8 ms·

American culture is staggeringly unhealthy. Denying this is impossible.

rootusrootus 5y ago
Not sure we're alone. Take the UK, for example. 2/3 are either overweight or obese. Better than the US? Sure. But what a weak victory that is.
- nostrebored 5y ago
  I'm definitely biased by living in the southern hemisphere for almost half a decade. The places I've lived are visibly healthier than the US. People have less chronic health problems, take fewer sick days, etc.
  - rootusrootus 5y ago
    I imagine a lot of that depends on where in the US you go. I live in an area that is statistically similar to Europe. If your idea of the US is south and east, it will be considerably different.
    - nostrebored 5y ago
      I've lived in major cities in the southeast and the west coast. The west coast of the US is still extremely unhealthy. Learning how unhealthy the culture I grew up in is has been a gradual process. Shock moving to the west coast, and then shock at each of the subsequent moves around other parts of the world.
ALittleLight 5y ago
I think it is pretty easy to deny. The CDC breaks out obesity by demographics[1]. White adults have an obesity rate of ~29%. This is the same as other predominantly white/Anglo countries like Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom[2]. Maybe 29% is staggeringly unhealthy, but it isn't American culture to be that overweight. Being overweight is fairly widespread and not unique to America. Probably it has more to do with lifestyle changes (e.g. cars and working at computers) and diet changes (rise of processed and fast food). These things have disparate impact on racial groups, e.g. hispanics and blacks are considerably more overweight than whites. America having more hispanics and blacks than places like the UK, the US seems like it is more obese. 1 - https://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/NHIS/SHS/2015_SHS_Table_A-15.pdf https://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/NHIS/SHS/2015... 2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_r...
- varelse 5y ago
  12th most obese nation in the world, I'd call that staggeringly unhealthy given our GDP: https://obesity.procon.org/global-obesity-levels/ https://obesity.procon.org/global-obesity-levels/ Also, 46th in life expectancy: https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/ https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/ Happy with those numbers? I'm not.
- anon84598 5y ago
  > it isn't American culture to be that overweight > hispanics and blacks are considerably more overweight than whites Are these people not American?
  - varelse 5y ago
    Those implicit biases can be pretty explicit...
- artfulhippo 5y ago
  You may want to edit this comment. It reads as though you don't think Hispanics or Blacks count as American. I don't think you intend to express this racist sentiment, but it's easily inferred from the text as written.
  - ALittleLight 5y ago
    I don't see how that sentiment can be read into what I wrote. I looked at three racial groups in America and observed they had different obesity rates. In abstract terms - "You think this quality is specific to the whole. If you divide the whole into three parts you can see the quality differs between the parts. This implies the quality is not specific to the whole." To take that claim and infer that I mean to suggest the parts are not part of the whole is clearly nonsense.
    - artfulhippo 5y ago
      There were 3 different responses that read your post similarly, as though the higher levels of obesity among Hispanic and Black people are unrelated to American culture, as though it doesn't matter what the rates of obesity are among people who aren't White. I suppose the reason why some bristle at your partitioning of American obesity rates into racial groups is that it's unclear that it's particularly relevant. Obesity varies by income, urban/suburban/rural-ness, red state/blue state, and more. Any of these dimensions could be used to partition America into tranches. Then, throw out the bottom tranches. Then, say that America isn't especially unhealthy. Imagine person A says: There's an epidemic of gun violence in America. Person B responds: No. Just ignore the urban gang violence, the mentally ill mass shooters, and the suicides. It turns out that among mentally stable Whites, America isn't that violent.

Not sure we're alone. Take the UK, for example. 2/3 are either overweight or obese. Better than the US? Sure. But what a weak victory that is.

nostrebored 5y ago
I'm definitely biased by living in the southern hemisphere for almost half a decade. The places I've lived are visibly healthier than the US. People have less chronic health problems, take fewer sick days, etc.
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  I imagine a lot of that depends on where in the US you go. I live in an area that is statistically similar to Europe. If your idea of the US is south and east, it will be considerably different.
  - nostrebored 5y ago
    I've lived in major cities in the southeast and the west coast. The west coast of the US is still extremely unhealthy. Learning how unhealthy the culture I grew up in is has been a gradual process. Shock moving to the west coast, and then shock at each of the subsequent moves around other parts of the world.

ALittleLight 5y ago

I think it is pretty easy to deny. The CDC breaks out obesity by demographics[1]. White adults have an obesity rate of ~29%. This is the same as other predominantly white/Anglo countries like Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom[2]. Maybe 29% is staggeringly unhealthy, but it isn't American culture to be that overweight. Being overweight is fairly widespread and not unique to America. Probably it has more to do with lifestyle changes (e.g. cars and working at computers) and diet changes (rise of processed and fast food). These things have disparate impact on racial groups, e.g. hispanics and blacks are considerably more overweight than whites. America having more hispanics and blacks than places like the UK, the US seems like it is more obese. 1 - https://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/NHIS/SHS/2015_SHS_Table_A-15.pdf https://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/NHIS/SHS/2015... 2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_r...

varelse 5y ago
12th most obese nation in the world, I'd call that staggeringly unhealthy given our GDP: https://obesity.procon.org/global-obesity-levels/ https://obesity.procon.org/global-obesity-levels/ Also, 46th in life expectancy: https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/ https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/ Happy with those numbers? I'm not.
anon84598 5y ago
> it isn't American culture to be that overweight > hispanics and blacks are considerably more overweight than whites Are these people not American?
- varelse 5y ago
  Those implicit biases can be pretty explicit...
artfulhippo 5y ago
You may want to edit this comment. It reads as though you don't think Hispanics or Blacks count as American. I don't think you intend to express this racist sentiment, but it's easily inferred from the text as written.
- ALittleLight 5y ago
  I don't see how that sentiment can be read into what I wrote. I looked at three racial groups in America and observed they had different obesity rates. In abstract terms - "You think this quality is specific to the whole. If you divide the whole into three parts you can see the quality differs between the parts. This implies the quality is not specific to the whole." To take that claim and infer that I mean to suggest the parts are not part of the whole is clearly nonsense.
  - artfulhippo 5y ago
    There were 3 different responses that read your post similarly, as though the higher levels of obesity among Hispanic and Black people are unrelated to American culture, as though it doesn't matter what the rates of obesity are among people who aren't White. I suppose the reason why some bristle at your partitioning of American obesity rates into racial groups is that it's unclear that it's particularly relevant. Obesity varies by income, urban/suburban/rural-ness, red state/blue state, and more. Any of these dimensions could be used to partition America into tranches. Then, throw out the bottom tranches. Then, say that America isn't especially unhealthy. Imagine person A says: There's an epidemic of gun violence in America. Person B responds: No. Just ignore the urban gang violence, the mentally ill mass shooters, and the suicides. It turns out that among mentally stable Whites, America isn't that violent.