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Obesity among US adults reaches all-time high, 40% of adults and 19% of kids

And we're not getting less fat anytime soon.

CNN said:
The United States will not be escaping the obesity epidemic crisis anytime soon: Nearly 40% of adults and 19% of youth are obese, the highest rate the country has ever seen in all adults, according to research released Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Since 1999, there has been a staggering rise in the prevalence of obesity, particularly in adults, without any "signs of it slowing down," according to the study's lead researcher, Dr. Craig Hales, medical epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Youth obesity rates seem to be more stable in recent years. However, it is "too early to tell" what direction youth obesity prevalence will take. At least four more years of data are required to truly understand the direction, Hales said.

When looking at the goals of Healthy People 2020 -- a 2010 government effort to improve the health of Americans, including by reducing obesity -- the crisis looms even larger. The initiative aims to lower obesity rates to 14.5% among youth and 30.5% among adults by 2020.

"I have no expectation at all for Healthy People 2020 to be achieved," Long said.

Hispanic adults had an obesity rate of 47% and Non-Hispanic black adults a rate of 46.8% in 2015-16, the new report showed, with non-Hispanic white adults at 37.9% and Asian adults at 12.7%.

Among youths, Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks also had higher rates of obesity, at 25.8% and 22% respectively, compared with 14% of non-Hispanic whites and 11% of Asians.
 

andthebeatgoeson

Junior Member
Hey, let's go all to whole foods and buy one grape.

When 12 ounces of water costs more than 12 ounces of soda, which is made of water, you know something went wrong.
 

onipex

Member
Yeah, I'm a part of that. Stated lowering my calorie intake and being more active during the day along with working out a few days a week to lower my weight.
 

Kthulhu

Member
I don't even see how we can solve this outside of educating people. How's the rest of the world fighting this problem?
 
Maybe they should use all their science and knowledge and come up with a way to make exercise not boring and tasty food less delicious.
 

Breakage

Member
I was watching Man vs Food this afternoon (they show it on the Food Network here in the UK), and I was disgusted at the way overeating is celebrated in the US.
 
Hey, let's go all to whole foods and buy one grape.

When 12 ounces of water costs more than 12 ounces of soda, which is made of water, you know something went wrong.

This, it isn't a matter of overeating for a lot of people. It's the fact that 20 pieces of chicken nuggets is cheaper than a salad or a decent home cooked meal.
 

JordanN

Banned
I don't even see how we can solve this outside of educating people. How's the rest of the world fighting this problem?

Isn't the problem that fast food is cheaper than actual fruits and vegetables?

If some guy can go buy a burger and fries for $2, vs spending $10 having to buy all the ingredients to make a salad, then where's the incentive in eating healthy?

And with cost of living going up, with wages going down, the trend will only continue where people don't have time to cook proper meals because they're working more hours at a job.
 
I was watching Man vs Food this afternoon (they show it on the Food Network here in the UK), and I was disgusted at the way overeating is celebrated in the US.

Put an egg and a lot of bacon on that cheeseburger or I'm going through have to ask you to leave.
 

Gaardus

Member
I don't even see how we can solve this outside of educating people. How's the rest of the world fighting this problem?
They're subsidizing different foods, and they have smaller portion sizes, even at unhealthy restaurants like McDonalds.
 

Kthulhu

Member
I was watching Man vs Food this afternoon (they show it on the Food Network here in the UK), and I was disgusted at the way overeating is celebrated in the US.

I don't think shows like that are exclusive to the US.

They're subsidizing different foods, and they have smaller portion sizes, even at unhealthy restaurants like McDonalds.

Then we're screwed. Big food has an obscene amount of power.

Plus people freak out at regulation. You should've seen Fox News when trans fats were regulated.
 

Nipo

Member
Good and Cheap is my favorite cookbook (and it is free!) and shows you can feed a family healthy food for less than the cost of fast food.

The problem i think is time. If families are having to work two full time jobs to make ends meet you don't even have the 30 minutes a day it takes to make healthy meals or the energy/time to exercise.
 

Vuci

Member
So happy that as of yesterday, I lost 70 pounds in 10 months' time. And all it took was a diet change. No more sugar, low-carb, high fat. Big steaks instead of salty pizza or McD.
 

TyrantII

Member
Isn't the problem that fast food is cheaper than actual fruits and vegetables?

If some guy can go buy a burger and fries for $2, vs spending $10 having to buy all the ingredients to make a salad, then where's the incentive in eating healthy?

