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Obesity Rises Despite All Efforts to Fight It, U.S. Health Officials Say
- Thread starter Bel Marduk
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Yup. It's far easier to grab a load of shitty cheap burgers than, say, a salad, or anything remotely healthier. Majority of the food industry is disgusting.
And Frozen stuff. The amount of sodium in some foods (these are portion's that would probably not even feed you for half a day and probably much less than that) is criminal. Even some non frozen stuff have insane amounts of it, it can go upwards of nearing 2k sodium for something that might not even be enough to make you full and fed and you might still feel hungry after your done with that portion of food. Those portions are not all that big either.
There's too much focus on food and not nearly enough on lifestyle. The design of spaces in NA is essentially such that people drive everywhere, and never walk or climb any stairs and never get any exercise. The slimmest places in the USA are in the big cities such as NYC where walking is prevalent.
The government should focus on redesigning its urban spaces to deemphasize the car, and create compact, walkable communities where walking, cycling and public transit are the main form of transportation. Emphasize mid rise buildings where one could conceivably walk to the top floor instead of skyscrapers. Put the stairs are up front and centre instead purely using them as fire escapes.
The government should focus on redesigning its urban spaces to deemphasize the car, and create compact, walkable communities where walking, cycling and public transit are the main form of transportation. Emphasize mid rise buildings where one could conceivably walk to the top floor instead of skyscrapers. Put the stairs are up front and centre instead purely using them as fire escapes.
Clever lol
You want to climb 80 flights of stairs every morning? It doesn't seem prevelent, and could cause issue's when there's a real emergency. But yes, people should be driving less often unless they live in a cold climate (sorry, but I can't walk in -30 in the winter).
Japanese may have a healthier diet than Americans, but one of the first things I and my friends have observed is how inbalanced their daily food is. In Japan, fruits and vegetables are expensive, so everyone eats less of them compared to Europe. I'm also surprised how many Japanese take the big size of the menu. And lots of alcohol too. And there are very few vegan or vegetarian restaurants, which is the reason why a Japanese friend is surprised when seeing the amount of vegi restaurants in Switzerland.
Public transport and walking culture are the main reason for a lower obesity rate, methinks. To fight obesity, the cities really need to be designed for walking.
Vicetrailia
Member
Just because you took a class on investment does not mean that you will invest. Habits, availability, everything matters.
Huh 80 flights? I wrote, "emphasize midrise buildings". Paris for example is a massive, dense city of pretty much six story buildings. Anyone can walk that, and they should.
Cold weather is not that big of an issue. Easily solved by good clothing.
Saucycarpdog
Member
I would love to walk to school more if it wasn't 14 miles away and during the winter it gets, no joke, -10 below some days. Cons of living in rural America I guess.
Beer Monkey
Member
Exercise is so over-emphasized. DIET. Quadriplegics can lose weight. People confined to iron lungs can lose weight. By consuming less.
This just popped up in my feed an hour ago: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...-habits-driving-obesity-a-tale-of-two-studies
More research is obviously needed (meta-analysis trumps individual studies). But everybody here has already made their minds up anyway, so there probably isn't much a point in talking it. Talking obesity is becoming like talking about vaccines. You can't change anybody's opinion, no matter how much it may be grounded in pseudoscience.
FreedomFighter
Member
You miss my point. I'm only saying that BMI is not perfect. That's it. No more, no less.
The amount of energy you spent walking in Japan isn't going to balance out those sugary drinks and large carb filled portions the average American citizen get. Exercise is good and improves your health, but you need to control for food consumption if you want the obesity rates to decline.
Krauser Kat
Member
you will never take my RICE!!!
Some rices are defintely better than others and healthier. i only have a a cup to 2 cups cooked rice, its probably my main source of carbs per day.
igordennis
Member
Great post.
Psychotext
Member
Ehh, I eat rice, pasta and a pretty significant quantity of sugar (last few weeks averaging more than 120g a day) and I've been able to maintain my body fat levels quite easily. I'm a pretty active person though (and I watch my calories). There are obviously numerous countries that eat huge quantities of pasta and rice without having significant obesity issues.
I did quit bread... but as everyone knows, bread makes you fat.
entremet
Member
Caloric needs are highly personalized and calorie counting has a poor adherence rate.
I calorie count when I diet and it usually takes me a good 4 weeks to figure out my caloric needs since I'm fairly active.
This isn't stuff you expect those with rudimentary knowledge of nutrition to do.
Not to mention weighting and measuring everything.
That's why I prefer easier rules of thumbs--cut added sugars, especially soft drinks, increase fruit and vegetable intake, cook as much as possible, try to be active daily.
