Fattening of America

Parent Cafe
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<p>[You</a> Are Where You Eat: Obesity Maps of North America : TreeHugger](<a href=“http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/you-are-where-you-eat.php]You”>http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/you-are-where-you-eat.php)</p>

<p>[Obesity</a> and Overweight for Professionals: Data and Statistics: U.S. Obesity Trends | DNPAO | CDC](<a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html]Obesity”>http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html)</p>

<p>[America’s</a> Fattest Cities: Men’s Health.com](<a href=“http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/metrogrades-fattest-cities/index.php]America’s”>http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/metrogrades-fattest-cities/index.php)</p>

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<p>One of the charts on the original post’s links showed a correlation between breastfeeding and childhood obesity, that is, that the more children were breast fed, the less likely to be obese. </p>

<p>I think there’s also some correlation between the decline in smoking and the rise in obesity, although the wealthier and more educated one is, the less likely to either smoke or be obese. Maybe the same sort of control that produced the high education and the subsequent income also allows for control over eating and smoking. Or it could be that the higher socio-economic groups just really scorn that sort of thing so that in order to fit in you have to be thin and smoke-free. The ‘you can’t be too rich or too thin’ thing.</p>

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<p>I’m skeptical, because for the most part the states with the highest smoking rates also have the highest obesity rates.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2010/09/14/us-smoking-rates-by-state[/url]”>http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2010/09/14/us-smoking-rates-by-state&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>But is the rate of smoking declining in those states as the obesity rate rises?</p>

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<p>Having traveled around the world ( Japan, Australia and many countries in Europe), here are my observations:</p>

<p>1) People in most other countries people walk, walk,walk (with the exception of smaller cities in Australia, which were much more suburban like). In place like Japan and Denmark, there are often more bicyclists than cars on the road. BTW - it’s rare to see SVUs and Mini-vans outside the US.</p>

<p>2) Portion sizes are smaller. Never saw a ‘super-sized’ anything outside the US.</p>

<p>3) There’s very little fast food. Occasionally, you will see something like McD in a large city like Tokyo but it’s just not that common. In the US, it’s on every corner. In Europe, people stop at their local deli/cafe for ‘take-out’ items.</p>

<p>4) People don’t work themselves to death in other countries and therefore, have time for leisurely meals. No need to gobble a fast food burger on the way to that after-school activity.</p>

<p>6) The stuff they eat is healthier and there’s definitely not a lot of packaged food in the stores. In Japan, we were staying near a grocery store and went in there almost every day. I was amazed at the amount of fresh fish people were loading into their shopping carts. The aisles with things like crackers, cookies, etc. are usually very small, unlike the US where the majority of the store is pre-packaged refined carbs. And what is sold, is usually in much smaller packages.</p>

<p>One more interesting thing about Japan. They sold sushi in convenience stores everywhere. People would walk in an grab bento boxes at the train station, the subways, just about everywhere. Sushi is considered ‘fast food’ in Japan.</p>

<p>In the US, Manhattan is one of the few places I’ve been that seems to more other countries - people walk everywhere, you don’t see a lot of obese people living there (but you do see tourists that fit that description). While there is fast food, there’s lots of cafe and delis. People can’t buy large amounts of food to take home at one time because it’s too difficult to carry.</p>

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<p>Only if you consider 20 lbs to be “just a few.” Barack Obama’s ht/wt is given as about 6’1" and about 170 lbs. That’s a BMI of 22.4 To get into the Overweight category he’d have to get his weight up to 190 lbs, and to be classified Obese he’d have to get up to 230 lbs. That sounds about right to me. </p>

<p>Also, regarding the midwest, I think you are on to something. I remember my first business trip to a medium-large midwestern city (that shall remain unnamed). I went to a suburban mall for dinner and afterward strolled around a bit. After a while it struck me that I’d never seen so many fat a$$ed people in one place in all my life. I bet not one person in 20 had a normal weight. Not that Californians are all healthy and perfectly built, but come on! I’m really hoping that was just an unexplained fluke and not representative of that whole city or state.</p>

