Fat America Keeps Getting Fatter

[Hyruleansoldier]

http://singularityhub.com/2011/07/19/fat-america-keeps-getting-fatter/

If America’s shorelines begin shrinking at an alarming rate, it may not be due to global warming. It may just be that we’re so fat we’re in danger of sinking an entire continent.

Okay, a hyperbole perhaps, but the report just out, from non-profits Robert Wood Foundation and Trust for America’s Heath (TFAH), has the feel of an environmental armageddon. And the title says it all: “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future.” As a nation we should hang our heads, stare down at our shoes–if we can see them–and be grounded for a terrible report card.

Hitting the gym wouldn’t hurt either.

This is the sixth consecutive year that such a report has come out, but this is the first report to take a retrospective look state-by-state over the past 20 years when data from all states became available. As is the case for an increasing number of Americans, it don’t look pretty. Chew on this: going back 20 years there wasn’t a single state with an obesity rate above 15 percent. Today, there isn’t a single state that’s below 15 percent (data is combined for years 2008 to 2010).

Yeah.

And, if you think 15 percent is a lot, 12 states had obesity rates of at least 30 percent! More than two-thirds of the US has an obesity rate over 25 percent, and only one state has a rate lower than 20 percent. No, it’s not health-crazed California, but ski mecca Colorado. Executive director of TFAH Jeff Levi poignantly observes, “Today, the state with the lowest obesity rate would have had the highest rate in 1995.”

So which states really need to start pulling their inordinately-substantial weight? Look to the south. Out of the ten most obese states only two were not located in the southeast. Oklahoma and Michigan had obesity rates of 31.4 percent and 30.5 percent and ranked 7th and 10th, respectively. To make up the top ten they join, from high to low rank: Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Arkansas.

Must be all that good home cookin’.

When we take a closer look at the data it becomes a little more, well, black-and-white. The study showed that minorities and people who come from low income households or are less educated have the highest rates of obesity. Adult obesity among blacks exceeded 40 percent in 15 states, 35 percent in 35 states, and 30 percent in 40 states. Among latinos, adult obesity was above 35 percent in four states and exceeded 30 percent in 23 states. Meanwhile, adult obesity among whites reached 30 percent in only four states (Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia). Thirty-three percent of adults who did not graduate high school are obese, while obesity among people with a college or technical college degree is 21.5 percent. And 33 percent of people who earn less than $15,000 per year were obese, compared with 24.6 percent of those who make at least $50,000 per year.

“The information in this report should spur us all–individuals and policymakers alike–to redouble our efforts to reverse this debilitating and costly epidemic,” said RWJF’s president and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey in a press release. “Changing policies is an important way to provide children and families with vital resources and opportunities to make healthier choices easier in their day-to-day lives.”

The children actually provide the report’s only silver lining. Well, more of a dull, gray color that you can barely make out. According to Dr. Francine Kauffman, an obesity specialist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the rate of obesity among children hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years. That rate is currently at 16.4 percent. Somewhat reassuring until we recall that in 1980 only 6.5 percent of children were obese.

The prognosis is not good for Americans and their expanding girth. Obesity leads to a myriad of health complications, most notably type 2 diabetes. In type 2 diabetes the body doesn’t produce enough insulin and consequently can’t properly regulate blood sugar levels. Elevated blood sugar levels can lead to kidney failure, heart disease, nerve complications, stroke, blindness, and amputation. In 1995, when all states had an obesity rate of less than 15 percent only 4 states had a diabetes rate above 6 percent. Today, 43 states have a diabetes rate over 7 percent. Last year 18.8 million people were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and it’s estimated that another 7 million people developed the disease but went undiagnosed. That’s 25.8 million people, or 8.3 percent of the US population, with diabetes. Sound scary? How about this: at least half of Americans are expected to be diabetic or pre-diabetic by 2020.

