So what is making people from the USA so fat?

[Quaidis]

I keep running across these random articles online with headlines such as, "68% of Americans are massively obese!"

Yet I never see the same thing for other parts of the world. There's no article saying, "75% of Australians are above-average in weight!" or "70% of Canadians are chunky! We're Doomed, eh?"

It's always the bloody Americans with this issue.



So I'm really wondering here: what is it in American food or diet in general that makes Americans so freaking fat? Is it a life-style thing forced upon the populace? Is there a bad market style choice? Is food being prepared wrong or something? And when did this problem actually start? Or does every other country actually have the same problem and simply not give a damn?

Feel free to ask your own questions on the issue as well.


Adding this edit in: What do you think Americans can do (person to person or powers that be) to fix the issue?

 

[Hazy992]

Overeating and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. You guys drive everywhere and your portions are huge[footnote]At fast food joints and the like. Also, food seemed cheaper when I went so you could get a lot of it[/footnote]

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

Part of the problem is processed food. It tends to be filled with fat and contains excessive calorie amounts. Add to the mix that Americans are generally shifting towards a more and more sedentary lifestyle and you have an large influx of calories without burning them off. The additional fats and salts contained within the food products just exacerbates the whole issue.

Eating fast food (high fat, high calorie) while driving to work (almost no caloric expenditure) tends to equate to fat asses.

What makes it worse is that the processed foodstuffs are cheaper than the healthy foods. A lot of people/families really can't eat better AND makes ends meet from paycheck to paycheck.

/shrug

At least more and more people are taking notice and the trend seems to be changing.

 

[DrgoFx]

Overeating and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. You guys drive everywhere and your portions are huge.

This^

I'm an American but I've lived over seas a lot. Mainly in areas with beaches so I tended to just go to the beach and swim or jog.

 

[Keoul]

Barely anyone exercises despite eating so much food. Not to mention lazy parents who don't even cook, just chuck something in the microwave and presto

 

[dalek sec]

Overeating and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. You guys drive everywhere and your portions are huge[footnote]At fast food joints and the like. Also, food seemed cheaper when I went so you could get a lot of it[/footnote]

Pretty much this right here.

I try and watch what I eat and either take long walks (three miles or so) in the afternoon or try and go swimming at night to try and burn it off. So far it seem's to be working, lost about nineteen pounds in like close to two years or so.

 

[SirDoom]

There are a lot of factors involved here.

One is space. From what I hear, things are far less spaced out in other countries. You can easily walk from your home to the store and back elsewhere. Here, unless you're right in the middle of a big city, it's typically too far to walk anywhere. You have to drive. So, that cuts down on exercise a good bit right there. (For example, my first year on a college campus, I ate just as much as I did at home. Yet, I was able to walk to most of the places I needed to go. I ended up losing 15-20 pounds over the year, just walking to and from classes and to go get food on campus)

Then you have the traditional "overuse of sugar and fat in every single southern food and beverage ever" factor, which adds to the problem in certain regions. It's always been that way. Way back to the settlers and such. It's just they actually walked and worked it off. We don't now.

Add in big helpings of food all across the country, as well as most people's unwillingness to exercise once in a blue moon, and there you have it.

 

[Ympulse]

What makes it worse is that the processed foodstuffs are cheaper than the healthy foods. A lot of people/families really can't eat better AND makes ends meet from paycheck to paycheck.

This is really the crux of the issue. In order to have an 'optimal' diet, an American, on average, would spend nearly 8k a year more on food than if they had a moderately healthy diet (No fast food, etc) ((My own findings, nothing official))

When being healthy (Gym fees, increased utility bills, etc) is financially unsupportable, you tend to not be so healthy.

Americans also have more sedentary lifestyles, but you can sit around all day, still eat intelligently, and not be obese. A bit fluffy, sure, but not obese.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

The wonder that is the cow. That is the cause. That and corn, but mostly cows. Damned cows, why do you have to be so delicious?

 

[Biodeamon]

really? you just asked that?

i'd say the answer would be quite obvious. lime literally around the corner with a side-order of fries.

 

[bluepotatosack]

Too many Turducken Slammers.

 

[him over there]

There are a lot of factors involved here.

One is space. From what I hear, things are far less spaced out in other countries. You can easily walk from your home to the store and back elsewhere. Here, unless you're right in the middle of a big city, it's typically too far to walk anywhere. You have to drive. So, that cuts down on exercise a good bit right there. (For example, my first year on a college campus, I ate just as much as I did at home. Yet, I was able to walk to most of the places I needed to go. I ended up losing 15-20 pounds over the year, just walking to and from classes and to go get food on campus)

This is a pretty important thing here, a lot of the opportunities for normal exercise are cut down because of the large distances between important places in suburbia. A car is almost entirely necessary and this renders exercise as something that must be proactively done on top of peoples lives, not something that happens as a side effect of living one. Meaning that time also becomes an issue because the time for exercise has to be taken out of a day exclusively for it, not something that happens alongside your time spent doing other things.

This is why I love my dog though, Taking her for a walk (or run, if the weather is better) gives me plenty of time for this kind of thing.

 

[Dags90]

49% of Australians are overweight according to BMI, 16% are obese.
61% of Britons are overweight, 22% are obese.
59% of Canadians are overweight, 23% are obese.
66% of Americans are overweight, 34% are obese. [footnote]http://apps.who.int/bmi/index.jsp[/footnote]

America leads the world in mega-fatties, but most of the Anglosphere is pretty chunky. People don't say much about it because it's easier to point at the fattest kid in the class than to do admit that you too wear your shirt in the pool.

 

[Fappy]

This is why. This place has a popular option for your meal where they dip the beef sandwich into MORE beef juice. Seriously.

...

It's not half bad.

 

[tendaji]

Easier Access to Food
Heavy Calorie/Unhealthy Foods are Cheaper than Healthy Foods
Portion Sizes
Lack of Physical Activity

 

[Dags90]

Actually I believe Kuwait is the fattest country on the planet now.

There are some small countries with ridiculous levels of obesity, but they don't get the attention because of their size (pun unintended but still funny). American Samoa has over 90% overweight, and over 70% obesity. Nauru is slightly worse.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

What makes it worse is that the processed foodstuffs are cheaper than the healthy foods. A lot of people/families really can't eat better AND makes ends meet from paycheck to paycheck.

This is really the crux of the issue. In order to have an 'optimal' diet, an American, on average, would spend nearly 8k a year more on food than if they had a moderately healthy diet (No fast food, etc) ((My own findings, nothing official))

When being healthy (Gym fees, increased utility bills, etc) is financially unsupportable, you tend to not be so healthy.

I would like to call major bullshit on both these statements.

Ppl all over the world manage to eat healthy with MUCH less buying power than the average low-income american family.

same goes for any nonsense excuse of gym fees and increased utility bills(wtf??)...anyone can work out without spending a single dime. You don't need fancy equipment or a professional trainer to do sit-ups and go for a jog.