America: A Heavy Weight

[Menydh]

AMERICA'S WAISTLINE
by Michael D. Lemonick
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...009907,00.html

America's fat crisis has been a long time coming. Diet books have been selling briskly for decades, and Richard Simmons' fitness infomercials from the '80s seem positively retro. Despite a national obsession with losing weight, however, we have continued to put on pounds. Today one-third of Americans are not just overweight but obese. That's why the issue got more attention in 2004 than ever before from health experts, government agencies and the media--including Time and abc News, which jointly sponsored a conference on obesity in May. And it's why I've decided--on my own authority--to declare 2004 the Year of Obesity. Here are the highlights:

--Americans flocked to see Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock's documentary about what happens when you eat nothing but McDonald's food for a month. Now McDonald's is discontinuing its Super Size option.

--Two dozen states took steps toward phasing out soda and junk food in schools, following 20 other states that already had such bans.

--Outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson used every opportunity to urge Americans to carry a pedometer and take more steps every day.

--The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc) announced in March that poor diet and lack of exercise resulted in 400,000 deaths in 2000 and were about to overtake smoking as the No. 1 preventable cause of death in the U.S. In November the cdc admitted that the real number was probably much lower--but that obesity is still the No. 2 cause of death.

--After his death in 2003, Dr. Robert Atkins' diet was more popular than ever, as low-carb foods crowded supermarket shelves, much as low-fat foods had a few years earlier. But most experts say it's wrong to focus on one aspect of your food intake: the right fats and the right carbohydrates in the right proportion are part of any sensible diet.

--The as-yet-unapproved drug Acomplia made headlines as a potential treatment for obesity, smoking and maybe cholesterol and drug addiction as well.

--The government is rewriting its dietary guidelines--the scientific underpinnings of the food pyramid--to try to get Americans to eat healthier.

--The World Health Organization put forward a strategy to fight obesity worldwide, proof that the problem is hardly limited to the U.S.

The list goes on. With a sharper focus on obesity than ever before in our diet-obsessed nation, maybe the tide will start to turn (and indeed preliminary data from 2003 show that the decades-long rise in obesity may have peaked at last). I hope so. Not only would Americans have longer, healthier lives, but I could declare 2005 the Year of Getting Fit.

[etoile noir]

unless they educate their children, get them off the couch, away from the TV and the game consoles and out there to do something physical, no amount of atkins, south beach or whatever diets are going to work.

for the older generation, it might help them lose some of their obesity, or at least maintain their present ample frames without getting any larger. however what really worries me is the new generation of couch potatoes. not only in terms of appearance and health, but also in terms of interaction, communication, having real friends and people to talk to rather than virtual substitutes.

[Strengthandhonour]

The whole "Fat" situation in America is ridiculious. If you are fat is because you are a laizy slob or because of a physical condition(which I can understand). It dosn't take that much effort to get up from the couch/computer chair 4-5 times a week to go jog or play a sport.
The sad thing here is, that the guys from the United States, blame it on the food. A while back I heard some fat women had put a law suit against Mc Donalds because she was addicted to her food? completely pathetic. To begin with, Mc Donalds food isn't that good(too greasy for my taste, better food out there) and if you don't have enough will power to not eat a big mac, then that's sad...

[Arawn]

Its not so much what they eat, its their overall lifestyles as well. People can eat their fish and chips and hamburgers, but they need to get off their arses and do shit more often.
Case in point, the Dutch have more or less the same diet as the British, ok, so the recipies are a bit different, and replace Indian with Indonesian take aways, but they are very similar in make up, but the Dutch have significantly lower rates of obesity last i looked. Me thinks the high number of passenger journeys made on a bicycle has much to do with it.
So eat that hamburger, use the car less, and get off your fat ass and cycle to work for a change.

[Nerthus]

I'm lovin' it!

[Heretik]

Sweet kids! They look like that Michelin logo guy...

[etoile noir]

"Sweet kids! They look like that Michelin logo guy... "

urghhhh! totally gross!

that's child abuse.

[Biggles]

I cant speak for all of America, but when i was in San Diego/Los Angeles(only for a day) in sept2003 i hardly saw any stereotypical fat Americans, i dont say their arent any, but i think its been exaggerated quite a bit...

[Arawn]

Both those cities are in California, nuff said. They worship the young healthy body there, fat people, the elderly, or people without suntans, etc. are banished from public life.

[Biggles]

Thats very true, the people (and i was in San Diego for a week) were just "normal" size, i stayed with some people in a new housing complex, all modern stuff, and went walkabout a few times to shops, just round the block.

Suppose its like a branding now like English are Posh upper class gits, Swedes are blue eyed blondes and Australians funny hat wearing folk hehe...

[Icy]

As an American, I think I can see firsthand the different influences on why people become so damn fat.

