My Observation Today About What Americans Weigh

fmdog44

Well-known Member
Location
Houston, Texas
Went to Walmart to get my Amoxicillin prescription filled and had to wait 40 minutes. I spent part of the time just looking at the grocery shelves. I got hung up on the sauces aisle thinking how much sugar is in all of these condiments like mayo, ketchups, BBQ sauces, salad dressings, gravies and the like. Then I went to the McDonalds inside the store for a cup of coffee and sat by the window with a view of the people coming in to Walmart.

Not that I am not overweight but severe obesity at the rate of what I saw today says no one is lying when they say we are at a critical stage of a national health crisis. The real crime is these people are young like under 30 and the choice of food at fast food restaurants all and I mean 100% unhealthy and it is everywhere we look. I don't see it ever ending and sadly it is 100% avoidable.
 

Fast food has been around for a long time. Arguably first was White Castle in 1921, then chains such as McDonald's, est. in1940, and KFC, est. in 1952, caught fire, and boom. But we didn't start seeing an obesity problem until the 80s, and by the 90s it was epidemic. I believe this has to do, at least in part, with cheaper cooking oils and food additives. The FDA funded some studies, so you'd think they would have stepped in strongly by the late 90s. But fast food is a bazillion-dollar industry, so that hasn't happened yet. I wonder if it will, eventually.
 
Went to Walmart to get my Amoxicillin prescription filled and had to wait 40 minutes. I spent part of the time just looking at the grocery shelves. I got hung up on the sauces aisle thinking how much sugar is in all of these condiments like mayo, ketchups, BBQ sauces, salad dressings, gravies and the like. Then I went to the McDonalds inside the store for a cup of coffee and sat by the window with a view of the people coming in to Walmart. Not that I am not overweight but severe obesity at the rate of what I saw today says no one is lying when they say we are at a critical stage of a national health crisis. The real crime is these people are young like under 30 and the choice of food at fast food restaurants all and I mean 100% unhealthy and it is everywhere we look. I don't see it ever ending and sadly it is 100% avoidable.
What makes me sad is when I see obese parents with 3 young children and the kids are already way overweight. I just think about their future, dealing with diabetes, high blood pressure, strokes, depression, etc., not to mention being made fun of in school and general fat shaming their whole lives. Why are the parents putting the kids through all that when they surely have already experienced the pitfalls of being obese? Sorry if I sound like I have no empathy...I do. But it just seems to me that the parents would try to save their kids from the same difficulties.
 

Present statistics show that over 40% of our people are substantially overweight. This largely "preventable" epidemic is the root cause for almost 1/3rd of the nations medical problems and costs. I strongly suspect that the majority of those who have died, or become seriously ill due to Covid, fall into the substantially overweight category.

I would Dearly love to see Obesity treated much the same way as Smoking. Smokers have been charged extra for their health insurance for a long time....Overweight people should be treated the same, IMO. Perhaps if they take a hit in their wallets, they might begin to think about taking better care of their health.
 
Present statistics show that over 40% of our people are substantially overweight. This largely "preventable" epidemic is the root cause for almost 1/3rd of the nations medical problems and costs. I strongly suspect that the majority of those who have died, or become seriously ill due to Covid, fall into the substantially overweight category.

I would Dearly love to see Obesity treated much the same way as Smoking. Smokers have been charged extra for their health insurance for a long time....Overweight people should be treated the same, IMO. Perhaps if they take a hit in their wallets, they might begin to think about taking better care of their health.
I agree with you up to a point. I think obesity should be treated as a type of addiction or dependency - medically, with nationwide research and treatment centers, but publicly funded, because a huge portion of our obese population live below the poverty line.

And I agree with your correlation between covid and obesity. Data shows that a significant percentage of severe covid and covid deaths occurred (and still occurs) among the obese, including obese children. ☹️
 
Present statistics show that over 40% of our people are substantially overweight. This largely "preventable" epidemic is the root cause for almost 1/3rd of the nations medical problems and costs.

They know what causes their weight gain, but they made/make their choice to continue over eating.

Let's mandate them for their own good! Those within a healthy weight will get a food passport.

Those not a healthy weight will not be allowed to order or buy fatty or surgery foods.

Problem solved.
 
America's Favorite Foods ... and of course, Potato Chips are the #1 Snack ....

http://islandgrownschools.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/7/8/10785576/top_ten_foods_consumed_in_america.pdf

This reminded me of the extreme low quality and poor choices, I saw many years ago, in school lunches, which are harmful in themselves, and also gets the children used to those poor food choices. I wonder if they have improved them generally at all, or if they have only improved in very few schools.
 
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I would Dearly love to see Obesity treated much the same way as Smoking. Smokers have been charged extra for their health insurance for a long time....Overweight people should be treated the same
In the past I would have agreed, but I've been watching YouTubes this past year about the statistics and it turns out that there are healthy fat people that don't cost extra, and there are an even larger number of not-obese people that are developing the same type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and other metabolic problems from bad food choices than the number of obese people that do (though the percentage of the obese people with the problems are higher).
So, it is more complicated than just blaming overweight people. It is more about changing what people eat, which is a big challenge.
 
IMO punitive measures won’t do much good.

I would favor improving education, exercise, and access to healthy foods.

It’s really scary and sad to me that in my community the public schools now provide free breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack for all students.

In the summer they now act as feeding centers for any student that needs a free lunch.

When I was a kid we didn’t always have a lot but we always got fed.
 
