What do you think is the root cause of obesity in America today?

Question

Why is 1/3 of the U.S. considered obese? What makes modern day living and eating habbits different than from 50 or 100 years ago. Why are we getting so fat and what can we do to help solve the obesity crisis?

Answer 1

I have an idea....stop by a fast food place close to a school about the time the school gets out....you will have your answer...French fries everywhere, cokes everywhere..and then, pass by play grounds...I suspect you will find very few people there...Kids eat, eat eat...fast food and junk food all day long, then go home and sit in front of a computer. There is a price to pay for this lifestyle, and the price is obesity...but I suspect you already knew that. 50 years ago, we had lunch in school, and after school, we played until either dark or dinner time..whichever came first. If it were still light after dinner, it was back outside for more running and playing. If you had simple fitness tests done on HS kids, you would find that 80% could not pass the test ...not even close. We are becoming a nation of weakling, fat couch potatoes who are very good at computer games. What we are not becoming is a nation of educated people who are fit. My generation will not see the effects of this .... for I am within 20 years or so of saying bye to this Earth. Your generation, and the following generation, will have about 5% to choose from for its leaders and heads...companies will have very few choices as to who runs them, for we are producing a nation of very ignorant people..people who seem to take pride in stupidity. There are only so many drug dealers a nation can support. As it is going, there will be few who can do anything but menial labor, and they will not be fit enough to do it! I belong to what is predicted to be the longest lived generation in human history...after my generation, due to physical and eating habits, it is predicted that life span will drop dramatically. At the rate we are going, there will not even be a United States in another 50-75 years, for we will be owned by China and /or Japan. Think about it....this is NOT pipe talk here! Due to the present Administrations policies for the past 7 years, the Unitied States will be in debt to the tune of 10 TRILLION dollars...an unimaginable amount. When Bush came in, the Clinton Administration had managed to pay off all the Regan debt and put 2 Trillion into surplus...so, by the end of the Bush years, you...yes you! as a nation, will have spent 12TRILLION dollars for what? Today, it would take each and every woman, child, and man in the US 28,000.00 EACH to pay what is owed today,...imagine what it will be in another year!

Answer 2

Well, for one thing, the food that is fast, cheap, and convenient happens to be the worst food for you. In our fast-pace, no-time-to-wait culture, we don't like to take the time to sit down and eat a meal, much less cook one. Less affluent families have to settle for the food that will fill you up... you won't find someone less fortunate at whole foods buying organic veggies and tofu. It's a shame that the foods that are good for you cost more. We can begin to solve this crisis by encouraging more physical activity in school, as well as giving the children more healthy menus in schools. I think today, society has just gotten way more fast paced and impatient than we used to be. Gone are the days when whole families sit down for dinners with the television off.

Answer 3

There are so much steroids and other artificial things in our foods, plus we have much more convinces than ever before. Think about it, before the 1960's most foods were grown organically, and people weren't shooting cows and chicken up with hormones to make them fatter. What we can do is eat more organic foods, and try to eat whatever is in season and homegrown in our local communities, I think something like within a 50 mile radios?
People need to go outside and enjoy the day more park farther away from stores and walk more! There are countless things we can do to be healthier in our everyday lives.

Answer 4

Many foods today are calorically dense. For example, donuts. Lattes. McDonald's.
A bag of Fritos.
The foods people reach for have way too many calories. And then, they do not exercise.
So a lot of people are fat.
The longterm answer is to teach people to make healthy food choices. They have to learn to enjoy making healthy choices.
There are plenty of unhealthy choices.
LOL, you really need to read labels. Did you know a McDonald's salad, served with the dressing they give you, is no less fattening than a Big Mac! LOL, the whole secret to salad is to keep the dressing low cal, otherwise, it has just as many calories as the food you are trying to avoid.
I usually bring my own low cal dressing if I eat a McDonald's sald.

Answer 5

I think the main reason is that Americans are so focussed on their jobs and how to make more money. Nobody has time anymore to go home early and cook a decent and healthy meal. It takes less time to go to the drive through and order fast food, which is full of fat and has practically no nutritional value for the human body. Consequence: everybody gets real fat!!

Answer 6

there is not any doubt in my recommendations that it extremely is led to by ability of overconsumption of sophisticated carbohydrates! I survive usually hen, some pork, eggs, greens, and fiber and that i've got lost weight and function stored it off for 9 months. I watch what human beings consume through fact i'm very curious (nosy), and that i've got observed that all and sundry is ingesting WAYYYY too many sophisticated carbs!!! those human beings ingesting white bread, pasta, bagels, rice, and crackers with the "low fat" recommendations-set are basically putting themselves up for failure and thousands of well being issues. Sugar could desire to be outlawed , in my view. With the increasing fee of formative years weight problems and diabetes, I are watching for sugar would be appeared upon like cigarettes interior the close to destiny!!

Answer 7

Convenience foods, and lack of excercise. People used to work outside, now everyone has motorized lawn mowers, snowblowers, cars, motorized bikes, escalators and elevators, delivered groceries and pizzas. You hardly see kids playing outdoors anymore. When I was a kid we were outside all the time and we didn't come in til we had to.

Answer 8

machines and technology do practically everything for us. no where near as much physical work is done by the average person today than 50+ years ago.

then there's all the fast food. not much comes fresh or healthy anymore.

Answer 9

Sugar and high fructose corn syrup in EVERYTHING... plus the Equal stuff has no calories but it supresses your "satisfied" center, so you always feel hungry.... plus too much work, and too much stress, makes people too tired to exercise.

We are a nation of fat slaves.

Answer 10

High-fat food all over the place plus an increasingly sedentary lifestyle.

To control your weight, eat less and exercise more. That's all there is to it.