Obesity has become a global issue

[Jim Logajan]

A recently deleted thread about fat Americans got me looking for stats on the subject when I ran across the following fresh news stories. Since that thread got deleted and I wanted to share what I found I thought I'd start this one.

http://www.medicaldaily.com/obesity-epidemic-global-problem-30-worlds-population-overweight-2013-america-still-heaviest-285178

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2014/05/29/no-country-immune-to-battle-bulge-as-30-pct-world-is-obese/?cmpid=GoogleNewsEditorsPicks&google_editors_picks=true

LONDON (AP) – Almost a third of the world is now fat, and no country has been able to curb obesity rates in the last three decades, according to a new global analysis.

Researchers found more than 2 billion people worldwide are now overweight or obese. The highest rates were in the Middle East and North Africa, where nearly 60 percent of men and 65 percent of women are heavy. The U.S. has about 13 percent of the world's fat population, a greater percentage than any other country. China and India combined have about 15 percent.​

 

[Cpt_Kirk]

I posted in that thread, and then it was deleted. I don't feel like remaking my points, so I'll sum it up with this picture.

 

[Jay Honeck]

I view this as a measure of the success of farm technology. Without the incredible advances of crops like "Roundup Ready" corn, we would be facing worldwide famine, rather than worldwide obesity.

As bad as obesity is, I suspect most people would rather die fat than hungry. YMMV.

 

[timwinters]

It's also due to the success of drive thru windows at convenience stores where mom can get her 64oz soda refilled and buy hotdogs to feed to her kids for breakfast without even prying her fat azz out of the mini-van.

 

[N801BH]

I view this as a measure of the success of farm technology. Without the incredible advances of crops like "Roundup Ready" corn, we would be facing worldwide famine, rather than worldwide obesity.

As bad as obesity is, I suspect most people would rather die fat than hungry. YMMV.

I respectfully disagree....

I view obesity as a TOTAL lack of will power, self control and weak minded people.. They are EVERYWHERE...........

And I will use my very controversial ( D ) word......

Obese people are "disgusting"......... There, I said it.

Give me a minute to put on my flame suit... ......

 

[Geico266]

It is more expensive to eat healthy food than the processed and ready to eat crap. I see many, many kids in the summer shopping for breakfast in a gas station because mom or dad is too lazy to fix a bowl of cerial.

It has now become the government's responsibility to feed kids before school, but during the summer the eat crap.

 

[ChrisK]

It is more expensive to eat healthy food than the processed and ready to eat crap. I see many, many kids in the summer shopping for breakfast in a gas station because mom or dad is too lazy to fix a bowl of cerial.

If a kid can shop at a gas station they can pour their own damn cereal.

 

[frfly172]

It's just easier to get fat. Staying in shape takes work,and willpower.

 

[Geico266]

If a kid can shop at a gas station they can pour their own damn cereal.

Only if mom buys the milk and cerial? Once the habit of eating junk starts it is hard to stop.

 

[frfly172]

Obesity is great for the personal motorized scooter business .

 

[ClimbnSink]

It is more expensive to eat healthy food than the processed and ready to eat crap. I see many, many kids in the summer shopping for breakfast in a gas station because mom or dad is too lazy to fix a bowl of cerial.

It has now become the government's responsibility to feed kids before school, but during the summer the eat crap.

Not by much. Harvard funded a big study on this and they were shocked to learn it only cost 1.50 more per day to eat healthy. No idea what their measures were but I'd guess excepting the fast food dollar menu eating decent is cheaper. A dozen eggs costs less then a bag of doritos. One will fuel you for a few days one for a few minutes and make you fat and disgusting. Of course people would stomp free eggs to get a bag of chips.

 

[Geico266]

Not by much. Harvard funded a big study on this and they were shocked to learn it only cost 1.50 more per day to eat healthy. No idea what their measures were but I'd guess excepting the fast food dollar menu eating decent is cheaper. A dozen eggs costs less then a bag of doritos. One will fuel you for a few days one for a few minutes and make you fat and disgusting. Of course people would stomp free eggs to get a bag of chips.

How old was that study, and have you seen prices in the stores lately? What isn't calculated in their study is the time and engery used to make the meals. Easier for mom to open a bag than cook eggs.

Seriously, go into a convince store in the summer and watch the kids in there in the morning getting food. Kids should not be allowed into those stores under 18.

 

[timwinters]

Harvard funded a big study on this and they were shocked to learn it only cost 1.50 more per day to eat healthy.

While I tend not to cut obese people any slack, there are legitimate hurdles to eating healthy for some, especially those in inner-cities. One major hurdle is a lack of grocery stores. The city I'm most familiar with, St. Louis, has no grocery stores on the north side...the poor side of course. But, hey, there's a McDs on nearly every corner.

