Obesity in Iceland

heidrun · 07-29-06, 11:22 PM

Obesity in Iceland is becoming an epidemic as in other modern industrialized countries. Children and teenagers especially are gaining weight at alarming speed. Iceland is a sugar-driven nation, and I think we are in the top ten of nations that eat the most sugar. The official numbers for amount of sugar consumed on average pr. person in Iceland is 53.3 kg/ 117.7 lbs pr. year that makes our average daily intake of sugar up to 150 gr./ 5.3 oz. pr. day pr. person. The average amount consumed in Iceland of sugar-sodas pr. year is 160 ltr/ 43 gallons pr person, or close to a half liter / 16.9 fl.oz every day. Icelanders eat 4200 tons/ 9.259.415 lbs of candy every year (Note the whole nation counts just over 300 000 people). Research has found out that 9 year old Icelandic children eat on average 36 gr/ 1.2 oz of vegetables and get 70 gr/ 2.5 oz of added sugar on a daily basis. 15 year old teenagers eat 45 gr/ 1.6 oz of vegetables and 100 gr/ 3.5 oz of added sugar on a daily basis.

Those numbers say it all. Just think about this: If you drink one medium size sugar-soda bottle every day, then you will gain 6 kg/ 13.2 oz every year, and that will make 60 kg. /132 lbs in 10 years, JUST by drinking this extra bottle of sugar-soda every day. Now think how these numbers will look like if you look at the people that drink ONLY sugar-soda for their thirst. I have seen numbers and actually know people that could easily go through 4-6 of the largest bottles of sugar-soda in one day. That would mean that you could actually gain 26-36 kg/ 55-80 lbs in ONE year, just by drinking sugar-soda in such a large scale.

Besides crappy lifestyle and nutrition Icelanders are also so predisposed to gain weight. Iceland got settled in the viking era (around the year 800). Iceland is very close to the artic circle so if temperature goes down in some eras, then it had devastating effects on the survival of the people living in this country. Icelanders were mostly farmers, so they relied on being able to gather enough hey and to have the sheeps grace outside as often as possible, so they could survive through the winter. Every fall the farmers had to gamble with their welfare and survival by deciding how many sheeps he would keep during the winter. If the winter was cold and the summer came late, then he would risk to lose most of his sheeps due to hunger, if he kept too many sheeps. On the other hand, if he didnt take the risk on keeping many sheeps, then he would get fewer lambs, and if the lambs were too few, then he didnt get enough values to trade with the merchants for utterly neccessary things (as iron and wood), and he would never be able to get out of the poverty trap. And being poor in Iceland hundreds years ago meant that you would probably die of starvation in the end.

Besides the rough climate people had to battle other natural elements. Iceland is highly activated vulcanic area, since it is situated on the canyon that divides europe and America in the atlantic ocean. It always gets pulled apart so therefore vulcanoes would errupt on a regular basis. In the late 17-hundreds there was a huge vulcanic eruption at Laka. The eruption was so powerful that the ash clouds actually went all the way to Europe, blocking the sunlight for some time, and the next winter got to be extremely cold in Europe and other parts of the world, simply because of this enormous eruption. The affect of this situation for Iceland was utterly devastating. In fact 40-50 % of the nation died of hunger because of the eruption. The reason for the famine is that ash from the vulcano covered most of Iceland for some time, killing all the vegetation, so the sheeps didnt have anything to eat, and died because of hunger and also from the poisionus ash. The next winter was extremely cold, and it is even mentioned that the ground didnt thaw the whole summer, so it was even less vegetation available for the sheeps.

So in fact Icelanders are the offspring of the people that survived the famines through the years. Our forefathers are the people that could store body fat from very little nutrition to survive the cold, hard winters. Thats why it is such a common sight in Iceland to see enormously bulky people that are big all over. Not neccessarily obese, just big in every way, broad shoulders, big bones..... large big and bulky. I guess people like that can be found everywhere, but I have never seen so many big people in one place as here. I guess I am one of the big, bulky people. I am not very tall, (only 165 cm or 5'5) but I have very broad shoulders, have a lot of strength and indurance. Just think about that I was actually working over 8 hours a day in a pet shop when I weighed a whopping 183 kg/ 403 lbs. I didnt even take it calm at work, just made myself go to my physical limits and then stepping over it. I didnt have any of the obesity related diseases. My bloodpressure is good, I have no trace of diabetes, no heart problems ets. I am very grateful to be so healthy and strongly built, because severe obesity is something that is so difficult to get out of, specially if you keep yourself locked up in the house.

Obesity Discussion · 07-29-06, 11:35 PM

Wow Heidrun, those are incredible statistics on sugar to vegetable intake for the children of Iceland! It's also amazing how much of an impact soda can have on weight. I used to drink about 1-2 liters of Soda a day when I was in high school, but cut it out cold turkey when I got to college (thankfully). Now I have a very rare diet soda, but other than that, no soda for me!

Great story on the history of the people and climate of Iceland! I've always had a strange fascination with Iceland, and am so glad you are here to share these stories with us!

So have you behaved when it comes to Soda?

heidrun · 07-30-06, 07:11 AM

Havent had sugar-soda since 2. january this year. At first I usually drank one large glass of diet-soda, but now I only drink diet-soda on very special occasions. I drink sparkled water with little bit of lemon juice or tranberry juice every day, and frankly I think it is much more refreshing and better tasting then diet-soda or sugar-soda.

Obesity Discussion · 07-30-06, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by heidrun

Havent had sugar-soda since 2. january this year. At first I usually drank one large glass of diet-soda, but now I only drink diet-soda on very special occasions. I drink sparkled water with little bit of lemon juice or tranberry juice every day, and frankly I think it is much more refreshing and better tasting then diet-soda or sugar-soda.

I went through a diet soda binge for 6 months about a year ago, but decided to stop when I found out the carbonation in Soda strips the calcium from your bones.

William Wallace · 08-27-06, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by heidrun

Havent had sugar-soda since 2. january this year. At first I usually drank one large glass of diet-soda, but now I only drink diet-soda on very special occasions. I drink sparkled water with little bit of lemon juice or tranberry juice every day, and frankly I think it is much more refreshing and better tasting then diet-soda or sugar-soda.

I used to drink diet soda too but quit because of the teeth staining and how the carbonation can strip calcium away from bones. Now I drink coffee daily

I gotta ask, what is "tranberry" juice. Never heard of that before?