being americans: we go for the cheap choice.

Then of course there are dozens of other factors. More and more, the things you used to go out to get and do are being brought to you so you can spend more time at home or at work. Nobody goes to the video store anymore: its all available on your sattelite dish - pay per view baby. Pizza? http://www.pizzahut.com you dont even have to pick up that 4 ounce phone anymore. Need something from best buy, wal mart, the local grocery store? They all deliver. They all have websites.

To be honest, I just dont see how Americans that are healthy and slim are staying healthy and slim.

The same thing will sneak in here though make no joke about it. It starts with Tesco deliveries and then The World. Next thing you know your local hospital keeps a fleet of super-heavy ambulances for those 'special needs'.

Every time my mother goes to visit her parents and sister in Kansas, she always comes back amazed at how they do nothing but sit, talk, and eat. And she says they have no fruits or vegetables - just fried foods and starches.
Some people just don't think about what they put into their bodies. They just eat whatever's easiest or cheapest. A lot of people just don't know when to stop. They go to buffets and eat and eat and eat, and I don't know how they can possibly fit so much into their stomachs.

Its so unbearably true. Even when im over there im a lazy ****. Sleep late, watch TV, do the interweb. I laugh at the poor dogs sitting in the corner hoping i will get off my ass and play with them or take them for a walk in this damned heat and humidity. I dont know what it is about the place. Probably has to do with the monster TV and the leather sofa.

Though in fairness I also dont eat anything when I'm over there. Typically I'll eat a snack item and one meal a day: it really gives you everything you need and more. Thats the only reason my family stays slim too - its coffee in the morning, **** all for lunch and a small dinner.

But not everyone gets that. More and more some people are coming around. If you look at my family theres probably about 20% of the family that is overweight; maybe 2% you would call obese. For the most part people manage to stay slender and some still manage to be built. Only 1 or 2 kids are overweight and most of it comes from the oldies.

Its a stupidity thing as much as everything else for those people who still think youre unhealthy if youre not eating 3 squares a day. If youre not educated on eating well you pass that onto your kids. I've used this example before: an obese woman in the all you can eat pizzeria giving out to her kids because they arent packing enough in - the kids obese too, and fair play to him he didnt want to eat anymore. Obesity should be regarded as child neglect... one guy my sister hangs out with just walks into people's houses and eats right out of their fridge: kid doesnt even have a belt, let alone clothes that fit, and - yeah its just disgusting.

It'll come here too though - all these ready made foods: none of its really that healthy for you. Take stock in what youre eating folks and think about walking before taking the car.

Overheal wrote: »

To be honest, I just dont see how Americans that are healthy and slim are staying healthy and slim.

By simply ingesting the calories they need.

I have no real problem with laziness and do not equate it with being fat. I know extremely lazy skinny blokes. It all comes down to energy in and energy out. If you want to sit around all day and do nothing, fine, then lower your food intake. If you used to use 10L of petrol a week driving to the job and shops and are now in a job closer to home you simply put less petrol in the car. If you used to walk to work and are now closer put less fuel/food in your system. If you continue to eat the same amount then you are a stupid idiot, just like a lad who would have petrol pouring out the side of his car going "eh, duh, I used to put 10L in a week".

Nobody walks

People are stupid snobs, functional exercise is frowned up by many arseholes. They will pay a gardener, a window cleaner, a maid, a delivery man, and then pay overpriced memberships to gyms for the privelege of burning calories, and then moan all fuc king day about how crap their gym is- idiots.

"Physical Education" is a utter farce. I know realise my PE teacher didnt have a clue about fitness, and was never taught anything about nutrition or physicality by him. My "education" was running around a field, disgraceful.

If the Good Lord intended for us to walk, he wouldn't have invented the internal combustion engine.

Schwarzenegger said something like "man is was not designed to be sedentary, he was meant to run 40km a day and hunt wooly mammoth".

Ignorance is the main cause of obesity IMO, many know exactly how much fuel and what quality of fuel to put in their car, but couldnt give a sh!te about figuring out how to fuel themselves.