Not just that.

Everything between the dairy, produce and meat sections along the walls of a grocery store is literally shit.

Super high calorie processed foods with globs of fat, sugar, and salt added to give people what they naturally crave.

I mean for fuck sake. Pick up a can of spaghetti sauce and look how much sugar they throw in. Usually 4-5 sugar cubes per cup.

Home made sauce you out in a pinch sometimes to lower the acidity. You don't put in two teaspoons per 1/2 cup of sauce unless you're making tomato rock candy
 

AJLma

Member
We need to ask Asians for their secret.

We already did. There was no secret. Stop putting whatever garbage into your mouth and eat more vegetables.

Truth be told, 90% of the restaurants in the US are carb/salt/sugar loaded fried bread garbage. It would take a complete reinvention of the American diet to even begin to curb this.
 
True American heroes. Fried chicken racists.

KFC.jpg
 

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Our food is meticulously designed for maximum flavor which results in an increased appetite
 
I, sadly, thought it was actually higher. Our reputation overseas is certainly more along those lines. I've been told more than once while abroad that I must be Canadian because Americans are fat...
 
Wow, with a percentage that high and the majority of gaffers being from the US now I understand why the fast food threads get so many pages.
 

jacobeid

Banned
Health crisis looming.

What American people doing to themselves? Show some restraint goddamit.

The American people and restraint don't really go hand-in-hand...

I knew the numbers were high, but holy shit. I was making poor lifestyle choices/dieting habits during my teenage years but curbed it quickly.
 
Life is stressful. Work sucks. Bad food is cheap and eating makes people feel better.

This metric won't change for the better any time soon.
 
I don't even see how we can solve this outside of educating people. How's the rest of the world fighting this problem?
I mean some places have sugar taxes, etc., but there are basically two sprawling, entangled areas where the U.S. is falling down.

1. The food chain is completely compromised with additives and mass farming methods that are under-regulated and distorted by dumb federal and state incentives. Americans like cheap food--and many of them need cheap food because of widespread poverty--and aren't willing to pay for better ingredients. They also broadly oppose the government intrusions that would reduce sugar content and force producers to be actually honest about what their products contain. Americans en masse have chosen a culture where the aim is to drive down prices, not raise wages.

2. Broader cultural forces make American eating habits worse. Sprawl means people are farther from the places where fresh food is harvested or slaughtered. Autocentric culture means people cycle less and walk far, far fewer steps per day than, say, Europeans. Again, deep-seeded inequities mean many people can't buy fresh ingredients, fruit, vegetables locally even if they wanted to. And American work-life balance is so fucked that people exercise less, eat less with their families, have less time for food preparation (and food education), and snack more. The availability of fast food here--and the broad acceptance of it as a regular meal, not a treat--is staggering. Even small things, like free refills on drinks; in Europe, there aren't soda fountains, and you pay for each serving.
 
I was watching Man vs Food this afternoon (they show it on the Food Network here in the UK), and I was disgusted at the way overeating is celebrated in the US.

To be fair, that show celebrates crazy eating challanges. Nobody in their right mind orders his meals on a daily basis.

*as i order a 12 inch breakfast sub with egs, ham, bacon, cheese, hash browns, onions, amd honey mustard*
 
Unhealthy meals are cheaper and quicker to obtain than good food for the vast majority

The portions we get at a lot of restaurants are way beyond what we actually need

Our lack of work/life balance means we have more stress and less sleep which are big factors

We eat until we're stuffed instead of eating until we're no longer hungry

The culture in the US is going to have to change before we see any real improvement.
 

Dice//

Banned
We need to ask Asians for their secret.

The food.
I love American food, but dear lord I'd probably be part of the stat if I was eating there everyday.

Also control those portions. Use smaller plates, drink less soda, sub out fattier side options. It's not easy but it's also not that hard.
 
The food.
I love American food, but dear lord I'd probably be part of the stat if I was eating there everyday.
I gained about 10-15 pounds in my first two years here, and I've only lost some of it since. And I don't even indulge that much. Everything is just bigger and sugarier and fattier.
 

entremet

Member
No one is cooking and high caloric fast food options are everywhere.

I reject the lack of exercise hypothesis. Car culture has been around for decades and only recently have we've been getting fatter. I think the lack of exercise is making the trends go faster, though. But you cannot out-exercise high caloric intake long term.
 
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