Obesity only here in the USA ?

RW81233

Until you are in your 60s then a little fatter is better...you are right though it's more than being fat, or weight it's about the nutrition in the food we get, your activity, your genes, and so on. Smoking to get thin, or getting your stomach stapled to get into the 12-19 percent range isn't going to make you healthier.

LikeAnOcean

RW81233 wrote:

Until you are in your 60s then a little fatter is better...you are right though it's more than being fat, or weight it's about the nutrition in the food we get, your activity, your genes, and so on. Smoking to get thin, or getting your stomach stapled to get into the 12-19 percent range isn't going to make you healthier.

Look at it this way, in just a few hundred years in our million year existence, humans wen from running around all day scavaging for nuts and berries, to sitting at a desk all day and having thousands of calories available on a notice..

It really is less about how much people eat and more about what they eat and what they are not doing physically anymore.

RW81233

LikeAnOcean wrote:

RW81233 wrote:

Until you are in your 60s then a little fatter is better...you are right though it's more than being fat, or weight it's about the nutrition in the food we get, your activity, your genes, and so on. Smoking to get thin, or getting your stomach stapled to get into the 12-19 percent range isn't going to make you healthier.

Look at it this way, in just a few hundred years in our million year existence, humans wen from running around all day scavaging for nuts and berries, to sitting at a desk all day and having thousands of calories available on a notice..

It really is less about how much people eat and more about what they eat and what they are not doing physically anymore.

absolutely, and i argue that neoliberal capitalism is behind all of this...the tech advances, the sedentary lifestyle, the desire to eat crappy food, ease of travel, lack of access to walking paths, and so on are making us unhealthy...body fat is just an easy marker to point to that doesn't get to the cultural and contextual reasons why we are dying at a faster rate than just a few years ago.

_Crazy_Mary_

neilybabes86 wrote:

this is why new york is looking to pass the soda tax

oh good thing! People are too stupid to take care of themselves so we need to tax the shit out of them to make them conform.

_

RW81233 wrote:

What happens then is a perfect self-perpetuating capitalist platform where we purchase food and soda that gets us fat, then purchase more shit (like weight watchers, gym memberships, stomache stapling, and so on) to try to get thin. And yes the Man is extremely fearful that this gets found out, which is why they buy off researchers to create findings that support corn syrup, and stupid shit like that which means that the common person is confused as to which way is up.

I totally agree with this.

A perfect example of this was on Jaime Oliver's show last week where a girl said her dad died because he was obese, when no peer reviewed study has found anything more than a 9 percent corrolation between obesity and mortality. Yet we think this is true, b/c the Man makes money off of our belief that it is.

I'm not sure where you're getting this from. Please explain.

_

_Crazy_Mary_ wrote:

neilybabes86 wrote:

this is why new york is looking to pass the soda tax

oh good thing! People are too stupid to take care of themselves so we need to tax the shit out of them to make them conform.

Or we could just tax the shit out of them to help cover the excess costs to the healthcare system that are associated with their high levels of soda consumption.

TravisTheSky

josevolution wrote:

Spent 10 days in in Italy and i did not see any obese people at all in fact the only one i would call obese was an American that was part of the tour i was on .. :oops:

A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to a radio host who had just returned from Italy. He described having lunch at a restaurant. Some local schoolchildren were on a field trip, and ate at the same place. He said that all of the kids had a huge meal of pasta, veg, meat, bread, and dessert. NOT ONE of the Italian children were fat.

The host explained that in Italy, all of the food is locally grown, organic, fresh, real, whole food. He said that fruits and vegetables grown in Europe are unimaginably delicious: Even the best American crops have only a small fraction of the taste.

I've been reading the same info for years. It always makes me wonder what food is meant to taste like in its purest, most natural form.

chime

We definitely have a problem here in the UK too but I think in the last few years more awareness has been raised and eating healthly is becoming more of an issue.

I went to school in the US for a year and one thing I did notice was that the food provided at the school I attended was awful. No choice really and consisted of pizza, hotdogs, corndogs, burgers etc. I only ate a school meal once then took my own food for the rest of the year. I had been used to a wide variety that yes included chips (fries) but also had vegetables, baked potatoes, salad bars, sandwiches ... although I think in the UK this had deteriorated in the years since I left school.

The other thing in the US for me was just portion sizes. They were often twice as large as I was used to.

