Obviously food has a lot to do with it, but I think that you can’t overlook the impact our culture in general has on our waistlines. In particular, stress can cause weight gain through increased cortisol levels and general comfort eating. It seems to me like the pace and stressfulness of the american way of life has increased dramatically over the last 20 years.
Recently, my wife and I watched “Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat” on instant queue and we both found it to be a fair and thoughtful discussion on the topic. It covers everything from school lunches to physical activity, in a generally evenhanded and scientifically accurate way.
I tend to believe that if we understood the biology of obesity we’d have cures for it. Right now we do not, most treatments do not work long term and even surgery is only partly effective.
There is a wide diversity of bodyweight within the US and obesity rates among OECD nations. I don’t know if anyone truly understands why two people can have similar lifestyles but totally different bodyweights.
According to this chart showing the percentage of overweight adults aged 15 and over by country, yes. Of the top 20 fattest countries fast food does not seem to be the issue. Kuwait seems to be a tiny bit fatter than the U.S. for example. I know there are fast food joints in many of those countries but there is certainly another explanation.
In the 1960s 72% of kids walked or biked to school. Now it is only 14%.
Helicopter parenting has a lot to do with it. Some parents think they are helping their kids be safe by encouraging them to stay inside instead of playing soccer in the park or running around their neighborhood. Instead they are killing them with video games and TV.
I think this is a huge factor that’s too often overlooked. The vast majority of Americans do not live in places where it’s possible and/or pleasant to walk, or where walking from point A to point B is an unavoidable part of your day to day life. Decades ago we restructured our lives around the automobile, and while it may have had some benefits, one of the many downsides has been on our health.
The terrible long working hours don’t help much either, especially as more and more of us have sedentary jobs sitting in front of computers all day.
Only if we understood it sufficiently well AND had the means to produce a practical, low-effort “cure.” It’s entirely possible that we’ll develop a comprehensive understanding of obesity, only to find that the cure would require a lot of effort on the part of the afflicted.
Besides, frankly – and I know that this is a very touchy subject – I think we do understand obesity pretty darned well. It’s just that the cure does indeed require discipline, patience, self-education, planning, and a whole lot of effort. That’s not to say that there’s nothing left to study; indeed, as we learn more about the biology and psychology of obesity, we can hopefully develop ways to make fat loss easier and more efficient. The reality, however, is that we do have cures that work for the vast majority of people. These cures aren’t quick and easy fixes though, which frustrates a great many people.
Actually, IIRC, it’s a reverse correlation. The poorer one is in a Western country like America, the fatter one is likely to be, because the good food costs more. The cheap food is what makes you fat.
While off-topic, Kuwait is very much a fat country thanks in large part to McDonalds and KFC. The country is absolutely inundated with fast food joints. Hell, Burger King and Krispy Kream even deliver! Wealth and heat are certainly contributing factors as well, however.
I have lost about 15 kilos in the past six months based purely on eating microwave meals (for portion size control) and moving a bit more. Not a lot more, but a bit. I’ve had to buy pretty much a new wardrobe.
I once did the same. I had a can of soup for lunch (almost) every day and then a Lean Cuisine for dinner. That (and regularly hitting the gym) let me lose 20 pounds.
I stopped because I was worried about all the sodium I was eating. Are you tracking your blood pressure?
The majority of these countries are Pacific islands that have a heavy foreign influence. A lot of Pacific islands face the problem of their local diet being replaced by heavily preserved imported food, of which high-calorie high-fat products like canned meat play an important role. Basically, for various historical and geographic reasons they ended up with the worst diet ever.
Not every overweight country has to be overweight for the same reason.
I think it’s funny how resistant people are to finding any reason. If it’s not fast-food/sedentary lifestyle/HFCs/something then what the heck is it? America is not only fat in proportion to other countries, it is fat compared to itself just a few decades ago. We didn’t all have some sudden genetic shift. Something is going on, here.
Just go to any super Walmart or grocery store. There is one aisle dedicated to cookies and various flavored crackers. Another aisle for a jillion cereals, which even the healthy cereals have tons of carbs and calories.
And last but not least the ice cream and pastry aisle where you will see many land walrus’s perusing the hundreds of choices and barely hiding their anticipation.
Temptation and the ease of acquiring all of these goodies makes it hard to pass up. I’m trying not to blame just fat people for their lack of self control. I’m 30 lbs overweight myself and I constantly berate myself for my weakness in the ice cream section.
It’s not unusual for people to gulp down 500-1000 calories a day in soda. Also, the portion control is crazy. Go to a buffet and look at how much food people pile up on their plates. I don’t understand how they keep it down. I’d get sick to my stomach if I tried to do that. Then they go back for seconds. :eek:
So are you saying that you’re not from the US, but you also had this dysfunctional program installed? What area/culture are you from? I’ve never heard of it outside the US.
I’m betting a lot of it is how we categorize obesity. I remember reading years ago that we go by the BMI and Michael Jordan in his prime was “obese.” In the past I’ve visited websites on the net that calculate BMI and I was found to be obese, though I’m heavily muscled and most would say I have an athletic physique. I’m not saying that Americans don’t need to lose a few pounds overall, but I wonder if a lot of the “American’s are so fat” belief isn’t at least somewhat based on hype and irrelevant methods for calculating obesity.
Aha, queue the “I’m not fat, I’m just big boned,” parade. Next will come the “I’ve got a medical problem,” folks. Then the low-carbers will come and the conversation will die.
You can’t explain it away. Americans are larger than they have ever been. We are so large we’ve lost site of what normal people look like. Normal people don’t have any rolls. Normal people don’t have much of any jiggle. If you are not slim, you are probably fat.
My pet explanation is walking. I’m always agog at how aggressively people will look for the parking spots in the mall. People freak out to save a dozen feet. They get pissy when they have to walk less than a block to get to the entrence. And this goes for everything…My mom drives to places that are less than two blocks away. We are talking distances where it probably takes more time to buckle up and start the care than to just walk there to begin with. And we are teaching our kids, who no longer walk to school.
In other words, we’ve gone from having continuous low-levels of physical activity- which I believe helps keep the metabolism going- to basically having no physical activity.
That has been something I have been worried about, but as a diabetic I get routinely screened. In fact they’ve had me on Enalapril for several years, even though my blood pressure has been fine for ages, as a preventative measure. They say they see a lot of diabetics with kidney troubles due to slightly increased blood rpessure.