Why Are Americans So Fat

The amount of junk food in the stores in America (and actually here in the UK as well!) is just insane! Huuuuge amounts of chips, candy bars, different kinds of peanut/chocolate butters, jams, jellos... whatever. I feel weird about going to Sainsbury's here and seeing all these shelves FILLED with junk food. And what surprises me even more is that people actually buy that stuff. It's just so different in where I'm from (Finland, but also the rest of Scandinavia and many other countries in Europe)...

 

Yup, when I go to northern Ireland, I'm shocked at the size of the portions! And as kozmicblue said, the amount of garbage you find on the shelves!
The portions are sickening, I can't eat the 1/4 of the food in my plate! and if you buy a small mars bar in northern Ireland (the same as in Great Britain therefor) it's the big size in France!
And if everything is super-sized, you get used to eating so much! That's what happens to the american's in general, they get used to the amount of food, and it's normal for them after a while! The cells in your body are changed, and it then gets harder to stop eating as much/to lose weight!

It's a real problem!

 

One word...........


LAZY!

Ok, there are a lot of "junk food" around but not many people "break a sweat" either. If people would just add a little bit of "activity" into their lives, they would not be sueing McDonalds because thier kids and thereself are overweight from a "healthy" daily diet of GARBAGE...............



~namaste~

 

also, people buy into these instant weight loss ads and think they can lose weight from putting on some patch or just taking some pill and whatnot...

on my roomates computer he keeps getting this ad for some patch that magically burns 28 pounds of fat a month for you...its ridiculous.

 

Herez Why!

 

oh god... is that real??

 

real and when it's america, not nonsense at all!

 

I would in part blame PETA and Jane Brody of the New York Times for their endless promorion of the high carb diet.

http://www.westonaprice.org/know_your_fats/lowfatcapitalism.html

 

i dont know if anyone is even gonna read this, since the thread is so long right now...


but im pretty convinced that the main reason is that americans, in general, dont walk as much as everyone else. we drive everywhere

of course, the processing of foods and increased serving sizes are pretty big factors too

 

Since I'm an american I guess I can say this. It's because we greedy americans eat to damn much! Instead of stuffing ourselves we should give our extra food to the poor.

 

All the fat people I know eat all this shit!

They don't exercize.

They eat little or no veggies or fruits.

They eat little that is in it's natural state.

They feed their own children SHIT right out of the womb. And them complain that they are fat.

I know some of it is genetic, but a lot of it isn't. I come from an Italian family, with a LOT of fat people. I see a lot of forcing children to eat,(one of the biggest risks of obesity in infancy and childhood!!!!) and eating without paying attention to what one is doing. Like those calories don't count.

I was sitting next to a nurse at a seminar (it is weird how many nurses are fat, you would think those of us in health care would take better care of ourselves) and she was complaining about her obesity. I was sitting there with a bottle of water. Before the seminar even started, she started digging in her bag for something, Peanut M&Ms. (We had just been given all kinds of pastry for "breakfast.") She was popping them in like, um, they were candy. I doubt she even KNEW she was eating. I drank my water, and she continued to EAT for the entire presentation. I had a salad for lunch, some fruit, some pasta and a whole grain bread. She had salad with blue cheese dressing, tons of cheese, lots of fat and meat AND dessert. After lunch she continued to pop stuff into her mouth for the entire rest of the seminar. I was kinda weirded out. I have seen this before. A million times. In my own family, and in other places, but people just EAT and don't realize they are just stuffing themselves. Like those mindless calories aren't going to make a difference.

Oh, the seminar was about Infant Nutrition. There was even a section on preventing obesity in childhood.

Be MINDFUL of what you put in your mouth.

 

It's the junk food corporations that make the average Joe believe there are no other, better alternatives.

I went to highschool for a short time in the USA and I could not believe how many candy bar vending machines and coke machines were around the school. must've been about 50! There was not a single one in my australian highschool. Plus there was a Papa john's pizza stand in the freaking cafetaria! I don't see why though, when burgers and chips and deep fried lard were being served there too. and Taco Bell would come out and put up a stall on school grounds for the Sports carnivals! I mean, WTF???? Taco Bell supporting the Sports carnival???? When my Aussie highschool started serving Almond bread at the canteen it was like a Hallelujah fiesta! I tell my aussie friends about American eating habits and they just drop their jaws in disbelief! And what's up with the pre-spread cracker things you buy in the supermarkets over there?? Are americans so lazy they can't even spread their own freaking crackers???!!!

And one word: S'mores. There's ur heart attack in a graham cracker.

Aussie's aren't perfect either, tho. We're fast following the states' examples. However, there is a thing here about keeping active and fit, because sport is such a huge part of our every day culture. So at least we have that going for us. For now.

 

I can't buy ONE serving for 67 cents!!!

Is this figure from an institution, feeding hundreds or thousands of people? At a local market, I can buy a single banana, for 75 cents.

 

When people eat lots of junk and highly processed and fatty foods, they are always hungry, because their bodies are crying out to be nourished!
That means for the good, real stuff with vitamins, minerals, roughage etc etc. Many obese people are suffering from a form of malnutrition.
When you don't feel "whole" then you will always try to fill yourself up with something else. It might be food, or drugs, or alcohol or sex. Anything to fill the void...it's a shame

 

By the way ImaPeach, from one aussie to another - don't you think the Macca's over there are pitiful compared to the aussie version? I couldn't believe I had to pay and wait with a ticket to get a cup of coffee in a McDonald's in Santa Monica. The ones in Montana were pretty seedy looking too. My God, ours look absolutely spotless, are super-efficient, and with more variety than theirs.
(Oh great, now I sound like a Macca's connoisseur! PS: I was very poor when there and our dollar was worth only 50 cents US at the time!)
Anyway, when I stayed on the Crow Rez I ate pretty well, except I don't think fry bread is considered a health food, unfortunately.

 

I haven't read through this thread yet, but am going to reply anyways.

Look at our food supply. Most of what we eat is processed food, with all these chemicals in them. Things like aspartame (nutrasweet), hydrogenated corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose, and most of those other ingredients you can't pronounce...they actually make people hungry, fat, and depressed. And you go look at your ingredients lists of the foods in your kitchen. These things are in at least 85% of it.

Our farming practices use so many chemicals (fertilizer, pesticides, artificial hormones) that our bodies are full of them. We are actually toxic. This means we don't take up nutrients as well so we need to eat more. To make matters worse, our produce isn't as nutritious as it was, say, 50 years ago. So on top of not being able to absorb nutrients, there's less to absorb in the first place! Even our fruits and vegetables aren't all that good for us anymore, with all the shit they've absorbed into them while growing (and then been sprayed/coated with during processing).

Diet foods are the worst, because there's more man-made chemicals in them. Diet sodas and low fat (or low carb, nowadays) foods are full of these things, which actually make you hungrier AND fatter, as well as depressed. (depressed people tend to eat more, and also sit around alot. They aren't motivated to exercise).

So it's not just that we eat too much and exercise too little. Our food is almost poison, and that's what we have to eat...it doesn't encourage good health. A good book to read: "Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About" by Kevin Trudeau. It will piss you off, but hopefully that will make you actually want to do something about it. There's more in it than stuff about why we're fat, it's about health over-all.

We all need to start eating only organic foods, immediately.

 

Dear TrippinBTM,
Organic foods are grown using animal shit! Did you not know that?There is nothing wrong with organic fertilizer.Most people are unaware that it is not that hard to get organic certification.

 

So? Natural soil has...decomposed bodies in it! Seriously man, what do you think humus is? Decomposed organic material i.e. bodies and shit.