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As an American I found the update quite interesting. Americans have a 35.9% obesity rate versus 28.5% for the most obese European country. I'd like to understa

As an American I found the update quite interesting. Americans have a 35.9% obesity rate versus 28.5% for the most obese European country. I'd like to understand why that is, but would guess that the US obsession with cars, parking lots and suburbs is one reason. Another might be related to the fact that Americans tend to, on average, do more poorly, on standardized education tests, which could imply that we have more people here who are ill equipped to understand how things like nutrition, calories and physiology work.

rayiner 14y ago
There are a lot of demographic factors in play too. The US has a much higher proportion of blacks and Hispanics than any European country. These groups are 51% and 21% more likely than whites to be categorized as obese using the usual methods. The US also has a far higher percentage of people livif in rural and suburban areas. In my own experience, my equillibrium weight when I was living in the suburbs of virginia was notably higher than when I was living in New York or Chicago. The same is true for educational metrics, by the way. The so-called standardized testing gap between the US and European countries almost disappears when you adjust for demographics.
- msh 14y ago
  Could those groups higher (if they are higher, I don't know) obesity be attributed to poverty? In general, poor Americans, are way worse off than poor people in most EU countries.
  - notdrunkatall 14y ago
    Ever visited a poor country? There aren't many obese people in poor countries for one very obvious reason.
    - msh 14y ago
      Povertry in first world countries are different from povertry in, for example, africa. There are poor people in europe and the US, they are not poor in the sense that a african can be poor but that is not the same as they are not poor and that their behavior are not influenced by their poverty.
      - notdrunkatall 14y ago
        Let's not conflate the issue. If poverty was a contributing factor for obesity, then poor people worldwide would show higher rates of poverty. People don't get fat because they are poor, they get fat because they don't care that they're getting fat. If anything, being poor would be a disincentive for obesity - why spend money on something that you don't have to when money's in short supply? By basic logic, the poorer you are, the less obese you should tend to be. Notwithstanding the occasional actual medical condition which leads to obesity, being obese is a conscious, cultural decision, and blaming it on poverty seems ridiculous.
        msh 14y ago
        In first world countries there is a link between obesity and poverty. In general if you are poor you a re more likely to be fat. For example see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14684391 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14684391 You also seem to imply that it's cheaper not to be fat, in many first world countries the unhealthy food seem to be the cheapest!
        notdrunkatall 14y ago
        I know that there is a link between obesity and poverty, but correlation does not necessarily imply causation, and in this case, anyone who buys and cooks their own food will immediately recognize the causation claim to be ridiculous. The unhealthy food being the cheapest food argument is bunkum - just go to reddit.com/r/budgetfood and try to tell them that processed food is cheaper. There is nothing cheaper than chicken thighs, rice, beans, noodles, and various veggies. Every week, I make a crock-pot of something tasty and healthy from scratch. This week, I made a wonderful soup with fresh carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, and pork loin. The total cost was about $15, and I got 7 big portions. Substitute something less expensive than pork loin, and it's even cheaper. Last week, I made a huge pot of spaghetti sauce, complete with italian sausage, fresh mushrooms, onions, garlic, and a few extra cans of whole tomatoes for about $10, and I wasn't even really trying to do that one cheaply. I got about ten portions out of that one. The week before, I made a quiche type-thing with a dozen eggs, some breakfast sausage, a bag of hashbrown potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and a bag of cheese. Total cost: about $10. Not the healthiest thing, but better than processed junk, and again, fills you up quite nicely 7-8 times. I could go on, but you get the picture, I'm sure, and this is just with a crock pot - if I had a functional kitchen, my cooking options would expand considerably. People who eat unhealthy food don't eat it because it's cheaper than healthy food, they eat it because they don't want to cook. But if you really want to know why poor people tend to be obese, watch what they drink: sugar. All day, every day, it's sugary drinks, from kool-aid to sweet tea to sodas - I don't know why, but for some reason poor people tend to drink a lot of sugary trash. Which, again, is more expensive than the healthier option: water. Leftist apologists like to trot out the 'healthy food is more expensive' argument because suggesting that poor people are obese because of their lifestyle decisions rather than their supposed status as victims of the system runs contrary to the left's general line of bullshit, which is that if there is a problem, it stems from systemic failure, and that a government policy should be implemented to alleviate that issue. Of course, not all problems can be fixed with government programs, this being one of them. People are not obese because they are victims, they are obese because they value stuffing their face with unhealthy food more than they value being fit. It really is that simple, and unfortunately, that is a social problem that no government policy can fix.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- rizzom5000 14y ago
  What's really interesting is that Mexico has about a 24% obesity rate, making it lower than most obese European countries, and much lower than the US. Similarly, countries like Jamaica, which have a predominantly black population, have much lower obesity rates than the US. The poverty angle doesn't quite fit either, as both Mexico and Jamaica, as well as many Eastern European countries (Romania, Slovakia) have much higher rates of poverty than the US; but much lower obesity. Although, there could be a link between poverty and the availability of high fat/high sugar foods.
  - rayiner 14y ago
    Neither Mexico nor Eastern Europe have the incredible prevalence of cheap processed food we have in the U.S., nor the de-facto demographic segregation of particular minority groups in inner cities where that kind of food is the only thing practically available. It's just incredibly misleading to look at the U.S. as a single country in these sorts of situations. You end up taking the average of several very different societies segregated along racial/economic lines. Take Chicago for example. You'd think it'd be a very diverse city, given that it's about 1/3 white, 1/3 black, 1/3 hispanic. Except it's not. I was walking down Michigan Ave the other day (where the high-end retailers are) and literally 99% of the people around me were white. Chicago is actually a collection of racially segregated neighborhoods, each internally quite homogenous and with dramatically different access to healthy food, nutritional education, etc.
rogerbinns 14y ago
Another possibility is that US people tend to work longer hours and for more days of the year. Workplaces are not good conditions for exercise and food. And once away from work it is easier to go for convenience (eg fast food) due to limited time availability.