Many populations remain slim and do not calorie count at all.
That's why I harp that it's an environmental problem. Calories are too cheap and abundant.
I really want to know what you're buying at the grocery store. My wife and I probably spend $600 a month on groceries, we maybe dine out 2-3 times a month, so most of our food is cooked at home. I'm fanatical about cooking food from scratch at home and outside of a few rare types of food (just try and make a pizza from scratch that's less expensive than a pizzeria pizza) we save a lot of money and eat very healthily doing this.
Pasta and rice seem to work fine with Mediterranean and Eastern diets; does it come down to application?
Roberto Larcos
Member
There's not much wrong with pasta and rice. People in the U.S. just eat far too much of it in one go, and the sauces they put on are normally incredibly calorie dense.
Right now, my main staple evening meal is tagliatelle with a tomato sauce. No olive oil, no sugar, no cheese. One bowl is maybe 400 calories total - that's actually very good.
Bread can be bad, because it's easy to eat a lot. But for a while I had two slices of dark rye bread as a breakfast, no butter, and that kept me ticking over until the afternoon.
i don't know where you get your info but this is not what I've seen/experienced living in japan.
maybe you haven't experienced home cooked food in japan? Vegetables aren't expensive at all unless you go for the imported expensive stuff.
Fonz72
Member
The problem with this train of thought is that the entire fast food/processed food industry is telling you to eat poorly from a very young age. Someone has to counteract that. The government is in a position to do that, although they do a poor job.
It sounds like you and your wife could do with some advice when it comes to shopping for the home... Though you manage to eat out a lot and only spend 300/person/month on food? That isn't much for regular dine out people. When I go out for a meal it'll easily be 15/person just for that one meal, and that isn't even a nice place. Eating somewhere somewhat nice can easily be 40/person.
Example: chicken breast, frozen plus broccoli, frozen plus sweet potato plus spices is probably 3 bucks per person for a meal and is quite healthy. Frozen food is often healthier than its fresh counterpart due to lower nutrient loss during shipping and more ripening in the ground. In general you can usually eat quite well using good quality ingredients for less than 5/person/meal on average.
Look up budget bytes if you'd like ideas. This shows you how it's done.
it's not the governments job to make sure its citizens do anything, but you have to get a bit suspicious when you see the government consistently turning a blind eye towards corporations that are actively harming those citizens. They did this to the tobacco industry for decades, and they do it with fast food and soft drink manufacturers now. These industries have very powerful political ties.
I eat out every day for every meal. No exercise, but walking for commuting (which is negligible additional calorie burn).
I lost 30 pounds in 6 months. Per all measurements I am now a healthy weight when before I was overweight.
Why?
I got a good sense of estimating calories and glycemic index in food mostly.
I kept strict on how many calories I would have, but not to the point of trying to keep a log or something. I would guesstimate how many calories I had previously in the day and how much what I was ordering would have. I would test my ability to estimate the number by googling to see if my guess was approximately right (within about 50-100 calories).
I started noticing dishes I could get that maxed enjoyment while keeping to a sensible calorie amount per day. I started noticing items high on the glycemic index also had unusually low 'enjoyment' per calorie so I started focusing on cutting those. Why eat the bread of a burger if frankly all it does is help you eat it with your hands? Why have rice when I enjoy the rest more? Why do the mashed potatoes when I can have chicken? I know some prefer those parts of the meal, so find your own particular mix of enjoyment per calorie.
I also avoided items that could be hard to estimate the number of calories or could lead to negative externalities (such as wanting to eat more), like items with added sugar.
I also found no to low calorie tricks to fill me, like coffee with only milk.
We have myths on 'healthy' food, whatever that means, and over exaggerated importance of exercise. I think it's easier to ignore both.
I lost 30 pounds in 6 months. Per all measurements I am now a healthy weight when before I was overweight.
Why?
I got a good sense of estimating calories and glycemic index in food mostly.
I kept strict on how many calories I would have, but not to the point of trying to keep a log or something. I would guesstimate how many calories I had previously in the day and how much what I was ordering would have. I would test my ability to estimate the number by googling to see if my guess was approximately right (within about 50-100 calories).
I started noticing dishes I could get that maxed enjoyment while keeping to a sensible calorie amount per day. I started noticing items high on the glycemic index also had unusually low 'enjoyment' per calorie so I started focusing on cutting those. Why eat the bread of a burger if frankly all it does is help you eat it with your hands? Why have rice when I enjoy the rest more? Why do the mashed potatoes when I can have chicken? I know some prefer those parts of the meal, so find your own particular mix of enjoyment per calorie.
