4 ms·
We Americans are living in a pretty stressful time as well (i.e. politically, financially, among other things). I can't name the study(ies) to show it, but psyc
by oneepic 7y ago
We Americans are living in a pretty stressful time as well (i.e. politically, financially, among other things). I can't name the study(ies) to show it, but psychology has told us that stressful environments correlate with poverty and other awful factors, which also cause even more stress, so people tend to go down and stay down in a vicious cycle, unless they make a significant effort to turn it all around.
(for example, say your job stresses you out so much and takes so much time out of your day that you can't cook, then suppose you feel pressured enough that you settle for fast food, and exercise less. So you gain weight over time. Now your weight might just stress you out too; now you have to deal with the detriments of that, on top of your shitty job. Sounds hard...)
So it makes sense to me that poor Americans's health is getting worse. For rich people, I'd have to assume they have the time/resources (possibly chefs) to get the healthy food and such that they need, so it's not changing much.
EDIT: Oh, and from my experiences growing up in a pretty conservative environment: lots of Americans honestly feel there's too much confusing info out there about diets, workouts, etc. It's always in the news, so you get tired of hearing about it and how you're going to die at 40 because of the terrible things you're doing to your body (McDonalds every week, or whatever). Plus, we've seen so many diet/fitness program commercials on TV and heard so many stories of them not working. I think people are well aware they should make a change, but how to do so is such a noisy topic with mixed success, that it stresses them out just thinking about it. Even if you were to provide them a new, easier way to get fit, it would look exactly the same as all those fake diets and exercise programs they saw on TV. Who knows if your new shit's gonna work or not? They'd rather not even bother.