Do you think that people outside of the USA are catching up on fatness?

[Balkan]

There's this new statistic from the World Health Organization that says child obesity has increased tenfold in the last 40 years ago. I've lived in Europe my whole life and I have to say that it rings true. People are getting fatter as the American junk-food (McDonald's, soft-drinks, frozen foods, etc.) become a part of the daily diet.
Here's the article btw:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/increase-childhood-obesity/en/

 

[DefunctTheory]

Proving the old adage 'If you can't get thin, make everyone else as fat as you.'

 

[Borty The Bort]

This is how countries collapse. Not because of people being afraid to fight for their country against totalitarian aggressors, but because they were too fat to get out of their chair to fight for said country.

 

[Zontar]

We live in a time where people eating too much outnumber people who don't eat enough on the global level. What a time to be alive.

 

[Saelune]

We live in a time where people eating too much outnumber people who don't eat enough on the global level. What a time to be alive.

Well, we could try to globalize and let those with help those without.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

As long as this is still true [http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/tomato-sauce-pizza-vegetable-congress-gop-healthier-school-lunches-expensive-article-1.978339] they hold a sizeable lead over their competitors when it comes to weight gain.

[sub][sub]I know its debunked but its a fun meme up here in Canada. [/sub][/sub]

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Somebody's been taking a little too much to heart that "let them eat cake" expression.

Eating disorders are up, mental health issues are up, obesity is up, poverty is up...it's all going up, up is good, right? How rather splendid. Am I the only one feeling light-headed from all this?

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Cheap junk is cheaper and/or vastly more convenient than healthy food, and we haven't evolved past "need all the kcals now" because a lot of us still exist in areas where our next meal isn't assured.

Too bad there's no solution to that within the bounds of capitalism.

 

[Zontar]

Too bad there's no solution to that within the bounds of capitalism.

Could be worst, only alternatives have shown themselves to have the opposite problem: everyone's too thin because there isn't enough food.

While it isn't ideal, I'd rather live in the capitalist world where we have people eating too much over the socialist one where people can't get enough to stay properly nourished.

Hell we could just take notes from Japan, a capitalist nation that in many ways goes a few steps further then the US yet has one of the healthiest populations in the world. Hell, its existence disproves the claim one can't solve with problem in a capitalist system when you think about it.

 

[Worgen]

Depends on how much our food companies can put sugar into every damn thing.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Too bad there's no solution to that within the bounds of capitalism.

Could be worst, only alternatives have shown themselves to have the opposite problem: everyone's too thin because there isn't enough food.

While it isn't ideal, I'd rather live in the capitalist world where we have people eating too much over the socialist one where people can't get enough to stay properly nourished.

Hell we could just take notes from Japan, a capitalist nation that in many ways goes a few steps further then the US yet has one of the healthiest populations in the world. Hell, its existence disproves the claim one can't solve with problem in a capitalist system when you think about it.

Japan, a country famous for national cohesion and adhering to consensus, to the effect of inventing a word for when people die of overwork and having a sky high suicide rate, is not a poster child for capitalism.

Or perhaps it is.

 

[Zontar]

a country famous for national cohesion and adhering to consensus

Its politics and internal squabbles sort of make anyone who actually takes a look wonder about the consensus part, but yes, they are a society that is cohesive. We used to also use the term "functional" before a certain cult entered the Western political sphere.

people die of overwork and having a sky high suicide rate, is not a poster child for capitalism.

There are 8 European countries with a higher suicide rate, 4 of which (Hungary, Belgium, Latvia and Lithuania) are considered industrialised 1st world nations. Hell add those within 0.5 per 100,000 that goes up to 6.

And the overworked part, well outside of video games and anime this seems to not really hold up to scrutiny given what pretty much any Gaijin looking around them has to say. Seems to be more of an entertainment industry problem (which, last I checked, wasn't something the US was in any position to complain about given the state of its own industry).

While all stereotypes come from somewhere, saying Japan is a place where everyone's overworked is like saying America is a place where everyone works 80 hours across 3 jobs and barely make ends meet. Hell given how socialists like to pretend Scandinavia is socialists (to the point Norway's PM came out and told them to stop pretending that was the case) one would think overwork fatigue being a reason to take medical leave would be applauded by the far left and be another example of the "I want this small part of a greater whole that doesn't work without the whole thing" mentality we've seen since, well I already mentioned Scandinavia.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

While all stereotypes come from somewhere, saying Japan is a place where everyone's overworked is like saying America is a place where everyone works 80 hours across 3 jobs and barely make ends meet.

