Why Are People So Fat?

What saddens and worries me is fat children.

 

There is the poverty factor--even if you can eat a healthy diet on relatively little money, most people who live in poverty are also uneducated and don't know what constitutes a sensible diet. On the same topic, I've noticed that healthy food is often viewed as a "sacrifice", it's considered bland, boring, tasteless, and a chore to eat. Very poor adults and children don't have access to a lot of the pleasures that wealthier people are welcome to partake in--cable television, the newest toys and electronics, going to the movies, visiting restaurants, some sports that cost money, vacations, and other common luxuries that others take for granted. But, most everyone has to eat, and can afford to eat, at least a little bit. And now you try and tell them that they can't even enjoy their food? They have to give up the pleasures of eating fun (junk!) food, in order to maintain health? It's hard to surrender the few privileges that you have, when you have access to so few of them.

That being said, I think a lot of us can vouch for the fact that healthy eating can make us feel much better, and once you lose your taste for processed junk food, can be much more satisfying and delicious than a lot of prepared/fast foods. It just takes time, willpower, and a dedication to get to that point. Having grown up in poverty, I can say that it took a lot of effort to develop the eating habits I have to day, effort in the form of hours of research and careful planning of monetary resources. Before adulthood I was totally clueless about what constituted a reasonable diet. I'm still learning.

Beyond being poor, even the middle class is far from evading the obesity epidemic. We simply no longer live in a world that is set up to encourage physical activity, and in some ways, the more wealth we accumulate, the less we have to move around. Manual laborers are replaced with computers, physical jobs are being pushed out with more and more desk jobs. We take our cars everywhere, public transport is struggling to survive (at least in the USA). Children are kept inside from a combination of electronic preoccupations and parental fear of harm from strangers (abductions!) or accidents. Simultaneously, our food supply is plummeting in quality. We don't eat the same foods that our grandparents ate, everything is processed and pumped with sugar, salt, fat and other incomprehensible ingredients that are out of reach of the average consumer.

And then we add the ridiculously long work days, and sitting in traffic on highways, the countless hours of the day that are consumed by obligations to everything except family and self-care, and we are left with an exhausted, stupid, and fat population who simply do not have the time or energy to exercise (or read about healthy habits) at the end of an arduous day.

Is it possible to live a healthy lifestyle despite all of these factors (and I'm sure I missed many)? Yes. But it's hard, and it takes a concentrated effort and time commitment. We need to rethink the system before simply dismissing fat folks as lazy.

 

Stress, anxiety and high cortisol levels are also a factor in weight gain for many obese people.

 

If you scroll down to the 'food' section on this web page you will see that there are 883 million undernourished people in the world, and that over 20,000 people have died over hunger today (so far)

You will also see that there are 1.604 billion overweight people.

This means that more then 5 billion people are not overweight

 

I don't understand this parallel between obesity and public transportation? I don't like either

 

This is true; I've certainly discovered this by getting divorced and learning how to cook a little, but it goes back to the "people are lazy" argument.

 

I have noticed this, too, and I heard a news report about it and the news report said they were not outside playing like they used to, due to television and computers.....


saturated fats, etc.....most foods on grocery store shelves suck, also.

 

i've always wondered, is walking 20 feet really enough exercise to even be considered a significant difference?

competition for what? those fatties will fight you for the last burger.

or do you just mean that the fat people are dead by the time you're old?

 

Not sure how good that does since most doctors and dieticians simply go by the government's guidelines. I'm not sure what they're like in Canada, but here they're insane.

 

I support public transportation

 

I've read that far fewer kids have backyards to play in, too.

 

Obesity was virtually unknown 50 years ago.

The golden rule,

"Calories IN, minus calories OUT, equals kilograms ON.

simple really.

 

As with many, many other problems humans face--education is the key. And part of that education should be the understanding that the human condition, good, bad or indifferent, (in most cases) makes no difference at all to those that could influence common sense in nutrition or anything else, that the making of money is the most important issue. if this were--NOT true--there would be no obesity.

 

No it really is not that simple.

 

but is that really an excuse. I spent the first 5 years of my life on the 20th floor of an apartment complex with only a small enclosed concrete area with monkey bars which I was always on...plus my parents walked me everywhere......

 

PR,

Care to point out the error in my 'equation'?

Translation, obese people EAT too much!

 

It's funny how since the low fat craze began in the 70s and 80s, people have become fatter. In terms of dietary fat, people used to eat way more of it in the 50s and 60s. With the low fat craze came all these processed sugar and refined carb laden foods we see on the shelves today. This shit actually makes you hungry and constantly wanting to eat this garbage. It is addicting.

 

You are always hungry after the shit, as it does nothing for one really nutrionally....

 

and not to mention microwave era...let's throw some mac and cheese and it and call it dinner.....people have no time anymore....where are they all going in such a hurry, anyway?
fast this, fast that....don't get me started on a rampage.....lol

I do not have a microwave.....I am proud to say.....

 

It's not simply how much people eat, but what they're eating and how it affects their metabolism and thus their ability to process said calories. The obesity epidemic is largely one to do with hormonal dysregulation and not simply the fact that people eat too much and exercise too little. Of course that plays a part, too, but it's merely a fraction of a much bigger picture. The calories in/calories out approach to weight gain/loss is an oversimplified one.