The American "Obesity Epidemic?"

[SmileyEH]

I dont understand why we still see stories about body image issues. The problems of bulemea/anorexia PALE in comparison to the continent of fatties we've got going on.

[thirddan]

seems like when people think of obesity it relates only to diet...but like most health issues there is exercise as well as diet...people are sedentary, this makes people get fat...

and yes, bmi is a crap way to measure health/weight range...

[mattnxtc]

Something that my girlfriend and I were noticing recently is that is has become socially acceptable to eat [censored] food. When I bring healthy food to work, people always comment about how much of a health nut I must be.

Its just acceptable these days to eat fatty foods

[SmileyEH]

Getting berated for eating healthy food is sooo annoying

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Getting berated for eating healthy food is sooo annoying

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QFT. The real problem is that kids and adults are so woefully undereducated when it comes to healthy foods and the effects of eating poorly. Many people are brought up to believe that they are just naturally fat and can do nothing about it.

No one tells them that yes, it is natural for some people to have "better"/faster metabolisms but that does not mean that they have to be overweight. It simply means they have to control their diet in a different way, but they CAN look as good as naturally skinny people.

[lozen]

Look at the rate of type 2 diabetes it is climbing rapidly. Reason being Dual income homes. parents allow the TV,computer and Video games to raise there kids as they feed them junk food regularly.

[Rootabager]

I go to schools alot and put on health fairs for kids. It's mostly because their parents dont have good food for them to eat.

No one eats veggies and fruit.

It also sucks that good food cost so much. Poor people cant afford to eat as well.

[aggie]

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The real problem is that kids and adults are so woefully undereducated when it comes to healthy foods and the effects of eating poorly. Many people are brought up to believe that they are just naturally fat and can do nothing about it.

No one tells them that yes, it is natural for some people to have "better"/faster metabolisms but that does not mean that they have to be overweight. It simply means they have to control their diet in a different way, but they CAN look as good as naturally skinny people.

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I think people in this thread are underestimating both people's intelligence and their lazyness. I'm overweight because I have a slow/medium natural metabolism, eat like crap, and don't work out. It's fairly obvious to me that if i were to eat better and exercise i wouldn't be fat....I'm sure anybody who's not a complete idiot knows this.

[Big Poppa Smurf]

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I do think that poor time management plays a significant role, but I think the majority role is ignorance, like others have pointed out. Never has it been more acceptable to eat McDonald's on a daily basis, and despite the efforts of Subway, that type of food is still looked down upon.

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I'm convinced that the lack of information and education regarding proper diet and exercise is a huge factor in why americans are getting so fat. When people do try to eat healthy, they don't know what they're doing and don't realize that it's a long term commitment, so when they don't get instant results they go back to being fatties, except that they're even more depressed about things.

There's just so much misinformation and "get thin fast" crap out there that no one knows what's going on.

edit: forgot to say that most people go on crash diets to lose some weight before big events, which just further skews their perception of what is healthy and effective and what isn't

[calmB4storm]

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Getting berated for eating healthy food is sooo annoying

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QFMFT