[OT] Why are so many Americans "overweight"

[Warchild]

Re: Swooning with delight.....

I LOVE this topic. Number one, I love the fact that this has not degenerated into a flame war.

Totally agree. This thread has been great.

Everyone has been tossing around stats. I will not. For one simple reason. I can prove that sunspots, combined with gorrillas in the Congo jungle, is the number one reason for murders. I can prove anything you want with stats, just like so many news and scientific groups do. (That's a topic for another thread though)

Dead bang! Percentages are great for sports, taxes, and rpg's.
Trying to define or codify society or people with numbers or percenages is a waste of time. Pretty insulting, too. IMO.

So, I'll start with emotional.
Fat kids are tormented beyond belief. (So are skinny kids, different kids, or unpopular kids)

I'll take your word for it. I didn't get fat until i got older. But i did see a lot of guys hassling other kids who were fat......i never did.....

Media
Ally McBeal is seen as sexy.

ewwww.

RIGHT THERE! That's another problem. Now my wife could have picked up Hootie and snapped her over one knee with no problems. Hell, the woman curls over 100 lbs (over 25kg for our metric friends) and Hootie only wieghs over 100lbs because of the silicon jabbed into her.
Perceptions. Thanks to media, even though my wife is in excellent shape, is stronger than many men, and a combat vet, she's fat. She's overwieght. She needs to lose 50-100lbs.
BS
She's 30 and in better shape than most people. She can dance all night, work all day, and still have time for **ahem** with me

She maintains all that after having 3 kids! Your wife is my new hero, Warlord!
Dang.

Entertainment
Now, what will most kids do. It's bright and sunny outside. They play video games.
OK, let's look at why....

So true. Back in the day, the fun was all outside. Nowadays the fun (and safety in my neighborhood) is inside.

Now, people are petitioning American schools to get rid of dodge ball. Why? Because it damages childrens self esteem. Cowflop. Because someone might get hurt? So what, I could get run over by a runaway icecream truck driven by a bigfoot who is hopped up on crank.

Yeah, i heard about this. That made me laugh pretty hard. The funny part was that around here Dodge ball was the way for the little kids to get over on the big kids. Us big guys make great targets and will lose a lot of the times. So much for the little kid's self esteem! All computer classes and no dodge ball makes Johnny a fat kid!!

Guns
I know, it's all because of guns! We shoot each other over food! Or we kill our nieghbors, and eat them! See, we are all secret cannibals.
I love those statistics. Guns kill people. Really? Then mine must be defective. I've had a shotgun for 10 years, and guess what, it's never killed anyone on it's own. I must have gotten gypped.
People kill people. Plain and simple.
Please, the alrgest causulty producing single event on America soil was not performed with guns. It was performed with box-cutters, razor blades, scissors, and ultimately, 3 airplanes.
Now THAT caused people to eat more. Stress. Stress causes overeating.
Guns don't. Ever try to eat a gun? No matter how much I season it, it is still tough and tastes bad.
Crime (whether done with a gun, or a troll-doll) doesn't directly cause obesity. You don't get jacked for your loaf of bread and Kentucky Fried Chicken, you get jacked for your wallet.
Then you go home an eat 2 pizza's and a gallon of icecream.

This is mostly true. But there is some truth to the matter that having a gun means to don't have to be fit. I see some old buds on the street that wouldn't scare me or be able to deal with me these days (and i'm out of shape!!) unless they HAD a gun on them. I see some fat guys on the street talk a lot more $#%& that would get their their @sses handed to them if it wasn't common knowlege they were carrying. Thats all i was saying.

 

[Maraxle]

If you want to see crime, move to Sao Paulo Brazil. I lived there for six months. The neighborhood I lived in was a good one (Vila Nova Conceicao [sp?]), so they had armed guards at every building.

There are lightning kidnappings all the time there. I've seen assaults at restaurants in broad daylight. My roommates were robbed at a nightclub.

And don't get me started on the "victimless" crimes like prostitution, drugs, and music/software piracy.

 

[Warchild]

If you want to see crime, move to Sao Paulo Brazil. I lived there for six months. The neighborhood I lived in was a good one (Vila Nova Conceicao [sp?]), so they had armed guards at every building.

Nice!! We got them here too. Only they are called drug houses.

Kidnappings? You got me there, we don't have any of those. I saw it in Proof of Life, though....

 

[clockworkjoe]

Interesting discussion. A few points:

Asians commit a lot of crimes. Yes, you are safe in Tokyo at night. That doesn't mean they don't have a lot of thugs sulking in the shadows and whatnot or white collar crooks working in an office.

Walking is extremely hard to do in America. If you want to learn about this READ THIS BOOK: SUBURBAN NATION

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...9038420/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-0644011-7788050

An excellent read.

Also, there is more crime in America, because we have a large heterogenous popluation including a huge number of severely economically disadvantaged people. We also have more crime because of the war against drugs. Think of Prohibition, and the mafia and Al Capone. Now apply that to drugs and today.

Yeah.

 

[shadow]

OH! The great threads we get when Morrus is away. No pesky moderators to shut down this thread!

