Presenting 14 Years Of Exponential American Obesity

Perfect formula for obesity:

1. Too busy working to cook healthy food; trying to survive economic slavery.

2. Too busy with school to cook healthy food; hoping to not become a victim of economic slavery.

3. A fastfood double cheeseburger is cheaper than fresh vegetables; artificial, mechanized, and government-subsidized food and cash-crops.

Originally posted by LightSpeedDriver
A recent police study found that you're much more likely to get shot by a fat cop if you run.

ETA All joking aside, the main cause is soda pop (sugar does turn to fat) and fast food. Not everything people like to eat is good for them.

edit on 2/4/12 by LightSpeedDriver because: ETA

Salt too! I'm middle aged, white male with the common USA white guy disease (high cholesterol, high blood pressure, a little over weight). So, my BP slowly creeped up over the last year. To combat this, I cut out all use of salt. No more using the table salt on my foods (we use Sea salt). Eggs were probably the hardest to adjust to, but after a month, I don't even miss it on eggs. I'm STILL getting too much I'm sure just on processed foods, of which, I eat very little. Anyway, my BP went from the 160/170's/90-98 to the low to mid 140's and mid 80's. I also lost 23 pounds (slowly over the course of about 9 months).

Cut out the salt!

Originally posted by Sahabi
Perfect formula for obesity:

1. Too busy working to cook healthy food; trying to survive economic slavery.

2. Too busy with school to cook healthy food; hoping to not become a victim of economic slavery.

Actually, it would likely be less time consuming to make meals for the week one time, than to drive for fast food every day, or even twice or thrice.

3. A fastfood double cheeseburger is cheaper than fresh vegetables; artificial, mechanized, and government-subsidized food and cash-crops.

This just isn't true. In general, fast food is expensive, compared to home cooked meals.

Originally posted by unityemissions

Originally posted by Sahabi
Perfect formula for obesity:

1. Too busy working to cook healthy food; trying to survive economic slavery.

2. Too busy with school to cook healthy food; hoping to not become a victim of economic slavery.

Actually, it would likely be less time consuming to make meals for the week one time, than to drive for fast food every day, or even twice or thrice.

3. A fastfood double cheeseburger is cheaper than fresh vegetables; artificial, mechanized, and government-subsidized food and cash-crops.

This just isn't true. In general, fast food is expensive, compared to home cooked meals.

I agree. Regularly eating fast food is quite expensive. So is constantly buying soda/juice instead of just drinking water. People can eat much healthier for a comparable price to constantly eating fast food/processed crap.

It's mostly laziness. People have time to watch their favorite shows, surf the internet, buy the newest electronics, participate in forums like ATS, play video games, etc, yet don't have time to cook a meal or jog for 20 mins 3-4 times per week?

Just laziness for the most part. We all pass fat people in super markets throwing bags of chips/cookies, cases of soda/beer, and stacks of processed meals in their carts. You can get a pre baked, whole chicken and a bag of brown rice for under $10, and that will feed a family of four, and is considerably cheaper than buy fast food or going out and paying for a family of four. Buying romaine lettuce, a healthy dressing, and adding a few tomatoes in NOT more expensive than #4 from Burger King, nor is eating a banana a more expensive snack than buying a candy bar.

Most of the bigger people I know have time to exercise, yet don't because they'd rather watch tv or play video games, and spend as much on food as someone who cooks their own, as they're always paying for someone else to prepare the food in a restaurant, yet how much time to they waste driving to and from restaurants and waiting for their meal to be prepared?

reply to post by wrkn4livn

I did more or less the same but via another route. No processed foods at all and no soda pop (Coca Cola contains salt too apparently which is why it isn't a good thirst quencher) at all. I can't do without my salt on food though but I guess my intake is still under the recommended maximum. Being a vegetarian makes it easier combined with no processed food. Glad to hear you noticed lots of positive effects.

