What's with the American obesity

[tingbudong]

@even_sven

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 is certainly the perspective that many in the urban planning profession take. There is considerable research linking the built environment to obesity and health in general. Single use zoning, automobile dominated and pedestrian hostile streetscapes, food deserts, the decline of the neighborhood school in favour of freeway super schools, parking oriented power centers, low densities..the list goes on.

The challenge is attempting to do anything about it. Assuming there is even political and public will (which is often lacking) suburban retrofitting is very difficult. Innovative, mixed-use transit oriented developments have had mixed results. Same for new urbanism. Both have been heavily criticized as being elitist and gentrifying and demand for conventional suburbs still remains strong (although some theorists would argue that suburbs are the next slums). While the success of constructing active transportation infrastructure varies significantly among cities it hasn’t caused any serious migration away from the car.

One item that seemed to be turning heads when I left planning school was the effect of parking rent on transportation choice. Basically, parking is too cheap. Way to cheap.

Still, my supervisor was of the camp that believed the effect of the built environment was probably a minor factor and that it all came down to calories. People just eat too many.

[AJBar]

@alphaboi867

My mother did (does?) all of this. I grew up being told to clean my plate no matter what, if something was making me sick it was all in my head, I should be gratefull for this food, etc. And she’d constantly be dieting, which would result in me being given larger portions, or get upset when I didn’t want seconds. Also she’s not a good cook, over the years she’s adopted her cooking style to suit my father who’s very much a meat & potatoes man. Everything was bland, overcooked, and any complaints would send her on a rant about how “we’re not rich” and it was on sale.

Her attempts to “cook healthy” were worse. She’d make healthy or “low-fat” versions, refuse to admit that anyone could tell the diffence between them and the real versions, and double the portion sizes because “it’s healthy”. :rolleyes: She still gets upset if I’m eating at her house and won’t eat dessert (which I seldom eat anyway). Another side effect of her unappetizing meals was that I was constantly snacking growing up. Once I got a partime job I’d work evening so I wouldn’t have to eat dinner at home, eat at or after work (fast food, Chinese, or something from the deli), then secretly throw out any plates of leftovers she’d made.

Ah, the “we don’t have money to be healthy so don’t blame me” argument.

The narrative of eating-healthy-is-expensive has made it difficult for lower and lower-middle class Americans to take control of their bodies. It’s easy to give up on learning how to cook balanced meals and on healthy habits when society offers you an excuse to be lazy.

Eating well is not expensive. One doesn’t have to shop at Whole Foods and PCC to be healthy. One just has to dedicate the time to learn how to cook and shop for groceries and to improve one’s palate. In fact, it costs less to cook a healthy meal than it would be to buy frozen dinners and McDonald’s.