4 ms·

The food we have in the U.S., particularly in low-income areas is atrocious. However there are a lot of excuses being made about obesity, including that it's ca

The food we have in the U.S., particularly in low-income areas is atrocious. However there are a lot of excuses being made about obesity, including that it's caused by poverty. Yes poverty is a component, but the obesity epidemic is striking all income groups, with no particular correlation to income [0]. It's more about the diet and exercise choices that people choose to make, include the middle class and upper class who most definitely have the ability to make choices around the food and beverages they consume. Further many of the most wasteful calories are not caused by high-sodium, high-fat processed foods but by excess sugar consumption in the form of sugary drinks. Switching to water, black coffee, or unsweetened tea could help the "Big Gulp" demographic big time. 0: http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/486733 http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullart...

Mz 9y ago
Almost everyone in the US is a prisoner of their car. Our built environment presumes that you have a car. We make it very challenging to live without one. And then we have to listen to Stephen Hawking be judgy about how we "choose" to not be active, which he can't understand from his wheelchair. Most Americans are confined to a wheeled chair for many hours a week. We just call it a car, but good luck getting free of it. (I have lived without a car for about a decade, so this comment is not expressing discontent with me feeling trapped. I escaped that trap and walking everywhere has helped me shed a lot of weight without intending to.)
- sametmax 9y ago
  Half of the problem is not the infrastructure, but peoples priorities and the public perception of the pros/cons of a car. Also the value of the car as a symbol. A couple will make 3 kids and say "I can't do without a car". But the couple never ponder the cost of making a family. The fact or having a car or not, and other matters of life style, are an after thoughs. And if you raise the issue, you are a cold robot for thinking that way instead of with your "heart".
  - Mz 9y ago
    The vast majority of human babies are the result of either "Whoops! Babies happen!" or "We tried for years for this one!" The families that try for years tend to have one or two kids, not three or more. The people with many children who complain of being trapped typically have a lot of other things going on that lead to them having too little control over their lives. I am super uncomfortable with statements that suggest people just need to exercise some self control and stop cranking out babies. That position is incredibly dismissive of very complex issues, including lack of access to health care in the US. Historically, health insurance that paid for Viagra did not pay for female birth control. We have this underlying assumption that men have a right to get laid, even if they need chemical help to get it up, but women do not. Yet, most of those men are getting laid with women, not with other men. Questions of reproduction and sexual morality are incredibly complex and a very touchy subject because when two people have sex where the result may be a child, there are a great many people impacted. It isn't as simple as her rights vs his. The rights of the child are an issue, but so are the rights of the rest of society. It really isn't a discussion I care to see injected here.
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    A couple will make 3 kids and say "I can't do without a car". But the couple never ponder the cost of making a family. This is simply mistaken. The cost of making a family is nearly always what people are thinking about in that situation. If you're saying that people aren't careful enough when they have sex, then yeah, that's always been a problem. But what's to be done? The kids exist now and you need to provide for them. Now what?
  - watwut 9y ago
    The complain here is about practicality of car vs bicycle/walk. What does that have with cost of making a familly? They don't complain about car being expensive. And no, in many places in USA a car is just about the only way how to get kids to school. Which you have to. And yep, cycling along unsafe road when you are adult and when you are 8 is not the same. So ype, familly with children needs car more then single healthy adult. And yep, unless you want to face aging population problem later on, 3 kids should be doable. Just to get replacement level of population.
- headmelted 9y ago
  We switched to one family car around 7 years ago, as I quickly realized it would be a lot less hassle and expense for me to just use public transportation to get into the city. Fast-forward to now and I'm seriously contemplating buying another car (which I am utterly loath to do), solely because of how unreliable public transport is in my part of the world. Besides the above, I had a conversation with a cyclist in work earlier this week who is considering giving it up and going back to driving (also against his will) because he finds it hard to breathe with all the diesels on the road that have had the particulate filters ripped out (a law that is completely ignored here, so is commonplace). (As a side note, if you're wondering how he knows which cars have had this done, Google "coal-rolling" and you'll understand quickly.) This is far more nuanced (and ridiculous) than people understand. While it might be healthy in the US to walk and cycle rather than drive, in Europe it's borderline hazardous.
- mrhappyunhappy 9y ago
  I agree, culture is part of the problem - the car culture. That and people have forgotten what real food looks like.
slowmovintarget 9y ago
Bad food, far too little sleep, and sedentia... the perfect trifecta to cause depression, anxiety and obesity (and later diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimers).
- chiefalchemist 9y ago
  Yup. But, evidently, the cost of healthcare is due to the system. What those critics fail to admit is that the biggest component of that system are the people seeking care, and the average baseline health there of. Americans want to abuse their bodies (and minds) and expect healthcare to remain cheap. It doesn't work that way. Healthcare resources are limited. Increase demand and prices increases.
chiefalchemist 9y ago
Its effecting all income levels, but I suspect not evenly. The pattern I see (which is anecdotal) is higher income people appear healthier (i.e., are on average less overweight). Sometimes I wonder if that's cause or correlation. That is, ill and wealthy just don't go together.
- Mz 9y ago
  There is a complex relationship there that can be summed up pithily as "Them that has, gets."
  - chiefalchemist 9y ago
    But has is also a function of decisions, which is also related to knowledge / awareness. No doubt, lower income areas have less / worse selection. But that kinda doesn't explain why the better off don't choose and consume those same things as they are just as available to them.
    - Mz 9y ago
      Like I said: It's complicated. I am a strange mix of privilege and poverty. I was in gifted programs in public school and I have six years of college. I also am a woman and I have serious health issues. I am getting healthier and I am getting more well off as a consequence. I think a lot about the details of the very complex relationship between health and wealth. It is a really complicated thing that cannot be pinned down to any one thing. Education, social fabric, enhanced personal agency, greater de facto rights and a whole raft load of stuff tends to be involved in who is both rich and healthy and who gets access to neither.
      - chiefalchemist 9y ago
        I do agree with you. There's no magic bullet. But I still have a hard time comprehending why soda is a good choice. Even juat switching to water would make a difference. I think.