I read a few years ago the Detroit doesn't have a grocery store inside the city limits...anywhere.

It's hard to eat healthy when you have zero options.

 

[Geico266]

While I tend not to cut obese people any slack, there are legitimate hurdles to eating healthy for some, especially those in inner-cities. One major hurdle is a lack of grocery stores. The city I'm most familiar with, St. Louis, has no grocery stores on the north side...the poor side of course. But, hey, there's a McDs on nearly every corner.

I read a few years ago the Detroit doesn't have a grocery store inside the city limits...anywhere.

It's hard to eat healthy when you have zero options.

Exactly!

It's hard for the "intellectuals" at Harvard to calculate that into their study.

 

[B350ATP]

Junk food is cheaper than healthy food.

 

[ClimbnSink]

http://harvardmagazine.com/2014/03/the-price-of-healthy-eating Easy read on the study. It comes down to profit and weak people, most fat people are purveyors of sloth/stupidity not victims of circumstance. I know a woman who has a masters in physical education works as a gym teacher and is a whale. Isn't having obese gym teachers the same as having illiterate english teachers?

 

[JOhnH]

If a kid can shop at a gas station they can pour their own damn cereal.

Cereal is almost as guilty as soda in regards to the obesity epidemic. Even the whole grain variety is made from genetically modified ingredients that the human body is not designed to digest. Of course, some humans digest it better than others. They are the ones that say obesity is purely a lack of will power.

 

[LDJones]

see many, many kids in the summer shopping for breakfast in a gas station because mom or dad is too lazy to fix a bowl of cereal.

Cereal is fundamentally at the root of the problem. The Food Pyramid overemphasizing grains is a huge piece of the obesity epidemic puzzle.

 

[LDJones]

Obesity is great for the personal motorized scooter business .

So is govt funding for them.

 

[JGoodish]

Eating "unhealthy" doesn't make you overweight. Over-consumption and lack of physical activity makes you overweight. You can eat McDonald's everyday and actually LOSE weight if you don't over-consume and discipline yourself to exercise, which by the way does not require a gym membership.

The real question is why obesity is such a "public health" problem. It shouldn't be, as it is a very personal issue. Your decision to eat unhealthy doesn't affect anyone but you. That is, until we socialize the idea that I'm responsible for a) feeding you; and, b) treating the resulting illnesses from your over consumption. I suspect that a good dose of individual accountability would clear up a lot of problems in this world, including the problem of obesity.


JKG

 

[Bill]

Cereal is fundamentally at the root of the problem. The Food Pyramid overemphasizing grains is a huge piece of the obesity epidemic puzzle.

If one were to eat all the servings of all the food types in the "food pyramid" one would be as big as a pyramid.

 

[AuntPeggy]

Lots of interesting research is occurring. There is no reason to believe that the sudden epidemic of world-wide obesity is caused by a world-wide epidemic of lack of will power. But, if it is, then the cause of that epidemic should be investigated.

Here is an interesting new theory: "No one knows exactly how antibiotics help animals (and possibly humans) pack on the pounds, but there are some theories. One is that antibiotics change the composition of the microbiome, the community of microorganisms in your body that scientists are just beginning to understand." http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/11/maps-antibiotics-prescriptions-obesity-states

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

People aren't hurting for money in this part of town but they are still creating W&B issues if ya know what I am sayin.

I think part of it is portion sizes are out of control and people just eat what is in front of them.

The wife and I have started splitting a meal if we go out. We started doing this just to save money. We have noticed that even when splitting a meal, we walk away feeling that we have over eaten.

Look at the amount of food you get when you order a single order of fajitas at a mexican restaurant. What one person could eat all of that?

I drove through Taco Bueno the other day to get Tea. Ordered a large. The large cup was insane.

I suspect people's portion sizes at home are growing as well. You probably get used to seeing a certain amount of junk in front of you.

I have no studies and I am just speculating but being overweight is not limited to poor people but I bet it might be less optional for them.

That being said I got about 10 pounds I could drop. I should go running.

 

[cgrab]

While I tend not to cut obese people any slack, there are legitimate hurdles to eating healthy for some, especially those in inner-cities. One major hurdle is a lack of grocery stores. The city I'm most familiar with, St. Louis, has no grocery stores on the north side...the poor side of course. But, hey, there's a McDs on nearly every corner.

I read a few years ago the Detroit doesn't have a grocery store inside the city limits...anywhere.

It's hard to eat healthy when you have zero options.

I lived in Portsmouth VA for many years and it was horrible to see the affluent side of town fight against a WalMart moving into "the projects." There was one expensive grocer on the east side of town but now with WalMart the people ther are getting much better choice in food at lower prices. DISCLAMER-I hate Walmart and won't shop there, they bought a lot behind my house in MD (why I moved to VA) and ruined the neighborhood. But it can be beneficial at times.

