I think this one chart explains the situation succinctly.
Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
181–190 of 271 posts
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#182Doesn'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 is not meant as an individual health measure. It's a general population measure valid over a large sample size. 6'4" is a statistically rare height. I believe BMI is less valid for the extremely tall and extremely short. That doesn't mean it isn't useful when viewing the whole population. For an individual, BMI + a waist measure is a better indicator. Your brother probably isn't overweight, unless he has low musc…
>It's a general population measure valid over a large sample size
This assumes a relatively symmetric distribution of heights and weights though, right? I'm curious if the tails for which BMI is individually invalid are equally populated. Basically, are short, fat people as common as tall, thin people?
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#183Earlier 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 find healthy food to be very accessible in the United States if you cook for yourself. Most of our grocery stores have huge varieties of produce and lean proteins are relatively inexpensive. I think eating fast food is becoming more and more common as well as people buying pre-made packaged foods to heat up at home which are often just as unhealthy as fast foods.
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Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It may be true that these ingredients are available in certain markets for those prices, but that isn't accounting for a significant portion of the true overall cost of healthful eating. Healthy food tends to spoil, and if you're not able to go shopping multiple times a week and have unpredictable availability for meal preparation, you're going to see a lot of spoilage. If 30% of your fresh produce ultimately spoils,…
The issue, as you suggest, isn't so much that healthy food isn't available at a reasonable price but that turning it into meals may be challenging for someone working two jobs and lacking a proper kitchen. I don't think anyone can seriously dispute that. I just think it's mostly a mistake to lay the problem solely on prepared and fast food--which often isn't actually all that cheap.
As for travel, yeah. I started doing a lot more a number of years back and it took me a while to get more disciplined about it. I find it's more about regulating my intake than eating healthy per se. I try to avoid eating just because some food has been laid out for me. And I tend to keep things to one or two full meals a day.
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#185These 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’…
As a non-american, I'm wondering how a fit person is considered in the midwest? Is it seen as a good trait or rather something odd?
I live in Missouri. Response to fit people is highly variable, and seems to depend on the family. Some fat families here seem to see fit people with jealousy, not understanding how they stay so thin. Others just don't seem to care about their obesity and think of normal sized people as abnormal, like their sense of what is normal is completely shifted. Yet others are ashamed of their obesity, yet none of their attempts to change seem to work.
Mating behavior here seems to follow the norm. Fat people tend to date/marry fat people, and healthy people mostly stick with other healthy people.
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#186These 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’…
As a non-american, I'm wondering how a fit person is considered in the midwest? Is it seen as a good trait or rather something odd?
As a fit Midwesterner it's seen as good (and it made dating easier). There are plenty of fit Midwesterners so being fit in the Midwest isn't weird at all in my experience
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aww, come on! How much is 1 kg of carrots or potatoes? Banana (0.25 kg) 0.63 $ Oranges (0.30 kg) 1.04 $ Tomato (0.20 kg) 0.85 $ Potato (0.20 kg) 0.60 $ Onion (0.10 kg) 0.26 $ Lettuce (0.20 head) 0.28 $ Not the best source probably, but by looking at https://www.numbeo.com/food-prices/in/Los-Angeles it doesn't seem like one can easily go broke from buying vegetables.
Yeah, all of those are single serving prices that you're looking at, and only the onion (and I guess lettuce if it's not romaine) is actually a vegetable. Potatoes are starches, the others are fruits (with higher sugar). They don't list much in the way of vegetable prices. But, even given that; I can buy a head of lettuce for $1.40. Okay. Or, I could buy an 8 pack of little debbie snack cakes for the same amount. 5 s…
It was stated that the obesity crisis might be caused by the cost of vegetables (or otherwise healthy food). This is nonsense. I don't know why you're getting picky with definitions while that was just an example to prove that it's not as if an eggplant is $20 and a cheeseburger $1.
> Or, I could buy an 8 pack of little debbie snack cakes for the same amount. 5 servings of lettuce that has nearly no nutritional substance, and that I have to combine with something else anyway to make it palatable...or 8 servings of convenient, enjoyed food.
Right. I would never eat that, though. There are also plenty of ways to make vegetables palatable: eggplants with tomatoes with spices are very tasty, for instance.
I'm also not saying that junk food isn't cheaper, just that healthy food is affordable for everyone.
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It may be true that these ingredients are available in certain markets for those prices, but that isn't accounting for a significant portion of the true overall cost of healthful eating. Healthy food tends to spoil, and if you're not able to go shopping multiple times a week and have unpredictable availability for meal preparation, you're going to see a lot of spoilage. If 30% of your fresh produce ultimately spoils,…
Frozen vegetables aren't bad for you.
Definitely agree about finding healthy food on the go. Mostly salads.
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find healthy food to be very accessible in the United States if you cook for yourself. Most of our grocery stores have huge varieties of produce and lean proteins are relatively inexpensive. I think eating fast food is becoming more and more common as well as people buying pre-made packaged foods to heat up at home which are often just as unhealthy as fast foods.
> Most of our grocery stores have huge varieties of produce and lean proteins are relatively inexpensive It depends on where you live. In the U.S. poor and working class neighborhoods often lack grocery stores. The only options are convenience stores where fresh, healthy food is very expensive, availability is limited, and quality is poor. I've read that the problem is on such a wide scale that it significantly impac…
Here's a map that talks about this:
http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/usda-defi...
Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> Most vegetables are less than $3 a pound. And you call that cheap.... In my country most vegetables cost below 1$ per kilogram, which is 6 times cheaper. I think this has to do with EU policy of subsidies for farmers.
"most vegetables cost below 1$ per kilogram" I haven't seen 0.80 EUR/kg in Germany for vegetables, so I wonder where you live. I've assumed vegetables are rather cheap in Germany due to very high competition. Lettuce is around $1.85 a piece, carrots are 1 EUR/kg or 1.50 EUR/kg when organic. Karfiol is 2 EUR/kg here. The cheapest discounters (Aldi) are little bit cheaper.
Cheapest I've seen in a UK Lidl was a kilo of carrots discounted to 20p. I can't see how that could possibly pay for any of the supply chain but I'll take it.
Up here in Scotland I think we have a good illustration of how obesity can be a cultural problem, especially linked to alcohol. There's a reasonable amount of healthy food available but the traditional preference is all fat, starch and sugar.