The Center for Disease Control called American society “‘obesogenic,’ characterized by environments that promote increased food intake, nonhealthful foods, and physical inactivity.” While it’s hard to argue these claims, ours is not the only country that’s been putting on a few pounds as of late. According to a recent report by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) the rate of obesity among European Union countries had doubled over the past 20 years. But whereas Colorado, the slimmest of US states is 19.8 percent obese, EU countries together average just 15 percent. In fact, the only country that could challenge us in a sumo wrestling match is the UK. With an obesity rate of 24.5 percent, they’d be one of the slimmer US states. They’re the fattest of the EU’s 27 countries. Compared to Americans, Europe remains slim and chic.

As Lavizzo-Mourey urged, it’s time to take some action. The study lists several recommendations for policymakers, including regulating meals in schools, implementing the National Physical Activity Plan to encourage Americans to get off the couch and exercise, and restore programs that improve nutrition in child care settings. Despite the harrowing data, I’m not going to hold my breath for policymakers. Many of them are instinctively against setting government regulations that would tell people what to do in general, never mind tell them what they can and can’t eat. But if you ask me, that seems inconsistent given our commitment to sin taxes. If cigarettes and booze can be disproportionately taxed, why not Big Macs? In 2009 obesity cost the US $147 billion–or, about 10 percent of total health care costs. Didn’t someone say gluttony was a sin? Anyway, I generally don’t think you can talk someone into behaving differently. Hit ‘em where it hurts, in the wallet. We’ll offset some of those health care costs and maybe shed a few pounds while we’re at it. Sounds to me like a recipe for success.

[Bidet to you sir]

Heres the reason:

it costs 2-2.50 a day to get enough fruit and veg in your diet, for 2.50 you can buy high energy and high fat content food, that will literally be able to feed you all day.

For the poor, that seems like a pretty good deal.

I mean I know just from being a student that I have to throw off food of decent quality quite often in exchange for things of lesser quality, most poor people have dependents.

[Hyruleansoldier]

Most people have a completely wrong view on what (they think) their body needs to feel full.  Yes, fat foods and sugars leave you VERY satisfied and full, but they don't truly sustain you in the healthy sense.  Sure, you could eat hamburgers and fries for months and years but eventually your heart stops and you die at a premature age.

Eat bread, fruits and vegetables, eat more of them (weight-wise) than you would a portion of hamburgers and fries, and you will find that you feel a LOT less bloated, your skin will be healthier, and you will have more energy for a longer time, and you can still enjoy a snack if you so desire.

In the end it's more important to ingest the necessary food groups.  Fruits and vegetables are the most important, you should NOT have days where you don't eat either.  

Ideally you have several pieces of fruit (depending on the size) a day, around a fixed time, have one meal with sufficient vegetables, and have a meal that involves bread, rice, pasta (but don't combine these in the same meal), and also vegetables - it's hard to eat TOO many vegetables.

For example, especially when it's warm out those sandwiches that have ham and/or cheese with salad, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber and such things on it taste especially good, and allow you to eat veggies twice a day without  it feeling like you're eating salads all the time.

Eating a super fat meal with hamburgers, fried stuff and fries themselves + a salad is pretty pointless.  Sure, you ingest some veggies, but you'll still get fat, and you won't be that much healthier in the long run.

Most soft drinks are also completely redundant and get people addicted to sugars.  Drink water all the time, maybe one soda a day, and a coffee if you feel low on energy, but don't make anything your basic drink.  The thing that people sould be drinking the most of to stay hydrated is water.  Very simple.  And it's free, so money is not an argument here.

I still have to meet the first American who has a realistic view on a healthy diet.  And when I say diet I don't even mean a diet to consciously lose weight, just food habits in general.

Like: 2 eggs a week is more than enough.  More is overkill, and you will get fat (and get clogged arteries and whatnot, yeah, not only from eggs obviously, but usually people who eat eggs a lot eat other stuff a lot as well and that's what makes them bad.  No one eats JUST an egg every day and completely healthy stuff besides that).

Bread should not be combined with pasta, meat, rice...  Basically most things are bad to combine with bread, even though it's healthy in and by itself.  Eat it with a slice of meat, or jam, nothing wrong with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast, but remember they're slow to digest and give you energy, so don't fill up on bread after dinner - you probably won't get to burn those calories anmore.

Our working culture makes it difficult, but in the perfect world we would eat our biggest meal for breakfast, and there you can go all out.  But dinner should be a smaller meal, not something that will be slow to digest.

