Its the internet definately:)
I thought about my computer class and noticed, about 3 were thin, 5 were average weight, and 5 fat. Being fat is just not as limiting as it used to be.
*The Fat of the Land : Our Health Crisis and How Overweight Americans Can Help Themselves * by Michael Fumento, JoAnn E. Manson (Paperback - September 1998)
I have read this book and recommend it highly. It addresses the questions asked by the OP.
SexyWriter and goboy - It’s not my definition of a “slob”, it comes from Webster. And its not just limited to weight. It also applies to dress, hygene, grooming, etc. And it pretty much is about appearance.
I don’t think its off the topic. The OP asked why there are so many obese people in the US. My answer is
A) Because our diet sucks.
B) We don’t exercise.
If you are a 30 year old obese person, you didn’t get that way overnight. It’s unrealistic to expect that a couple of months at the gym or a crash diet will take the weight off. So unless you are blessed with good genetics, being physically fit requires a commitment that starts when you are young. Therefore, if you are a lazy person, you are more likely to end up out of shape, if not morbidly obese.
We are getting fatter because we are smoking less and using less illegal drugs. What, you think that all of the thin Europeans have a fitter regimen than Americans? Not necessarily; many of them smoke a lot more, which help suppress appetite and gives a false increase of metabolism. Heroin is also a good fat burner; noticed those “Heroin chic” ads permeating America during the early 1990’s? Not a single fat person in the bunch. Thin people sometimes take the easy way out too.
[completely, totally, amazingly off the point question]
Who is Rula Lenska?
The only other place I’ve ever read or heard of that name was during a long rambling speech on Designing Women that ended “I keep wondering ‘Who is Rula Lenska’? And what is she up to today?”
and since it came up, who is she?
Thanks
[/completely, totally, amazingly off the point question]
-amarinth
AlbertRose wrote:
Oh God, let’s not start another Atkins/Zone diet debate here…
The problem is that Americans are sold on the idea of instant gratification. Nobody wants to hear “If you want to get in shape, you need to exercise regularly and eat well for your entire life”, they want to know how to lose wweight now. I think that one reason why we are more obese is that the American advertising industry is so good at selling fast and easy diet plans, and that the food industry doesn’t really bother advertising realistic diet plans.
Right…that explains it…NOT. They are thin because they generally eat healthier, but more importantly, because they actually use their muscles for locomotion rather than jumping in their SUVs to drive around the corner! I have a friend in Denmark (originally from China) who also has the theory that the cellulite that women tend to get on their thighs is the result of all the hormones in the foods over here in North America. (She claims that she never had this problem in China and doesn’t again now that she is in Europe, but did when she was living here in North America.) I recommended to her that she write a diet book about it and make millions. Unfortunately, she is too good a scientist to do that…She wants to verify the hypothesis first. I told her to write the book first and worry whether about whether it is true or not later!
Another story from Europe…a guy I know was over in France recently and was chatting with a French woman. When he told her that he was an American, she said, “No…you can’t be! You have no…how you say?..‘pot belly’!” So, it seems we Americans have acquired a certain rep.
By the way, I remember noticing that there are absolutely no fat people in Japan when I was there. (Well, I suppose there are sumo wrestlers, but I never saw one walking down the street.) This seems to me to be a great justification to make a sushi-run to the local Japanese restaurant once a week! 
OK - we have gotten a number of responses to the OP. Let’s see if we can summarize them:
The three big factors seem to be, as alice_in_wonderland says, fast-food the diet industry, and the media’s obsession with thinness.
Personally - I think fast food gets a bad rap. Yes, it probably is not the best thing to be eating - but even the most die-hard junk-food, fast-food freaks among my friends aren’t eating there three times a day. Now - maybe the fast food snacks in between meals is a problem - how often do we see people in Micky D’s at 4pm to ‘tide them over’ before the 7pm dinner?
Diet industry: Many people picked on the diet industry as an evil culprit - for you conspiracy fans out there, we could make a great movie out of this: diet industry suckers millions of Americans into buying diet food products which actually make them fatter, meaning they buy even more diet food, etc.
Problem, of course, is that the FD&A requires scientific, verifiable proof that a product works as advertised. My guess is that people gain weight on these diet programs because they aren’t following the program. Whether or not the diet programs are realistic or now, for not, we will ignore.
