Obesity is a problem, but we need a better measurement than OBI. I'm 6'1, 245 pounds which would make me obese, but I come in at 8-9% body fat.
Adult Obesity Facts
171–180 of 236 posts
Re: Adult Obesity Facts
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is that there is no the problem. Our foods are unhealthy (low nutritional value, even if they provide the calorie content necessary to live; vitamin and mineral deficiencies lead to poor health outcomes). Our foods are often too high in calories (portion sizing, sugary drinks, "coffee" that's 90% sugar). Our culture is increasingly sedentary (cars versus walking and biking, television and computers that a…
Great points, but I fundamentally disagree that overeating is not the single biggest component contributing to the first worlds dietary issues. You know what is the single defining feature of skinny people? Outside of Olympic athletes and manual laborers? They eat substantially less than everyone else. You aren't going to "walk off" a 1500 calorie burger, unless that's the only thing you eat that day
It may be the single biggest component, but it's not the only component which means it is not the problem. And the definition of overeating has changed because of these other factors.
Sugary sodas and drinks are not eaten, consequently what was a healthy and satiating meal is now overeating because people are getting 250-2000 extra calories a day (250/bottle of soda approximately). Drop the sodas and many people won't be overeating (or overeating to the same extreme) as they are now without changing their diet.
Poor nutritional quality of foods can be disruptive to metabolism and health in general. Which again can mean that what was an objectively healthy portion for them becomes an unhealthy portion. As an example, low iron (anemia) decreases a person's ability to engage in physical activity and leads to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. So that a 2000 kcal a day diet that may have been healthy is now overeating.
The general sedentary nature of people also means that what was a perfectly reasonable diet for our grandparents and great-grandparents is now overeating. When people spend 1-2 hours a day sitting so that they can go from one place where they sit for 8-10 hours to another place where they'll sit in front of a computer or tv for another 4-5 hours and then sleep, their calorie needs are barely above that of someone who is bedridden for illness or injury.
Restaurant portion sizes are outrageous (though, anecdotally, the last few times I've been to a restaurant they seem to have toned it down). That is a problem. But these other issues cannot be neglected because it's a system, they all interact with each other.
Re: Adult Obesity Facts
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with "policy solutions" is that they don't account for individual preferences. Do people want walkable cities? Or do they want single-family dwellings and yards? Do people want to be healthy? Or do they want sugary foods and television programs? Fortunately, the U.S. has plenty of each, to accommodate multiple preferences. Life is trade-offs. It's the conceit of policy makers to force their trade-off pref…
An alternative approach is to encourage people to make more effective decisions by actually including the negative impacts of their decisions as actual, dollar costs. If we included the higher healthcare costs of obesity into the cost of soda, it might not be as enticing. This isn't forcing people to make a decision, it's including all of the costs in the dollar value of the product on the shelf.
Indeed. To the extent that healthcare or other costs are carried by society, society must own the sources of those costs.
Re: Adult Obesity Facts
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't watch my calories at all, nor do I starve myself. The key question though is not whether you are paying attention, but whether they are down or not. It is possible that you are getting full on fewer calories.
It's possible, but if I am, it means protein and fat are better at keeping me satiated. The standard American diet is high in carbs, and it could be that processed carbs aren't very good at keeping someone full.
> it means protein and fat are better at keeping me satiated.
That's the whole point, and a key component of any CICO diet: finding foods that make you feel full with fewer calories.
Re: Adult Obesity Facts
#175We'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.
There have been many suggestions in this thread about the root cause of obesity. While I'm sure these things do contribute to the issue, they are not the main cause - the main cause is that being fat is socially acceptable. I don't believe that if the average person placed great importance on being healthy - as great as making more money, getting a better job etc., they would be unable to afford the extra cost of hea…
I don't think healthy food has to be expensive. It can be if one decides to go the "superfood" route, also if one decides to eat beef / fish with every other meal.
The fact is that multigrain bread, oats, beans, lentils and peanuts are all cheap, filling good sources of fiber and protein. Large animal protein portions are rarely truly needed.
Combine that with some vegetables, a bit of oil, some spices, a modest portion of pork/chicken protein, and you end up with an inexpensive healthy meal. I understand that eating well has other costs (namely, the time and effort it takes to make it and clean up afterwards). For people who value their health, this cost is usually acceptable.
Re: Adult Obesity Facts
#176Plugging in a few test numbers in the following CDC calculator yields interesting results.
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/en...
Luckily I fall into the "normal" category, but trying a few variations suggests to me that clinically obese is not necessarily the same as what I think most people would consider "classically" obese. Certainly some very fit/muscular people and even elite athletes such as Alex Ovechkin are (very nearly) clinically obese.
Perhaps it is time to add a few more parameters to the obesity calculator.
Re: Adult Obesity Facts
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, exercise is good for you, and should be taken, but diet seems to be the most important factor. Research had came out indicating that exercise doesn't really do much good in losing weight. Might help in maintaining weight.
I realize that this discussion is focused on obesity, but the above response comes out every time weight loss is discussed. It may well be accurate in many cases, but I don't think it encompasses the full picture of health. For example, smoking has shown to aid weight loss, but the outcome of taking up smoking is a skinnier person with a new set of comorbidities. If the desired outcome is an improved quality of life,…
Yes, exercise is good for you, and you should do it. But we should be realistic about what exercise can do and can't do.
