| Author | Message | ||
     Ligeti Man Meat Citizen Username: Ligeti Post Number: 741 Registered: 7-2002  |
The average American is 25 pounds heavier than 40 years ago. Your reaction. Reject the supersizing of American food, guns, stores, TVs, cars and computers, which are mostly computing things that don't need to be computed. | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 1574 Registered: 7-2005  |
Stores, TVs, guns, cars? They had all of those 40 years ago. Get real...well at least get some decent connections between your intial statement and your "solution". | ||
| greenetree Supporter Username: Greenetree Post Number: 8717 Registered: 5-2001  |
Considering that I was in kindergaren 40 years ago, 25 pounds heavier now doesn't sound too bad to me. I don't eat guns or tv's, so I don't think that any weight gain can be linked to that. Unless you are holding a gun or tv while standing on a scale. I'll have to figure out how to live here and stop eating American food. Switch to Thai? | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 1576 Registered: 7-2005 |
Your whole premise is flawed as well. Humans have been getting larger in general for years. Better basic nutrition causes many humans to grow taller, stronger, faster than the generation before them. Look at sports. Oh did I mention they had computers 40 years ago, too? Guess I didn't. | ||
| fabulouswalls Citizen Username: Fabulouswalls Post Number: 164 Registered: 10-2005  |
Americans are lazier and spoiled? | ||
| Pippi Supporter Username: Pippi Post Number: 2665 Registered: 8-2003  |
glock - yes, computers existed 40 years ago, but there wasn't at least one in every household. Average Americans did not have access to computers on a regular basis. | ||
| composerjohn Citizen Username: Composerjohn  Post Number: 909 Registered: 8-2004  |
For what it's worth, I'm about 15 pounds over my ideal weight. I guess that isn't too bad, but still.... I need to lose some pounds! | ||
| tjohn Supporter Username: Tjohn Post Number: 4561 Registered: 12-2001  |
I order kids' meals if I go to MacDonalds or Burger King. Thirty years ago, what is now a kids' meal was more like an adult portion. | ||
| Hank Zona Supporter Username: Hankzona Post Number: 6036 Registered: 3-2002  |
people are bigger in general than a generation ago...average heights as well as weights are increasing this generation has more of the evil high fructose corn syrup and saturated fats and palm oils and the like integrated into food. we're a society on the run...we eat on the run...we eat conveniently...often that makes it harder to eat properly. we probably eat more pre-prepared/pre-packaged foods. Fast food options arent much better...even those coffee drinks from Dunkin Donuts have more fat and calories than a Big Mac. average portion sizes are larger. We've been supersized, especially by the soft drink industry. And, if you eat a whole box of low fat SnackWell cookies, youre not cutting back on calories. food companies keep ratcheting up the stakes (and calories)...how many more food items can be made with a new chocolate variety? the FDA recommended daily allowance of calories is high. Why? When the numbers were being established, the food industry lobbied to have the recommended calories raised from where they were going to be established...they won. a good portion of our culture is more sedentary...computers and TV dont help in many of those cases. | ||
| Ligeti Man Meat Citizen Username: Ligeti Post Number: 742 Registered: 7-2002 |
"Better basic nutrition causes many humans to grow taller, stronger, faster than the generation before them. Look at sports." That one's a riot! When visitors from Asia and Europe take a look at the portions Americans eat, and the huge glops of transfat we stuff into our pie holes, they are horrified. | ||
| tjohn Supporter Username: Tjohn Post Number: 4563 Registered: 12-2001 |
The taller, stronger, faster is not the problem. It's the wider that is the problem. | ||
| greenetree Supporter Username: Greenetree Post Number: 8719 Registered: 5-2001 |
All kidding aside, there is a proven epidemic of obesity in the US. People are skeletally larger, but body fat is disproportionally larger. You can't argue with the mountain range of evidence and research that supports this. Kids are suffering from higher cholesterol and other weight/diet related problems much younger. Type II diabetes (diet related) rates are soaring. Large, long term epidemiologic studies have found that people from Asian countries with traditionally healthier diets (less unhealthy fat, more fresh vessies and fish) who change to a Western diet catch up to the unhealthy weights and resultant problems. Our portions are outrageous compared to Europeans. The link to guns and obesity is one that I don't get. You could even say that being out hunting is exercise, I suppose. But spending more time in the car, in front of the computer or tv has contributed to the problem. | ||