 

[Bill]

most fat people are purveyors of sloth/stupidity not victims of circumstance.

My neighbor across the street:

Every day, after the mail comes, I see this happen. The garage door (automatic opener, of course) comes up, the minivan backs out of the driveway. It jockeys around until she can pull up to the mailbox and get the mail. She jockeys around in the street until she can pull back into the driveway, into the garage, and the door comes down.

Yes, she can't stand to walk to the curb to get the mail. She's a large woman, and has an equally large brood of porcine piglets. Those kids were doomed by birth lottery.

My neighbors next door are also very large, I *never* see them outside, ever. (other than to get into a car) They hire local teens to cut the grass and rake leaves, etc. God forbid you might do that yourself.

 

[steingar]

Cereal is almost as guilty as soda in regards to the obesity epidemic. Even the whole grain variety is made from genetically modified ingredients that the human body is not designed to digest. Of course, some humans digest it better than others.

This is anti-science blather at its worst. Exactly which undigestible ingredients have been introduced into cereal crops?

What really gets me is people who complain about genet science but have no clue that the food stuffs they eat were all heavily modified well before the advent of genetic engineering technology. Bananas are a man-made hybrid and don't live without cultivation (as are roses, which are a special class of mutants referred to as homeotic, as most flower parts are turned into petals). Maize is a grass, do you think it developed the giant seed pod all by itself? Most cereals were heavily modified by hybridization in the green revolution of the 50s to respond better to fertilizers.

Breakfast cereals can lead to obesity in children because they're all stocked full of sugar, more than some candies. Not only can this make children obese, but can lead to hyperactivity and inattentiveness in the classroom when all that glucose is delivered to tissues and metabolized.

It is sad (though unsurprising) that the gains we've made in caloric sufficiency have led to an epidemic of obesity. Law of unintended consequences. Easy way to stay thin, calories in equals calories out. That said, the number of people who understand the caloric content of their food is vanishingly small. The number who understand and have the wherewithal to abstain from high calorie foods is smaller still.

 

[SCCutler]

Bryan's observations about portion size are on point, and CJane and I have started to split portions, with the same effect Bryan notes - no sense of being underfed at all. I don't mind the split-plate charge.

---

When I was college age, I could literally eat all the food I could stand to cram into my gullet, and gain no weight over my nominal (and "nominal" was not fat). Such is no longer the case (and has not been for some time), though, and habits are hard to change. It is difficult to change learned behavior - I love big, hearty food, the satisfying sensation of eating a big, thick burger, a rich, butter-and-sugar-dripping cinnamon roll.

On the other hand, I dislike the sense of being stuffed that so often accompanies eating even remotely like I have traditionally done, and I am trying to effect change... with limited success.

Eat less and exercise. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

---

Bill's story about the neighbor driving down the driveway to pick up the mail would sound ridiculous - in fact, it does sound ridiculous - but I've seen similar and worse.

 

[JB1842]

Food isn't the main problem. Lack of activity and lack of information is. Not to put this into the Spin Zone, but if the government would have used the millions of dollars they wasted in the school lunch program and put it into funding gym classes, nutrition classes, and recess back into schools, I bet in the long run people will be less obeses. My senior year in high school I was so bust with sports and other activities, it seemed that my main meal at time time was a double quarter pounder meal at McD's. I joined the Marine Corps after I graduated at 6'1, 185. Food didn't make me fat. Now I rarely eat McD's, and I try to be eat healthier, but my activity level isn't the same, and I weight more now.

 

[SCCutler]

Typical "meal" when I was in college: Drive to the "BK Lounge" (Burger King); 2 double-meat Whoppers with cheese, order of rings, vanilla shake and a large Dr. Pepper.

Makes me ill just to type it, now.

 

[steingar]

Many, if not most of us could ingest more and gain less when we were younger. The only thing that changed my weight in my youth was lifting weights, though the changes were in a positive direction. The greatest tragedy of my life is by the time I began enjoying potato chips I could no longer eat them without consequence. I know, I've led a charmed life. Still, now I can't so much as look at a bag of potato chips without gaining weight.

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

My neighbor across the street:

Every day, after the mail comes, I see this happen. The garage door (automatic opener, of course) comes up, the minivan backs out of the driveway. It jockeys around until she can pull up to the mailbox and get the mail. She jockeys around in the street until she can pull back into the driveway, into the garage, and the door comes down.

Yes, she can't stand to walk to the curb to get the mail. She's a large woman, and has an equally large brood of porcine piglets. Those kids were doomed by birth lottery.