<p>As for “Supersize,” that concept was invented by McDonalds execs as a way to sell more fries. At first Ray Kroc (the owner) rejected the idea saying that people could just buy two orders if they wanted more fries. But market reseach showed that people were hesitant to get two orders because it made them feel like they were gluttonous. But ordering one Supersize order did not. Kroc agreed to it and sure enough the sales of fries and peoples’ weight both showed big gains.</p>

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I’ve found the exact opposite in Tokyo and most large cities in Europe - they seem to have more than we have around here of McDonalds, BK, KFC, etc. In Tokyo I’ve also seen Dunkin Donuts, Shakeys Pizza, etc. I haven’t seen it so much in the smaller towns but it’s very prevalent in the large cities and they’re usually fairly packed with people.</p>

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<p>Maybe somebody can pass along the link to this article from Tues July 5 (we get the print edition): “Programming a Fetus for Healthier Life” by Shirley S. Wang. The accompanying diagram was about the effect of maternal level of glucose on fetus in utero.</p>

<p>There is likely to be a connection beyond the DNA to insulin resistance of infants and children and the mother’s glucose levels.</p>

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<p>^Actually we did see a lot of Krispy Kreme shops in Tokyo and they were quite busy but I never saw fast food on every block like we have in my city. Guess it depends on where you live.</p>

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<p>Here it is:
[Programming</a> a Fetus for a Healthier Life - WSJ.com](<a href=“Programming a Fetus for a Healthier Life - WSJ”>Programming a Fetus for a Healthier Life - WSJ)</p>

<p>I found the comments to be quite frightening… really off point.</p>

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<p>In most cultures besides ours, eating on the run/while walking in public, is really frowned upon. So is constantly snacking all the time.
So the presence of fast food shops, does not necessarily translate into the obesity causing behaviors.</p>

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<p>Smaller? Do you mean shorter?</p>

<p>As anyone who is short knows, it is far easier to gain weight eating a smaller amount as a tall person, because there’s no room to distribute the weight. I used to marvel at my 6ft college roommate who could eat so much more and yet remained slim.</p>

<p>BMI has the height as the denominator, so the smaller the denominator, the bigger the BMI index.</p>

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<p>momlive:</p>

<p>I can recall went I traveled to Europe > 30 years ago there were very few, if any, American FF in the cities but now it’s completely different where they have quite a number of them. I assume the shift will have an impact on the generations in those countries who are growing up with them readily available.</p>

<p>I did a quick check and one site I went to (I don’t know how reliable it is) states there are 3,598 McDonald’s in Japan (vs 12,804 in the USA), 1,115 in the UK, 1,091 in Germany, 857 in France.</p>

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<p>People need to stop eating like pigs and stop blaming their obesity on every thing under the sun other than their own lack of self control and bad choices.</p>

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<p>I looked at that also. The US has almost twice as many McDonald’s per capita than those countries. I calculated it out based upon population figures. In places like Norway, it’s three times more per capita. There’s no doubt that the US has an abundant of fast food establishments. Not surprised that the rest of the world is catching up with up in terms of numbers of fast food joints and obesity. It seems to go hand in hand. Though I’m not naive enough to believe that is the sole cause of obesity, it appears to be a contributing factor.</p>

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<p>My favorite health tip: before you eat something, ask yourself how you will feel in 30 minutes.</p>

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<p>Americans, as a group, eat too much and exercise too little. (Even our jobs are more sedentary than they were 30 years ago.) It’s not rocket science.</p>

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<p>Americans, as a group, eat too much and exercise too little</p>

<p>Our bodies were not designed to just carry our heads around- we forgot that.</p>

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<p>Previous poster asked if smoking rates decreased as obesity increased. Unfortunately, not in my state. Our #15 obesity is <em>bested</em> by our #2 smoking ranking. Sigh. We smoke and are fat… not even going to look up our drinking rank…too late to be further depressed.</p>

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<p>^^ I am not surprised. It has everything to do with discipline,self-control and making good choices and this extends to all facets in life. I am in my 50’s, 5’2" and under 100 lbs. This isn’t due to genetics or that I have high metabolism. I make choices with what and how much I put in my mouth at every meal. It is not easy.</p>