I also avoided items that could be hard to estimate the number of calories or could lead to negative externalities (such as wanting to eat more), like items with added sugar.
I also found no to low calorie tricks to fill me, like coffee with only milk.
We have myths on 'healthy' food, whatever that means, and over exaggerated importance of exercise. I think it's easier to ignore both.
PumpkinSpice
Banned
Bread can fill you up so much though. I make my own multigrain bread without any sugar, still tastes great and the two slices I have for breakfast at 8am hold me over usually until 1pm.
Nikodemos
Member
I've bought a loaf of dark bread a few days ago. Has no odd additives (not even added sugar). It's a small dense lump weighing half a kilo. A couple toasted slices with a bit of butter will fill you up for half a day, not exaggerating.
It doesn't matter what you eat, as long as you exercise enough or eat just at your daily limit you won't gain weight.
Dude eats donuts and doritos every 3hrs for two months... and loses 20+lbs
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/
Dude eats donuts and doritos every 3hrs for two months... and loses 20+lbs
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Not this shit again...
Here's his food log, if you want to see what he actually ate (hint: it wasn't a "twinkie diet" or "donuts and doritos diet").
http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/diary/who/haub/
Blog post about it:
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2010/11/16/the-twinkie-diet/
ZoltanXerxes
Member
I lost 18 pounds this year by walking more, riding my bicycle more and the most important thing, eating less. I still ate fast food once in a while, I still drank beer (I have one or 2 a week), and I ate what I wanted. Just eating less made all the difference. I also stopped drinking soda pop.
maximum360
Member
I experienced some home cooked food, but going out to eat is really more common compared to my country (and also around 3 times cheaper).
I admit that my view may be a bit narrow though, since I mostly went out with people in big city where everyone is busy and young.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
A bit narrow?
Is there a developed country on this planet where the busy young people who live in big cities take care to find time to cook most of their meals at home?
perfectchaos007
Member
But childhood obesity has stabilized. Thanks Michelle Obama....for IGNORING THE ADULTS!
Vicetrailia
Member
Fat accumulation disorder versus cal-in, cal-out.
Omegasquash
Member
FFS.
People need to eat less (calories) and move more. Look at labels, try to buy things with fewer calories AND better nutrients/fewer ingredients. Eat more vegetables, specifically green ones. Leafy ones too.
Damn. I know it's a tough choice for lots of people, but it's also really, really simple.
People need to eat less (calories) and move more. Look at labels, try to buy things with fewer calories AND better nutrients/fewer ingredients. Eat more vegetables, specifically green ones. Leafy ones too.
Damn. I know it's a tough choice for lots of people, but it's also really, really simple.
And_Gignac
Member
I dont see the problem with obesity. Let people be as fat as they want.
Krauser Kat
Member
it puts strain on our healthcare system and drives up costs.
Muppet of a Man
Member
Too much easily-accessible/cheap/subsidized/calorically-dense-yet-nutritionally-void processed foods, too little physical activity due to sedentary jobs and lifestyles, too little sleep, too much stress, and too little meaningful face-to-face socializing with friends and family. Fix those things and you will fix obesity.
Paracelsus
Member
No kidding. You did what I did (quit bread and I started eating slightly more pasta and cold potatoes) and I lost nearly all body fat I had, but the bread making you fat part being common knowledge is absolutely bolderdash. After all "it's just bread, are you kidding?". People really underestimate the impact of bread, it serves as stomach filling in most people's life. Tuna sandwich? It's only filling because you're stuffing yourself with bread, oh and there's some tuna, somewhere. Hamburger? Same thing. Sending your kids to school? No pizza for them, have them pack fruit or something. I can't really imagine american eating culture without bread when their pizza is basically a ginormous loaf of bread stuffed with enough filling to feed a family of five.
Psychotext
Member
I was partly joking because of the film line, but yeah... the real problem with bread is that before you know it you've suddenly turned 200kcal worth of healthy filling into a 700kcal monster meal.
I love bread (especially cooking it fresh for myself), but I have it very rarely now as it just seems like a massive waste of calories.
I love bread (especially cooking it fresh for myself), but I have it very rarely now as it just seems like a massive waste of calories.
Beer Monkey
Member
Um, yeah, about that.
Severe Obesity Costs Medicaid $8 Billion Annually, Study Finds
These numbers are going to go WAY up. And all of our private insurance premiums are higher than need be because of this, as well.
Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
So do plenty of other things that no one is willing to give up.
It really just always seems to come down to "those other people I perceive as lesser than me should do this."
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