My neighbors next door are also very large, I *never* see them outside, ever. (other than to get into a car) They hire local teens to cut the grass and rake leaves, etc. God forbid you might do that yourself.

How does one let them self get to that point?
unreal.

 

[Matthew]

I never see fat lawn care and landscape guys.

 

[FastEddieB]

Oversimplifying by a hair, but...

...basically, calories in vs. calories out.

Excess in = weight gain. 3,500 calories excess in will equal 1 lb. of gain.

Excess out = weight loss. 3,500 calories excess out will equal 1 lb. of loss.

100 calories a day change will equal a pound in either direction every 35 days - and it can really add up over years and decades.

The exact balance of carbohydrates/proteins/fat is not that big a factor - humans can deal with a wide range of proportions in these macronutrients. Within reason, of course.

 

[Marauder]

I never see fat lawn care and landscape guys.

Follow them for a day and watch where they stop to eat and which store they stop at for their evening beer run.


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[Matthew]

Follow them for a day and watch where they stop to eat and which store they stop at for their evening beer run.


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I guess I need to be eating breakfast and lunch every day at QuickTrip. Dunno where I should buy my beer, though.

 

[Marauder]

Oversimplifying by a hair, but...



...basically, calories in vs. calories out.



Excess in = weight gain. 3,500 calories excess in will equal 1 lb. of gain.



Excess out = weight loss. 3,500 calories excess out will equal 1 lb. of loss.



100 calories a day change will equal a pound in either direction every 35 days - and it can really add up over years and decades.



The exact balance of carbohydrates/proteins/fat is not that big a factor - humans can deal with a wide range of proportions in these macronutrients. Within reason, of course.

Exactly! I have been maintaining my 220 pounds (down from 290+) for 2.5 years based on these facts. The first time I lost it was due to the fact that I exercised 3 hours a night and ate what I wanted. When the exercising slowed, the weight came back. I use a calorie counting app daily and religiously track everything I eat, my BMR and whatever exercise I do for the day. It works, but it does require a discipline.


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[FastEddieB]

Both my parents were heavy. So I hardly won any genetics "lottery".

I'm 64 and 6'1".

I've set 190 lbs as an upper limit and 180 lbs as a goal. Normally hover between 184 to 188.

When I start to approach the upper limit, I keep eating normally, but limit portion size.

When I gleefully approach the lower limit, the old "permission pill" psychology kicks in and I tend to gain some if it back from sloppy eating habits.

BTW, from about 20, people lose about 10% of their muscle mass per decade on average. So, depressingly, even those who maintain a steady weight throughout their lives are inevitable getting "fatter".

Bummer.

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

BTW, from about 20, people lose about 10% of their muscle mass per decade on average. So, depressingly, even those who maintain a steady weight throughout their lives are inevitable getting "fatter".

Bummer.

Well isn't that just a **** sandwich.

 

[N801BH]

.......---

Bill's story about the neighbor driving down the driveway to pick up the mail would sound ridiculous - in fact, it does sound ridiculous - but I've seen similar and worse.

And this brings up another driving factor... no pun intended.......

With the proliferation of handicapped parking spots at all the malls, groceries, etc,etc.... It has led to a unintended byproduct of obesity... Instead of parking far away from the store, most fat people get themselves their little blue tag for their rear view mirror, park right in front of the door of the store and waddle in.....

Think I am kiddin,,, just pay attention to who gets out of all the cars/trucks parked in handicapped spots.... Hint,,,99.992% will NOT be in a wheelchair.......

 

[cowman]

I am one of those people not pre-disposed to getting huge but a couple of years back I was working at a desk job and noticed that over the past few years my weight had been creeping up. Before this I always weighed 175-185lbs. It would go up or down usually seasonally and I didn't worry much about it. Well after sitting at a desk for a few years and eating my meals on a fixed schedule every day rather than when I was hungry, I was over 190 and headed towards 200... so I decided I'd better do something and for the first time in my life I started monitoring and restricting my intake. Basically backed myself off to 1 soda per day and lots of water, then an upper limit of 1000calories for lunch... usually 600-800 if possible. Nothing happened for about 2 weeks of this, then the weight started falling off. Got back to my 185 and had to keep the discipline up to maintain that.

Then last year I was fortunate enough to be able to quit that job and be on my own schedule again. Not really controlling my intake anymore but my weight is slowly trending down, just about to 180 now. Part of that is being more physically active but another part is that I only eat when I'm hungry and only what I need to get over being hungry- not on a schedule. Eg instead of a lunch at noon each day I just grab a handful of chips or a cheese stick or something half the time and continue on with whatever I'm doing.

Lunch isn't the highlight of my day now. What I'm working on is, the food is just a distraction. This is the opposite of what I experienced in dreary cubicle world.