Firstly, there is a large amount of emphasis on protien. People here eat WAY too much protien than they should, to the point where most people eat two large meals of meat a day. (For instance, Steak or hamburgers for breakfast, ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, etc...) This food is extremely fatty and high in sodium, and horrible for circulation and digestion.

Second, There isn't as much emphasis on fruits/vegetables/leafy plants as there should be. People rarely take in fruits or vegetables at all, unless they eat an occasional salad. This not only degrades the health tremendously, but Americans are rarely able to process the food properly, or develop many bowel problems.

Third, Americans aren't getting enough physical activity, whether it be because of work schedules, or sheer laziness. I've been told that there are laws in parts of Europe that restrict someone from working a maximum amount of hours, and that they allow more vacation time. Here most families work many hours, especially well-paying jobs (My father wakes up at 4:30 A.M., starts work at 5:30 AM, and doesn't get home until around 4:30 P.M.) By the time he gets home, he eats dinner, and then only has a couple of hours of free time before he goes to bed. However, I don't think the youth of America have an excuse to this. I have never had a problem with getting enough activity, and I have recently been eating much better. I've never been fat, and I don't see WHY someone would allow themselves to become fat.

If I had to make one factor the highest priority in the amount of fat people here, I would definetly have to go with diet. We take in way too many fatty/greasy foods, and way too little healthy foods.

[Icy]

I'm not sure if you would consider this pertinent, but I wrote a thread a while back about why there are so many degenerative diseases and how it may relate to dietary intake.
Degenerative diseases and Cancer in America

[Arawn]

Processed food is another issue, lots of microvave meals = needless amounts of sugar/glucose (often added as browning agents) and salt; which can't be very good either.

[Heretik]

Originally Posted by etoile noir

"Sweet kids! They look like that Michelin logo guy... "

urghhhh! totally gross!

that's child abuse.

What did I say?

[Graeme]

Australians wearing funny hats? Maybe if they did they wouldn't have the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. Some record! The problem is that wearing hats in Australia is seen as nerdy. Anyway I don't know how Aussies are portrayed in America. In Australia, Americans are portrayed as obese, wearing hawaiian shirts, odd looking shorts with their guts hanging over and screaming out the top of their voices. Stereotypes are stereotypes.

Australia has a very high rate of obesity and it is unfortunately reflected in children. Often you will see a family of four where the parents and children look like slow moving Michelins. There is too much food here. Men are more obese than women and at a younger age.

[Organo-Ruralist]

Originally Posted by Aeternitas

I'm lovin' it!

As if that were commonplace. Get over it.

[Dr. Solar Wolff]

Originally Posted by Graeme

Australians wearing funny hats? Maybe if they did they wouldn't have the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. Some record! The problem is that wearing hats in Australia is seen as nerdy. Anyway I don't know how Aussies are portrayed in America. In Australia, Americans are portrayed as obese, wearing hawaiian shirts, odd looking shorts with their guts hanging over and screaming out the top of their voices. Stereotypes are stereotypes.

Yea, that sounds about right. I have an answer for the cause. It is high frutose corn syrup. It is put into everything as a filler and a cheap sugar: drinks, bread, all manner of sweet things. The problem is that it is far worse than sugar. The liver slams it into fat almost at once. Meanwhile, the body secrets insulin in its presence and every calorie you have floating around in your blood stream from that meal is instantly turned to fat. This means on your artery walls, under the skin, in the heart---where ever it is at the time.

Americans don't eat more than Europeans, they eat more high frutose corn syrup, so they are fatter.

By the way, Graeme, I have actually met the guy in the Hawaiian surt and maybe I can add to it. This holotype American was on a shuttle bus coming off an airliner from the Mainland at Honolulu Int. Airport. He was from New York, with a Yorker accent, a Jew, and had a pound of gold jewelery around his fat neck. He was barking at the bus driver in Yiddish, sweating and trying to suck in the belly fat he had aquired in Brooklyn, eating ice cream forty years before. He pushed his way out of the bus, first, and whined about being late for something while wiping the sweat off the bald spot with the baseball cap.

[Nerthus]

Originally Posted by Organo-Ruralist

As if that were commonplace. Get over it.

The USA is the country with the higest percentage of obese people. By the looks of it, I am not the one who needs to get over it.

[Organo-Ruralist]

Originally Posted by Aeternitas

The USA is the country with the higest percentage of obese people. By the looks of it, I am not the one who needs to get over it.

Of course it is. It has a massive population and isn't poverty stricken.
Percentages of everything are bound to be higher. I know it's really funny for Europeans to find completely extraordinary things and paint a picture as though they were common place, but the fact is, it isn't. That's called propaganda. But, having never set foot in the U.S., and more than likely having never met an American, why would I expect you to believe any differently?