And snacks before sleepy time are bad too.  Make sure you eat the RIGHT things for dinner, so you won't feel ridiculously hungry by the time you go to bed.  Time it right so you're only a little hungry, but don't give in to it and go to bed - you'll get to eat more when you get up ^^

[Bidet to you sir]

That's seriously all very well but it's not the root of the problem, most people who eat truly poorly and are obese are eating bad food out of necessity, barely anyone has an ideal diet but that does not make you obese or overweight an extremely overly sugar filled, and fat filled diet is what causes that, and that is because government and trade have decided the western world over that they can see super fatty super unhealthy food for next to nothing compared to healthier alternatives.

I mean think about a pizza, a pizza from a supermarket in the UK can be as cheap as £1, if I wanted to buy some cheese, tomato, flour and water etc to make that it'd cost me a hell of a lot more, but with those ingredients and maybe a little extra I could probably make a reasonably healthy, meal, and definitely one better tasting than that pizza.

But I end up making compromises because I have a budget, I usually aim to spend less than £30 at each supermarket visit, seeing as about £5 of that goes straight on making my armpits smell nice, I usually end up having to go for the cheaper options food wise.

[GamePunk429]

Heres the reason:

it costs 2-2.50 a day to get enough fruit and veg in your diet, for 2.50 you can buy high energy and high fat content food, that will literally be able to feed you all day.

For the poor, that seems like a pretty good deal.

I mean I know just from being a student that I have to throw off food of decent quality quite often in exchange for things of lesser quality, most poor people have dependents.

This^^^^

It's the issue that is facing our nation in my eyes, is the fact that it is roughly twice as costly to eat healthy. I have experienced this first hand. I go to the grocery store every Sunday to buy my weeks worth of groceries. I usually get some egg whites and turkey sausage for breakfast, with some veggies (bell peppers, mushrooms, onions,), for the week that costs me about 20 bucks. Then I go for lunch which I get uncured unprocessed  fresh cut deli meat, whole grain wheat bread, apples oranges and bananas, yogurt, and then salad or soup. This again costs me about 30+ dollars in itself. For dinner it is a little more difficult as I buy skinless boneless chicken and talapia in bulk frozen at Sams. But I also get broccoli and brown rice, asparagus, green beans. I also get low fat steaks to switch it up every once in awhile. And that I would say for the week probably costs me about 30+ dollars. Then I get orange juice, and a couple gallons of no fat milk.

So I would say on average for my 3 meals a week, I spend around 100-120 dollars a week on food. Not saying their aren't cheaper routes to go but that is a pretty standard healthy diet I have going on there. Not counting my in between meal protein bars and shakes I have, but that's not apart of a normal diet.

Thanks to the dollar menu I could go to McDonalds every meal for around 3 bucks if I wasn't stuffing myself and drinking water. Add a soda for another dollar. The food lasts longer in your stomach as it is more difficult to digest and consists of a lot of grease and fat. Most people aren't health conscience anymore and only care about saving money.

Another issue I think that is going to affect this country is that the more people get fat the more accepted it is going to become. If being fat is the norm then people won't feel uncomfortable being overweight and won't be driven to change. I am seeing this more and more as I go down to out lake house every summer. In the public pool or dock I see more and more girls who are overweight (I say girls because normally they are more sensitive about their weight), and they don't care to just let it hang out because they out number the normal sized girls. Look a lone at girls bellies, girls have bellies at a very young age now which if I see a girl that is skinny everywhere but her belly I normally assume that she has the proper genetics to be a slim girl without a good deal of work, but their parents aren't feeding them healthy and they aren't partaking in enough physical activity.

On this past lake trip I can tell you the different between my generation and the upcoming generation. We got down there and I myself, my friend Ryan, Liz, and my girlfriend Adrienne are all very physically fit people. We are very health conscience and take pride in our bodies and health. My best friend Dom since graduating college has kind of let himself go, from having a perfect six pack to having quite the belly (not what I would call fat but not fit), my girlfriends friend, and my friend Mark were all out of shape. They were embarrassed to go swimming and I could tell were really uncomfortable with their bodies. Now this isn't always the most healthy thing as I know this can cause anorexia but since coming back both my buddies Mark and Dom have started working out again and have been asking me for diet tips and workout tips.

