What is causing the obesity epidemic?

[Lisnpuppy]

I've lived in Ohio for most of my life. In my time, I've never seen many overweight people - certainly nothing close to what the statistics for the United States would indicate. This changed when I traveled South, San Antonio to be more specific. In this city, I was out of place in a sea of obese people and unlike Ohio, it felt as though seeing another person with a BMI of 95 - 110 was quite uncommon. When I returned to Ohio after a few months I began to think. "Why is there such a discrepancy between regions, and why has the problem been gaining momentum over the past three decades?"

 

It was at this point that I came across WHO statement in 2015, which said that Germany had actually overtaken the United States by a small margin - and the rest of Central and Western Europe was quickly closing the gap. My first instinct was to suspect that it may be related to prosperity, but with Japan being one of the wealthiest countries in the world whilst simultaneously maintaining an ideal weight, it's difficult for me to believe this is the (only?) cause. I then suspected that it may perhaps be related to the number of fast food establishments, but once again Japan performs the role of an oddity with a high number of such locations per capita whilst having a low BMI.

 

Cross your border into my state of West Virginia. We have lots of obese and overweight. Poor diets, processed food and almost no activity are the main contribution. Also if I watch a 30 min program on tv and lose count at how many food commercials there are (well I think the ahem...male erectile dysfunction gives it a run.)

 

My grandparents ate lots of fatty foods (they cooked with lard) and I learned to cook from them. I cook "Southern" food a great deal. Ya know, like if you can put bacon on it or in it, then do so. If you can not, look to tooth picks to hang bacon on somehow. (lol)

 

The difference is they worked hard. Lots of manual labor. They walked all over the place. My grandmother was the eldest of 7 kids. She helped raise the younger ones (my youngest great-aunt was the same age as my mother.)

 

Exercising like most of us to doesn't replace the hard and manual labor that most of our parents/grandparents, etc did.

 

Also a weird thing, the size of dinner plates, bowls, cups has increased by a great amount. Most of them have increased several inches (seriously google it.)

[HeyYou]

 

I've lived in Ohio for most of my life. In my time, I've never seen many overweight people - certainly nothing close to what the statistics for the United States would indicate. This changed when I traveled South, San Antonio to be more specific. In this city, I was out of place in a sea of obese people and unlike Ohio, it felt as though seeing another person with a BMI of 95 - 110 was quite uncommon. When I returned to Ohio after a few months I began to think. "Why is there such a discrepancy between regions, and why has the problem been gaining momentum over the past three decades?"

 

It was at this point that I came across WHO statement in 2015, which said that Germany had actually overtaken the United States by a small margin - and the rest of Central and Western Europe was quickly closing the gap. My first instinct was to suspect that it may be related to prosperity, but with Japan being one of the wealthiest countries in the world whilst simultaneously maintaining an ideal weight, it's difficult for me to believe this is the (only?) cause. I then suspected that it may perhaps be related to the number of fast food establishments, but once again Japan performs the role of an oddity with a high number of such locations per capita whilst having a low BMI.

 

Cross your border into my state of West Virginia. We have lots of obese and overweight. Poor diets, processed food and almost no activity are the main contribution. Also if I watch a 30 min program on tv and lose count at how many food commercials there are (well I think the ahem...male erectile dysfunction gives it a run.)

 

My grandparents ate lots of fatty foods (they cooked with lard) and I learned to cook from them. I cook "Southern" food a great deal. Ya know, like if you can put bacon on it or in it, then do so. If you can not, look to tooth picks to hang bacon on somehow. (lol)

 

The difference is they worked hard. Lots of manual labor. They walked all over the place. My grandmother was the eldest of 7 kids. She helped raise the younger ones (my youngest great-aunt was the same age as my mother.)

 

Exercising like most of us to doesn't replace the hard and manual labor that most of our parents/grandparents, etc did.

 

Also a weird thing, the size of dinner plates, bowls, cups has increased by a great amount. Most of them have increased several inches (seriously google it.)