Media: Sorry, I simply do not understand this arguement. Let’s see - the media, by glorifying thin people, is forcing people to eat more ??? I mean, that just doesn’t make sense. Also, I note that most men in the Real World do not have the looks and abs of most leading men in Hollywood movies, yet you almost never here men complain about the ‘pressure’ of having to live up to ‘Hollywood ideals’. I simply do not see how ‘unrealistic’ expectations leads to an obesity epidemic. I understand anorexia and other similiar diseases are fairly common in females, apparently due to such stress - but obesity is a much more widespread problem.
Several others pointed out America’s ‘lifestyle’ as a factor. Um - OK. I can sort of see that, to a point. I walk or ride a bike much more in Japan, for example, compared to when I lived in the US (where we took the car just to go a block away). I have lived both in Manhattan and South Dakota, and noticed the extremes in both places with regards to the obesity level. A friend of mine from Japan visited Disnyland in the States and swore that some fat convention had to be in town; he simply did not want to believe that the level of obesity around him was a fairly good representation of the US at large).
msmith537 basically says obesity in the US is a problem because a) diets suck and b)people don’t exercise. OK - a bit broad and probably overly general - but these work for me, in as much as it probably explains obesity in 80% of all cases. msmith537 in an earlier post says basically the same thing, in slightly more direct form: people are lazy.
OK, if we can go with this as a working hypothesis: why is obesity still a growing problem in the US? I mean, all the various reasons still boil down to these two main factors, and I can not believe that this is news to anybody. The press if filled with stuff telling us how fat Americans are. Our the schools not doing anything?
As for the ‘no fat people in Japan’ - well, there certainly are some. But the overall perception is that fat people simply are unhealthy and lack the self-respect to take care of their body. Is this good or bad? Don’t know. I know that fat people are probably happier in the US, where they are encouraged to feel good about themselves, regardless of their appearance. And I know that people in Japan live longer than any other country in the world.
webmastr wrote:
That is only true for drugs. If you can get your product classified as a dietary supplement, you can make any claims you want to about what it does to the person ingesting it, so long as the package comes with a warning label that says:
“These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”
Purveyors of herbal remedies are notorious for using this crutch. Since their products are classified as dietary supplements, they don’t have to test them before they sell them. They can say their product decreases appetite or increases sexual potency or makes you live twice as long as you would otherwise, with no evidence whatsoever to back up their claims, and get away with it. Worse, they are not required to test for or report side effects with their products, like real drugs do. Caveat emptor!
Its a lie, europeans aren’t thinner - had lots of holidays in france and there are thin / fat as well as here in the uk.
True, people who smoke are thinner.
Here in the Uk the usual thing for girls is to smoke lots to be thin,get married, stop smoking and get fat.
If Americans are fat its because they don’t care enough about it to do something !
Diet and exercise are the only solutions really, stress makes you hungry ( work place problems ? ), and cars do reduce walking time though.
Its all about priorities.
What is exactly stopping you yanks buying an exercise bike and using it while watching telly or whenever, its easier to reach than going to the gym, its always there for you.
Perhaps we shouldn’t say ‘are people getting fatter’, we should say ‘are people getting lazier ?’.
I blame a combination of tv, cars,stress and cheap fatty foods.
I also have a theory its because if you drive around in a car all day people can’t see if your fat therefore there is less public ‘shame’ than if you have to walk a little, group pressure there.
For an interesting view of what happens to the waistlines of foreigners transplanted to our shores, check out the Eating Right column in today’s Washington Post.
Amarinth wrote:
Rula Lenska is a British actress of Polish descent who first popped up on American TV in the 1970s doing ads for shampoo.
She is passed off as the epitome of European sophistication and glamor, but according to the IMDB,she has just acted in a string of forgettable B movies and televison roles in the UK.
I think there are several contributing factors to why more Americans (on a percentage basis) are obese, compared to people from other countries.
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Restaurant servings are HUGE in the U.S. As a Canadian, I’m always amazed whenever I go down to the states and pop into a restaurant. They plunk so much food down on a plate I’m stunned! It’s usually enough to feed me for 2 or 3 meals… and most people in the joint demolish the entire thing.
