Obesity Discussion Forums

[dreamblooms]

There's obesity in Europe too.
http://www.GOOGLE.COM/search?hl=en&i...=Google+Search

And in the U.K.
http://www.GOOGLE.COM/search?hl=en&i...K.&btnG=Search

And if all the junk/convenience food had existed 100 years ago, Americans back then would have had weight problems too. Despite having to labor physically, chop their wood and till their fields...they probably would have had the same weight problems as nowadays.

This is a 21st century problem. No more infectious diseases -- that's the good news. We just have to deal with the weight thing. At least in the meantime we have PPC: Penicillin, indoor Plumbing, and Climate Control.

Gotta look at the bright side.

[Obesity Discussion]

This is very true. Obesity has been getting worse in many countries across the world. The food we eat not is much more processed, many more additives, and bigger portion sizes, and on top of that, you are right, we aren't as physically active as we used to be.

[Steve]

That's really the gist of it. Our society and technology has allowed for changes in the availability of food and lifestyle requirements far faster than our genome has been able to adapt to them.

As far as our physiology is concerned, we're still living without any food surplus, in a situation where it's actually an advantage to store fat whenever possible. Throw such a conservative system into an environment where such a scarce resource becomes absolutely plentiful......

Is the obese person responsible? I'd say both yes and no. I think "blame" is a more complex thing than just saying the obese person is lazy, because of the above. I don't think a great many people understand how relatively easy it is to be not-fat; but at the same time it's an outside context problem. The problem isn't hard, just that people aren't thinking about it in the right way, and even once it's explained to them, they have trouble wrapping their heads around the idea. Or simply don't want to do it.


So in one sense, the obese person certainly is responsible for his/her own condition. After all, the obese person is the one that took in 7000 calories a day and did no exercise. For years. Though in another sense, people that have been in that state from childhood might simply have never thought any different.

On the other hand, the physiological situation and a simple lack of information or concern (see the correlation to the poor and uneducated) can make it more than simply a matter of "lazy".

[hollandoforange]

100 years? i think everyone got fat around 1985 when they added high fructose to pepsi and got rid of sugar

[hollandoforange]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity..._United_States

[wan2hlpu]

I blame the TV.

[hollandoforange]

i blame tv ,omputers , the fact i like candy bars

its sick one year later and im from 190 to 196-its makes me mad

[wan2hlpu]

Besides TV I blame. I blame the old taste buds. I must battle them alot! I have to think am I really hungry or is it a taste-bud thing requirement wannabe.

[Obesity Discussion]

If all of you remember, being overweight in medieval times was a sign of power and wealth. My how times have changed.

[dreamblooms]

Originally Posted by Obesity Discussion

If all of you remember, being overweight in medieval times was a sign of power and wealth. My how times have changed.

You're so right. Henry VIII died at 57 from complications of obesity. Back then only the rich were fed-too-wells, but the other 99% of people were poor.

[alohanema]

Originally Posted by dreamblooms

You're so right. Henry VIII died at 57 from complications of obesity. Back then only the rich were fed-too-wells, but the other 99% of people were poor.

Just kidding, sometimes being a poor man is lucky

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by dreamblooms

You're so right. Henry VIII died at 57 from complications of obesity. Back then only the rich were fed-too-wells, but the other 99% of people were poor.

Back then was 57 really such a short life expectancy though?

[dreamblooms]

Originally Posted by Obesity Discussion

Back then was 57 really such a short life expectancy though?

Good point. Well presumably Henry had the time's best of "medical care," such as it was (getting fussed over through fevers, battle wounds, etc.)

What's fascinating is that the rich and powerful then did not eat vegetables, which they scorned and thought was just for poor people. They ate heavy, fatty meats, and put their bread pudding desserts *under* the roasting meats to catch the dripping fats. Blech! Can you imagine? Their sugar of the time came from beets. Still does in many parts of Europe. Needless to say, the rich ate a lot of fatty, sugary stuff. It was their junk food of the day, and probably just as plentiful as the junk that surrounds us because the rich had servants who cooked and baked constantly.

Hey, that's illuminating...the rich of every age have ALWAYS had their junk foods. Down through the ages the poor died of malnutrition and disease, and the rich mostly died from being overweight Fed-Too-Wells. Gout was also referred to as the rich man's disease. There's more about the history of overweight diseases in that book I've mentioned. It's fascinating, makes me feel less guilty about calories. If good eats are there, people of any time will eat them. It's just that, for most people, good eats weren't there. Just the Fed-Too-Wells had them, and ate massively.

[Poptart]

Just think about the Romans as well......

They would sit for hours and hours eating course after course of rich food.....

They were of course also, the creators of the first cases of bulimia, so it looks like our relationship with food has been rather tainted throughout history!

[hollandoforange]

i found a link somewhere of inrcrese in sugar consumption from 1600 to 2008

it rose a lot

from like 3 teaspoons aday to 50