Explaining Obesity - United States and Worldwide

[Pope Lando II]

I know this has been done. Many times, probably. But damned if my jaw doesn't drop every time I read the new statistics on obesity in this country and, increasingly, in other countries, including Britain, Greece, Australia, etc. which are catching up with the good ol' U.S. as quickly as ever. I'm just in the middle of a New Yorker article on those new numbers (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/b ... ks_kolbert), and it occurred to me to post a thread on the topic, to see what the forum thinks is behind our current "epidemic."

It seems that fully 26.1% of us here qualify as obese by CDC standards, according to an article I read today. Now, this is a bit of a slippery concept, with different organizations declaring different BMI levels "obese," but however you look it at, whether the cut-off is 26 or 27 or 30, it's a bad thing to be obese.

Are you obese? How did you get that way, and how do you think we can fix it? Will it just keep getting worse, or will we someday get our act together and realize that heart disease and diabetes are no joke? I have pet theories, but I still can't explain it all away.

If you're unsure of whether you're honest-to-god obese or just a little pasty, try:

http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

It's in standard and metric, and has been posted before, I believe, a while back. Anything greater than 30 is considered obese, although, as someone's sure to point out, this is a standardized measure and might not apply to you if you're extremely muscular. You'll probably know who you are though, in that case. For the rest of is, I'll post a poll and see how we Web-visiting desk-bound types stack up on the fat meter - anonymous response, of course. Although in the interest of (hopefully) encouraging disclosure, I'll admit that at six feet, three inches, and 210 pounds, I'm an iffy 26.2 on the BMI scale. Not likely to end up being cut out of a single-wide with chainsaws, but not fantastic, either. So, let us know what you think re: causes and solutions.

[No Names Left Damn It]

My BMI was, last time I checked, 21.5, which pleased and surprised me.

[Pope Lando II]

Just an excerpt from the article I mentioned, which I thought was interesting, if sort of obvious:

According to what’s known as the Expensive Tissue Hypothesis, early humans compensated for the energy used in their heads by cutting back on the energy used in their guts; as man’s cranium grew, his digestive tract shrank. This forced him to obtain more energy-dense foods than his fellow-primates were subsisting on, which put a premium on adding further brain power. The result of this self-reinforcing process was a strong taste for foods that are high in calories and easy to digest; just as it is natural for gorillas to love leaves, it is natural for people to love funnel cakes.

So, big brains are good. We are, after all, the "thinking ape." That our brains are wired to enjoy high-calorie foods specifically, on the other hand, was something I hadn't heard. Interesting, and possibly part of the puzzle.

[Risottia]

190 cm and 94 kg, that's bmi 26. I should lose still about 3 kg (I'm of a quite sturdy build, so bmi 25 is ok for me)
Not bad since in the last two years I've managed to lose about 18 kg (bmi 31!!!)

How did I manage do go in (a bit less than) 2 years from obese to just slightly overweight? Almost eliminated bread, reduced pasta, reduced cheese, increased meat and vegetables. I already didn't eat many fried foods, or sweets.

[Getbrett]

I am currently 5'11 and 130lbs, making my BMI 18.1, which is technically underweight for my height. However, I am not physically attracted to those even slightly heavier than me, and a BMI over 20 will usually repulse me significantly.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

According to my doctor I'm underweight...he actually told me I should maybe think about eating meat. I hate my doctor.

[Barringtonia]

20.9, I'm a goddamn rock star!

Three things, fertilizer, corn and sugar - changed eating habits completely,

You'd be surprised at corn, not that it's particularly fattening but it's in absolutely goddamn everything, from the food in the packet to the very packet itself, toothpaste, nearly everything you see in a supermarket has corn in it somehow or other,

Just that the enormous availability of it means food is cheap, so we purchase more, food used to be something like 25-30% of household spending, now it's about 5%.

I was actually listening to an interesting different cultural effect of societies according to whether they were rice, grain or corn-based, very interesting but I can't be bothered to type it out, such is my prerogative,

The other thing is Diet Coke, seriously, it's just such a con, I was watching this program where an obese person and an underweight person cook for each other, it was quite an effective strategy actually but the point is that the obese person just drank can after can of Diet Coke and I just though, why bother, seriously, is that how you assuage your guilt?