reply to post by MysticPearl


I so much agree with you. I live in Colorado one of the healthiest states. The larger people have become the more excuses they seem to come up with on why they can't lose weight. I'm not knocking the legitimate folks out there that have valid medical excuses. I too see the fat (yes, I did say fat not large, obese, hefty or big boned, or any of the other politically correct monikers) pile the sodas, chips, ready made high sodium boxed food, cookies, candies, meat and the token head of iceberg lettuce into their grocery carts. The part that gets me is that these types of people turn right around and call me names for being the skinny b&#%h. I'm petite and can eat and do eat about the portion size of a man. I eat this amount of food for the simple fact that I have a high metabolism and I'm active. Although here lately due to my lack of activity, I have cut down on the intake. Obesity does run in my family so I try to avoid it like the plague.

It's too hot. It's too cold. It's raining. The wind is blowing. It's too far to walk. My feet hurt. Admit if folks, you're lazy. I admit that I put on about 20lbs. in the last couple of years and can directly link it to eating more carbs and sugar as well as not getting the exercise that I used to get. I became lazy and kept my butt planted firmly in the seat and drove everywhere. So what do I do? Change my eating habits to what they were before (healthy real food) and get more exercise. Gee, in the last couple of weeks I've managed to drop a few pounds and I'm feeling better.

I also feel that our entire culture is becoming inundated with the quick fixes. This diet does this. No wait, this diet is better because that diet did that. People have forgotten how to eat healthily. Instead of grabbing the bag of chips or that satisfying snickers bar, grab a handful of almonds and wash it down with some thirst quenching water, not soda. To top it all off slimness is being sold to the mass market in a pill. Sorry, we are highly developed machines and require healthy fuel not chemicals and pseudo food. It's enough for my brain to explode.

Culturally I've noticed that it's becoming more and more acceptable for fat to be the norm. Being healthy is not the norm. The anorexic individuals I just want to tie to a chair and feed them. Eat something for crying out loud! A bag of bones and a self loathing image is so unattractive. Yet they are paraded in front of every one as the "ideal" image of beauty. I cry horse pucky! Healthy should be the ideal. That and those in the fashion industry should go back to what the real sizes were before. Granted people have gotten larger in height and weight, but the old size 2, 8, 12 etc. should go back to that. The new sizes are a good 1 to 2 sizes larger than what they used to be.

Where did we go wrong?

Another thing I've noticed, if it is important enough to do, then I will make the time to see it done.

Very simple: it's all in the foods you eat in combination with your energy exerted. Not really but it matters more on what types of foods you eat.

But this is one of my favorite articles:

www.westonaprice.org...

It is true that beef consumption in the United States has gone up during the last eighty years, the period of huge increases in heart disease. Today we consume 79 pounds of beef per person per year versus 54 in 1909, a 46% increase—but poultry consumption has increased a whopping 280%, from 18 pounds per person per year to 70. Consumption of vegetable oils, including those that have been hydrogenated, has increased 437%, from 11 pounds per person per year to 59; while consumption of butter, lard and tallow has plummeted from 30 pounds per person per year to just under 10. Whole milk consumption has declined by almost 50%, while lowfat milk consumption has doubled. Consumption of eggs, fresh fruits (excluding citrus), fresh vegetables, fresh potatoes and whole grain products has declined; but consumption of sugar and other sweeteners has almost doubled. Why, then, do today's politically correct dietary gurus continue to blame beef consumption for our ills? Is it because it is the one wholesome food that has shown an increase over the past ninety years?

So much for our "healthy" eating habits. We now even have fat and/or diabetic vegans/vegetarians. Also a more extensive piece of information on the timeline from the late 1800's to present of obesity from foodworksbolog.wordpress.com:

1930 Margarine comsumption reaches 2.6 lbs per capita but by 1957 it had increased to 9lbs, surpassing butter for the first time.

