If you read the fine print you'll see they're using BMI to determine if people are overweight or obese. BMI is a tragically flawed metric (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265215.php) and I would approach the 70.7% figure with caution. The more compelling story in the stats is the trend showing a gradual rise from 54.9% in the period between 1988-1994 to the more current figure of 70.7% in the period between 2013-2014. I'm skeptical of the raw figures given issues with BMI but highly doubt such a massive increase came from US adults getting significantly taller or more muscular (both factors that can inflate BMI for healthy individuals).
Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
91–100 of 271 posts
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
It should be plausible to design a scientific study on how much a car centric culture is causing overweightness.
Why is it only now that obesity is reaching such epidemic proportions though? We've had a car-centric culture since Post WW2. Why haven't we seen this epidemic before?
The rates have been steadily going up since that time, though. It makes sense that you would see a gradual ramp up in a drastic change like ths.
I don't have sources to back this up, but here's some thoughts:
* Gradual changes in types of labor? (From agriculture -> industrial -> office jobs) which are less calorically intensive.
* Changes in food? Calorie-dense food is cheaper and easier to get than ever. People have less free time to cook healthy meals (working more hours, far fewer homemakers, longer commutes, more time spent doin extracurriculars outside the home, etc). As a result, people consume more calories because they're easy to get.
* Health/Food misinformation. The demonization of nutritional 'fat' which lead to it being replaced by sugar, which is even more addictive.
* Changes in drink consumption? Alcohol consumption is up (at least compared to ~25 years ago), and alcoholic drinks area very high in calories.
* Childhood changes due to changes in food and care. More high-calorie, "manufactured" foods introduced earlier into peoples lives sets them up for a lifetime of bad habits and problems that only compound over time.
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#93This is directly related to the way American cities are designed. It’s a car centric culture where big houses are far away from each other. That means driving everywhere. That means long commutes. That means TV over communal activity. That means big grocery runs with shelf stable food. Then pile on hyper sweet drinks and nutritional misinformation campaigns, and of course Americans are going to be overweight. The wor…
I'm italian and I visited united states a couple of months ago. In my opinion the biggest problem is that you don't have decent food at affordable prices. Healthy food has nonsensical high prices and if you want something at a human price you don't have much choice except fast food. What a shame.
I watched a good youtube video that compared the 7/11-level food available in japan vs america and was convinced that this is one of the biggest issues.
What's the healthiest thing you can get in a 7/11 in the States? An apple? One of those shitty packaged sandwiches that has a slice of ham with a mysterious wad of splooge? A hotdog that's been turning on the spit all day?
Then you realize this is how it is every step of the way. It's a cultural problem. With a lot of the world trailing right behind.
You can blame everything on personal choice, and that might make you feel good, but that doesn't help us solve systemic issues.
I live in Mexico now which has some of the worst obesity issues as well due to their soft drink consumption. They just had a president that was the ex-president of Coca Cola.
> It was during the Fox's leadership of Coca-Cola Mexico that Coke became Mexico's top-selling soft drink, increasing Coca-Cola's sales by almost 50%.
But Mexico still has healthy enough food that's readily available. Getting a bag of chips from 7/11 has to compete with a just-as-cheap taco stand right outside. I find it easy to eat pretty healthy here for that reason. I love some tacos and nopal salad.
Meanwhile in Austin you can't even find a taquero outside of East Riverside.
And, of course, the lack of walkability in the US is horrifying. I don't ever want to live somewhere where I can't walk to a fruit stand or cafe ever again. I think of any time I've felt dullness in my life and every time it was at a point in my life where I had to drive everywhere. Like playing an open-world game and only using fast travel, missing out on all the small interactions that turn out to be the spice of life.
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its not about eating healthy food, obesity is about the over consumption of food. You can maintain a healthy weight eating hamburgers and fries every day. The problem is portion size.
You might be able to maintain the correct weight, but you sure as hell won't be healthy. Vegetables are indispenable for good health.
FWIW, there are a handful of human populations that eat essentially no plants of any kind.
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#95These numbers aren’t shocking. Many people are “casually” fat, meaning they carry an extra 30-40lbs around their gut. Probably accumulated slowly by 2-3lbs a year. They don’t fit the classic image of an obese person but they are obese according to BMI.
I moved to SF which is a relatively fit city. Going back home in the Midwest I am shocked by the number of people who are overweight. Fat is normalized there. It wasn’t until I lived in a health conscious area and checked my own BMI that I realized how skewed my image of a healthy person was. In the Midwest if you are active you are considered healthy, even if you are overweight. It’s not until you are 100lbs overweight are you considered fat. And this doesn’t even touch the HAES mentality.
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#96Yes, you can see that quite clearly with any trip into a public space. But 70% is a low estimate for many parts of the country. And morbid obesity is becoming extremely common as well.
Obesity and the fat epidemic will bankrupt the US health care system.
Sooner than later, weight must be tied directly to out-of-pocket health care costs, via premiums, taxation, tax credits, or some other financial incentive and/or penalty combination for horrendous lifestyle decisions. Maybe go the Japanese route with a metabo law too. Obviously merely being an unhealthy glutton with high disease propensity and increased mortality is not a motivator for the majority of populace, so make them pay for their bad choices the same way someone who speeds frequently pays higher car insurance.
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#97This is directly related to the way American cities are designed. It’s a car centric culture where big houses are far away from each other. That means driving everywhere. That means long commutes. That means TV over communal activity. That means big grocery runs with shelf stable food. Then pile on hyper sweet drinks and nutritional misinformation campaigns, and of course Americans are going to be overweight. The wor…
>"This is directly related to the way American cities are designed. It’s a car centric culture where big houses are far away from each other."
New York City is perhaps one of the most walkable cities in the world. It's also a place where you absolutely do not need a car and the majority of residents don't have a car. Yet 34% or New Yorkers are overweight and 22% are obese.[1]
The BMI statistic for the EU are none too encouraging either. [2]
[1] http://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/obesity.pa...
[2] http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/...
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#98Some here say nutritional misinformation is one of the primary culprits, however, the reality is if you go tell someone "stop drinking soda, it's unhealthy", they will tell you "I don't care."
If people are not motivated to eat healthy, what are you supposed to do? Perhaps this goes back to educating your family on healthy eating, consequently if everyone were doing that, we'd see a trend of increased concern for healthy eating.
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#99Anyone have statistics on what % of those overweight adults are actually healthy, or at least have an acceptable body fat %? Many athletes and weightlifters would be considered overweight by BMI due to muscle mass. And according to the "Adults" PDF, that's the metric they're using. It's probably not a large percentage but I get ticked off a bit to know that you can be in the "overweight" BMI category and have clearly…
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Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm italian and I visited united states a couple of months ago. In my opinion the biggest problem is that you don't have decent food at affordable prices. Healthy food has nonsensical high prices and if you want something at a human price you don't have much choice except fast food. What a shame.
I was in Bologna not too long ago and I was baffled by how fresh, high quality ingredients are available at affordable prices. I've seen similar quality ingredients in the Bay Area but they charge an arm and a leg for it. I don't know how the Italians do it or why we Americans have such a hard time doing something similar.
Try switching from Whole Foods to your nearest Mexican grocer.