[OT] Why are so many Americans "overweight"

[kenjib]

You shouldn't believe everything people tell you. Yes. Crime is very high is some of our larger cities. But it is very low in much of the country. The town I live in (53,000 people) had ZERO murders in 2000. It's violent crime rate is 1/5 that of the rest of the country. I've lived in cities with much higher crime rates and never experienced any crime there either. You make it sound like in most of our cities, people are in constant danger. This simply isn't the case.

This whole thread has grown overly political, IMO. You Euro's are buying into some misconceptions about the US that simply are not true. Most Americans are not fat. Most Americans are not busily consuming everything they can. Most Americans are not living out their lives in fear of violent crime...despite what your (and our) media is telling you.

I agree. The obesity rates in the UK are very close to the US. According to numbers I've found East Germany was higher than the US as of 1998 but I'm not sure now. I don't know why they listed East Germany seperately though. Maybe it's "selective statistics." Anyway, parts of Europe are pretty comprable to the US. Even the third world is starting the escalation in body weight. While the US is near the head of the pack, it is a global phenomenon.

http://www.earth-policy.org/Alerts/Alert11.htm

For the first time in history, a majority of adults in some societies are overweight. In the United States, 61 percent of all adults are overweight. In Russia, the figure is 54 percent; in the United Kingdom 51 percent; and in Germany 50 percent. For Europe as a whole, more than half of those between 35 and 65 years of age are overweight.

Yeah, yeah. Yuck it up non-Americans but your country is next. Thx to buy all of our wonderful exports. Unfortunately biological evolution is far too slow to keep step with the technological so our physiologies are out of synch with our lifestyles. It sucks to have a hunter-gatherer metabolism in a desk job world.

By the way, since people brought up the Austin Powers quotes I read an interesting essay about the fat suit being kind of like the new blackface of today. Real obese people aren't funny like skinny people dressed up as if they were obese. It's a pretty sad state of affairs.

 

[Aloïsius]

Their is a global epidemic of obesity, and the US were the first being hit. (don't wory pal, you are the vangard of humanity, and everything is made so that everybody will follow the same path)
The reasons are numerous :
* sedentary lifestyle : cars, elevators... It's often impossible to simply walk in the US (when she came in the US my aunt was arrested, because she was walking in a suburb...)
* junk food : too much sugar (water should be the standard drink, and soda an exception, not the reverse. I heard water fluoridator are part of *insert well known soda company name here* plot. Too much meat (hamburger twice per day...One should not eat meat more than once per day) Too much fat (it's cheaper to produce industrial food with a lot of fat rather than a lot of vgetable).
* Nibling : don't eat between meals
* chemicals : hormone are used to make bigger beef. When you eat regularly hormoned beef, you become bigger. But I think the biggest problem come from some pesticid/insecticid, which are very close from some female hormone. Since they are artificial, they are not degraded, they accumulate in the fat of various animals, and then in those who eat said animals. I know that in some US rivers, they are an anormal quantity of (male) aquatic animals with atrophied genitals due to pollution. So if some males have a big belly, breast like women, and a little ****, they can thank Monsanto, Novartis and Co. (Well, I hope I didn't confound company names, with all the merging in this sector, I may be confused)
* Stress : two or three jobs, more than 40 or 50 hours per week, lots of traffic jam, flexibility, more flexibility, "modern" (that means like in the 19th century, I think we will soon see whips used to augment individual productivity) management methods, aggressive mass media (look the TV : murders, rape, war, debilitating games, violence everywhere...). When people are stressed they often eat more.

So how to fight this epidemic ?
One answer : pleasure ! A meal is not like refueling a car. It must be a moment, shared with your friends or family, when you take the time to taste home-made dish (allways better than industrial food). Buy only high quality food, it's far more expensive, so you will eat less (since they will be less to eat). Search a cool job, avoid the great towns, try to live in (or near) natural area. Take a breath. Take out for a walk in a forest/mountain/beach. Throw your TV in the dump (hum... no. Sell it, and use the money to rent a wooden cottage for a week). Make love a lot. Learn to play music, discover oenology, write a book, play more RPG. If you don't get slimer, at least you will probably be happier.

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

i just did my BMI- and i don't think it is anywhere near accurate to gauge a person's health by just a mere simple mathematical equation (just as intelligence cannot be gauged by the SATs);

I am 6 ft 180 lbs (you may remember me saying otherwise- but remember- i was previously speaking of me in high school) and i consider myself pretty healthy- kinda mushy around the mid section- but nothing i would be ashamed of at the beach. I play BBall three times a week (for about 2-3 hours- full court) and I jog every now and then. I have a nephew that keeps me on my toes for the weekends.

But my BMI was 24.1- the high end of healthy. I don't know about you- but 6ft 180 pounds is pretty "average" to me. I am barely squeaking by healthy- just think how everyone else is feeling...? i did my roomie- and he is way obese- but by who's standards...?

There's nothing wrong with 24,1 BMI so the system isn't that flawed (it doesn't takes natural muscle and bones size into account though). My BMI is 22,4 - but even with 25 I'd still be healthy (if I gained it all in fat I pro0ably would be but that's next to impossible for most average persons). You aren't considered to be in the real danger zone before BMI 27 and Obese at 30...

-Zarrock

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

America (and Canada; not too sure about Australia) was incredibly rich after WW2. It was the only industrialized country left with any infrastructure.