My biggest worry is for a big society to become accepted and people have no drive to want to better themselves in health. I remember in the 90s there was the big push of don't let these beauty magazines tell you what you need to be your perfect how you are. Now I agree girls don't need to get boob jobs, and face lifts, any other plastic surgery. But sometimes I think the message got skewed to, you don't need to be healthy or care about what you look like.

I have a life interaction that will stick with me for the rest of my life. I was working geek squad going out to peoples houses, and this particular setup was a wireless network setup. The guy who I was setting it up for was a very nice guy, and we got to talking about stuff. The words he said will stick with me forever, he was about in his 50s.

"Yeah I have lived a comfortable life, but I gave up my health too early and too long ago and now it's too late to get it back. I would sell everything I own and do anything I could to get my health back. There is nothing in life more important than you health, don't ever let it go."

I will never forget that and I live every day of my life doing what I can to hang on to my health and my youth for as long as I can. The only thing I sacrifice is about an hour and a half a day, or most likely watching TV or playing video games. This is why I started the fitness thread, as I care about my health and I want to see other people care about theirs. When I am at the gym I make sure to give tips advice and talk to the people who are overweight at the gym to get them motivated and feel more comfortable. I have so much respect for anyone who decides that they are unhappy being unhealthy and I love to see overweight people in the gym working on their goals, and I love even more when they succeed and see how much happier they are.

[Bidet to you sir]

Just a small dissagreement gamepunk, for a lot of people it's not about them choosing between being health conscious and having more money, it's between being health conscious and being able to keep a roof over their head.

There are hundreds of thousands of people right now in the US, the UK, mainland europe etc whatever who are below the poverty line, people assume that because they're not literally starving it's not that bad, the typical "it's not as bad as africa" line, but it's bad, to even cope in western society today you need somewhere permanent to live, electricity, water, gas, a tv, a radio, probably a mobile phone (which from what I've seen is often the alternative to a computer) etc.
But as always one thing hasn't changed since the dawn of time, as long as you're getting some calories in you and a modicum of vitamins etc, you'll survive, not live well, but survive.
But you need those above items to live in the west, I mean most people would argue a laptop as well.

[GamePunk429]

Just a small dissagreement gamepunk, for a lot of people it's not about them choosing between being health conscious and having more money, it's between being health conscious and being able to keep a roof over their head.

There are hundreds of thousands of people right now in the US, the UK, mainland europe etc whatever who are below the poverty line, people assume that because they're not literally starving it's not that bad, the typical "it's not as bad as africa" line, but it's bad, to even cope in western society today you need somewhere permanent to live, electricity, water, gas, a tv, a radio, probably a mobile phone (which from what I've seen is often the alternative to a computer) etc.
But as always one thing hasn't changed since the dawn of time, as long as you're getting some calories in you and a modicum of vitamins etc, you'll survive, not live well, but survive.
But you need those above items to live in the west, I mean most people would argue a laptop as well.

I agree with you, and I didn't mean save money in the text of putting it on the bank on food but I didn't elaborate well enough. Yeah people are using the money they save on healthy food for other necessities and this I totally agree. And I cannot say that I understand at all what people living below the poverty line or going through as I was fortunate to get a great well paying job out of college. But I definitely do not take anything for granted, as I know it only takes one bad day to put me in their situation. But I feel that a lot of times people are sacrificing their health for worldly goods. I see a lot of people who would rather be unhealthy and eat the cheap so that they can have their iphone, 50' flat screen, new car. It seems that the world that we are promoting is that physical objects are more important than health, and I believe that we need to get away from that.

[GamePunk429]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv3vEXy_EwU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv3vEXy_EwU</a>

Watched this documentary and it is amazing what eating unhealthy will do to your body. It's very inspirational and is streaming on Netflix if you have it.

[Carl Jr.]

what would you need the TV for?

[Akie]

Heres the reason:

it costs 2-2.50 a day to get enough fruit and veg in your diet, for 2.50 you can buy high energy and high fat content food, that will literally be able to feed you all day.