[Pope Lando II]

According to my doctor I'm underweight...he actually told me I should maybe think about eating meat. I hate my doctor.

That's not an offensive suggestion to most people, remember. Meat is highly nutritious and calorific, and would help you add mass if that's what was needed.

[No Names Left Damn It]

But remember BMI is an extremely loose guideline. Some people are heavily built, and a BMI of 25 26 or so may be the perfect weight for them, and again some people are naturally slim and are fine with a BMI of 17 or so.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

According to my doctor I'm underweight...he actually told me I should maybe think about eating meat. I hate my doctor.

That's not an offensive suggestion to most people, remember. Meat is highly nutritious and calorific, and would help you add mass if that's what was needed.

It's an offensive suggestion to someone who fully beleives that eating meat is immoral to me, even at the expense of my own health. Hmmm I'm not helping myself here.

[Pope Lando II]

190 cm and 94 kg, that's bmi 26. I should lose still about 3 kg (I'm of a quite sturdy build, so bmi 25 is ok for me)
Not bad since in the last two years I've managed to lose about 18 kg (bmi 31!!!)

How did I manage do go in (a bit less than) 2 years from obese to just slightly overweight? Almost eliminated bread, reduced pasta, reduced cheese, increased meat and vegetables. I already didn't eat many fried foods, or sweets.

That's quite an achievement! I feel the same way about my weight, being almost exactly in proportion to yours - I could also benefit from losing another 5-10 pounds (3-5 kg). The difficulty once you're at a comfortable weight is finding the motivation. Using the right clothes, it's easy to appear that you don't have any excess body fat (more or less) so beginning a new diet feels like more of a chore than an urgent need. And of course, with 26% of the population here being obese, the social pressure to make that improvement is pretty lax!

[Land of greed]

According to my doctor I'm underweight...he actually told me I should maybe think about eating meat. I hate my doctor.

That's not an offensive suggestion to most people, remember. Meat is highly nutritious and calorific, and would help you add mass if that's what was needed.

It's an offensive suggestion to someone who fully beleives that eating meat is immoral to me, even at the expense of my own health. Hmmm I'm not helping myself here.

hence why we should not nationalize health care people refusing to eat meat, even for their own health.

[Pope Lando II]

According to my doctor I'm underweight...he actually told me I should maybe think about eating meat. I hate my doctor.

That's not an offensive suggestion to most people, remember. Meat is highly nutritious and calorific, and would help you add mass if that's what was needed.

It's an offensive suggestion to someone who fully beleives that eating meat is immoral to me, even at the expense of my own health. Hmmm I'm not helping myself here.

Yes, I gathered that you were a vegetarian. I just meant that your doctor probably didn't mean any offense.

[Greed and Death]

the big thing that causes obesity in the US is corn subsidies.
Restaurants use corn oil whenever they can get away with it.
Candy uses HFCS rather than cane sugar.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

[quote="Land of greed"]
hence why we should not nationalize health care people refusing to eat meat, even for their own health.

Thats just silly...and a bit rude.

[Greed and Death]

hence why we should not nationalize health care people refusing to eat meat, even for their own health.

Thats just silly...and a bit rude.

That you waste my Tax money by refusing to gain weight and be more healthy ?
Yes it is.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

hence why we should not nationalize health care people refusing to eat meat, even for their own health.

Thats just silly...and a bit rude.

That you waste my Tax money by refusing to gain weight and be more healthy ?
Yes it is.

and obese people should be refused NHS and so should people who smoke?

[Greed and Death]

Thats just silly...and a bit rude.

That you waste my Tax money by refusing to gain weight and be more healthy ?
Yes it is.

and obese people should be refused NHS and so should people who smoke?

Yes. Or atleast have them make efforts to slim down such as making the obese become vegetarians.