1937 Columbia university biochemists Rittenberg and Schoenheimer demonstrated that dietary cholesterol had little or no influence over blood cholesterol levels which to this day has not been refuted.

1978 High fructose corn sweetner enters the market, by 1985, 50% of the sweetner is consumed in America.

An interesting read on the history of obesity.

reply to post by unityemissions

reply to post by MysticPearl

reply to post by dreamreader



*** Hey, I'm not defending those 3 points as personal justifications. I live and eat very naturally and healthy. I'm merely observing the system that was created for cheap and convenient food to cause disease through nutritional depravation.

• All of those fast food places have $1 menu items. If you stick to just those, then eating fast food is cheaper than a natural/organic home-cooked meal.

• If a person stops by a fast food place while driving to or from work, school, and home... then it is more time efficient. Heck, you can even eat in the car while driving!

Peace.

Originally posted by Sahabi
reply to post by unityemissions

 

reply to post by MysticPearl

 

reply to post by dreamreader

 

*** Hey, I'm not defending those 3 points as personal justifications. I live and eat very naturally and healthy. I'm merely observing the system that was created for cheap and convenient food to cause disease through nutritional depravation.

• All of those fast food places have $1 menu items. If you stick to just those, then eating fast food is cheaper than a natural/organic home-cooked meal.

• If a person stops by a fast food place while driving to or from work, school, and home... then it is more time efficient. Heck, you can even eat in the car while driving!

Peace.

You're absolutely correct and that's exactly why they call it fast food. People can just pull through the drive through and in five minutes have a "meal". $3 can get a burger, fries, and drink off the $1 menu. A good home cooked meal prepared from scratch is going to cost over $3 if feeding more than one person and will take well over five minutes to prepare. McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King all have dollar menus.

Originally posted by Chai_An

You're absolutely correct and that's exactly why they call it fast food. People can just pull through the drive through and in five minutes have a "meal". $3 can get a burger, fries, and drink off the $1 menu. A good home cooked meal prepared from scratch is going to cost over $3 if feeding more than one person and will take well over five minutes to prepare. McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King all have dollar menus.

Not a fair comparison. That $3 worth of food-like substances isn't going to fill the bellies of more than one person.

Again, you can cook meals once a week for the whole week, in about an hours time. From there you can store each meal in containers and drop them in a cooler with an ice pack each day. Instant food when your gut desires!

Your absolute is non existent.

reply to post by SunnyDee


They should be blaming themselves for giving up.

I didn't and I've lost 100lbs in 6 months.

Very easy. No surgery needed. No risky medications. Just eat right and exercise!

Originally posted by unityemissions

Originally posted by Chai_An

You're absolutely correct and that's exactly why they call it fast food. People can just pull through the drive through and in five minutes have a "meal". $3 can get a burger, fries, and drink off the $1 menu. A good home cooked meal prepared from scratch is going to cost over $3 if feeding more than one person and will take well over five minutes to prepare. McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King all have dollar menus.

Not a fair comparison. That $3 worth of food-like substances isn't going to fill the bellies of more than one person.

Again, you can cook meals once a week for the whole week, in about an hours time. From there you can store each meal in containers and drop them in a cooler with an ice pack each day. Instant food when your gut desires!

Your absolute is non existent.

edit on 3-4-2012 by unityemissions because: (no reason given)

My comparison is a good one because I was speaking of an individual then I compared that to a person cooking a meal and how the meal cost would differ if the meal was to feed others as well. I cook Sunday through Friday for my family and I can tell you there are more than a few people I know that feel cooking is burdensome and therefore don't do much cooking in their homes. This is why the fast food industry is thriving because people think they can't cook a meal for themselves or their families daily, too much trouble. You're right people can put forth a bit of effort to have a homemade meal for lunch and dinner but many in this fast paced society think they can't and that's part of the problem.

