Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S • Hacker News Board

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#111

Post by adrr » Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 8:10 PM UTC

nicoburns wrote: post #42

adrr wrote: post #18

Earlier 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.

I've done keto diet while eating bacon, lettuce wrapped hamburgers and other high fat foods. I had full blood panel blood work done and everything was fine.

On mouse models, these high fat high protein diets have improved brain functionality. http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(17)3...

Biggest issue effecting health is obesity which puts strains on your internal organs.

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#112

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 8:10 PM UTC

nkkollaw wrote: post #27

3pt14159 wrote: post #8

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. 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…

The reason Americans eat that much sugar is not the "one won't hurt" mentality, but the fact that the government singled out fat as the only source of evil, and companies started adding sugar to everything because without fat everything tastes like cardboard. I bet most of the sugar consumed is from things that no one would think contain as much sugar as they do (like--bread, meat, etc.), which is added to make it mo…

[deleted]

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#113

Post by bunderbunder » Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 8:10 PM UTC

bogomipz wrote: post #97

3pt14159 wrote: post #8

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. 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…

Even if it doesn't explain 100% of it, it's still striking that the overweight rate in NYC is, according to your figures, less than half of the US average.

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#114

Post by virtuowl » Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 8:10 PM UTC

adrr wrote: post #61

izietto wrote: post #20

Earlier 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.

Healthy food isn't expensive. You can buy chicken breast for $3 to $5 a pound. You can buy a head of lettuce for $2. Oatmeal is dirt cheap. Most vegetables are less than $3 a pound.

That is around 2 times what i pay in germany

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#115

Post by hervature » Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 8:10 PM UTC

bpicolo wrote: post #28

Doesn't a 25 BMI seem like kind of a crappy metric for "overweight"? That makes my 6'4" brother "overweight" at like 205 which seems nuts. That doesn't feel overweight at all. (Defined in the footnote on page 222)

BMI isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. For example, I'm 5'5'' and weigh 160lbs. Currently trying to get down to 135lbs (which is less than my peak physical form in high school) and people balk at the idea that I can lose that much weight based on my appearance. Funnily, 115lbs is still considered healthy for someone my height. At the end of the day, it is much cheaper to read a scale and a measuring stick than use an expensive DEXA scan to get an accurate measure of body fat percentage.

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#116

Post by RealityVoid » Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 8:11 PM UTC

bogomipz wrote: post #97

3pt14159 wrote: post #8

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. 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…

Well, honestly, this comment is only giving more credence to OP, since, apparently, the US average is 70% is much much worse than the 34% of NY.

EDIT: Haha, apparently the HN crowd is very quick to point out inconsistencies since the original comment has been up 2 minuites and there are already 3 comments pointing the same thing (and counting)

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#117

Post by artursapek » Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 8:11 PM UTC

pascalxus wrote: post #31

izietto wrote: post #20

Earlier 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.

That's partly because much of the government subsides go towards subsidizing corn, ending up in high fructose corn syrup and all the junk food most people consume. It's quite sad, that everyone is so okay with this. Personally, I try to eat as healthy as possible and use my nutrient finder ( https://kale.world/c ) to find high nutrient, low calorie foods, which end up being mostly beans, vegetables and fruits.

Did you make this kale.world? It's pretty nifty.

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#118

Post by DrScump » Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 8:11 PM UTC

Isamu wrote: post #82

izietto wrote: post #20

Earlier 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.

Shelf space at the stores seems to be shifting more toward prepared and semi-prepared foods. This comes at a cost of more carbs, sugar, etc. I interpret this trend as consumer choice, that people are preferring to spend less time cooking and preparing meals. If you have a strong food culture that demands fresh ingredients (Italy) then the prices may follow.

Not shelf space -- shelf placement.

An entire new science of how people shop developed in the past few decades. The centermost aisles are prime territory. So, the higher-margin, fast-turnover items get center aisles and medium height (easily seen) shelves. Wholesalers actually pay for placement rights for things like chips and soda -- that's why they are organized by brand rather than product.

Produce gets moved to one end of the store (generally the end nearest the main entrance because produce is low priority for shoplifters.

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#119

Post by halotrope » Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 8:11 PM UTC

3pt14159 wrote: post #8

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. 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…

Sugar seems to be a major driver of this development. The main problem is likely excessive sugar and especially fructose consumption starting with the emerge of cheap HFCS in most products. Dr. Robert Lustig has put a lot of research into the causes of the obesity crisis. He goes into great detail in his lectures on YouTube https://youtu.be/ceFyF9px20Y?t=51m41s He also argues against the "gluttony and sloth" prejudice by saying that you eat too much and move to little as a consequence of messed up hormones due to excessive fat. Not the other way around. The problem is probably more dimensional but the correlation between increasing Sugar/HFCS amounts in foods and the onset of obesity seems to be pretty strong.

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#120

Post by goshx » Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 8:11 PM UTC

adrr wrote: post #61

izietto wrote: post #20

Earlier 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.

Healthy food isn't expensive. You can buy chicken breast for $3 to $5 a pound. You can buy a head of lettuce for $2. Oatmeal is dirt cheap. Most vegetables are less than $3 a pound.

I may be wrong, but I think OP is referring to buying it at a restaurant instead of at a grocery store.