| Innisowen Citizen Username: Innisowen Post Number: 2162 Registered: 3-2004 |
People are getting bigger in countries where there has been improvement in nutrition. I think that the poster's point is that a number of Americans are growing not upwards but outwards from the middle and taking up more horizontal space than vertical room. Obesity is one of our most significant and "growing" health problems. It's scary when you compare Americans to citizens of other developed countries. From a non-scientific, man-in-the-street point of view, we seem to be holding the record for fat, overweight, over-fed, bulging people. | ||
| Lizziecat Citizen Username: Lizziecat Post Number: 1340 Registered: 5-2003 |
Who decides what constitutes overweight? What standards are there for obesity? If you look at the paintings by Rembrandt and Renoir, their nudes could be classified as obese, yet they set the standard for beauty for their time. Even Marilyn Monroe would be considered overweight by today's standards. What right does anyone have to decide how much horizontal space another person may occupy? Why should "wider" be a problem? If you look back a few decades, you will find advertisements for products to help people--women especially--gain weight. Thinness was considered to be unattractive and sickly. These things go in cycles. Whether or not it is "unhealthy" to be large is still debatable. In the meantime, large people should not become the scapegoats for everything that offends us about the society in which we live. | ||
| Innisowen Citizen Username: Innisowen Post Number: 2164 Registered: 3-2004 |
Just look at Insurance Institute and NIH statistics on the health of Americans to gauge the impact that obesity is having on your health insurance rates, your health care and medical costs, and mine. There is to my mind a difference between obesity and a life style that leads to obesity, and being stocky or stout, as it used to be known. | ||
| Joe Citizen Username: Gonets Post Number: 1307 Registered: 2-2004 |
Connections have also been made between community design and obesity. Areas known for suburban sprawl typically have higher percentages of obesity among the population than do cities and/or walkable communities. I think this town is a good example, just pure observation it seems that the ratio of obesity among people in this town is lower than you'd see elsewhere. Very nonscientific, and it just occurred to me the other day. Have no idea whether or not this perception is accurate. | ||
| Arnomation Citizen Username: Arnomation Post Number: 662 Registered: 7-2003  |
Who decides what constitutes overweight? What standards are there for obesity? Insurance companies. Most of those charts are out of date anyway. They say a 6' 3" Male should weigh between 158-202 depending on their frame. Can you imagine what a 6'3" person that only weighed 158 would look like? Also, muscle weighs more than fat so if you looked at say, Lou Ferrigno's height and weight on paper (6' 4" 275) you'd think he was a big fat pig and the insurance companies would consider him obese when in fact he's in peak physical condition. | ||
| Michaela Citizen Username: Mayquene Post Number: 227 Registered: 1-2004  |
Maybe we are less likely now to engage in physical activity, either for fun or out of necessity? People work in fewer physical jobs and we live in a world where we often have to schedule exercise. | ||
| thegoodsgt Citizen Username: Thegoodsgt Post Number: 1027 Registered: 2-2002  |
They're fat because they won't walk their shopping carts back to the store or cart carrel. | ||
| sac Supporter Username: Sac Post Number: 3621 Registered: 5-2001 |
On the other hand, computers are much smaller than they were 40 years ago ... | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 1580 Registered: 7-2005 |
Um, Arnomation I'm 6'3' 154 pounds. I take offense to that remark you made. Despite being a wee bit skinny...I look perfectly normal. | ||
| cjc Citizen Username: Cjc Post Number: 5780 Registered: 8-2003 |
Michaela has it right. We aren't necessarily a population 'on the run' anymore. It's raising healthcare costs around the nation. I say tax the obese as you do with smokers, and charge them higher healthcare premiums. It's for their own good, and society in general. | ||
| Virtual It Girl Citizen Username: Shh Post Number: 4846 Registered: 5-2001 |
Besides fast food and pre-packaged food, I blame the microwave! Years ago you used to have to plan a meal ahead of time and wait to eat it, now it's instantaneous. Last night's leftovers get reheated for lunch in between posts, everything is done on the go. | ||
| Arnomation Citizen Username: Arnomation Post Number: 663 Registered: 7-2003 |
I'm 6'3' 154 pounds. How old are you? Are you still a teenager? Look at someone like Phil Simms. He's 6' 3" 215 and he looks perfectly normal and is in great shape yet according to the chart he's overweight. I can't imagine that two people of the same height can be 61 lbs apart and both look perfectly normal. | ||