Someone mentioned Jamie Oliver his campaign in this country to improve school meals I think is a great thing and it appears it's not only healthier bodies but healthier minds

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/201 ... ners-meals

"Today an audience of prestigious economists was told that the healthier school dinners introduced by the celebrity chef had not only significantly improved pupils' test results, but also cut the number of days they were off sick."

facepollution

TravisTheSky wrote:

A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to a radio host who had just returned from Italy. He described having lunch at a restaurant. Some local schoolchildren were on a field trip, and ate at the same place. He said that all of the kids had a huge meal of pasta, veg, meat, bread, and dessert. NOT ONE of the Italian children were fat.

The host explained that in Italy, all of the food is locally grown, organic, fresh, real, whole food. He said that fruits and vegetables grown in Europe are unimaginably delicious: Even the best American crops have only a small fraction of the taste.

I've been reading the same info for years. It always makes me wonder what food is meant to taste like in its purest, most natural form.

I'm not saying that organic whole foods aren't good for you, but eating those foods won't stop you getting fat if you over eat, regardless of how fresh or organic they are. Children can often get away with 'over-eating' because they are growing. It's the same for a body builder, if they want to grow bigger they must eat more calories than they burn off.

Bread, pasta and sugar in abundance will make you fat. The body doesn't like to have sugar (including starches like flour, rice etc) floating around, so it sends out insulin which is for all intents and purposes a fat storing hormone. As soon as your body starts processing carbs the body will cease buring body fat as fuel and starts storing the excess carbs as fat in the fat cells. Is it any wonder then given how we're told to eat a low fat high carb diet, that people find it difficult to lose weight? If you're consistently eating carbs throughout the day, it's quite possible that your insulin levels would NEVER be low enough to allow you to burn body fat as fuel - even if you are on a calorie deficit. And in the event that you do lose weight, you would most likely be breaking down muscle to use as fuel, since your body physically can not access its fat stores.

Thoughts_Arrive

josevolution wrote:

Spent 10 days in in Italy and i did not see any obese people at all in fact the only one i would call obese was an American that was part of the tour i was on .. :oops:

When I was in Croatia last year I never saw an overweight person, here in Australia we have many.

Thoughts_Arrive

It disgusts me, most morning whilst stuck in traffic going to work I see overweight school kids walking around with a packet of chips and a bottle of coke at 7.30am.
No wonder....

Hitch-Hiker

I think every country has it's fair share of fat people. Ireland is getting worse unfortunately, but America is definitely the worst. The few months I spent there showed me exactly why though. Food quality is absolutely terrible. Everything in the supermarkets was processed, pre-packaged and/or chemically treated. I don't think I had any truly fresh food in 4 months living in California. There was a shopping area close to where I lived and about 70% of the businesses were fast-food joints. I visited New York, Philadelphia and West Palm Beach during my time there and it was the same everywhere I went.
The country is run on fast food. And everyone drives everywhere too. Everything is so spread out so there really isn't a choice in the driving matter, but it definitely contributes to the problem too.
Junk food and cars rule the nation. That's why obesity is a problem.

dunkman

Gossard_Is_God wrote:

Scotland is now officially the most obese nation in Europe

if you deep fry that post i might read it.

dunkman

i did notice when i was in america that while the UK and other countries undoubtedly have obesity problems it was the level of obesity i saw from some americans.

I have genuinely never seen people that fat before.. in real life i mean... there was a lady at one of the Disney Parks and I can safely say that woman had more folds than an origami convention... she was just massive.

but worryingly it was kids that i saw that were just massive... I have just been on a week's break to a place called Center Parcs in England and the kids there were not fat at all... I'm kinda hoping it's just the odd one or two in the UK that are at the obesity level.. certainly in my daughters school there are only about 7-10 kids who are visibly fat, but otherwise they seem relatively healthy and fit.

josevolution

WTF = Way to Fat ........

know1

RW81233 wrote:

know1 wrote:

I just get a laugh whenever the lines "we live in a society that teaches us ______" are used as an excuse for anything. Contrary to what a lot of people seem to believe, people can think for themselves and have the freedom to make their own choices. If they decided to just blindly follow "society" (and what does that mean, anyway - society is different for each of us), then they are likely doomed to begin with.

wrong it isn't until 8 are we, on average, able to think for ourselves. If we get much of our non-nutritional information about food by 5, through commercials, etc. then we are already poisoned before we've had a chance.

