“You rarely see something so blatantly false” do you have any concrete evidence that proves your statement and that I am wrong? where are all these obese people from the epidemic? I am out and about everyday. do I see an occasional “fat” person? sure but that is the exception not the rule.
“Obesity is rampant” that is an opinion.look I get some random person saying something will not change the minds of people who have heard over and over and over again something. laugh all you want. just stop and think why you believe what you believe. and if you want to believe it that is fine.
@DrGoogle, I don’t understand what happened to German food in this country. When I lived in Germany (for five years) Germans ate vegetables. They made the best salads. Every spring was “Spargel Zeit” (Asparagus time) where every restaurant would have special offerings based on the new asparagus.
I am 5 foot 7. I currently weigh 142 pounds. I feel great. My blood pressure is 90/60, my resting pulse is around 58. I am active almost everyday and enjoy good foods. In January of 2009 I weighed 250 pounds. I felt awful. I don’t pay attention to BMI; I’m more interested in my body fat composition. I firmly believe that changing my personal lifestyle resulted in improved health. Case study of one. Do I follow a bizarre diet? No. Of course there are conditions which diet and exercise won’t fix, or even medical intervention; but I believe living a healthier lifestyle however one defines it will make you stronger and able to recover from any medical intervention.
@zobroward - my father in law recently died of alzheimers- what do you think of this study- and findings.
The nine factors associated with higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s were:
Obesity
Depression
Carotid artery narrowing
Low educational attainment
High levels of homocysteine (a compound that builds up, in part when B vitamin levels are low)
High blood pressure and low blood pressure
Frailty
Current smoking (in the Asian population)
Type 2 diabetes (in the Asian population)
Genetics and Alzheimer’s
There are two categories of genes that influence whether a person develops a disease: (1) risk genes and (2) deterministic genes. Researchers have identified Alzheimer’s genes in both categories.
From alz organzation http://www.alz.org/research/science/alzheimers_disease_causes.asp
Genetics in Alzheimer’s
**Risk genes increase the likelihood of developing a disease, but do not guarantee it will happen. **Researchers have found several genes that increase the risk of Alzheimer’s. APOE-e4 is the first risk gene identified, and remains the gene with strongest impact on risk. APOE-e4 is one of three common forms of the APOE gene; the others are APOE-e2 and APOE-e3.
Everyone inherits a copy of some form of APOE from each parent. Those who inherit one copy of APOE-e4 have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Those who inherit two copies have an even higher risk, but not a certainty. In addition to raising risk, APOE-e4 may tend to make symptoms appear at a younger age than usual.** Scientists estimate that APOE-e4 is implicated in about 20 percent to 25 percent of Alzheimer’s cases.**[u/]
“Just the science. That’s all.”
can you get me to an actual scientific study that shows that and what metrics the study is based on?
if you can I would be very interested! not just the first lady giving a speech or mayor bloomberg giving a speech.
Why do I even read these threads about vaccination or weight/obesity? They just make my head hurt.
The most recent data suggest that almost a third of Americans are obese - not just overweight but obese. These numbers aren’t imaginary. They’re not based on random observation based on seeing an occasional overweight person on the street. They are based on research and statistics.
There is so much scientific evidence out there about the increase in overweight and obese people, I don’t even know where to start. Let’s just start with data from the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html (by the way - there are some excellent interactive maps on this site)
There are hundreds if not thousands of articles on the internet from reputed journals and noted scientists about the climb in overweight and obesity. It’s not a conspiracy, and it hasn’t been made up by politicians.
There is plenty of data out there. Anecdotes do not data make. What “I’ve seen” when I’m “out and about” is not science. There are plenty of studies which are actually properly conducted which show that human beings have a the ability to tweak their genetic predispositions and extend their lives through lifestyle choices. They also have the opportunity to shorten their genetically influenced life span by their lifestyle choices. BTW, 20 lbs. overweight is not obese and no one has asserted such.
Someone is overweight when their weight is interfering with their health, vitality, energy, and ability to do things which are involved in their activities of daily living or things they enjoy. If you are hypertensive-which is a known and proved risk factor for many conditions-and you become normotensive when you lose a given number of pounds, then you were clearly overweight. If you are diabetic because you have gotten obese and your cells no longer respond to the insulin you produce, and losing that weight results in normal carbohydrate metabolism and blood sugar, then you were clearly overweight. If you are so overweight that it interferes with your ability to become physically fit, you are overweight.
Fitness has been shown to be one of the prime factors influencing longevity. People who are considered “overweight” yet are not too overweight to become fit generally live longer and healthier lives than thin people who are sedentary and unfit. Clearly, pounds alone is not the determinant of health, longevity and vitality and those “overweight” individuals who are very fit and have no unhealthy markers with respect to blood pressure, blood sugar, etc. could certainly argue that the classical definition of “overweight” might be a tad inaccurate. That doesn’t mean that we can make the leap that diet has no impact on health and longevity or that we are powerless to influence our health.
Or go to a country like South Africa, and you realize how few people there are overweight.
My daughter had a friend from Germany visiting the past three weeks. We went to some fast food place while traveling, and asked if she wanted “small, medium, or large.” She replied, “Well, considering the serving sizes I’ve seen so far in America, I will have ‘small!’”
My DH and D1 took a trip to Scandinavia together last summer. He told me that from what he saw, “obesity is non-existent here.” Both DH and D1 are tall and very slim. They said they got the occasional comment from people that they “didn’t look American.”
Are “American genes” different from those of the rest of the world? I think not.
nrdbs4, I am not sure what americans are supposed to “look like”.
but as far as genetics in scandavia minus new waves of refugees in the last several decades actually their genes are very much unique.
“The most recent data suggest that almost a third of Americans are obese - not just overweight but obese. These numbers aren’t imaginary. They’re not based on random observation based on seeing an occasional overweight person on the street. They are based on research and statistics.”
that is just not true, I trust that as much as tobacco ceo’s saying smoking is safe.
go to youtube and watch penn and tellers show on bmi, it is probably rated R but it will help those to invested in the obesity thing to get a new more honest prospective on the so called obesity epidemic.
Baloney. You understood perfectly well what their comment meant. THEY expected my DH and D1 to be heavy.
It’s a FACT that rates of type II diabetes have skyrocketed in recent decades, even in children, in whom type II was virtually unheard of. This has NOTHING to do with sudden genetic mutations and everything to do with diet and lifestyle.
