34% Americans Obese, 33 percent Overweight

67% of Americans obese or overweight?! What in the hell are people eating?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of obese American adults outweighs the number of those who are merely overweight, according to the latest statistics from the federal government.

Numbers posted by the National Center for Health Statistics show that more than 34 percent of Americans are obese, compared to 32.7 percent who are overweight. It said just under 6 percent are "extremely" obese.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE50863H20090109

 

It's not even about working out really, it's about not eating so damn much or eating healthily. Usually obesity is prevelant in poorer areas... that's something I cannot understand as healthy food is so much cheaper! No wonder they're poor, eating all that expensive junk food.

 

People need to start eating right and exercising regularly. It's easier to wolf down cheeseburgers and Doritos and drink a super-sized Pepsi than to go jogging or do aerobics

 

Places like McDonalds and all of those other highly-processed fast-food restaurants are a big reason why obesity has increased.

Another problem is portion size.

 

There was programme on channel 4 in the UK not that long ago stating that Houston was the fattest city in the USA. The reason they gave was basically the portion sizes and the $10 eat as much as you want stores were prevalent in many USA cities.

 

True that

 

It's a combination of factors actually, not just not eating and exercising right.

 

As a poor person, I can understand it. Produce is expensive, organic, healthier, unprocessed foods do cost more. Also, when you are poor, you can go without eating at all (like I've had to plenty of times), which really slows down your metabolism and makes your body go into "survival mode" and produce a bunch of new/more fat cells to store more fat next time you are so privileged to eat incase, after that, you have to go without eating again. And I think it's more likely for poor people to be depressed, so they lack the motivation or energy to exercise. I'm not trying to make excuses for them. Just sharing another point of view.

 

Add it all together and the healthy expensive stuff is more expensive. The unhealthy food packed with all the sugar n' shit is way cheaper. Plus people may be too lazy to prepare a healthy meal, whether it be they don't ever have or just don't want to want to at all. It does take some time to prepare food with all the shit in the food pyramid that's recommended 3 times a day, or however many times we're suppose to eat each day, which is why they turn to fast food.

 

I come from what would be classed as a poorer background and over here anyway, I know for a fact fresh foods eg. (vegetables, fruit) cost less than microwave, processed foods. I'm obviously a single teenage parent so yeah, not the wealthiest.

Over here they have started to give vouchers for fresh food to poorer famillies.

I know all about depression too, since I suffered from post natal depression for a year, and bouts of anxiety and mild depression before that.

I guess this is why I don't have much sympathy for people who eat incredibly unhealthily, don't exercise then complain.

 

I'm not dissing people who eat fast food at all. Hell, I have unhealthy food as well. It's just not as hard as people make out.

 

It might be cheaper there, but it is not truth here. The reason why a lot of poor people are overweight is because cheaper food isn't nearly as healthy. Your options go from "natural, organic" foods to "over processed and loaded with sugar" foods.

You can shop where I have to, at a "everything for 99 cents" store that has groceries. All the food in there, aside from very, very limited amounts of produce, are covered in sugar and packing a hell of a lot of saturated fat. In the freezers your options are: ice cream, Mexican tv dinners, burritos, and off brand hot pockets and nasty tamales. In the refrigerated section you've got lunch meats like ham, salami, "luncheon loaf" (whatever the hell is in that), and various others, plus a whole hell of a lotta bologna.

The rest is comprised of chips, dips, canned stuff like spam (offbrand), vienna sausages, chili, ravioli, ect.

It's possible to eat healthy there, though. I buy fruits whenever they're there (the types vary), there's lettuce and tomatoes and on rare occasions carrots for salads. You just end up eating nothing but salads and fruit, but it's possible. But the rest of what's available isn't usually very healthy.

The healthiest foods are much more pricey. We have huge stores dedicated to healthy foods, but if you really want to pay 5 bucks for a loaf of bread, then go right ahead. My budget is too small to afford such luxuries.

Some people are just lazy and eat too much of the wrong things. But sometimes the problem is actually lack of options. When the cheaper foods aren't healthy it's hard to eat healthy. When I was a waitress, during Christmas when you make tooons more money, I was eating grilled chicken (with sauteed onions, mmm), making some fantastic salads, and munching on apples, pears, strawberries, and kiwis throughout the day. Due to my vastly decreased budget, my options dwindle.

 

I wasn't trying to say you were dissing anyone, just explaining about the fast food and healthy food thing. Didn't mean to sound like I was calling anyone out. I shoulda worded if differently.

 

I'm sorry to hear that. If you're interested, here is an article on four natural treatments for depression.

http://www.depressiontreatmenthelp.org/clinical-depression-treatment-causes.php

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With regard to the problem of obese/overweight people in American society, I see the problem(s) related to A.) an increasingly sedentary lifestyle for many of us with legions of people choosing to spend more hours at home in front of the TV or computer. B.) the prevalence of unhealthy food options at home and the workplace.

Britty made an important point as well that relates to human evolution and how our bodies haven't adapted to the abundance of food that characterizes modern western societies. Before our ancestors would pack on extra pounds to deal with times of the year when food was scarce. In no modern western society is this problem present. There is food everywhere at all times of the year. Within a one minute radius of where I live, there is a 24 hour supermarket and sandwich shop.

I'm vegetarian but eat fatty foods too, but also offset any weight gain by working out intensely and religiously. If you have liberal dietary standards, then you should also have the resolve to burn it off by running, jumping rope, weight training or whatever exercise it takes to keep you at a healthy weight.

 

We save that for our "cheat" day



although I'm not much of a soda drinker. I drink tons of water and gatorade instead. I swallow a large pizza by myself, every now and then

 

Tinky, come down chat with me!

 

Being overweight in America today can be caused by so many factors it is truly unfair generalize that all overweight people are overweight because of lack of exercise or overeating or both.

There is an an epidemic of women who suffer from overdoses of synthetic estrogen which can be found in many meats, and processed foods, and even in bottled water. This can cause a tremendous increase in weight gain during puberty, menstruation, and pregnancy. Women sensitive to this are not finding a cure and end up starving themselves trying to lose weight as Britty described.

The asthma and allergy epidemics and other respiratory illnesses are also a huge factor because if a person is not breathing properly then that person is not able to metabolize calories properly either.

Diet products on the market don't help, some diet sweeteners have been shown to cause irreversible permanent obesity, and light, or low fat, does not mean low calorie.

 

I can honestly say that I do not remember the last time, I've seen you in chat

 

lol

I dislike pop (or soda to all of you NYC/Jersey/Philly people lol) too. Too acidic, too sugary, just bad for you. I do drink water and Gatorade or Powerade.

 

I don't want to be insulting anyone, because this is a sensitive subject.. but it does all boil down to how people eat and excersice. All other things are factors that make you eat worse food, or prevent you from moving enough, but, however if you are fat, you did eat that food. Every kilo of it. You might have had perfect reasons, however.
I read that book by the supersize me-guy, that was scary.. And it seemed like fruit, vegetables and generally real unprocessed food was too expencive for most people... But isnt there any farmers markets around? It's usually cheaper there.

I just can't grasp the concept of being too poor to eat healthy, here it's so much cheaper then to buy ready mades or eat at McDonalds or burger king...
but yeah obesety is a problem here too. Not nearly as bad though. A little less then 10% are obese (over 30 in bmi).. Still, its important to do something about it, since of diabetes type two and all of the other side effects of being too fat.