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Adult Obesity Facts

cdc.gov

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Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#81

Post by CabSauce »

dragontamer wrote: post #44
sam0x17 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legislation banning overly processed foods. Better school lunches. etc. Pick a "first world" country with much better BMI. Copy all of their regulations surrounding food and agriculture.

Every "processed food" definition is incredibly arbitrary, and not necessarily correlated to health. What about rolled oats or steel cut oats? They're clearly "processed", oats don't look like that when they come off the plant. Potato chips + fries are just cut potatoes dropping into a vat of oil. Oil itself isn't very much processed either. But we all know that potato chips / fries are unhealthy and shouldn't be eat…

Do you really think we can't come up with some definitions that at least push in the right direction? They don't have to be perfect, but just start somewhere and keep evolving in the right direction. Let's not pretend we have to get it perfect before we try anything.

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#82

Post by hncurious »

rjbwork wrote: post #2

We've designed our cities, suburbs, food industry, and society such that the average person is at least overweight, nearing obese. If the average person suffers from what should be an anomaly, perhaps it is less a personal failing than a societal failing and we should try to fix the societal problems generating the poor outcome.

Unpopular opinion: It's both a personal and societal failing, but personal choice is dominant. You can choose to eat rice and beans and drink water. You don't have to eat hamburgers and fries and drink sugar.

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#83

Post by foolfoolz »

reactspa wrote: post #68

BMI is a deeply flawed measure. It caters to a very specific body-type. Highly muscular people are usually classified as "obese" according to BMI. That such a deeply flawed measure achieved mainstream acceptance is quite the achievement.

this affects such a small amount of people in practice and is not related to the obesity problem. yes if you are less than 10% BF your BMI might be overweight. this isn’t why obesity rates are high. for almost everyone BMI is an excellent starting point

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#84

Post by Eric_WVGG »

echelon wrote: post #7

We need to stop putting sugar in everything. That's the root cause of most of our problems. It's not just industrialized preprocessed and prepackaged food, because restaurants are guilty of this too. I don't buy the "cars and suburbs" as a root cause argument. People would be less sedentary if they felt healthier and more energetic. Sugar is the problem.

I disagree. I live in NYC, where automobiles are the least-convenient way to get around. People don't really eat much better here than anywhere else, but they walk around almost constantly. Everyone is hela fit.

Until you drift out to the outer boroughs where cars are more convenient, that is.

Also I think that the assertion that "people would be less sedentary if they felt healthier" requires evidence. Some people who feel healthy and energetic would still rather sit down and play videogames.

Any fitness system that requires carving time out of the day is doomed to failure; what works is fitness that is built into the things people already do. In other words, if you walk or bike everywhere, you don't have to make time to work out.

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#85

Post by dragontamer »

CabSauce wrote: post #81
dragontamer wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every "processed food" definition is incredibly arbitrary, and not necessarily correlated to health. What about rolled oats or steel cut oats? They're clearly "processed", oats don't look like that when they come off the plant. Potato chips + fries are just cut potatoes dropping into a vat of oil. Oil itself isn't very much processed either. But we all know that potato chips / fries are unhealthy and shouldn't be eat…

Do you really think we can't come up with some definitions that at least push in the right direction? They don't have to be perfect, but just start somewhere and keep evolving in the right direction. Let's not pretend we have to get it perfect before we try anything.

Instead of banning (or discouraging) "processed foods", lets start with banning/discouraging "unhealthy foods".

Because "unhealthy" is a better starting point than the arbitrary metric "processed".

-------

You're going to do more for your health by cutting back on your rice portions, rather than worrying about what is or isn't processed. (And rice is barely "processed" at all... but its incredibly calorie dense with high glycemic index).

Switching out bread portions (since bread is highly processed) for rice portions won't do you jack diddly squat. Both are high calorie / high glycemic index foods.

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#86

Post by albntomat0 »

reactspa wrote: post #68

BMI is a deeply flawed measure. It caters to a very specific body-type. Highly muscular people are usually classified as "obese" according to BMI. That such a deeply flawed measure achieved mainstream acceptance is quite the achievement.

While your point is true, I'm confident in saying that vast majority of the 42.4% of Americans who have an obese BMI are not highly muscular.

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#87

Post by minikites »

waiseristy wrote: post #49
minikites wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The problem is overeating. We've had a food surplus for a long time, why is obesity a relatively recent problem?

You don't get addicted to 2 lbs of turnips and some bacon fat. You get addicted to three 1500 calorie McDonalds meals per day

Doesn't that mean the cause is related to car culture (drive-thru) and processed foods, not just overeating?

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#88

Post by cf100clunk »

Purely from my own viewpoint, the general size of U.S. restaurant portions in comparison with those in any other country I've visited is noticeably larger. Dishes are more likely to contain processed food products, less likely to contain fresh vegetables, and more likely to contain higher levels of sugars and salt. Again, just my own take. I found when working in Texas and the deep south that booking a room with a kitchen and then shopping for suitable groceries was essential in order to try to eat more sensibly. I'm not flaming anyone, just making an observation. A simple anecdote from a work stay in the Dallas area: several of us "foreigners" went out for dinner and had great difficulty finding a vegetable side dish on the menu. We ordered the broccoli for sharing, so were bemused that it arrived smothered in processed cheese.

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#89

Post by kccqzy »

dantheman wrote: post #11
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we should try to fix the societal problems generating the poor outcome What would this look like policywise?

Stop tariffs on sugar and end subsidies to corn that lead to high fructose corn syrup.

I get that cane sugar is more natural than high fructose corn syrup, and I myself would choose the former over the latter, but aren't these basically the same in terms of causing obesity?

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#90

Post by not_obese »

At 5'10 230lb the CDC would say I'm "obese" (BMI 32.1). I also deadlift 400lb and bench 300. My blood pressure, resting heart rate, blood sugar and HDL/LDL are perfect. I don't know what the body fat percentage is but I'm visibly muscular everywhere except for some stomach fat.

My point is that measuring obesity purely by weight is naive and leads to massive overcounting.

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