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Soft drinks/cola/pop are much more prevalent, as are free fill-ups. I’ve been places in the US where I couldn’t get a glass of water to save my life, but every home has several cans of Coke.
[hijack] I guess that’s why the CEO of Coca-Cola thinks it’s reasonable to start having Coke taps installed directly in homes [end hijack] -
Americans (especially in urban areas) tend to drive more than their counterparts in other countries. They can’t help it, because their cities are actively designed to thwart getting around town in any other way. (I mean, really, how good is public transportation in the majority of US cities? )
Webmster…
Media: Sorry, I simply do not understand this arguement. Let’s see - the media, by glorifying thin people, is forcing people to eat more ??? I mean, that just doesn’t make sense. Also, I note that most men in the Real World do not have the looks and abs of most leading men in Hollywood movies, yet you almost never here men complain about the ‘pressure’ of having to live up to ‘Hollywood ideals’. I simply do not see how ‘unrealistic’ expectations leads to an obesity epidemic. I understand anorexia and other similiar diseases are fairly common in females, apparently due to such stress - but obesity is a much more widespread problem.
Generally speaking, those presenting with bulima nervosa of the purging type (as described by the DSM-IV) are above average weight. (This, of course in not true for those presenting with anorexia-nervosa, restrictive type, since one of the diagnostic characteristics is that weight is less than 80% of ideal.)
Exposure to media influences is considered a risk factor for all eating disorders. The north-american glorification of thinness is certainly a culprit in the prevalence of all types of eating disorders, including overeating.
Why does the media make you fat? Exposure to “beauty magazines” lowers self esteem, which in turn puts people at risk for depression, which in turn puts people at risk for obesity.
This, of course does not account for ALL obesity, but it does account for some.
Again, if you would like cites, just ask. Most of this information comes from the Journal of Eating Disorders - I can get specific articles if you like, but there are pretty well established facts.
amarinth—just to add to Goboy’s Rula Lenksa info . . . She made a wonderful series of Alberto VO-5 commercials in the '70s. In one of them, she purred, “friends are visiting from Europe,” and that became a catch-phrase on “Mystery Science Theater 3000.”
Someday Dennis Miller and I will have an Obscure Pop-Culture Cross-Referencing duel.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled thread!
I think at least part of the reason Americans are getting fatter, even though we know what we’re doing, is the way children play these days. Video games and TV have cut down a lot on the hours kids spend just running around, and while a kid is sitting and watching/playing, it’s much easier to munch snacks–which, let’s face it, are often chips and sodas and so on. And an obese kid is going to have a much harder time getting to a healthy weight in adulthood.
The diet industry and the junk food industry are interdependent–it is in both of their interests to promote large portions, lots of calories, and the quick-fix diet. They both saturate our culture with images of thin people eating whatever they want with no price paid. Junk food is far more common now than it was 20 years ago, and it’s often easier to get than healthy food.
And hardly anybody gets nearly as much everyday exercise as was once normal for people to get just living their lives, so we have to go to the gym to get a normal amount of activity. We have to try to move around, set aside time for it, when it used to be part of the everyday routine.
About thin Europeans–I don’t think it’s the diet. I lived in Denmark for over a year, and virtually everyone I knew was like the family I lived with. We had large portions of meat at least once a day, every day, with potatoes and gravy–oh, and some veggies. I now eat maybe a quarter of the amount of meat I was served then. And the meat was often cooked in margarine! I knew people who wouldn’t eat pasta because it was too exotic. We didn’t drink any less soda than the average American, either–in fact, people thought I was odd for wanting to drink water. In Germany, we were invariably given truly gigantic portions of food. And people weren’t any thinner, really–sure, the teens were thin, but every guy I knew over the age of 19 had a beer belly, and many adults were quite pudgy (as, to be honest, am I.)
In summation: a healthy lifestyle now takes more conscious effort than it ever has before. And who has time for it, when we work so many hours and have so much to do?