rayiner 14y ago

There are a lot of demographic factors in play too. The US has a much higher proportion of blacks and Hispanics than any European country. These groups are 51% and 21% more likely than whites to be categorized as obese using the usual methods. The US also has a far higher percentage of people livif in rural and suburban areas. In my own experience, my equillibrium weight when I was living in the suburbs of virginia was notably higher than when I was living in New York or Chicago. The same is true for educational metrics, by the way. The so-called standardized testing gap between the US and European countries almost disappears when you adjust for demographics.

msh 14y ago
Could those groups higher (if they are higher, I don't know) obesity be attributed to poverty? In general, poor Americans, are way worse off than poor people in most EU countries.
- notdrunkatall 14y ago
  Ever visited a poor country? There aren't many obese people in poor countries for one very obvious reason.
  - msh 14y ago
    Povertry in first world countries are different from povertry in, for example, africa. There are poor people in europe and the US, they are not poor in the sense that a african can be poor but that is not the same as they are not poor and that their behavior are not influenced by their poverty.
    - notdrunkatall 14y ago
      Let's not conflate the issue. If poverty was a contributing factor for obesity, then poor people worldwide would show higher rates of poverty. People don't get fat because they are poor, they get fat because they don't care that they're getting fat. If anything, being poor would be a disincentive for obesity - why spend money on something that you don't have to when money's in short supply? By basic logic, the poorer you are, the less obese you should tend to be. Notwithstanding the occasional actual medical condition which leads to obesity, being obese is a conscious, cultural decision, and blaming it on poverty seems ridiculous.
      - msh 14y ago
        In first world countries there is a link between obesity and poverty. In general if you are poor you a re more likely to be fat. For example see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14684391 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14684391 You also seem to imply that it's cheaper not to be fat, in many first world countries the unhealthy food seem to be the cheapest!
        notdrunkatall 14y ago
        I know that there is a link between obesity and poverty, but correlation does not necessarily imply causation, and in this case, anyone who buys and cooks their own food will immediately recognize the causation claim to be ridiculous. The unhealthy food being the cheapest food argument is bunkum - just go to reddit.com/r/budgetfood and try to tell them that processed food is cheaper. There is nothing cheaper than chicken thighs, rice, beans, noodles, and various veggies. Every week, I make a crock-pot of something tasty and healthy from scratch. This week, I made a wonderful soup with fresh carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, and pork loin. The total cost was about $15, and I got 7 big portions. Substitute something less expensive than pork loin, and it's even cheaper. Last week, I made a huge pot of spaghetti sauce, complete with italian sausage, fresh mushrooms, onions, garlic, and a few extra cans of whole tomatoes for about $10, and I wasn't even really trying to do that one cheaply. I got about ten portions out of that one. The week before, I made a quiche type-thing with a dozen eggs, some breakfast sausage, a bag of hashbrown potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and a bag of cheese. Total cost: about $10. Not the healthiest thing, but better than processed junk, and again, fills you up quite nicely 7-8 times. I could go on, but you get the picture, I'm sure, and this is just with a crock pot - if I had a functional kitchen, my cooking options would expand considerably. People who eat unhealthy food don't eat it because it's cheaper than healthy food, they eat it because they don't want to cook. But if you really want to know why poor people tend to be obese, watch what they drink: sugar. All day, every day, it's sugary drinks, from kool-aid to sweet tea to sodas - I don't know why, but for some reason poor people tend to drink a lot of sugary trash. Which, again, is more expensive than the healthier option: water. Leftist apologists like to trot out the 'healthy food is more expensive' argument because suggesting that poor people are obese because of their lifestyle decisions rather than their supposed status as victims of the system runs contrary to the left's general line of bullshit, which is that if there is a problem, it stems from systemic failure, and that a government policy should be implemented to alleviate that issue. Of course, not all problems can be fixed with government programs, this being one of them. People are not obese because they are victims, they are obese because they value stuffing their face with unhealthy food more than they value being fit. It really is that simple, and unfortunately, that is a social problem that no government policy can fix.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
rizzom5000 14y ago
What's really interesting is that Mexico has about a 24% obesity rate, making it lower than most obese European countries, and much lower than the US. Similarly, countries like Jamaica, which have a predominantly black population, have much lower obesity rates than the US. The poverty angle doesn't quite fit either, as both Mexico and Jamaica, as well as many Eastern European countries (Romania, Slovakia) have much higher rates of poverty than the US; but much lower obesity. Although, there could be a link between poverty and the availability of high fat/high sugar foods.
- rayiner 14y ago
  Neither Mexico nor Eastern Europe have the incredible prevalence of cheap processed food we have in the U.S., nor the de-facto demographic segregation of particular minority groups in inner cities where that kind of food is the only thing practically available. It's just incredibly misleading to look at the U.S. as a single country in these sorts of situations. You end up taking the average of several very different societies segregated along racial/economic lines. Take Chicago for example. You'd think it'd be a very diverse city, given that it's about 1/3 white, 1/3 black, 1/3 hispanic. Except it's not. I was walking down Michigan Ave the other day (where the high-end retailers are) and literally 99% of the people around me were white. Chicago is actually a collection of racially segregated neighborhoods, each internally quite homogenous and with dramatically different access to healthy food, nutritional education, etc.

rogerbinns 14y ago

Another possibility is that US people tend to work longer hours and for more days of the year. Workplaces are not good conditions for exercise and food. And once away from work it is easier to go for convenience (eg fast food) due to limited time availability.