It's a combination of people being lazy and food being cheap. It's cheap to prepare your own food but people are lazy to do so, and end up buying the cheap fast food.

As tempting as they are I don't frequent the buffets. But last year when I was in FL, we went to a Golden Coral. There was this one massive guy who instead of putting a small amount of food on the plate, finishing that and perhaps going up for a second, kept piling a huge amount of food on the plate, probably enough for 3 dinners. Sure enough when he finished, he was up again for more. It was one of the sickest things I've seen.

Was in Florida on holidays last year. In some Buffet place called "Ponta Rosas".

For 8 or 9 dollars, you go in, choose your meal (Steak & Chips/Burger & Chips etc.), they give you a plate and direct you to the buffet part saying your main meal will be served in X amount of time.

I seen a really fat family there, going up and loading their plates, getting ice-cream etc before they had their main meal.

They bring it on themselves.

Corn Syrup

I blame Desperate Dan and all of those people who make pies:p

Archeron wrote: »

Its well and good to blame the availability of cheap fatty foods, takeaways, car cultures and so on, which is obviously a big part of the problem in countries like the US and Ireland.

But the highest proportion of fat people in the world come from IMO more surprising places such as Nauru, Micronesia and Samoa.
I've never been to these countries, so I dont know, but do they have massive car cultures, highways everywhere, KFC on every corner, or do they simply just eat way too much?

This is a list of the worlds fattiest fatties, I'm surprised Ireland is so low down at no. 103

http://people.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1264808.php/Forbes_annual_Worlds_Fattest_People_list

I've no idea who that website above is by either so it could be all rubbish, I just read yesterday in an old National Geographic mag that those islands are suffering an epidemic of obesity, and mother google threw the above as the first valid link.,

with a name like Micronesia did you even bother to wiki that? The population is close to around 100,000 anyway. Dont know what they get up to but it is crazy to think about. Still not exactly weighing in around the same magnitude of the USA; population in excess of 300 million to date.

Also more alarmingly: 1.6 Billion People are Overweight.

Kernel32 wrote: »

I love the little stories people tell about all the junk food in America. They obviously don't get out very much when they are visiting.

I'm not saying that there aren't a lot of over weight Americans. I am saying the stories about lack of availability of good food is complete BS.

I would have been shocked if there was not a higher selection of healthy food in the US than here. You are absolutely right I for one did not "get out very much" in NY, I was there for a short time and was mainly shopping in the centre. In dublin I can go to any number of supermarkets and get stuff, but I live here and know where to go, but I did go to a supermarket and could not get a apple or normal cheese, any centra in town has them in dublin. Porbably could have found a place if I looked.

rubadub wrote: »

I would have been shocked if there was not a higher selection of healthy food in the US than here. You are absolutely right I for one did not "get out very much" in NY, I was there for a short time and was mainly shopping in the centre. In dublin I can go to any number of supermarkets and get stuff, but I live here and know where to go, but I did go to a supermarket and could not get a apple or normal cheese, any centra in town has them in dublin. Porbably could have found a place if I looked.

On the flip side we spent nearly a month back in Ireland last year. We shopped at Tesco's and SuperQuinn many times and couldn't get anywhere near the variety in fresh food we get here. I think overall the quality was pretty good but we missed the fact that over here all the local supermarkets have a large section that is purely natural products, like a supermarket within a supermarket. I was surprized it hasn't caught on in Ireland yet but in time it probably will. The success of the chain natural food stores like Whole Foods and Wild Oats in the states has forced the large main stream supermarkets to stock more and more natural products. I think Whole Foods is opening in England now too, it's probably only a matter of time when it comes to Dublin.

Moonbaby wrote: »

Not if you live in Shíthole City in Kentucky it isn't.
Everything seems to be based on High Corn Fructose Syrup.

Never been to ****hole City, but I used to live in Bumfart, Wisconsin. Despite all the large people, there is a fairly high demand for 'lite' food and low fat stuff. I live in a small town now that has a huge produce section and you can get healthy food if you avoid the prepackaged and processed stuff.

49% of australians are overweight.

to work off a can of full fat coke, you need to walk 3km.