Obesity Crisis in the US grows

I think it's merely indicative of a nation that has, quite literally, grown soft. It's not about diets, McDonalds, BMI indexes. . . no, we're a fat flock of sheep. Historically, as empires wind down, one sees the type of sloth and gluttony that we see in the United States. Nothing lasts forever.

The good news is that we're only a hail of bullets and a revolution away from fitness!

You know that is my greatest fear. Driving all over this country right now you can feel the tension. I am very afraid that in my life time that we will again see cival war in this country.

fight dammit, fight be pissed and fight.

The're getting fatter but I don't feel like I'm getting any prettier.

Belive me, if it comes to that, you want to be on my side.

I'm waiting for the revolution God brother

See, I have been practicing.

excellent point.

How is active duty defined? I see a lot of personnel on the Metro heading to and from the Pentagon daily, and several are out of shape, mostly because they're middle aged. I guess I'm asking if much of the weight issues in the military are due to older desk job personnel.

Let me put it this way: I see plenty of young, and relatively young, people (20s-early 30s) on both the Air Force Base and Army Fort I work at who are ridiculously out of shape. A lot of people on my base have used their job as a crutch in the past, but ultimately it comes down to personal accountability and initiative--factors that we are rated on and that play a factor in our getting promoted.

Hey, watch out, with those kinds of numbers the fat folks will be running the country soon and us non fatters will be sent off to re-education camps.

Mark my words.

[Edited on Aug 27, 2005 by NickFaust]

One thing to keep in mind when you're talking about 6/10 Americans being overweight or obese is that obviously about 40% of those people are classified as "overweight", not obese. Then you've go to remember that people who are as little as 10lbs overweight are included in that "overweight" category. You'd be surprised by the number of people you meet who would fall into the "overweight" category but who still look fine and seem perfectly healthy. There really is a problem when it comes to the overweight classification.

The obesity part, though, is pretty scary. Americans are eating themselves into oblivion. Even so, the answer isn't "shape up fatass" or "put down the spoon, you tub of lard." Ripping people apart for being obese won't work but is often the fall back of skinny people who have no clue what being obese is like. Once a person has reached that state, it takes a lot more than simply cutting back on food and diet to get them out of it. By the time someone is obese, their body may be so damaged that just getting up and walking around a bit would be as painful and difficult as asking a normal person to walk over hot coals while being thwacked in the knees with baseball bats. It's a serious condition where the person has to be helped, not just shunned or made fun of. Sometimes, that's what got them there in the first place.

Its not just in america that this is a huge problem, Its everywhere. The number of obese People on the streets in Ireland seems to grow every year at an alarming rate. people are getting fatter from an earler age, even children who are very active in terms of playing sports are overweight so it must be down to the foods we are eating.


Personally I believe that it's mainly down to how many people have basically replaced water with soft drinks, so now every time we try to quench our thirst, we are also getting hundreds of extra calories in top of the other jumk we eat. Portions are getting bigger and bigger, 15 years ago the 330ml can was standard size, then Coke introduced the 500ml contour bottle which is now starting to be replaced with 750ml Bottles of sugar.
People are constany told to eat healthy foods but there is no education campaign to get people to drink more water and less soft drinks.
Fast food restaurants sell litre sized cups of coke along with half pound burgers when before the standard large burger was a 1/4 pound.
It's an obviously dangerous trend. When people get used to eating large meals they become dependent on them.

I also think that it is unfair to treat obese people with contempt or to begrudge them medical attention because their condition is at least partially their own fault. If i get Lung cancer because of a life time of smoking it's still a terrible condition and deserves compasion no different from a sufferer of chronic obesity

Some very good points.

I think that portion control - or the lack thereof - is the root of all evil in the US. In most middle tier (Olive Garden, Bennigans, Applebees) restaurants you could easily feed a family of four in many parts of the world on what is considered to be an "individual" serving in these places. And considering how much money people in the US spend in the "Food away from home" category, that is a major issue.

Also, my love had gestational diabetes (we had the baby on 8/20) and measured her blood sugar four times a day. As long as we ate at home she did fine (with some exceptions - about which more later) but whenever we ate out - even with her trying to control her sugar intake - her blood sugar measurements were off the charts.

The exception in the eat at home category was spaghetti - the pasta is full of carbs and the canned sauces (Ragu, etc.) have more sugar in them than a Snickers bar.

Take out food is the worst - Pizza? Fagetaboutit. The same for Chinese - sugars off the chart.

Sooo... I agree with Cherries, it is not all about what the overweight folks are doing on an individual basis - our culture has no meaningful concept of moderation and developing a personal sense of this takes discipline and essentially puts the person on the outs with their culture.

I just spent a week in France and people eat whatever they want and stay thin. America is just lame. No one needs that much food. It's like going to the buffets in Las Vegas every day for your entire life. Who wants that? It's gluttony, it's scary and out of control.
You can eat whatever the hell you want for your entire life, if you figure out how to eat correctly. Just like you can drink wine and enjoy beer in the summer as long as you didn't blow it already by becoming alcoholic. Eating and drinking can be a great pleasure, as long as you don't abuse it, which is what people are seriously starting to do.

Very very good point.

I'd also like to point out that its not always easy for people to eat better as well. Especially poor people. I dont know what its like elsewhere in the world, but where I live - not specifically Australia, but my city - healthy coices are often too expensive for a lot of people.

Some people find it cheaper to feed their families at McDonalds or Burger King 3 or 4 nights a week, rather than buying a full load of grocerys for the week and cooking with that. Especially when these fast food places have 'family meal deals' where a full meal for 4 can cost as little as $11.95.

Still it is no excuse for being lazy and not exercising...