I'm sorry you don't feel that you can think for yourself, but I believe I can.

dunkman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=2VqMnyM2lus

wrong, but funny... especially the woman at 1min 03...

RW81233

scb wrote:

RW81233 wrote:

What happens then is a perfect self-perpetuating capitalist platform where we purchase food and soda that gets us fat, then purchase more shit (like weight watchers, gym memberships, stomache stapling, and so on) to try to get thin. And yes the Man is extremely fearful that this gets found out, which is why they buy off researchers to create findings that support corn syrup, and stupid shit like that which means that the common person is confused as to which way is up.

I totally agree with this.

A perfect example of this was on Jaime Oliver's show last week where a girl said her dad died because he was obese, when no peer reviewed study has found anything more than a 9 percent corrolation between obesity and mortality. Yet we think this is true, b/c the Man makes money off of our belief that it is.

I'm not sure where you're getting this from. Please explain.

There's a handful of books out there on this topic by Paul Campos (2004), J. Eric Oliver (2006), Peter Gard and Jan Wright (2005), Glen Gaesser (2002) (I could give you the titles but it's easy enough to put them into Amazon), and specifically I get that from Deb Burgard's chapter in the "Fat Studies reader" (2009, p. 44). The chapter is about health at every size, meaning that weight and fat has 'something' to do with ill health, but it's not the killer we've been led to believe.

RW81233

know1 wrote:

RW81233 wrote:

know1 wrote:

I just get a laugh whenever the lines "we live in a society that teaches us ______" are used as an excuse for anything. Contrary to what a lot of people seem to believe, people can think for themselves and have the freedom to make their own choices. If they decided to just blindly follow "society" (and what does that mean, anyway - society is different for each of us), then they are likely doomed to begin with.

wrong it isn't until 8 are we, on average, able to think for ourselves. If we get much of our non-nutritional information about food by 5, through commercials, etc. then we are already poisoned before we've had a chance.

I'm sorry you don't feel that you can think for yourself, but I believe I can.

"the market as a concept rarely has anything to do with choice or freedom, since those are all determined for us in advance, whether we are talking about new model cars, toys, or television programs: we select among those, no doubt, but we an scarcely be said to have a say in actually choosing any of them. Thus the homology with freedom is at best a homology with parliamentary democracy of our representative type" (Jameson, 1991, p. 266).

and my favorite from him when it comes to obesity or over consumption in a "free market society"
The pleasures of consumption are little more than the ideological fantasy consequences available for ideological consumers who buy into the market theory, of which they are not themselves a part. Indeed, one of the great crises in the new conservative cultural revolution – and by the same token one its great internal contradictions – was displayed by these same ideologues when some nervousness began to appear over the success with which consumer America had overcome the Protestant ethic and was able to through its savings (and future income) to the winds in exercising its new culture as the full-time professional shopper. But obviously you can’t have it both ways; there is no such thing as a booming, functioning market whose customer personnel is staffed by Calvinists and hard-working traditionalists knowing the value of the dollar. (1991, p. 271).

_

RW81233 wrote:

scb wrote:

RW81233 wrote:

A perfect example of this was on Jaime Oliver's show last week where a girl said her dad died because he was obese, when no peer reviewed study has found anything more than a 9 percent corrolation between obesity and mortality. Yet we think this is true, b/c the Man makes money off of our belief that it is.

I'm not sure where you're getting this from. Please explain.

There's a handful of books out there on this topic by Paul Campos (2004), J. Eric Oliver (2006), Peter Gard and Jan Wright (2005), Glen Gaesser (2002) (I could give you the titles but it's easy enough to put them into Amazon), and specifically I get that from Deb Burgard's chapter in the "Fat Studies reader" (2009, p. 44). The chapter is about health at every size, meaning that weight and fat has 'something' to do with ill health, but it's not the killer we've been led to believe.

Thanks for the info. I disagree with the statement I underlined above. There are peer review journals that link obesity (or at least poor diet and physical inactivity, which we all know is the behavioral aspect of obesity) to mortality. The first one that comes to mind is the article, written by the CDC and published in 2004 by JAMA, "Actual causes of death in the United States, 2000," which concludes that poor diet and physical inactivity resulted in 15.2% of all deaths in the U.S. in 2000. This was 2nd only to tobacco use and was rising at a rate suggesting it would become the #1 cause of death before long.