| greenetree Supporter Username: Greenetree Post Number: 8726 Registered: 5-2001 |
Lizzie - I don't think that anyone here would argue that a 5'6" woman over 110lbs. and who can't wear a size 4 is the "obese". There is a range of healthy weights, as in: lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, musculoskeletal injury, etc. You don't have to be thin or "not curvy" to be healthy. One of the reasons that I have so much trouble being motivated to lose weight is that my BP and cholesterol are normal. So, does that make me "unhealthy"? My doctor doesn't think so. But, as I get older and continue to not exercise, I am putting myself at risk of future problems. | ||
| new_2_nj Citizen Username: New_2_nj Post Number: 13 Registered: 4-2005 |
We also work a lot more, which leads to increased stress, less time to exercise, and less time to prepare fresh meals. All those factors lead to weight gain. Taken from Outdoor Magazine's June 2006 issue... "As a nation, we Americans are among the hardest-working people on earth. A 2001 United Nations report found that we work 49.5 weeks a year—3.5 weeks more than the Japanese, a people who even have a word for working yourself to death: karoshi. Compared with the Europeans, our addiction to the desk is even more profound. We put in 6.5 more weeks of work than the Brits and 12.5 more weeks than the Germans." And these are averages!!!! Imagine if they looked at the Northeast alone?!?! No wonder people are getting heavy because those stats make me seriously depressed (which ALSO can lead to weight gain). Here's a link to the entire article (which is really about the need to take unmolested vacations (eg. sans crackberry) not the obesity epidemic). http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200606/el-salvador-vacation-1.html | ||
| Bajou Citizen Username: Bajou Post Number: 1393 Registered: 2-2006  |
I am 5'6 and well rounded or as they say in Austria: She can survive a winter in the Alps (mountains). I got no problem with that. I think i'll move to Mauritania, they'll appreciate me there: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3429903.stm  There's a plate for us, Somewhere a plate for us. Pieces of chicken and open air Wait for us somewhere. There's a swine for us, Someday a chop for us. Time together with time to spare ribs, Time to eat, time to not care. Someday, somewhere We'll find a new way of living with my weight, We'll find a way of forgiving the skinny bitches, Somewhere. There's a plate for us, A bowl and plate for us. Hold my lamb shank and we're halfway there Hold my turkey leg and I'll take you there, Somehow, someday, somewhere. | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 1584 Registered: 7-2005 |
I'm 18, and a swimmer. Whatever you, say Arnomotion. Just know what you can 'imagine' and reality are different things. | ||
| Strings Supporter Username: Blue_eyes Post Number: 897 Registered: 4-2004  |
Athletes and bodybuilders fall into a different catagory... most of them are technically "overweight", but it's muscle, not fat. Many athletes ignore scales and BMI because they are irrelevant to someone who has built up as much muscle as they have, which we all know is denser than fat (not "weigh more). Obviously, these people are not the overweight Americans that all the studies are focusing on, at least I hope they're not included. Anyway, Americans are now "too fat for Xrays, scans" If you really want to find time for exercise and really healthful eating, it's out there, but it does take some extra energy and effort that many feel they're too tired for. The ironic thing is that increasing exercise and eating well actually make you feel better and sleep better leading to a more rested, healthier you. Go figure. | ||
| SO Ref Citizen Username: So_refugee Post Number: 2006 Registered: 2-2005  |
I've always had a weight problem that I blame on my mother. She thought it was harder to kidnap a fat kid. 40 years ago, not everything contained high fructose corn syrup. It's cheaper than using cane sugar - thus in widespread use - and the body stores it more quickly as fat - hence we become fatter more efficiently. | ||
| campbell29 Citizen Username: Campbell29 Post Number: 526 Registered: 4-2002 |
A lot of it also has to do with genetics. Some people are predisposed to have a certain body shape, for the good or for the bad. Those who are bodily likely to be overweight need to carefully monitor what they eat, and unfortunately as somebody said, with gigantic portions, fast food and the fact that you work 10 hours a day doesn't leave much time for healthy dietary habits. I have a brother in law who eats nothing but fast food (or its equivalent) and he is pretty thin. I have a sister who works out, plays tennis 3 times a week and watches everything that she eats, and she is still about 10lbs overweight. PS - I don't think Bajou could survive winter in the alps without food. She is giving herself no credit. | ||