Re: Adult Obesity Facts
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree with you because this view considers people in a vacuum as if they are receiving unbiased information to make choices from. In reality, from a very young age people are bombarded with advertisements and other marketing materials that promote foods packed with sugar, carbs, and salt. Cinnamon Toast Crunch is "part of this complete breakfast." In reality, it should never be a part of any breakfast. Unhealthy…
That's all true and why I included social failing. We are fighting against an industry that's trying to convince us to eat their junk food. They are making it as addictive as possible. They are trying to present it as healthier than it is. It is hard to resist. So yes, it's absolutely a factor and a significant one. However, despite that, I have a hard time believing that most people think eating at McDonalds is heal…
You're not wrong about that! People for the most part do know that soda and burgers aren't healthy.
But there are a lot of products out there with more grey area than the typical McDonald's menu item.
For example, the Dunkin' "Power Breakfast Sandwich." The marketing sounds healthy without saying the words "healthy:" https://www.dunkindonuts.com/en/menu/sandwiches-and-more/pow...
Notice how this item has almost half your daily value of saturated fat! High cholesterol, high sodium!
A lot of people would see this menu and think "this is a good alternative to McDonald's."
Same deal with Subway. Jared was selling us on weight loss via eating sandwiches, but he himself didn't eat the Sweet Onion Chicken Teryaki – a.k.a. Chicken on Bread with Sugar Sauce. Subway was promoting footlongs (five...five dollar...five dollar footlongs!) specifically, a portion size that is objectively too large for a single meal unless you're skipping a meal or eating with basically no condiments. Everything about Subway is healthy-ish until you get to the end of the line and you have a spread of caloric sauces to choose from (all free) along with a translucent case of cookies, addictive chips, and unlimited-refill soda.
Another example: products labeled "no added sugar" that are largely sugar, such as orange juice. Sure, it's slightly better than added refined sugar, but it's still sugar and it's still calories.
I once dated someone who thought their daily Dunkin' Donuts coffee was a low-calorie menu item. Nope! It's 300+ calories, because it was a latte in a large portion size with sweetener. But it looks really similar to low-calorie items.
Portions are a huge issue, too. A lot of those fast food chains make larger drink and side sizes in the USA compared to the exact same menu items overseas. Why this is, I'm not actually 100% sure – maybe a more competitive fast food market in America where these companies are trying to beat competing restaurants in value?
All of this is to say:
1. We can't assume the average person's nutritional knowledge is very good. It's barely taught in school and the schools themselves are doing basically nothing to promote healthy eating. My public school provided meals like pizza, smiley-face french fries, Little Debbie desserts, and an entire cookie and slushie stand. They actually helped get me addicted to bad food!
2. We can't assume that the general population has any idea what rational portion sizes look like. This has been distorted beyond belief.
3. We can't even assume that the general population knows what a healthy-weight person looks like anymore! I had family members concerned about one family member who lost weight down to a healthy weight. They thought that this person was starving or something like that, even though they were basically the only person in the family who had reached ideal weight.
I know I ranted for a long bit here but I think the USA in particular is long-overdue for some really major reforms surrounding the food industry. There need to be serious restrictions on advertising, portions, and macronutrient transparency. Bad food should be treated a lot more like cigarettes. For example, if I could make all the decisions I'd make it illegal to mass-advertise any food item that exceeded certain daily value macro-nutrients like saturated fat, sugar, calories, etc. Sure, you can sell them, but you can't put them on TV.
Re: Adult Obesity Facts
#179Every top comment here tries to distill the problem into this or that based on hunches or links to books or blog posts.
"It's cities"
"It's society"
"It's portions"
"It's plastics"
"It's activity"
"It's overeating"
"It's contaminates"
"It's education"
"It's just calories"
This is a complex problem, and you are not experts. It could be some or all of those things, but this kind of pet-theory reductivism doesn't get us anywhere.
Re: Adult Obesity Facts
#180We'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.
That’s because it’s profitable and it’s very difficult to make systemic changes. Here’s a few points: - In the documentary Fed Up, it showed how Michelle Obama had to back down to the big food companies over her push for healthier food. - I worked with bariatric surgeons and some incredibly cited papers stating that people can’t lose weight by diet and exercise alone. The surgeons I knew were incredibly narrow-minded…
> Living expenses are high, work demands are high, people are stressed and all the easy options are terrible for you.
It's not obvious, but there are some ways to trade relatively small amounts of inconvenience for food that's healthier and often cheaper.
Some people will cook enough food on a weekend to last the rest of a week with refrigeration, optionally dividing it up into single-serving containers. Since a lot of recipes scale up well, this ends up taking much less cooking time than doing one meal at a time, and the labor is shifted to weekends when you might have more energy. A quality-of-life variation on this idea is to do ingredient preparation for a week on the weekend -- chop the vegetables, measure things out, etc. -- and cook meals for four days, then do a second (much quicker) batch of cooking mid-week so the food doesn't spend too long in the fridge. Googling for "once a week meal prep" will turn up a lot more information on this.
The big problem with the approach above, of course, is the monotony: having only a handful of meal choices each week can get old after a few days. For people who are willing to cook more often but would still like to economize on time, this guide from last year on quarantine meal-planning for people who normally don't make most of their food at home is very good:
https://www.seriouseats.com/our-tips-for-meal-planning-durin...
In particular, the big thing to take from it is the idea of making larger batches of meal components that you can quickly put together in various combinations with different flavors, which lets you save on cooking time (and shift it to when it's more convenient) while also giving more variety in your diet.