I mean, Google's right there and karoshi is a pretty easy search term.

The government in Japan isn't looking to put hardcaps on overtime for no reason.

Still, a strong sense of civic pride, universal healthcare, and strict gun control laws (like Japan's) could do the United States a world of good.

 

[Zontar]

Still, a strong sense of civic pride, universal healthcare, and strict gun control laws (like Japan's) could do the United States a world of good.

See this is what I mean with the "I want this small part of a greater whole that doesn't work without the whole thing" mentality. Though I am shocked to see someone as left wing as you support national pride. Not what I'd expect, but then no one conforms 100% to their stated ideology, no matter how much they may think they do.

 

[Ravenbom]

Well, eating healthy and having the time and money to workout and be active is a luxury.

It is odd though that moderation is now considered a luxury. We're on the road to the Wall-E future.

 

[stroopwafel]

What I noticed is that people either seem to be obsessed with health, food and exercise or not care at all. All you have to do to keep in shape is eat varied, not too much and not too fat. And have some mild or moderate exercise but even here a 30 minute walk every day will suffice. Many people also get fat from soda and fruit juices that have a ton of sugar.

Though I guess it's true what previous poster said that many fat people use food as a crutch for emotional reasons. Some people are so fat I can't imagine anyone having such an insatiable appetite.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Of course we're catching up, those out in front can't run very fast!

 

[Erttheking]

Still, a strong sense of civic pride, universal healthcare, and strict gun control laws (like Japan's) could do the United States a world of good.

See this is what I mean with the "I want this small part of a greater whole that doesn't work without the whole thing" mentality. Though I am shocked to see someone as left wing as you support national pride. Not what I'd expect, but then no one conforms 100% to their stated ideology, no matter how much they may think they do.

Yeah, because that would never work, but we could totally copy Japan's capitalist system. Oh wait, no we couldn't, because if we were to copy Japan's capitalist system it would violate god knows how many labor laws here in the US.

https://sidoxia.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/pot-kettle-black.jpg

Also civic pride and national pride aren't the same thing, sorry to runny your forced attempt to be snarky.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

I'm sure it is, but when I was in Italy oh... 2 years ago I think, I swear I had never been anywhere with so many beautiful people and so few fatties. Everywhere you look is some beautiful woman or magazine caliber dude. It was wild.

 

[BarkBarker]

It is gonna come to an interesting point of existence where it is not the strongest that will survive but the least pathetically weak and incapable of moving.

Well yeah, I do believe such things very easily with more people pushing for fat acceptance and refusing to tell people "you done fucked up your well being and you are a problem for everyone else when it just comes to designing our future" don't help the problem. Ignorance about what is ACTUALLY healthy and not just cutting out a few chocolate bars and trying something green every weekend. Then there is the problems of people using it to satiate their personal problems, the widespread existence of salty sugary temptation that has affected even countries that used to be well known for their health standards.

All in all,we have built societies on things that we later find out are terrible ideas but are too cheap and/or too unwilling to do anything about it. Oh this thing actually KILLS you slowly? Well it is already here and prohibition didn't work all that well. Guess we just shrug and stop trying. Whoops you mean we aren't exactly prolific meat eaters by design? Well we seem to have encountered an issue with how humanity has lived in certain areas of the world for centuries. Whoops.

You could make healthy food easier to get at least by stop GIVING IT TO YOUR ANIMALS. Cows hoard metric fucktons of shit that not only do we eat ourselves and could feed more but are super water intensive and waste gallons of our water too.....all for a shitty output. It's just not sane in terms of raw mathematical value but as you may notice people LOVE their beef man, myself included on occasion. I wouldn't trade it for widespread cost problems with healthy eating and generally am taking meat out my diet when and where I can, I don't think I'm going to transition to vegetarian or vegan anytime soon but dammit I'd like to get pretty close. Hell if you stop eating it sometimes your body goes back to default experience, I hear shit about people taking lactose out their diet so long they become intolerant of it afterwards.