Seriously, I think that obesity has a lot to due with lack of exercise and over-consumption of fast food. With more and more Americans getting office jobs, physical labor is no longer part of many people's job. Add this to the fact that modern convieniences have eliminated a lot of physical labor, and you have a nation that doesn't due a lot of exercise. Also fast food, which is usually high in fat, adds to the problem too.

By the way, Forsaker One, why are so many Dutch people stoned all the time? Everytime I hear something about the Netherlands, it has something to due with marijuana. (Attempted disclaimer: Not trying to insult anyone just a question that pops up in my head eveytime I see footage of average Dutch and lifestyles.)

 

[Rashak Mani]

They have lots of drugs because they are liberal about it.... they are liberal about almost everything come to think of it !!

WHY are Dutch SO LIBERAL ?

( Yep... not having Moderators is great !! Keep em stereotypes coming !! )

 

[Derulbaskul]

Interesting discussion. A few points:

Asians commit a lot of crimes. Yes, you are safe in Tokyo at night. That doesn't mean they don't have a lot of thugs sulking in the shadows and whatnot or white collar crooks working in an office.
(snip)

Singapore is very much the same. You can safely walk the streets and yet the violent and serious crime rates are higher than in the neighbouring parts of Malaysia.

And white collar crime is just a way of life.

Cheers
NPP

 

[The Forsaken One]

We don't have hasj and marihuana here. It's all just weed. ANd yes it is smoked alot by youths but that stops when they reach the age of about 23 and finish their university and stuff. It's not in one hundred years as damaging as alcohol.

I rather see my friends stoned then drunk and puking all over the place.

And yes we are liberal about almost everything but then again the only major problem we got in Holland are the immigrants from turkey and some north african countries that don't fit in and have a culture clash.... In Holland in the youthdetention centres almost 60% are illigal and immigrant youths..... 60% of the criminals is produced by less then 1 million immigrants while there are 17 million natives..... People here are getting annoyed and have already have a "extreme liberal" or extreme party in the gourvernment who are already taking on the immigrant situation and stuff... The people were just crying for someone to do something about it because all the older major parties said they would but the last 8 years they did jack XXXX so.. new party was formed... they got elected and teh single largest party! And elections over... and their Head man and party leader got shot.... And since then the whole country has fastened its ideas it seems.

But it sadly is a fact that our liberality about everything gets abused by immigrants from certain places of the world... chinese and asians and other europeans are great and they work and they blend in and add to society.

Other economic refugees are just leeches who abuse social healthcare and social funds for the unemployed..... BUT I'm hyjacking my own thread =]

But I''m glad we are liberal about almost everything... it hasn't resulted in any problems so, low crime rates, people are happy, around 150.000 unemployed people on a population of 17 million (Worker population of around 6.5 million).

(And again yes youths here use alot of soft drugs like Weed/Grass but again it is less harmfull then alcohol which is highly overused by youths here, well not overused but they start to use it from a age of 15 which is even earlier then the legal age of 16 here.)

-----------------------

Nice!! We got them here too. Only they are called drug houses.

lol

Totally agree. This thread has been great.

Thank you!

Media - ally mcbeal is seen as sexy

*shrugg*

So true. Back in the day, the fun was all outside. Nowadays the fun (and safety in my neighborhood) is inside.

Sorry to heat that it seems true.... damn I'm glad I live in a very safe country and in a very safe area in that as well, some major cities have bad neighbourhoods but thats it.

Warlord Ralts

Just one thing, GREAT POST!!!!!! I love it and it has to many humerous things and good points to quote and go over! I read it all 2 times and it's 99% good! I like it! Thanks for the post it's really constructive and it rocks!

To return to the topic of overweight Americans and their obsession with soft drinks

My thanks

I can't help thinking that ease of access to murder has something to do with it, though. It doesn't seem to be quite as big a taboo in the US as in most other Western countries, either.

I missed that one as well...

Kamikaze Midget

Thanks for the good post! And everyone else who cared to shed a light on the *go-on* culture of the states. It's been helpfull thanks all for explaining that!

You made my day with that hotbed of crime quote. Not that I agree, but you sound so sure of yourself I just had to laugh. (Some interesting articles have been published lately comparing the crime rate of the US with the crime rate of Britain - you might hunt them up.)

I might have put that the wrong way, I was talking not about crime as a whole like mugging and some petty crime, but about the armed robberies, the rapes, the murders and you know. The heavy stuff. And it seems to have been confirmed throughout the thread by several others


And again Warlord Ralts, GREAT post!

 

[kreynolds]

Why are so many Americans "overweight"

Because we "eat" so many small countries for breakfast.

 

[BOZ]

here's a good one. i noticed while reading morrus's announcement about america and gencon in general, that he observed how meals in NY restuarants are so big. i'll concur with that. it's the same here in chicago, most restuarants serve meals that are heaped up onto a big plate. and i, being one that doesn't think food should go to waste, will eat it all unless i'm rather full. which probably partly accounts for why i, and many other americans, have a big round midsection.