The other part of the problem is food is no longer food. People spend a great deal of money shopping at places like Whole Foods only to discover the FDA owns the term Organic therefore they can define what it means and what qualifies as "organic".

The way I see it folks are saying ba humbug, lazy, lazy about people who are fat not understanding every person's body deals with the influx of hormone imitating chemicals, toxins, and malnutrition differently. Some people bodies get fat, others can't gain weight, cancers, diabetes, heart disease, glandular problems, the illnesses goes on. So be very careful about passing judgment when you see someone fat, you never know how they got that way.

reply to post by unityemissions


the super model look is what everyone needs to aim for.

look at me.i am 21 years old.

i used to 65 to be kilograms heavy and 65 inches tall with a waist of 34 inches and a bmi of 24.8

i was horrible and ugly as sin...i felt disgusting and heavy and horrible.when i went out people looked at me.i felt horrible.

i was totally disgusting when i looked in the mirror sideways with a pot belly..... i hated myself.

i used to cry myself to sleep and wished i was dead.


but after strict dieting i am now 59 kilograms,32 inch waist and have a bmi of 22.

i feel a little less ugly now but i still feel i have a pot belly and i want to go down another 3 kilograms at least and not have that horrible disgusting pot belly due to which i can't go to the beach in a bikini as everyone will stare at me and my pot belly.

Originally posted by Chai_An

My comparison is a good one because I was speaking of an individual then I compared that to a person cooking a meal and how the meal cost would differ if the meal was to feed others as well.

Correct. That's why it's an illogical statement. If you are cooking a meal for others, you must include additional people in the dollar menu price. Otherwise, it makes no sense.

I cook Sunday through Friday for my family and I can tell you there are more than a few people I know that feel cooking is burdensome and therefore don't do much cooking in their homes.

I'm not interested in their feelings. Lame excuse.

This is why the fast food industry is thriving because people think they can't cook a meal for themselves or their families daily, too much trouble. You're right people can put forth a bit of effort to have a homemade meal for lunch and dinner but many in this fast paced society think they can't and that's part of the problem.

Agreed!

The other part of the problem is food is no longer food. People spend a great deal of money shopping at places like Whole Foods only to discover the FDA owns the term Organic therefore they can define what it means and what qualifies as "organic".

Yes, and you would be wise to look into exactly what the "organic" label carries. There are many things which are of benefit in foods purchased which are labeled "organic", from a lack of synthetic chemical petsicides, to organic fertilizers, to non-gmo always. Another one I can't stand is the coating you find on conventional produce, often. I don't consume food-like substances. My food is real food.

The way I see it folks are saying ba humbug, lazy, lazy about people who are fat not understanding every person's body deals with the influx of hormone imitating chemicals, toxins, and malnutrition differently. Some people bodies get fat, others can't gain weight, cancers, diabetes, heart disease, glandular problems, the illnesses goes on. So be very careful about passing judgment when you see someone fat, you never know how they got that way.

I pass judgment on society in general, not every fat individual. Most of it is due to poor diet and a lack of adequate exercise. Some people due to a variety of other environmental factors, interacting with genetic susceptibilities.

reply to post by beckybecky


I'm not sure if you're being serious or not. I'm sorry, but the super model look seems to be the result of at least one eating disorder in many cases. The thing about being under weight is that your health declines much more rapidly away from the low end of "healthy", than the high end.

A BMI of 22 is fine for most people. I was under the impression that the average supermodel was from 14-18 BMI. Skin and bones. My BMI is gaining a little bit every week, but that's because I'm in the first year of strength training. By the time it's all said and done, I could be officially overweight, but would look built...no belly.

There's really nothing wrong with a little belly. I honestly don't mind it on a woman. Having curves and T&A is super sexxxy, imo. Skin and bones?? No way.

Average BMI runway Model
Average BMI Just 16

J-Curve Mortality vs BMI:

Originally posted by BigBruddah
reply to post by loam

 

What is the one light blue state?

Lol... seriously?