[Eofaerwic]

I don't tend to keep up with my weight but I don't think I have significantly put on weight since I last weighed myself (at least I still fit in most of the same clothes) - so at 1m60 and about 55/56 Kg, my BMI is at the bottom end of normal (21.5-22). I'm quite curvaceous naturally (a 25/26inch waist to a 37/38inch hips/bust), so I wouldn't expect my BMI to be really small, because that's not really my body type. I suspect I need to get more exercise in to be healthier and cut down on fat a bit, but generally I'm happy with my body shape.

[Pope Lando II]

It is interesting to think about how socialized medicine, which some posts have mentioned, might add or detract from the push to "cure" obesity. While we don't have such a system in the U.S., it still costs us a good amount of money in productivity and insurance costs to provide for the obese. However, the U.S. apparently isn't even the fattest nation anymore:

The book’s authors—Francis Delpeuch, Bernard Maire, Emmanuel Monnier, and Michelle Holdsworth—observe that, while Americans were the first to fatten up, they no longer lead the pack. “Like it or not, we have no choice but to face up to the numbers: current data reveal that in Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Malta, and Slovakia, the proportion of overweight adults is actually higher than in the U.S.,” they write. In Asia, Africa, and South America, too, obesity is on the rise. Although nearly a billion of the world’s most impoverished citizens still suffer from too few calories, Delpeuch and his colleagues note that it’s those living just above the poverty level who appear to be gaining weight most rapidly.

...maybe those nations whose citizens foot the bill directly through taxes will be more likely to find a lasting change. But maybe not. Who knows?

Edit: quote is from article mentioned in OP.

[Pope Joan]

Twenty years ago tomato soup, bread, canned peas and corn did not contains sugars (corn syrup, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, sucralose, maltose, molasses, it hides behind many names).

Now they are stuffed with it.

Unless you are rich enough to afford alternatives, you have to feed your kid this awful stuff.

and then we blame the kids for getting fat.

Crack down on the companies which stuff unnecessary sugars into our food!

[Greed and Death]

Twenty years ago tomato soup, bread, canned peas and corn did not contains sugars (corn syrup, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, sucralose, maltose, molasses, it hides behind many names).

Now they are stuffed with it.

Unless you are rich enough to afford alternatives, you have to feed your kid this awful stuff.

and then we blame the kids for getting fat.

Crack down on the companies which stuff unnecessary sugars into our food!

Or crack down on the government and stop subsidizing corn.

[Dakini]

High fructose corn syrup in lots of prepared foods +
people who are too lazy/think they don't have time to cook from scratch +
people who are too lazy/think they don't have time for physical activity
_______________________________________________________________
Obesity

[Pope Joan]

Twenty years ago tomato soup, bread, canned peas and corn did not contains sugars (corn syrup, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, sucralose, maltose, molasses, it hides behind many names).

Now they are stuffed with it.

Unless you are rich enough to afford alternatives, you have to feed your kid this awful stuff.

and then we blame the kids for getting fat.

Crack down on the companies which stuff unnecessary sugars into our food!

Or crack down on the government and stop subsidizing corn.

That too.

It's mostly coming from factory farms these days anyway.

[Dakini]

Twenty years ago tomato soup, bread, canned peas and corn did not contains sugars (corn syrup, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, sucralose, maltose, molasses, it hides behind many names).

Now they are stuffed with it.

Unless you are rich enough to afford alternatives, you have to feed your kid this awful stuff.

Actually, if your city has a farmer's market, you can get affordable bread that's really good and only contains the necessities of bread. You have to eat it faster since it's not loaded with preservatives, but if you have kids, eating things fast shouldn't be a problem.
For peas and veggies: get frozen, not canned
For tomato soup: make it from scratch, soups are some of the easiest things to make

and then we blame the kids for getting fat.

Crack down on the companies which stuff unnecessary sugars into our food!

Or start reading the labels and stop buying that stuff. You really only need to go to the outside ring of a grocery store (except maybe for the cereal aisle). Usually the produce, milk, meats, breads etc are all there. Maybe you have to stop down the aisles for some pasta or tomato paste or dried beans, but it significantly cuts down on the crap most people buy when they're at the grocery store.