A study estimates that more than one billion people are affected and reveals that nutritional imbalances continue to rise. Childhood obesity has quadrupled over the course of three decades
It's hard to find "fit" people anymore. Walking around some grocery stores is mind blowing. I honestly feel bad for people. The "food" we have is shit and life is getting busier and busier.
Something I haven't seen other commenters bring up that can have a huge impact, is the overall lifestyles people are living.
The unhealthiest years of my life were when I was working 2 jobs and struggling to keep a roof over mine and my 3 kids heads. Stress and depression were huge problems and money was tight, so sometimes the little bit of dopamine or serotonin from eating a "treat" were the highlights of the day. Add to that, the guilt of not being around to cook regular meals for my kids lead to 1) making large amounts of food on my one day off that could be eaten as leftovers throughout the week or 2) easy convenience foods (frozen pizzas, boxed Mac and cheese, etc) that the kids could make when I wasn't around.
Fast forward many years - my kids are adults taking care of themselves and I'm down to 1 good job that offers financial stability. My diet and health have completely changed. I actually have the time and energy to cook and plan better.
I'm not saying this to shift blame or responsibility, but to bring a different experience. When I hear (hopefully well meaning) people suggest "just cook healthier meals" it strikes me about the same as "stop eating avocado toast and you could afford a house."
Lack of free time to cook healthy food with a busier and more expensive life with salary raises that don't keep up with inflation or layoffs for many people definitely doesn't help. Healthy food ends up costing twice as much, if not more than unhealthy food. It's a multi-faceted problem and should be treated as such.
Well said, that's what we call canard advice. Unhelpful advice that's obvious to everyone and does no fucking good to say whatsoever. You can cook more when your primary financial needs are met, so you can just work 40 hours in a week. That and the RTO mandates going around are robbing people of a significant chunk of time yet again ontop of overemployment. When you have to work a 10 hour day and commute an hour plus each direction, then come home and "cook" something, it usually translates to heating up frozen shit and then wishing you weren't miserable.
Yep. My boomer dad: "When I was a kid, we walked everywhere! Nobody walks anymore!" Also my dad: "I'm afraid to drive into Portland because my truck might get stolen."
I spend about $12/day on ingredients, which is about the cost of a single meal at McDonald’s which is far less healthy. I don’t think that actually stands up when you look at the prices of cheap food (chicken, rice, beans, other legumes, potatoes) plus the costs of sides (fruits, vegetables).
That really depends on where you live. I know when I go to visit my parents I'm always very impressed by the older people (65+) that I see on their daily walks. They are definitely fit. It's the same when I go to the supermarkets in that area, I see a lot of fit, healthy people of all ages. Even the people working the register are in good shape.
I imagine it would be pretty easy to take the list of what people buy/eat and their health issues and see clearly what foods are causing what health problems.
I bet the average cashier would even be able to point out the worst products.
But never, ever, will that happen. Grocery store is full of dead animals and animal proteins and cancer look to go hand in hand. The other big one is sugar. People are hooked on it like cocaine.
It's not just any regular sugar, it's that high fructose corn syrup that's the killer. Consuming a bit of sugar here and there isn't that bad, but consuming something that is foreign to the body and accumulates in the liver is a whole new level of fucked up.
I imagine it would be pretty easy to take the list of what people buy/eat and their health issues and see clearly what foods are causing what health problems.
True, but it entirely ignores what's driving them to buy those things. For example, if you're a single parent working two jobs, when you get home do you want to start cooking a meal, or just put a Stouffer's in the microwave and veg out?
Isn't that mainly red meats that appear to have a relation to cancer? Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe poultry is fine and that seafood has even been shown to possibly prevent certain cancers.
Here we go again, giving no accountability. Yes, healthy food is more expensive, but that doesn't mean fat people didn't eat themselves fat.
The Internet will bend over backwards to ignore the algebra of calories. Base metabolic rates are basically identical between all humans. The lie of a "fast metabolism" is not why some people are skinny.
People are fat because they consume more calories than they burn. Blaming someone else doesn't fix it.
"Oh gosh, I don't drink soda and rarely eat treats, why am I still fat?" Because you eat too much for your daily expenditure.
