And they wonder why Americans are overweight?

[PaulDalex]

I read in a news site that there are 41 nations with longer life expectancy than USA. the poll asked if I was surprised. Personally I was not. The typical American diet looks to me like a suicide with food. But to explain the right diet is a too long story to post here...Also the question comes naturally. Since they know, why they do nothing about that? The answer might be connected to the need to go against the profit made by killing people with the wrong food...Who knows

 

[Chaser]

yes it's a sensible issue (or sensitive, or whatever).
But first of all: every overweight person knows he/she is overweight. Most of them also know it's not healthy (except of course cultures where it is considered to be a sign of wealth or fertility etc). Many people can freely talk about their overweight problem, or even make jokes about it. At that point comes the question: is it ok to make some kind of fun of, or joke with sbody of this category?
take the shot i posted, e.g. .The woman on the shot clearly has no problem with her size, as shown by the jacket she is wearing.

Moreover. Some badly overweight people I know are really fun people, loving life and they really know how to enjoy their days. I love being with them.

I agree. Hell I like myself, and I broke a damned patio chair yesterday. What I am interested in is how people choose to document a semi sensitive subject. TV news often does the fat shots where heads are cut off so as not to embarrass the people being used to illustrate a story, when there really is no reason to censor themselves. I personally think it would be strange to document consumption without showing the outcome.

 

[colinh]

Not having posted on this aspect yet, you could consider me neutral. And I find Ken's initial statement off. "Don't do that! That's rude!" is what adults say to children.

When you analyse humour, there's almost always someone, or something that is being made fun of. And whether that's OK or not doesn't have anything to do with life choices. Is it OK to make fun of smokers dying (to someone, whose spouse has just died of lung cancer)? Probably not. On the other hand Roberto Begnini managed to make a comedy (film) about a Nazi concentration camp.

In any case, did you read the "Menu" ?

Ice Slush Drink
Milk Shakes (probably containing NO milk)
Cold Canned Drinks

Chocolate Kebabs
Sweet Bags
Mars Bars
Toffee Apples

and ...

ROLLOVER HOTDOGS


🙂

colin

[ and I've lost 12 kg (26 lb) over the last 5 months 🙂 ]

 

[colinh]

I read in a news site that there are 41 nations with longer life expectancy than USA. the poll asked if I was surprised. Personally I was not. The typical American diet looks to me like a suicide with food. But to explain the right diet is a too long story to post here

No it isn't 🙂

Eat more fruit and vegetables. And we're talking Texan more here. LOTS of fruit and vegetables. If you're feeling peckish eat 10 cucumbers if you like, or 20 salads, 55 tomatoes, and 30 carrots.

Eat less meat. Eat more fish instead. When you eat meat - is the portion around 125 g (bit more than 1/4 pound) ?

Eat less fat and sugar (and salt). Avoid ALL sugar products for a while (chocolate, milkshake, cola) and things you know contain too much oil/fat.

Drink more water.

DRINK EVEN MORE WATER.

Move a bit more than you do now.

FINISHED.

If people (including myself) actually did this, there would be waaaay too many healthy people walking around.

Is it possible that anyone doesn't know that eating 10 Big Macs, a litre of concentrated sugar water, a bucket of sugared popcorn and one whole chocolate cake is not healthy?

...Also the question comes naturally. Since they know, why they do nothing about that? The answer might be connected to the need to go against the profit made by killing people with the wrong food...Who knows

I was going to say "nobody is forcing you to eat this stuff" but it appears that's not quite true. Is the stuff I heard about Coca-Cola "sponsoring" (supporting) schools true? (Like, on condition that only Coca-Cola drink products are sold on site. etc. Or that schools get computers if they manage to collect enough bottle tops or whatever? "Kid, you need to bring 100 bottle tops next week, or else!" )

In any case, why does anyone do things that they know are wrong?


colin

 

[etrigan63]

I thought the image ironic when I took it. Stacks of pizza over rows of diet soda like one would offset the other. I didn't mean to start an uproar. It reminded me of a poster my sister had in her bedroom when we were kids: A can of Diet Coke next to an enormous slice of chocolate cake with the title: The Great American Diet.

Sorry troops.

 

[colinh]

I thought the image ironic when I took it. Stacks of pizza over rows of diet soda like one would offset the other. I didn't mean to start an uproar.
...
Sorry troops.

Hey! Don't worry! It's OK.

The problems will start if I eat Jenni's bunnies 🙁



colin

 

[Ken Ford]

It's not the images in this thread, it's one of the comments and how it was taken.

 

[mw_uio]

Here in Quito, we all ready have a local national pop, that comes in a 4 litre container, which is huge. It is crazy. Young Ecuadorian kids, I see are getting bigger. It depends on the family and what resources they have., whether they are into eating healthy and exercising, which some kids do not.