 

I gave up on broadcast TV. Anything I want to watch is pretty much available online somewhere, WITHOUT commercials. I got seriously tired of five minutes of what I WANT to watch, then ten minutes of commercials. I don't listen to the radio for the same reason.

[Lisnpuppy]

Well I don't usually watch tv. I keep it on for the sound. We are currently formulating a plan to rid our lives of cable. But that is another story.

[HeyYou]

Well I don't usually watch tv. I keep it on for the sound. We are currently formulating a plan to rid our lives of cable. But that is another story.

Gots ta have that internets though. :D

 

It was actually cheaper for me to do my phone, internet, and TV via the cable company, than it was any other combination. Cutting off TV, or switching to a different provider, actually cost MORE..... The kids loved it, I couldn't have cared less. Where I am now though..... Cable isn't an option. I am rather 'out in the sticks'. Which I love. :D Real internet didn't show up here until I had been here a bit over a year. (via the local telco) I don't use their phone service at all.... don't even have a phone plugged into it... (still get to pay for basic phone service though..... wonderful.) I use my Roku box for TV.

 

But, we are WAY off-topic here. :D

 

We still need to ban spoons.

[gnarly1]

Also a weird thing, the size of dinner plates, bowls, cups has increased by a great amount. Most of them have increased several inches (seriously google it.)

I haven't been to the US in quite some time but have a number of friends and acquaintances who have visited over the past several years and they've all been astonished by the portion sizes.

[TheMastersSon]

Well I don't usually watch tv. I keep it on for the sound. We are currently formulating a plan to rid our lives of cable. But that is another story.

You will blame yourselves for not doing it sooner. It transformed my family.

[RGMage2]

Well I don't usually watch tv. I keep it on for the sound. We are currently formulating a plan to rid our lives of cable. But that is another story.

I had a plan for that. I put up a HDTV antenna for free over the air TV. I'm in a pretty good location for that, in my best scan I picked up 55 free channels, though most of them weren't reliable, depends on atmospheric conditions. I found I could be reasonably sure of 29 channels, of which 17 were in English with a chance of having something I might want to watch.

 

That was the good part. Now for the bad. I got hit with an electrical surge that killed my 55inch TV and almost everything that was attached to it. The XBox1, the old satellite receiver that was still attached, and the GPU in my desktop even though it was turned off - it was all connected. The XBox eventually came back after an hour but the other stuff was toast.

 

It wasn't even a direct hit, it was just a nearby hit with a lot of electricity in the air. I didn't have it properly grounded because in my mind it was just up for a test to see what I could get, and then the test went on a week longer than I planned. I had thought about grounding it that morning but there was a little bit of rain coming down so I put it off... it's one of those wanna kick yourself moments.

 

So now I'm back on satellite with a new receiver and a reduced package. I put the antenna in a upstairs bedroom where it doesn't have the range but still works, in a more limited way. I'm reluctant to set it up outside again even with proper grounding, seems too risky.

 

All in all it was an expensive exercise in trying to save money. :laugh:

[Skagens]

I believe it's mostly caused by people not being enough physically active. People who eat foods with lots of fat or just unhealthy foods in general and spend most of their time sitting still will get fat while people who eats the same stuff but are more active tend to keep their weight at an acceptable level. It's a matter of line of work and interests too. Road workers or plumbers does more on-hand work and are more active than say a cubicle worker who only spends time at their desk at the computer.

 

Stress could also be a factor. With tight work-schedules people can find it difficult to find the time to actually cook proper food themselves and fast food tends to be a lot quicker. This coupled with a stressfull work environment in general can cause all sorts of health problems. Some people can better manage their lives than others I guess.

[Stronglav]

Fast food is the problem.Working people like me simply have no time to properly cook food they (for example) I have only 20 munites for lunch and I need to go back to work.

I had this problem.Took me 2 years to drop weight.

Edited October 27, 2017 by Stronglav

[SadFern]

Most likely, the reason for the obesity in America is a mixed effort of price gaps between healthy and unhealthy foods(Burgers will cost $1 to $4 and salads cost around $11) and the FA. Fat acceptance movement. In Europe, its probably singularly fat acceptance.