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More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

diabetes.co.uk

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Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#191

Post by hossbeast »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #100
martindbp wrote: post #31

I still remember driving through some small town in Arizona 10 years ago, and I couldn't find a single non-obese person there. Not just overweight, full on obese. Parents, kids, everyone. It was the one of the most bizarre experiences I've had, as a visitor. Cities are not that bad though, but I'm sure many rural parts are close to 100%.

We stopped for burgers in a Texas McDonalds in a tiny town off the beaten path. Every single person inside was obese. It was actually embarrassing trying to squeeze by people on my way to find the end of the line, and we decided to just have one person order the food instead of all three of us contributing to the awkwardness of the human body version of bumper cars. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. Living…

That last sentence doesn't seem to follow. Why do you place the blame on "the society"?

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#192

Post by troydavis »

jonas21 wrote: post #114

If you're inclined to think of this as just an American problem, keep in mind that most western nations are following the same trajectory as the US -- they're just 10 to 15 years behind. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-adults-who-are-o...

Thank you! Here's a few more data points that I found useful:

Adult obesity by state over time: https://stateofchildhoodobesity.org/adult-obesity/ . MA, WA, and IL seem to have uniquely flatlined in the last 4 years. Most states have not.

Obesity in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_United_States#P...

Colorado, which has consistently had the lowest obesity rate of any state going back to 1990 (6.9%): https://www.denverpost.com/2018/09/12/colorado-least-obese-s...

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#193

Post by Balgair »

meowzero wrote: post #72

This isn't surprising. We're conditioned to eat great tasting food and lots of it. Most American cities have a car-oriented culture, along with sedentary lifestyles; therefore, not much walking or NEAT (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis). It seems over the years, Americans are burning less calories, but consuming more. I usually cook at home now, thanks to the Pandemic. Looking at all the recipes I found online, I…

Part of the issue is in training your taste. Yes, the super high calorie foods are always going to taste good. But that does not mean that the less caloric foods will not also taste just as good. My SO has a super restrictive diet (due to some pretty bad health reasons). My SO's taste has changed dramatically since being on the diet for some time. In that my SO can taste a single 'no-no' ingredient in just about any food item. I'm talking a single pepper-flake in ~4 hour roast. Things you may not think of as 'sweet', like broccoli or cabbage, are reported as near candy. It's taken a while, but the effects are real.

I think that issue is a big deal with the obese: taste. Their tastes have become so desensitized that only the umami bombs of Doritos will elicit a response. Similarly with fats and sugars, only the largest signals are now received.

Perhaps a way to deal with this is to just have the obese eat more, but of the 'good' stuff. To retrain their taste. Have a salad, a good one, and then eat dinner. Have an apple with breakfast, and then all the eggs and butter. Etc.

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#194

Post by rdtwo »

Many folks that weight lift are overweight by the BMI metric. When I used to hit the gym 3-4 times a week I was overweight, now I don’t and bam lost most of the muscle and in the normal range. It’s pretty easy to fall into the overweight range of the bmi metric

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#195

Post by sheepdestroyer »

falcolas wrote: post #188
grecy wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything you said it true, but why isn't it such a big percentage in other developed countries?

As pointed out by others, this is happening in other developed countries as well, it’s just lagging behind the US. Personally, I largely blame our learned culture of referencing “children in Africa”. Want to fuck up a child’s eating patterns for life? Force them to clean their plate.

Hu?

I grew up in France and I have always cleaned my plate as my mother told me. In my familly, it's the polite and sensitive way to eat. Same expectation when visiting friends. Really few are overweight.

Since I moved to Japan, I learned that here too food is treated with the same deference : "you shall not let a grain of rice left in your bowl" is basic table decency. Few overweigh people here either.

Both France and Japan have their food recognized as UNESCO cultural world heritages. In both countries people LOVE to eat and hate to waste.

Maybe people should treat their food and themselves with respect and only put on the plate what they should and can eat?

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#196

Post by c0nducktr »

falcolas wrote: post #188
grecy wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything you said it true, but why isn't it such a big percentage in other developed countries?

As pointed out by others, this is happening in other developed countries as well, it’s just lagging behind the US. Personally, I largely blame our learned culture of referencing “children in Africa”. Want to fuck up a child’s eating patterns for life? Force them to clean their plate.

My grandfather would say "take all you'd like, but eat all you take" which had a similar "plate clearing" idea, but was also more responsible (likely due to growing up during the great depression).

The issue with the "children in africa" thing is that someone else is setting the portions for you, I think. Everywhere I go, meals are just too big! I feel silly only eating half of a meal, especially if I don't have the ability to save the rest for later.

Portion sizes, like everything else in America, are just bigger.

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#197

Post by RickJWagner »

c0nducktr wrote: post #196
falcolas wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As pointed out by others, this is happening in other developed countries as well, it’s just lagging behind the US. Personally, I largely blame our learned culture of referencing “children in Africa”. Want to fuck up a child’s eating patterns for life? Force them to clean their plate.

My grandfather would say "take all you'd like, but eat all you take" which had a similar "plate clearing" idea, but was also more responsible (likely due to growing up during the great depression). The issue with the "children in africa" thing is that someone else is setting the portions for you, I think. Everywhere I go, meals are just too big! I feel silly only eating half of a meal, especially if I don't have the…

In this respect, Covid has been good for my family.

We wanted to try to help local restaurants, so we get take-out food 2 or 3 times a week. Since we're not eating in the restaurant, all the food stays at the house-- we get lots of leftovers!

I frequently tell the kids to order what they want, but eat all of it. (If not today, finish it tomorrow.)

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#198

Post by RickJWagner »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #100
martindbp wrote: post #31

I still remember driving through some small town in Arizona 10 years ago, and I couldn't find a single non-obese person there. Not just overweight, full on obese. Parents, kids, everyone. It was the one of the most bizarre experiences I've had, as a visitor. Cities are not that bad though, but I'm sure many rural parts are close to 100%.

We stopped for burgers in a Texas McDonalds in a tiny town off the beaten path. Every single person inside was obese. It was actually embarrassing trying to squeeze by people on my way to find the end of the line, and we decided to just have one person order the food instead of all three of us contributing to the awkwardness of the human body version of bumper cars. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. Living…

Sort of conflicts with the narrative that urban centers are being victimized by Dollar General and the like, contributing to ill-health for city dwellers.

IMHO, the problem is wide-spread. (No pun intended.)

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#199

Post by loftyal »

falcolas wrote: post #182

I mean, duh? Eating makes you feel good. It releases all kinds of feel-good chemicals in your body, and it just feels good to be, if not full, satiated. It's an activity chock-full of positive reinforcements. Exercise, in contrast, is filled with various forms of pain (short and long term) and lots of tedium. If you're lucky, you get an endorphin rush to help offset these, but not everybody (and not every exercise re…

The ironic thing is, the genetics that are making us unhealthy, are the exacts ones that made us healthy and able to survive when calories were scarce and intermittent.

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#200

Post by fantod »

hossbeast wrote: post #191
hombre_fatal wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We stopped for burgers in a Texas McDonalds in a tiny town off the beaten path. Every single person inside was obese. It was actually embarrassing trying to squeeze by people on my way to find the end of the line, and we decided to just have one person order the food instead of all three of us contributing to the awkwardness of the human body version of bumper cars. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. Living…

That last sentence doesn't seem to follow. Why do you place the blame on "the society"?

Unhealthy food can be hard to avoid.
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