For the poor, that seems like a pretty good deal.

I mean I know just from being a student that I have to throw off food of decent quality quite often in exchange for things of lesser quality, most poor people have dependents.

Yes!! I mean.. yes America is incredibly lazy.  And for a lot of the population all they need to do is spend some time exercising and eating better... but for most of the working poor it's the choice of spending a couple dollars on apples which will hold them over for about an hour or a cheap burger from a fast food restaurant which will hold them over for the 10 hour shift they have that day.  Another problem is that unhealthy food with preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial/natural flavors make everything quick and easy to produce and is cheap.  What we need is affordable, healthy food.  I don't think people are aware about nutrition either.  Also while staying healthy is important i don't like the pressure people put on themselves to be thin and look good.  So I guess in the end I really just blame society for making things unattainable, ignoring our working class, and being vain.

[Carl Jr.]

In a recent bit of golden irony, I seem to recall reading that England is predicted to outdo America in obesity. don't remember where though.

[hisak]

Doctor Who taught me that England is just as proud about its obesity rate as America. I don't know how accurate this belief is.

[Bidet to you sir]

Ummm I think you mean Britain hisak, not england.
Scotland is what makes us fat.

[Carl Jr.]

Doctor Who taught me that England is just as proud about its obesity rate as America. I don't know how accurate this belief is.

Doctor Who taught me that English can be dumb as sheep. though whether this is on par with the United States' ability to do this as well, it is not clear.

Also, Zim, I am confused by the title of your thread. Are you suggesting that Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Argentina, and Cuba also keep getting fatter? And besides, half the time they're brainwashed anyways.

[hisak]

I assume you meant to edit that post instead of quote it, let me know otherwise. But this is HS's thread, not Zim's.

I wouldn't put any worth in the political statements of Russell T Davies.

[Bidet to you sir]

Ummm carl if you'd read this thread properly you'd realise that HS has gone the "silly americans eating bad food" route while I've instead blamed society, capitalism and poverty for obesity, something which is common the world over.

The US is the most unequal western nation, the UK comes right after, I think that explains our obesity rates rather well.

[Hyruleansoldier]

Don't really want in on this debate again, it doesn't really concern me much, but it's always easy to blame everything else.  No one forces people to stuff themselves with unhealthy food.  It's always your own decision to eat something, unless you're at a party and the food was preordered or something.

That's not to say capitalism isn't to blame, I do believe that's what enabled everything and the combination with people wanting to spend as little as possible on food is a lethal one.  But people also use that to justify it, cause they usually don't realize that eating fat foods just makes them happy (like literally, higher endorfines and level of being satisfied.  You can't get the same feeling from eating salads.  You could eat all the food groups and eat super healthy but at the end of the day fats and sugar give you a satisfying feeling that other foods just can't.  I still enjoy the occasional bad food, but since I don't have an addictive personality (and I don't like to feel tired and/or bloated after eating), I just eat as healthy as possible.

[Bidet to you sir]

Hmmm I am someone below the poverty line...

hmmm I have £2.50 for food today...

hmmm burger...1500 calories, just over my daily intake 99p

Hmmm daily reccomended take in of fruit and veg...about half that... 2.50

should I spend my entire budget on healthy food but go hungry, or spend my budget on fatty food and be full.

DECISIONS DECISIONS.

The vast majority of the obese are poor, there is no decision to be made when it comes to what they eat, they eat what they can, what not they should.

[Ignus]

There's a great documentary on the food industry in america, and since we export a lot of our fast food and fatty foods around the globe, it applies to other countries too. it's called "Food inc." and examines how the food industry has gone from farm based to mechanized factory based and how this affects the food chain for us.

What it boils down to is this: it does not cost less money to make fatty foods, the government just subsides them. Old incentives that were put in place to help out farmers in the great depression cannot be repealed today because the only people paying attention have something to gain from them staying put.

Basically we are paying them with tax money so they can undercut the market on everything else. And it isn't really many products, just corn.  Corn is in everything.  Chicken and cows are another issue, but it really boils down to massive corn subsidies.