Present statistics show that over 40% of our people are substantially overweight. This largely "preventable" epidemic is the root cause for almost 1/3rd of the nations medical problems and costs.

They know what causes their weight gain, but they made/make their choice to continue over eating.

Let's mandate them for their own good! Those within a healthy weight will get a food passport.

Those not a healthy weight will not be allowed to order or buy fatty or surgery foods.

Problem solved.
.. and then who's next - smokers?
 
Present statistics show that over 40% of our people are substantially overweight. This largely "preventable" epidemic is the root cause for almost 1/3rd of the nations medical problems and costs.

They know what causes their weight gain, but they made/make their choice to continue over eating.

Let's mandate them for their own good! Those within a healthy weight will get a food passport.

Those not a healthy weight will not be allowed to order or buy fatty or surgery foods.

Problem solved.
I can see a group of enterprising skinny kids standing outside of McDonalds offering to help the fat kids get a fix for a small fee. 😊
 
I sometimes think we wouldn't have become so obese if we hadn't tried so hard not to be. When I was a teen I thought I was a bit too fat at 5'6" 115 lbs. This was because my best friend weighed 110. (?)

So I was extremely interested in all the weight loss schemes and the articles about diet and exercise in my mother's magazines; Journal, Redbook, Vogue, Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, plus my own Seventeen, Glamour, Mademoiselle and Ingenue. They almost all only had such articles in April or May to prepare us for "swimsuit season."

Weight Watchers hadn't started yet and anyone who exercised was under suspicion as a "health nut." My female classmates did no exercise or sports unless forced to in gym class. We ate whatever we felt like including all our mothers' home baked cookies and cakes, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and tiny servings of canned peas. No we didn't have much fast food, we didn't need to, it was all at home in the form of pancakes and bacon for breakfast, hot school lunches and big hearty dinners.

Yet we were all fairly thin. I think it was because our metabolisms and hormones worked. We quit eating when we were full and our brain knew when were full because we had never dieted.

When we became obsessed with diets; low fat, low carb, South Beach, Atkins, raw food. and fasting we set our selves on a path of yo-yoing -- with every diet ending in a regain plus ten more pounds.

Now our bodies are so messed up we can't fix it. I no longer think obesity is preventable. Sure we can lose, but 98% regain so it's fairly hopeless.
https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/
Read it and weep.
 
Oh goody you read where I replied to murmur about cost of my cigarettes. 🙄

Sure why not it seems people's choices about their own health doesn't matter anymore.
It’s not just smokers or obese people.

It could be skiers with a broken leg, a drug overdose, auto accident, etc...

IMO we should all have access to quality medical care without attempting to single out any particular group.
 
Obesity is a tough issue to solve, take it from one who has first hand experience.

I’ve never met anyone that wants to be overweight. If money was the only thing needed to solve the problem there would be no fat billionaires, entertainers, celebrities, etc...

I think it will take generations to change the way we eat.

IMO solving the issue of obesity is right up there with solving global warming, eliminating poverty, reducing crime, etc...
 
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I sometimes think we wouldn't have become so obese if we hadn't tried so hard not to be. When I was a teen I thought I was a bit too fat at 5'6" 115 lbs. This was because my best friend weighed 110. (?)

So I was extremely interested in all the weight loss schemes and the articles about diet and exercise in my mother's magazines; Journal, Redbook, Vogue, Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, plus my own Seventeen, Glamour, Mademoiselle and Ingenue. They almost all only had such articles in April or May to prepare us for "swimsuit season."

Weight Watchers hadn't started yet and anyone who exercised was under suspicion as a "health nut." My female classmates did no exercise or sports unless forced to in gym class. We ate whatever we felt like including all our mothers' home baked cookies and cakes, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and tiny servings of canned peas. No we didn't have much fast food, we didn't need to, it was all at home in the form of pancakes and bacon for breakfast, hot school lunches and big hearty dinners.

Yet we were all fairly thin. I think it was because our metabolisms and hormones worked. We quit eating when we were full and our brain knew when were full because we had never dieted.

When we became obsessed with diets; low fat, low carb, South Beach, Atkins, raw food. and fasting we set our selves on a path of yo-yoing -- with every diet ending in a regain plus ten more pounds.

Now our bodies are so messed up we can't fix it. I no longer think obesity is preventable. Sure we can lose, but 98% regain so it's fairly hopeless.
https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/
Read it and weep.
"Now our bodies are so messed up we can't fix it."

Yes all that yo yo back and forth dieting. I have never been on a diet, love food, never been over weight. I have friends and family struggling with diets to lose weight and I always felt that if they would just stop and eat the foods they crave that their body is craving, in time their weight would level off to a normal weight for them. Diabetics of course couldn't eat sugary stuff.

Some people with thyroid problems gain no matter what they eat, my brother was that way.
 
Michelle Obama tried to implement healthy nutrition programs for children. In 2011, federal spending totaled $10.1 billion for the National School Lunch Program, and we all saw how well that worked out. I know there are many reasons for obesity, but people who choose to eat an unhealthy diet will just continue to do so.
 
Present statistics show that over 40% of our people are substantially overweight. This largely "preventable" epidemic is the root cause for almost 1/3rd of the nations medical problems and costs.

They know what causes their weight gain, but they made/make their choice to continue over eating.

Let's mandate them for their own good! Those within a healthy weight will get a food passport.

Those not a healthy weight will not be allowed to order or buy fatty or surgery foods.

Problem solved.
Can you say police state?
 


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