american obesity issue

[SevenStar]

I saw something on the news which stated that the dutch are now the tallest people in the world. on average, the dutch are now 1 3/4 inches taller than americans. this was blamed on diet and lifestyle.

we are making healthy options more accessible everywhere from fast food joints to wal mart - I was in wal mart tonight and that they sell weight vests! I bought one. they also had all sorts of free weights and some cheap boxing equipment.

still, with the face of america changing, obesity continues to rise. i guess I'm just ranting, but it seems like there has to be a way to fix this problem...

[neilhytholt]

It's all the illegal aliens. There's about 20 million of them and due to poor nutrition they are on average about 6 inches shorter than the general population.

No, seriously, who the heck cares?

Besides everybody knows that eating tons of KFC hormone treated chicken makes people really tall -- just look at all the basketball players.

[Mr Punch]

It's all relative.

I'm not American, but let's take four issues:

1) Fast food.

Not just Mac and whatever but all of it. When I was a kid my parents would 'treat' us to Mac every now and then. By every now and then I mean, probably about every four-five months. Even the so-called healthy options have a lot of sugar and overprocessed ingredients. And how many times does the average American eat these products?

2) Portion size.

The idea that bigger is better. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the portion size in Canada, and all my Canadian friends said the same thing, 'You should see the ones in the States!'. Of course you can take the remains home... but who does? And if they do, let's be honest, who then demolishes it straight away or just a little later the same evening.

3) Sh!tty drinks.

Even among the supposedly healthy people on this board the number of us who still regularly drink coke, other colas and sodas is shocking. Again, my parents would let us have these products once every three months or so. It was unsweetened juice, water or moderate amounts of tea/coffee. The sodas are all horrifyingly sweet, and loaded with phosphoric acid.

4) Snacks.

Again, back in the day, snacks meant dried fruit, or if we were lucky, rice crackers. Nowadays, all the kids in my elementary school are taking crisps (chips), cookies, chocolate, candy (and this is Japan, where also obesity is rising and these brands are incidentally, all American!) every day!

I know some smart arse is going to say my parents were hippies, but not at all: in those days it wasn't so unusual... and even if they weren't cool, I'd rather be uncool and with not one filling/cap/crown in my teeth (they're all perfect and white at 35) and athletic, than cool and a ****ing fat git.

Just a couple of obvious ideas.

Practically it all comes down to putting contraceptives in the tap water (or the Coke! ) and people having to apply to have children!

[SevenStar]

yeah, I know. I DO live here, so I know what the problem is. sucks though, as this problem is very much preventable.

[Mr Punch]

Yeah, I know, you were just ranting...

but I wrote the last line only half-jokingly!

You were wondering about solutions and I think it all comes down to education.

[BruceSteveRoy]

one thing that is also so bad for metabolism are processed foods. they are extremely popular in american households and are becoming more commonplace everyelse int eh world. when i was in china for 2 months i ate like a pig but i dropped 10 lbs. i came back to america and gained it back in like 2 months. i was told it was bc they use less processed stuff over there. also americans are very sedentary (sp). and even the healthy options at the aforementioned places are terrible for you. they are just less terrible than the normal sh!t that gets served. i have worked in enough restaurants to know that there is no healthy option on most menu. just healthier. a lot of americans eat out at restaurants too much and get food on the go and it wrecks them.

[neilhytholt]

The tallness issue, though, I don't think is the same as the obesity issue.

Because I've worked with a lot of people from foreign countries like China and India where the populations there are traditionally short, and some of them from India have been over 6 feet tall which is a rarity in those countries.

There was a common theme among the tall people which was their parents were relatively well off, and they ate a lot of protein. In fact, the tallest Indian I ever met was 6'3", and whenever we'd go to lunch he was literally saying, "Protein, protein, protein." He almost only ate meat.

[SevenStar]

The tallness issue, though, I don't think is the same as the obesity issue.

Because I've worked with a lot of people from foreign countries like China and India where the populations there are traditionally short, and some of them from India have been over 6 feet tall which is a rarity in those countries.

There was a common theme among the tall people which was their parents were relatively well off, and they ate a lot of protein. In fact, the tallest Indian I ever met was 6'3", and whenever we'd go to lunch he was literally saying, "Protein, protein, protein." He almost only ate meat.

they didn't point the finger at obesity, they merely said it was diet, but talked about obesity in the same segment.

[neilhytholt]

they didn't point the finger at obesity, they merely said it was diet, but talked about obesity in the same segment.

I worked with a Danish French guy who brought his wife over (they were from France but of pure Danish descent) one time, and they were both tall. She was 6' and he was 6'3". Both were skinny as a rail.

Supposedly the Danes eat a lot of meat and dairy.

If you look at cultures like Japan and China, people there traditionally didn't have a lot of meat or dairy in their diet. As they get more meat and dairy in their diet the younger people tend to be a lot taller than their elders.

The obesity thing, IMHO, is people are stressed and eat high calorie crap food. All the super-fat people (over 300 lb) I've ever met were like career eaters. They ate and ate and ate, especially at all you can eat buffets.

[zhangxihuan]

i think the main reason for obesity in the USA is our lifestyle and diet... people dont have time to cook food (well a lot of people who are too busy or too lazy to do so) so they get processed junk.....my former sifu did this all the time...the results are obvious.. The funny part is a lot of people "justify" their fast food by saying its a certain type of "low calorie" product from "such and such" a place, but sorry, anything at McDonalds, Arbys, Carls Jr, Taco Bell, etc is JUNK.