I live in a city that has an abundance of fast food places at prices that make McDonald’s look expensive. I live in a city where we are bombarded with just as many Hollywood/fashion images and diet commercials as the rest of North America. I live in a city where hot dogs, huge smoked meat sandwiches, and fries smothered with cheese and gravy are practically staples of our diet. I live in a city where people get in their cars to drive a block and a half to the store. And yet this city, Montreal, and it’s province has the lowest incidence of obesity in Canada. (I assume this means the obesity rate is a lot lower than that of most American cities) Here is a cite if you need it http://www.ryerson.ca/~foodsec/foodsec/News/Globe.htm
After reading this thread and all the reasons given for the rise in obesity I wondered, how this could be? How can a city with all the same pitfalls of dieting ,fast food, and pressures as others be avoiding the problems of obesity? This is what I have observed about my city…
Montreal is a city that is considered very hip and stylish. You will hardly ever see anyone so much as step out of the house in sweats or without makeup. (Which I also think is responsible for the misconception that somehow Montreal women are more beautiful than other women…which simply isn’t true…they just always try to look their best) We, generally, are very looks and fashion conscious. This means we are less likely to let the pounds creep up on us…if we gain 5 pounds, we notice it and are horrified. Break out the SlimFast. We, also generally, are pretty judgemental of those who do not look put together or who have gained a little weight. Some of my friends once described a girl we know, who is tall and at the very most a size 12, as having “…an ass like an aircraft carrier with a crack.” It’s disgusting, I know, but she lost weight in a hurry after hearing a few comments like this. It seems that in some cases the pressure to be thin is keeping us thin.
Montrealers are dieting as much as others, maybe even more, but we’re doing it before we come anywhere close to medical obesity because we are so self-conscious about the way we look. This also makes weight loss a much easier goal because the rewards are close to immediate. Losing 5-10 pounds will only take a few weeks. Losing 50-100 will probably take more than a year. The more you have to lose the bigger commitment you are undertaking and the harder it will be to succeed. A few weeks is a piece of cake.
Montreal may be a “thin” city but it’s general attitudes toward personal appearance are definitely unhealthy. As is all the yo-yo dieting going on around here. So before you go and think that somehow thin means brighter, better, and healthier…think again.
As to the epidemic of obesity I think it becomes much easier to gain large amounts of weight when you live in a country or city where many people are already overweight. The more fat people there are the more people will become fatter…if that makes any sense.If you are the only chubby person in your office then you become self-conscious about it and start thinking of doing something about it before you become obese. If you an obese person with ten obese people in your office then it’s easy to not even think of yourself as having a weight problem…you don’t stand out from the crowd. What’s wrong with being “the fat guy” when half of the people around you are “the fat guy?” I think a lot of Americans and Canadians are not even aware that they are overweight because obesity is so prevalent. It’s easy to think to yourself “At least I’m not as big as and so-and-so…” and judge yourself according to what you see around you. You wouldn’t believe the amount of people on a diet message board I frequent who said, when asked what made them realize they needed to lose weight, “My doctor said I was morbidly obese and my heart was in trouble.” Many of these people didn’t even realize how big they had gotten because it’s become such a common sight these days.
Montreal sounds a lot like Japan - especially women, who would no more be seen outside without makeup than they would be seen having sex on the sidewalk. In fact, I think some of them could handle having sex on the sidewalk - if they had make up on.
You see this overseas and the crowds of Japanese tourists - especially the younger women will look like they just came out of a mall or something - designer hand bags and clothes - for the most part, they dress up way to much, which is one reason why they are often targeted by pickpockets and other crooks, who mistakenly believe they are loaded.
But that is probably best left for another thread.
“After reading this thread and all the reasons given for the
As to the epidemic of obesity I think it becomes much easier to gain large amounts of weight when you live in a country or city where many people are already overweight. The more fat people there are the more people will become fatter…”
**
[/QUOTE]
True, group ‘fitting in’.
I think less social interaction has led to less pressure as well, lots of people buy those large jeep things cos its the only car they can fit in - fatties.
As for large portions in a restaurant, you do not HAVE to eat it all you know !
Well - yes. But what about the ‘clean your plate’ mentality shoved down the throats of children at home and school? ‘Eat all your food, don’t you know there are children starving in China’? or whevever.
I never understood the logic of that, by the way - my not eating all the food on my plate, what the hell does that have to do with that poor kid in China? I got detention for like three days once for talking back to my teacher, when I told her the problem was with ‘the cooks putting too much food on my plate to begin with’.