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U.S & obesity (pg. 17)
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| Lews |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
I can hold that position and still have sympathy for Lews' plea for perspective, because there are 100,000,000 Americans with no weight problems and so it's important for a foreigner not to get caught up in the idea that every American is fat and every American product or restaurant is unhealthy. |
That's all I've ever wanted :( |
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| ViceroySF |
paulino...
to be young and full of cum. |
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| Acid Reflex |
| Now you shut your mouth Lang, dumb sucka |
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| Dj Dizzy |
there's a lot of factors as to why average americans are overweight. some are just fat slobs but there are social problems that run much deeper and are embedded into our society. i've always been skinny my whole life due to my metabolism i guess, it certainly isn't because of my diet because i used to eat fast food and junk because for the longest time i was too broke to afford healthy food.
#1 - many americans can only afford to eat junk, healthy food is expensive
#2 - most companies in america tend to act like they "own" their employees and take advantage of their employees. most american corporate workplaces are hectic, fast-paced, we're over-worked and always in a rush. i know that myself, my wife and many of our friends don't even get time for a relaxing sit-down lunch, so we have to eat fast-food or bring home-packed lunch because there's not enough time in a day. my wife's department at her job is required to work a lot after-hours, 12 hour days and sometimes even upwards of 14 hour days. i work in IT, so i usually get off work on time but then when i get home i have to remote in and work from home after-hours. on nights that i have to work after-hours, on average i don't usually finish work until 11pm and sometimes around 2am or a little later. then i have to get up at 5:30am to get ready to head back to work. this isn't every night but it happens a lot.
one major problem is that alot of americans aren't doing well financially. we're supposedly a very wealthy country however that wealth belongs to a select few and there is the upper-middle class as well which is definitely alot more than a "select few". however alot of americans are poor and deeply in debt. i'll be honest, i live in the hood in east atlanta. but i grew up in an even rougher hood, in a rough neighborhood surrounded by rough neighborhoods, on the eastside of cleveland. a lot of people can only afford to eat junk. eating a healthy, proper diet is too expensive and alot of people can't afford to eat like that.
i'm comfortable now financially. me and my wife still live check-to-check but we can afford to eat healthy food now, can afford to go to the movies and recently afforded for me to buy a replacement car because i had my old car for over 10 years and it was falling apart. we can finally afford to spend money. we were so broke for so long that it almost seems too good to be true. it was only a year and a half ago that we were so broke, i'd order off the dollar menu at mcdonalds drive-thru's and would be very worried that my credit card would get declined because i knew it was close to being maxed out and we had a negative balance in our checking account. we both work full-time office jobs and we work hard but for a period of a few years, on any given day i didn't know where my next meal was coming from and often went to bed hungry. living off ramon noodles every day, tv dinners sometimes, and going through fast food drive-thru's.
that cheap junk food isn't nutritional and as we all know, will eventually put you in bad health if you live off it. but many people can't afford to eat better food. luckily a little over a year ago, i received a sizable promotion at work and life isn't nearly as stressful anymore. it felt like a ton of stress was lifted off my shoulders, it completely changed our lives.
i can't speak for other americans and their situations, but this is what american society is like.... corporations own your ass and if you don't do what's expected of you then they'll replace you. i hate it, i'd much rather move to europe where people "work to live" rather than "live to work."
it's a real problem, corporations run this country. thankfully i can actually afford to eat "real" food and i tend to stick to a high protein diet. i still can't seem to put on weight though, whether it's bad weight (fat) or good weight (muscle), my skinny ass just can't seem to put on pounds.
P.S. something i've noticed since i've moved to the south is that there seem to be a lot of very overweight southerners. they fry everything, it's crazy. so there are many factors at play, but i'd say the biggest ones are that a lot of americans can't afford healthy food and other americans are "owned" by their job and don't have time for proper meals alot of the time. |
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| Chimney |
| quote: | Originally posted by Dj Dizzy
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Thank you, it was a very insightful comment and pretty much what I expected to hear about living in the US; The working schedule to up to 14h/day renders one unable to do any physical activity such as gym/running as well. Over here in Europe, people often whine about 8 hours a day.
Curious as to what 1 kg (2.2 pounds) of apples cost in the US. Reason why I'm asking is that whereas salad and home-cooked chicken is expensive, the is a possibility o keep a fruit-diet, from time to time at least, in order to mitigate the obesity effects. When I want to lose weight, I usually switch to an all-apple diet for a few days, maximum a week, combined with training.
Glad to hear you're doing better now :) |
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| Mr.Mystery |
| quote: | Originally posted by Dj Dizzy
#1 - many americans can only afford to eat junk, healthy food is expensive
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That's a pretty bad excuse. Even if you can only afford junk, you still have to eat obscene amounts of it to get really fat. |
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| Vector A |
| If you were able to afford enough junk to get fat, you could have bought half of the same junk, not gotten fat, and saved some money, too. |
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| Silky Johnson |
Well the belief that it costs more to eat healthy is due to a gap in education, which I talked about in my post about the determinants of health.
Education about nutrition equips people with the knowledge that, when you eat fresh, nutritious food, you don't have to eat as much or as often - which means it doesn't end up being more expensive in the long run. People literally do not know HOW to eat.
Further to that, if you look at the populations who typically eat "junk", again it's people of lower socioeconomic status and something else to consider is time. Ok so say they DO have the knowledge - but they still need the time to acquire and prepare fresh, healthy meals.
People on the lower income scale more likely work longer or more erratic hours with less social supports, and therefore less time to run to the grocery store and grab a few things and prep some healthy meals for a few days or the week. Also, consider that many of these people may not own a vehicle - imagine doing all your grocery runs using public transit? |
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| Mr.Mystery |
| quote: | Originally posted by Silky Johnson
imagine doing all your grocery runs using public transit? |
Or - heaven forbid - the fatties could walk? |
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| Silky Johnson |
| I hate fat people for the most part too, but you're missing my point. Besides, aren't or weren't you dating a big fat whale? Fatty lover. |
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| Vector A |
People don't have to eat "healthy" and cook up some fancy thing with grass-fed beef and organic sweet potatoes and vegetables to stay not-fat. They just have to eat within the limits of their metabolism.
Say they don't have time and they have to go to McDonald's or whatever other junky place for every meal. You can eat 3 Big Macs a day as a sedentary woman or 4 to 4.5 as a typical sedentary man and still not get fat. Of course that would be unhealthy for reasons other than weight gain, but that's not my point.
Instead they are eating the caloric equivalent of 7+ per day. |
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