This would make sense... If it was exactly the same everywhere with a similar level of convenience.
But it's not, America is much much worse than Europe on this, and rich countries in Europe don't exactly have less convenience than the US. How else would you explain it other than a systemic difference? American brains are not fundamentally different to European ones.
I get what youre saying, but people are fatter in America than their counterparts in European countries. Is it more realistic to suppose we as humans are different across the pond, or is the lifestyle enforced and the additives allowed within the food Americans eat contributing to the difference?
You're speaking from your very tiny corner of the world. I understand that there are people who fall under whatever you said, but a big chunk just don't have the time to give a single fuck about how healthy their food is, or they can't afford it money and time wise. Some people do multiple jobs and have kids. I get what you mean, though.
I work on OpenFoodFacts, and the big issue is simply the amount of saturated fats and refined sugars there are in a lot of processed foods.
Like, sure, people have to be held personally responsible to some extent, but it should also be on the government to properly regulate how foods are advertised. I really appreciate the Nutriscore system that's being pushed for in Europe despite the flaws it has, and here in Canada they've been making some changes in how certain products are shown on shelves such as requiring labeling if they're high in sugar or fats and changing the previous confusing labels for energy drinks with a more easy-to-read Supplemental Food Facts label.
End of the day though, if something is still being labelled as being "healthy" when it really isn't, that's all it takes to fool the average consumer unfortunately. Stuff like Lucky Charms shouldn't be advertised to kids as "part of a complete breakfast", and it's absurd that a lot of "healthier" alternatives to certain foods are being advertised that way despite only being barely any better than the original product, like turkey bacon or veggie straws.
My brother-in-law eats a huge bowl of cold cereal every morning with skim milk... I drink a coffee with heavy cream or half and half and don't eat breakfast. He's a bigger guy that can't figure out how to lose weight and I'm not anymore.
Lobbyists have even polluted the ingredient label on the back. Now they can list a brand name as an ingredient, then list the ingredients of that. This lets them disguise the most prevalent ingredients if they're also part of the brand.
Water, oil, sugar, xantham gum, Bob's secret spice (enough sugar so that if the label were truthful, sugar would be the second ingredient instead of the third, cinnamon, nutmeg).
I never used the ingredient list to determine sugar content, since there also is a table on the back with g sugar / 100 g product. Is that not printed on the products package where you live?
I keep getting into it with people I mostly agree with. Yes, it's fucked up that we add HFCS to everything and that corporations have weaponized addiction, but we can fight back.
Yeaaaah you’re probably getting into it cause your points don’t really have much merit and that can be frustrating. Like a simple look at when the obesity epidemic took off should have saved me from having to write this comment.
Yep, way to many people over eat, and it has nothing to do with what's in the food, people are just super seditaty these days and eat constantly.
Clicking the downvote button doesn't magically make me wrong. There is a reason that you can eat straight Twinkies for a month and watch the calories and still lose weight. You're not smarter than physics.
My wife and I share an entrée and an appetizer here in the US because there's no way anyone is meant to eat our portion sizes. We tip well to not look cheap, but Jesus Christ I don't need a full rack of ribs and 5 lbs of french fries.
Yep we all eat too much. I started counting calories and found out that I was eating twice as much as I should have. It's not obvious and every place serves big portions.
I've been counting calories for the last few months, and that was my big realization as well. I could have easily put down a single meal at a restaurant which is my entire (or more) daily intake now.
I'm counting calories too, it's not even the amount but it's that some foods are total calorie bombs. You can pretty easily ingest a day's worth of calories in a single meal at the restaurant without really feeling like you overate, but if I pay attention and select my foods properly I can feel like I ate plenty and be under 1500cal a day.
It's not just that we eat "too much" but also that we're eating too much non-nutritive foods. The United States has entirely too many so-called "food deserts" where people are unable to purchase healthy foods
I just used an online calculator. It said something like 1500 kcal a day for my activity level to maintain weight.
I don't really count calories, but I do look to get a general idea of what a meal or a snack is. Sometimes I'm way over, sometimes I'm way under, it's all about balance and being in the ballpark.
It's really frustrating, in my country not only are we the most obese in the region, we're also the most diabetic. A huge double whammy that's burdening the healthcare system