I remember something from a prof. One third of Italy's GDP in the late forties was due to American-Italians sending money back home.

Except for Scandinavia . Part of our economic wealth might be attributed to the fact that we needed no rebuilding at all...

-Zarrock

 

[nick]

The whole BMI system is flawed. Would you consider athletes that put on pounds of muscle as being overweight? On one site that has a BMI Calculator, a 6' tall person, weighing 185 lbs is considered overweight, being just out of the "normal" category. Now we are being told how much we can weigh, in addition to what clothes we should buy, what soft drink we should consume, etc.

On the whole, I think it is poor eating habits (fast food and junk food), lack of time/money to buy/cook healthy food, and no real time in which to exercise. If I had more free time, I am pretty sure that I would exercise more, but when I have a day off, the last thing I want to do is exert myself. The most I'd do is walk to the store to get groceries. Usually, I just get more sleep, and find something to cook up in the microwave, and watch tv or a movie.

 

[Uller]

Are we still talking about this?

Why does it matter what someone else wieghs? If wieght is a concern of yours, eat right and exercise. Teach your kids to do the same. Americans are fat because we are free...it is that simple. Our economic system + our resources + our culture has lead to an abundance of food. Since people are free to choose what they eat and have the resources sucn that over-eating doesn't have much of an economic cost and humans are inherently flawed that leads many to make the poor decision to eat too much. So what? How does that affect you?

In America, obesity is a greater problem among our poor than hunger...in most of human history that would have been considered a dream!

BMI is a good measure for MOST people with an average build. My build is on the light side (I have a taller/thinner bone structure and less muscle-mass than the average 6' tall male), so my ideal weight range is shifted down a bit. You have to take that into account when using BMI. If you are a body builder or other kind of athelete that causes your body to be outside the norm, then BMI is simply not applicable...

 

[The Forsaken One]

Why does it matter what someone else wieghs?

Don't know don't care and that is not what this discussion is about.

fat because we are free...it is that simple.

LoL and what about Europe and Australia and the money made there, they have the same recourses and the same funds to achieve the same but they don't so that is just nonsense since the US aint the only country with that wealthstandard and the average socialstate and wealth in the lowercountries exceeds that in of the US due to way better social security and care.


BMI.. right... I'm 1.83m and weigh 79.5 Kg and my body fat % is 11% so just work out alot and I haven't got the build and tendancy to become fat. So I'm just lucky and I know

And to all the America sucks Australia roelz guys.. quit it and get yourself your own thread but most certainly not on these boards. This thread was about Obesity and later on also about crime rates but most vertainly not about whos country rules and whos dont and whos still maybe rule afterall. So contribute to the thread or leave it alone please.

Are we still talking about this?

APpearently

 

[Uller]

LoL and what about Europe and Australia and the money made there, they have the same recourses and the same funds to achieve the same but they don't so that is just nonsense since the US aint the only country with that wealthstandard and the average socialstate and wealth in the lowercountries exceeds that in of the US due to way better social security and care.

You didn't read my entire statement: economics + resources + CULTURE has lead people to make bad choices. But those are their choices to make and they get to take the consequences.

And to all the America sucks Australia roelz guys.. quit it and get yourself your own thread but most certainly not on these boards.

But yet you took a swipe at our social security can health care systems...begs a response. One you won't get on these boards except that comparing the US to Europe is just not useful. We have very different problems here than in Europe and if we applied the same solutions to those problems that Europe applies to its, our problems would probably get far far worse...

 

[apsuman]

I have not read the whole thread, but here is my "answer"

For thousands of years, the human condition was to eat when food was available. We developed a taste for fat, carbs, and variety. Now that food is readily available our hard wired tendancies are not doing us any good.

Now that would explain why people in GENERAL are fatter than historically true, but as for us Americans...

Americans are fat because we are rich. This is not exclusive to America, but I believe that there are a number of factoer that make us more "rich" than other industrialized nations.

First we grow a lot of food here. Japan does not, they import much of their food, hence it costs more there. More cost = less consumption.

Next, we have a powerful currency, in the off months we import produce from other places (Chile comes to mind) but our low (non-existenet?) tarriffs and strong currency make for continued lower cost of food. Less cost = more consumption. Here we differe from Canadians (I think) because our dollar is worth morewe can buy the apples and the twinkes for what it costs Canucks to buy just the apples.

Also, as I understand it, America has (relative to the rest of the industrialized world) a low tax rate. This means that more of what a person earns they get to keep. this surplus cash goes into surplus goods, i.e. twinkies.

I read that food costs less in America in both terms of actual dollars and as a percentage of income than any other industrialized nation.

As a marginal factor I will add restaurants. The cheapest part of a meal is the food. Labor, energy, and advertising, are all larger parts of the bill. The cheapest thing for a restaurant to change is food. They can double their cost of the food (by either larger portions or higher quality, more fat, etc.) and pass that cost on to the consumer with the largest mark up.


g!

 

[Fenes 2]

America (and Canada; not too sure about Australia) was incredibly rich after WW2. It was the only industrialized country left with any infrastructure.

I remember something from a prof. One third of Italy's GDP in the late forties was due to American-Italians sending money back home.

Both Sweden and Switzerland had not been touched by the war, and both were and are industrialized countries.