Are we eating ourselves to death?

Question

with the rise of obesity in young people. how come we became this way in the fisrt place. is it the bigger food giants have more influence on our young. or is it our lifestyle of an computer age. or is it there are more fats in our foods.

Answer 1

It is all of those things that you mention, and lack of physical exercise that is causing the rise in obesity. More importantly, is the rise in childhood obesity. Children today do not have recess at school where they can go outside and have physical play time to release pent up energies. So they eat..and sit, and eat some more. And parents don't get involved with their kids and take walks or hikes with them like we did years ago. Everyone drives everywhere! People need to start using their feet and legs again or we will surely kill ourselves from overeating and lack of exercise.

Please see the links I've given you below. Very good informtion on obesity and the causes.

Excellent question, by the way. Take care and have a great day!

Answer 2

I could write an essay on this, but in the interests of keeping it relatively short and sweet, I shall refrain from that. It comes down to a number of factors, but it's mostly diet, exercise, and also behavior.

First of all, I'm of the opinion that our food supply is essentially polluted. By that I mean it's polluted with sugary, fatty, cheap, refined convenience foods - often foods which have been created by mad scientists in a lab (check out your average food label and see if you can pronounce half of the ingredients). Our sugar intake in particular is dramatically higher than what it was, say, 40 years ago, and perhaps this can explain at least some of the escalating levels of obesity seen today.

Also, we live in a culture of convenience - everyone wants something quick and easy, something with a long shelf life. Foods are rarely consumed in their 'natural' state from nature, and as a result the quality goes downhill and all sorts of ingredients which are essentially foreign to the human body are ingested as a result.

And then there's exercise, or lack thereof: people are typically getting less physical exercise than they did a few generations ago.

There's no single reason why we're faced with all these problems, and unfortunately I can't see it turning around anytime soon.

Answer 3

Well, everyone has a right to their own lifestyle (my opinion), if they like food and relize the consequences and are SECURE about that, let them do what they want. Obesity is a reoccuring problem, mainly because people are ignorant of how to eat and neccesary exercise. Corperations that know how to market appeal to the masses and show no warning that if consumed at the level of many American kids, many horrible health risks ensue. If people could be educated about exercise and proper diet, perhaps the food could go to better use somewhere other than our fat little tummies.

- haha

Answer 4

Actually, I only know maybe two obese kids. Most people my age are at a proper weight. I see a lot of fat adults though..

Anyway, it's a mix of the fatty foods and the inactive lifestyle. Both are bigger than they were years ago. Portion size has doubled, and now we have the time for mindless indulgence.

Answer 5

Yes, with our fast paced lives and Mothers having to work outside the home to make ends meet, it is much easier to drive throgh a fast food place or order takeout food that contains alot of transfat. When I was young we acually had meals which included vegatables everynight etc.(mabey Mom bought one bag of chips on grocery day, once a week ,for the whole family,or you may have got candy bar if you went shopping with her- never expected more until grocery day. My parents made homemade icecream occasionaly, or the icecream man came around, but we did'nt eat this daily , It was a treat) Kids don't get that now, because it takes 2 parents to work to pay the bills. also with the computer and extra homework kids dont get as much physical exercise as my generation did.(60s-70s) We played outside until it got dark and mabey watched one show on tv a night. Some cartoons on Sat. morning ,then rode bikes, played neighborhood flag football, went swimming until dark, of course it was safer then! Some fast food places are changing to healthier oils ect. and I hope that continues!

Answer 6

It's called sales...companys need new types of food to get money. More competition, means they need to make their food taste good. People need to control what they eat...but if they enjoy the food that tastes good and die early happy, what is the problem.

Answer 7

Rise of obesity=less work-less exercise.