"I eat so I can live, not live to eat"

Cheers 😀
MArk
Quito, EC

 

[Silva Lining]

I thought the image ironic when I took it. Stacks of pizza over rows of diet soda like one would offset the other. I didn't mean to start an uproar. It reminded me of a poster my sister had in her bedroom when we were kids: A can of Diet Coke next to an enormous slice of chocolate cake with the title: The Great American Diet.

Sorry troops.

No need for your apologies etrigan63!

You just took a picture of some pizza boxes - people got them selves all wound up all by themselves 😀

FAT is an issue. I saw a huge guy getting on the plane to Glasgow the other day - he had to ask for an extended seatbelt (like that mentioned by a previous poster) I looked down at the amount of spare nylon belt on my own, and saw that there is not much spare...

My BMI tells me that I am 'Obese'. What does Obese mean? Sure I am overweight, but how did I get from being 'cuddly' to fat to f***ing fat ?? (Which is what obese really means - it means that you are fat enough that it will, most likely, kill you)

Well, probably because i take my job to seriously, don't get enough exercise and eat too much, thats why. Hardly a lifestyle choice but it is a situation I've got myself into and one I intend to change.

Speaking as a big fat bloke - people calling me names or suggesting 'I roll along' doesn't bother me, its a joke! and I can usually respond with a much more cutting remark 😉. what is really sad are the people who make judgments about your, ability, personality, hygiene, and capability just because you have a big belly or a big fat arse (or both) - that's what is really insidious. After all - I'm the same guy inside as I was when my waistline was 10inches less aren't I?

 

[Ronald M]

When we got married 35 years ago, my wife wore size 6/8. She now is 0/2 and has to go to a european dept store in the USA to get clothing. That or the kids section and we have a 60 year old dressed like a teenager.


I guess they just don`t have the heart to tell these 185 lb women they wear size 24, so everything is resized. 185 at 5 foot 4 is a perfect size 12.

Bunions are rampant `cause the over weigt blobs have broken their feet but still want to wear size 6 shoes. Yup the toes spring.

Hip and knee replacement surgery is a booming business. Why? Hald the population is carrying an extra 50 pounds.

Lap bands, stomach stapeling, jount replacements, endless diet commercials are big business in the US. Still they are sugaring up the kids so they fit right in by first grade!

 

[Keith]

Television has a lot to answer for if you ask me ... prime time (and I mean that time of day when people get hungry) advertisements showing healthy active people stuffing MacDonalds or similar, salt fat sugar hits into their gobs! And the worst adds are the ones that play the guilt card and tell us to "give mom a break." as the camera cuts to the generically perfect family sitting at the table with the latest cholestorol enhancing special carefully positioned on it and everyone panting in anticipation at it's potential cullinary delights! :bang:

I'm a skinny bloke ... I always have been and don't put on weight no matter what I eat but I feel sorry for the souls out there that only have to look at a bag of fries and they bung on a pound or two. They are being manipulated as are the smokers drinkers etc by the corporate barons who make the big bucks out of killing people slowly. It should be a f***ing crime to treat people like sheep and pass your poison off as food in this way ... but as long as there are mouths wallets and television, it aint gonna stop! 🙄

 

[Thardy]

LIFE EXPECTANCY IN US

Not only does diet contribute to this problem, so does alcohol and tobacco consumption. The tobacco companies have a ready supply of youngsters ready to become consumers. Check out all the (new) smokers on any college campus here in the US.

 

[mfunnell]

Yet another innocuous topic that's gone a little, um, wobbly on us (if you'll excuse the expression 😀 ).

There is a real problem with obesity, I'd say, in various places to differing degrees, which I'd guess we can all tell by simple observation or the need to purchase wider-angle lenses. But it's not only the corporate fat-and-sugar pushers setting out to pursuade and mislead. There are plenty of activists and other agenda-pushers out there who (out of only the purest of motives, of course) manage to do pretty well themselves...

I predict, for example, that statistics about the rise of obesity over time will start being produced in a 15 year time-frame rather than a 10 year time-frame. The reason? In the US (where much of the discussion comes from) they changed the upper-bound BMI (body mass index) for "normal" from 27.8 to 25 in 1998. Almost immediately the standard statistic reported went something like "over the last 10 years, the number of people classified as overweight or obese has risen [enormously]..."

Spot the three card trick: even if nobody changed weight by so much as a gram, the number classified as overweight changed greatly by mere fiat: they changed a definition. And the statistic, ever since has been "overweight or..", disguised by that generic 10 year time frame. People might have noticed if someone reported "Since yesterday, at 3 o'clock, the number of Americans classified as overweight or obese rose by more than 30 million. A spokesman for Blob Burger refused to comment."

