After watching so many news reports of this obesity epidemic sweeping the U.S. and these claims that America has gotten heavier than ever… claiming this epidemic is killing more people than smoking…
…It got me to thinking (and I am NOT condoning smoking here) but could the fact that there are less smokers nowadays have anything to do with this obesity problem? Have people replaced one bad oral fixatioon with another?
Just a randon thought I can’t seem to get out of my head… what do you think? Are more americans fat now due to good anti-tobacco campaigns?
You might do better to look at diet and exercise research. Anecdotally, I can tell you that my high school c. 1976 had no soda, no candy, no fast food available on campus. There was no fast food within walking distance. In my community today, none of these are true of the high schools.
In one sense, I blame fast food for child obesity. Did you know that chicken nuggets at McD’s (well, the old ones - I don’t know about the newfangled ones) have more saturated fat than a Big Mac.
And, y’know, people aren’t getting home-cooked meals. (Don’t think I’m saying that Womens Place Is In the Kitchen - but I tihnk there should be a parent home and available for childrens’ younger years for real meals.) INstead, they’re getting pizza delievered, going to fast food, etc.
ALSO, I think people would be much slimmer if only we could break the idea of “you have to clean your plate!” I see the difference in my sister and I. My parents got divorced when I was 10, and my sister was 5. My dad always was the one saying, “clean off your plate!” so I was raised with that idea, and I’m having a hard time breaking it. My sister, on the other hand, can take two bits and stop eating.
She’s 5’10" and size 2 at 15, and I’m 5’8" and size 14 at 20 (even taking into account that I have a larger bone structure than her - I could NEVER be a size 2. I’m built like my mom who, when she was bones and skin in her late teens still wore a size 10).
My theories.
Oh! One more: People now have jobs (and school) where you have to sit for umpteen hours a day. “Sit still and pay attention!” Kids want to go outside and run around, but no. They have to sit in a classroom for 8 hours a day, and go home to do 3 hours of homework. No time for running around.
I think on-demand entertainment and the proliferation of TV channels has a lot to do with it. When I was a kid (and I’m only 32 now), there were four TV stations plus HBO (which only operated from about 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM). If you didn’t like what was on TV, you had to get up off of the couch and find something else to do.
Now kids are glued to the set day in and day out, or glued to their computers/video games.
Another factor is that couch-potato status is encouraged by a lot of parents who have (due to 24 cable news) become much more paranoid about letting their kids out of the house. Better (as they see it) to have a fat kid safe at home than a fit kid wandering unprotected through the neighborhood.