Mz 9y ago

Almost everyone in the US is a prisoner of their car. Our built environment presumes that you have a car. We make it very challenging to live without one. And then we have to listen to Stephen Hawking be judgy about how we "choose" to not be active, which he can't understand from his wheelchair. Most Americans are confined to a wheeled chair for many hours a week. We just call it a car, but good luck getting free of it. (I have lived without a car for about a decade, so this comment is not expressing discontent with me feeling trapped. I escaped that trap and walking everywhere has helped me shed a lot of weight without intending to.)

sametmax 9y ago
Half of the problem is not the infrastructure, but peoples priorities and the public perception of the pros/cons of a car. Also the value of the car as a symbol. A couple will make 3 kids and say "I can't do without a car". But the couple never ponder the cost of making a family. The fact or having a car or not, and other matters of life style, are an after thoughs. And if you raise the issue, you are a cold robot for thinking that way instead of with your "heart".
- Mz 9y ago
  The vast majority of human babies are the result of either "Whoops! Babies happen!" or "We tried for years for this one!" The families that try for years tend to have one or two kids, not three or more. The people with many children who complain of being trapped typically have a lot of other things going on that lead to them having too little control over their lives. I am super uncomfortable with statements that suggest people just need to exercise some self control and stop cranking out babies. That position is incredibly dismissive of very complex issues, including lack of access to health care in the US. Historically, health insurance that paid for Viagra did not pay for female birth control. We have this underlying assumption that men have a right to get laid, even if they need chemical help to get it up, but women do not. Yet, most of those men are getting laid with women, not with other men. Questions of reproduction and sexual morality are incredibly complex and a very touchy subject because when two people have sex where the result may be a child, there are a great many people impacted. It isn't as simple as her rights vs his. The rights of the child are an issue, but so are the rights of the rest of society. It really isn't a discussion I care to see injected here.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  A couple will make 3 kids and say "I can't do without a car". But the couple never ponder the cost of making a family. This is simply mistaken. The cost of making a family is nearly always what people are thinking about in that situation. If you're saying that people aren't careful enough when they have sex, then yeah, that's always been a problem. But what's to be done? The kids exist now and you need to provide for them. Now what?
- watwut 9y ago
  The complain here is about practicality of car vs bicycle/walk. What does that have with cost of making a familly? They don't complain about car being expensive. And no, in many places in USA a car is just about the only way how to get kids to school. Which you have to. And yep, cycling along unsafe road when you are adult and when you are 8 is not the same. So ype, familly with children needs car more then single healthy adult. And yep, unless you want to face aging population problem later on, 3 kids should be doable. Just to get replacement level of population.
headmelted 9y ago
We switched to one family car around 7 years ago, as I quickly realized it would be a lot less hassle and expense for me to just use public transportation to get into the city. Fast-forward to now and I'm seriously contemplating buying another car (which I am utterly loath to do), solely because of how unreliable public transport is in my part of the world. Besides the above, I had a conversation with a cyclist in work earlier this week who is considering giving it up and going back to driving (also against his will) because he finds it hard to breathe with all the diesels on the road that have had the particulate filters ripped out (a law that is completely ignored here, so is commonplace). (As a side note, if you're wondering how he knows which cars have had this done, Google "coal-rolling" and you'll understand quickly.) This is far more nuanced (and ridiculous) than people understand. While it might be healthy in the US to walk and cycle rather than drive, in Europe it's borderline hazardous.
mrhappyunhappy 9y ago
I agree, culture is part of the problem - the car culture. That and people have forgotten what real food looks like.

slowmovintarget 9y ago

Bad food, far too little sleep, and sedentia... the perfect trifecta to cause depression, anxiety and obesity (and later diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimers).

chiefalchemist 9y ago
Yup. But, evidently, the cost of healthcare is due to the system. What those critics fail to admit is that the biggest component of that system are the people seeking care, and the average baseline health there of. Americans want to abuse their bodies (and minds) and expect healthcare to remain cheap. It doesn't work that way. Healthcare resources are limited. Increase demand and prices increases.

chiefalchemist 9y ago

Its effecting all income levels, but I suspect not evenly. The pattern I see (which is anecdotal) is higher income people appear healthier (i.e., are on average less overweight). Sometimes I wonder if that's cause or correlation. That is, ill and wealthy just don't go together.

Mz 9y ago
There is a complex relationship there that can be summed up pithily as "Them that has, gets."
- chiefalchemist 9y ago
  But has is also a function of decisions, which is also related to knowledge / awareness. No doubt, lower income areas have less / worse selection. But that kinda doesn't explain why the better off don't choose and consume those same things as they are just as available to them.
  - Mz 9y ago
    Like I said: It's complicated. I am a strange mix of privilege and poverty. I was in gifted programs in public school and I have six years of college. I also am a woman and I have serious health issues. I am getting healthier and I am getting more well off as a consequence. I think a lot about the details of the very complex relationship between health and wealth. It is a really complicated thing that cannot be pinned down to any one thing. Education, social fabric, enhanced personal agency, greater de facto rights and a whole raft load of stuff tends to be involved in who is both rich and healthy and who gets access to neither.
    - chiefalchemist 9y ago
      I do agree with you. There's no magic bullet. But I still have a hard time comprehending why soda is a good choice. Even juat switching to water would make a difference. I think.