Now we're at the 10 year mark, as noted earlier, the statistic has to be extended to 15 years to continue what is, IMO, a statistical fraud. But for only the purest and nicest of reasons. (Yet, somehow, all that niceness makes me feel no better.)

...Mike
(Full disclosure, I'm at the upper end of the new "normal" BMI range.)

 

[usccharles]

I moved to Korea from the US almost 4 years ago. and honestly, when i was still living in the States, i never really noticed people were 'fat' or 'big' or whatever you want to call it.

but i take some time away from the States and when i went back last month, the very first thing i noticed out of the airport and everytime i stepped outside was, wow, people are so big here...

and here is another interesting note: during this trip i did a drive from LA to SF and what is the most common site you see driving by each small town and neighborhood along the way? Mcdonalds, Carl's Jr. Jack in the Box, IHOP, etc, etc. it was really sad. the whoe stretch of central california between LA and SF, nothing but fast-food joints.

its really not the people's fault. they have nothing else to eat in that country. if i wanted to eat something along the way, i had to go into a grocery store and make my own salad with the vegetables they had on sale, which of course i didn't do. i had me a burger and fries. cheap and fast, the american way. i also gained 5 pounds from my 2 week trip. and i was being careful.

another funny tidbit. we stopped at IHOP (International House of Pancakes) at like 6:30am along the way for breakfast. after only being able to finish a quarter of my breakfast (a three egg omlet the size of my ass, which also came with a side of 3 stack pancakes for no good reason), the waiter comes up and goes, 'so you ready for desert?'

i looked at my watch... looked back at him... looked back at my watch... and he had no idea what i was thinking. no thanks. i need to poop where's the toilet?

my two long cents 🙂

 

[FrankS]

What's all the fuss about? The new digital cameras have a "thinning" mode! 😉

 

[POINT OF VIEW]

This thread is as stupid as shooting with film.

 

[Rhoyle]

Okay, I seem to be one of the few if not the only person in this forum who thinks the picture was funny. After reading all of the previous posts, I'm digging my heels in and saying I STILL think it's funny. And as a 6 footer weighing in at 250 lbs. and an ex smoker (when I quit I gained the extra 50lbs.-so much for quitting being healthy!) I'm glad to have a sense of humor. So why is my body the size that it is? I eat too much. Not necessarily too much junk, just too much food. I excercise. As a matter of fact, tomorrow I'll be doing a 50-mile bike ride in hilly New England. And I eat a balanced diet.

Having said all that, I must also say that during the times when I've worked in Europe for extended periods (several months at a time), I have always lost weight. Not just a little, but a good 25+ pounds. How? I have no idea. Actually, I do. I ate sensible sized meals at meal time. I didn't snack at all. I walked everywhere. Although I do get excercise from time to time (like tomorrow) I spend too much time in the car here in America. So it's clear to me that the difference, at least for me, is living in the suburbs where I can't walk to the grocery store, or the bank or the post office or to work. People who live in Manhatten are much less obese than people living in Connecticut. I think it's less an issue of sugar and fat than it is of getting off your duff and going places under your own power.

Laugh if you want....

BH

 

[FrankS]

Thank you for that thoughtful comment, point of view. (sarcasm - there ought to be an emocon for that)

 

[FrankS]

I lost a bunch of weight while living in Japan, for the simple reason that I walked more. Japan and Europe have great public transit systems that greatly reduce the need for a car. Here in North America, the country is so big, public transit is a huge challenge that hasn't been met, so almost everyone drives a car - and walks less.

 

[etrigan63]

Okay, I seem to be one of the few if not the only person in this forum who thinks the picture was funny. After reading all of the previous posts, I'm digging my heels in and saying I STILL think it's funny. And as a 6 footer weighing in at 250 lbs. and an ex smoker (when I quit I gained the extra 50lbs.-so much for quitting being healthy!) I'm glad to have a sense of humor. So why is my body the size that it is? I eat too much. Not necessarily too much junk, just too much food. I excercise. As a matter of fact, tomorrow I'll be doing a 50-mile bike ride in hilly New England. And I eat a balanced diet.

Having said all that, I must also say that during the times when I've worked in Europe for extended periods (several months at a time), I have always lost weight. Not just a little, but a good 25+ pounds. How? I have no idea. Actually, I do. I ate sensible sized meals at meal time. I didn't snack at all. I walked everywhere. Although I do get excercise from time to time (like tomorrow) I spend too much time in the car here in America. So it's clear to me that the difference, at least for me, is living in the suburbs where I can't walk to the grocery store, or the bank or the post office or to work. People who live in Manhatten are much less obese than people living in Connecticut. I think it's less an issue of sugar and fat than it is of getting off your duff and going places under your own power.

Laugh if you want....

BH

OK, I feel vindicated now. I was beginning to think my sense of humor had drifted far, far away from humans...