| combustion Citizen Username: Spontaneous Post Number: 284 Registered: 4-2006  |
Don't blame genetics. Do you really think we evolved that much in the last century to show that kind of change? Evolution (and genetic change) takes eons. The changes we're seeing are environmental. That said, I'd like to point out that I'm not overweight, my doctor simply has the wrong height listed for me. He claims that I'm 5'6", but I'm actually 6'2", therefore, I'm the PERFECT weight for my height! Now if I could only make my silly doctor understand that. | ||
| notehead Supporter Username: Notehead Post Number: 3623 Registered: 5-2001  |
The average American is 25 pounds heavier than 40 years ago. The phrasing reminds of a Monty Python skit that went something like this... Newscaster: "In New York City, a person is mugged roughly every 12 seconds. Tonight, we'll meet that person." On a more serious note, I think there are both cultural and environmental reasons why obesity has become such a growing problem. (!) Although many of us lead more sedentary lives than the average person did a few decades ago, I agree with SO Ref that the foremost reason for the obesity epidemic is the unbelievably huge amount of high fructose corn syrup that we ingest. Also, the mechanisms of evolution have simply not prepared us as a species for the easy availability of ice cream. It's really not fair. | ||
| Josh Holtz Citizen Username: Jholtz Post Number: 554 Registered: 4-2004 |
How about TV watching? The average American household watches over 8 hours of TV a day.The average person watches over 4 1/2 hours of TV a day. These numbers are incredible. They also do not include how much time is spent in front of the computer. An adult who works a full day (maybe in front of a computer screen) and then spends that much time on the couch or on a chair in front of a TV screen cannot be burning calories. Kids who are inside watching TV after school, before and after dinner, are not outside running around. We as America are getting more obese by the day and we have only ourselves to blame. | ||
| fabulouswalls Citizen Username: Fabulouswalls Post Number: 170 Registered: 10-2005 |
As I stated in previous post. http://www.southorangevillage.com/cgi-bin/show.cgi?tpc=3127&post=661193#POST6611 93 | ||
| Rastro Citizen Username: Rastro Post Number: 3649 Registered: 5-2004  |
I'm sure I'll get pummeled for this, but... How about acceptability? When I was younger, there was no one telling peple it was wrong to make fun of "fat" people. there were no groups fighting for the rights of oveweight people. No one thought of suing a fast food restaurant for making them fat. That said, I do think there is a difference between overweight and unhealthy. One can be above the "charted" weight for their height, and still be healthy. One can be in the appropriate weight range and still be incredibly unhealthy. Like most other aspects of our culture, we're lazy in how we label people. Fat == unhealthy. Thin == healthy. How about we let the doctor decide if each of us is healthy, and leave the weight issue where it belongs - in grade school jokes.   | ||
| Pippi Supporter Username: Pippi Post Number: 2674 Registered: 8-2003 |
"How about we let the doctor decide if each of us is healthy" Rastro - I have a girlfriend who is obese - at least 100 pounds above where she should be ( and I don't even mean 100 pounds above a size 4, I mean 100 pounds above a size 10 or 12). She is 36 years old, about 5'3" or 5' 4", has 3 beautiful children under age 10, and smokes a little bit. I cannot believe that her weight is healthy and, yet, she tells me that her doctor doesn't really push her to lose weight. | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 1615 Registered: 7-2005 |
Well, Rastro...I think we label them that way because...THERE ARE FAT PEOPLE AND THERE ARE THIN PEOPLE. It's just that simple. | ||
| Rastro Citizen Username: Rastro Post Number: 3651 Registered: 5-2004 |
Just because her doctor doesn't push her to lose weight doesn't mean she's not unhealthy. It simply means she doesn't have a very good doctor, or maybe he's tried in the past, or maybe she's no honest about what her doctor tells her. Either way, I trust a doctor to tell me if I'm unhealthy more than I trust some newspaper article or statistical chart from 50 years ago (or a message board post) | ||
| Rastro Citizen Username: Rastro Post Number: 3652 Registered: 5-2004 |
Glock, perhaps you didn't understand what I said. I did not say that we should not call fat people fat (though I did imply that it was grade school humor to do so). I said that calling someone who is heavy unhealthy just because they appear to be overweight is ignorant. Just like calling you unhealthy because you're tall and don't weigh very much would be ignorant. |
