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Where are they? They can be found in schools, nursing homes, hospitals, ghettos, and Wal-Mart.

I've heard this unfortunate news about Mexico. In this case I think their proximity to America is working against them. KFC and friends are displacing local cuisine and culture, one restaurant at a time.

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Rayzik said:

But where the hell are all these "1 in 3" obese citizens? I rarely even see one in a week.

All over, ever since they essentially changed the definition of what constitutes "obese".

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I agree the definition of obesity — a body mass index, or weight in kilograms /(height in meters)^2 of 30 or above — is a crude metric. Roughly a third of obese people can be deemed healthy in terms of their cardio-metabolic profile, including such things as circulating glucose, insulin, and cholesterol levels. Not to mention research is beginning to show that overweight people have a keener ability to overcome certain infections and recover from damaging accidents. They aren't sure if this is because an overweight body has a certain rhythm or access to nutrients that allows resilience or if it's because overweight people might be going to doctors more frequently for check-ups and medications which allow doctors to spot a disease before it gets advanced whereas a skinny person might choose to rarely visit a doctor. On the other hand, being overweight comes with its own panel of chronic conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, back pain, failing joints, among other maladies.

In my opinion the debate over obesity is framed too often in terms of quantity of food consumed. Really what I'm seeing is an obsession of the Western world with white bread/noodles/rice (simple carbohydrates, barely a step above sugar), soda (liquid corn sugar), and low-quality meat prepared by fast food companies. Vegetables and fruit should be subsidized to get them back into Western diet. Corn sugar and cane sugar should be taxed instead of subsidized.

People who live on food stamps in the US simply cannot afford vegetables or fruit. A Fox News correspondent did a funny segment where he proved how easy it was to live on food stamps and came back with a shopping cart of ramen noodles, canned beans, apple sauce, powdered fruit drink mix, white bread, noodles, etc. This is not the kind of stuff that allows a child's body to grow.

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One of the biggest problem for some people is actually access to a place that sells "real" food. If you're in a ghetto, or even live deep in suburbia without any real grocery store in walking distance, then you end up buying lots of processed junk from corner store, 7-11, fast food joint, etc. Or sometimes there is a grocery store, but it's some "upscale" place where everything is ridiculously expensive.

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Really what I'm seeing is an obsession of the Western world with white bread/noodles/rice (simple carbohydrates, barely a step above sugar), soda (liquid corn sugar), and low-quality meat prepared by fast food companies.


It pales down compared to the obsession americans have with calling their very specific case "the Western world", though.

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Most of those "most ebese people EVAR" statistics are sketchy and/or biased, e.g. towards specific countries/races/continents/age groups.

For years, I hears that e.g. Greece was the most obese country, then the UK or Holland (maybe in the EU) or that it was the "champion" in child obesity (>40%) etc.

This is pretty much like those "best videogames EVAR" articles: they are dealing with a moving target.

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Phml said:

It pales down compared to the obsession americans have with calling their very specific case "the Western world", though.

Somewhat relevant.

Anyway, regardless of where you live, there's a very simple way to cure obesity: stop shoveling shit into your mouth, and move around more.

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I see people so fat when I go out that it makes me want to help them get not fat. Its easy. My friend's aunt was 6' tall and 450 lbs. She lost 100 lbs just walking, no matter how painful.

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Rayzik said:

'MURICA

But where the hell are all these "1 in 3" obese citizens? I rarely even see one in a week.


well its not like theyre out walking around getting excercise

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Also, some height and weight charts are kind of screwy. I'm 6"2, 203 lbs, some charts would say I'm overweight, or on the cusp of it; I don't think I am. I wonder what standards they are using.

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Kontra Kommando said:

Also, some height and weight charts are kind of screwy. I'm 6"2, 203 lbs, some charts would say I'm overweight, or on the cusp of it; I don't think I am. I wonder what standards they are using.

BMI measurements notoriously do not account for musculature. So a bodybuilder would register as "obese." And the statistics will count such people too, just to make sure they're as skewed as possible. I can tell you that, for example, here where I work, if I am asked to pull a report on BMI, it will be a raw calculation of the BMI formula for every patient in the database considering only their height and weight. There are no other factors that calculate into it.

There are very strong political agendas surrounding the so-called "obesity epidemic," and they enter into everything from genetic engineering, population control, economics, radical vegetarianism, and imperialism. Everyone has their hands in the barrel when it comes to trying to control what people eat.

My suggestion? Do not trust anything you've ever been told about nutrition from a so-called expert. You must at the least find it suspicious how the "best advice" constantly changes. Sodium is an excellent example. Is it bad for your heart? The answer keeps changing from yes to no every few years and it has much less to do with new medical studies than it does with how much salt needs to be sold at the time.

The lipid theory of heart disease has very little evidence for it, and even some against it. Most regimens which will lower so-called "bad" cholesterol will also lower "good" cholesterol, which can have wide-ranging impacts such as depression and infertility. Doctors and scientists who have tried to raise public awareness of these facts have had their works actively censored and have lost their jobs.

The change-over to vegetable oils from fats for cooking was largely the result of lobbying from radical vegetarian and vegan groups. These unnatural substances have proven negative effects that cooking with fats, as our hunter-gatherer ancestors did for a hundred thousand years, do not.

By and large this grain-centric, high carb diet was adapted greedily by the governmental agencies in charge of food supply and nutrition guidelines because it benefited the ability to commit economic warfare in the form of sanctions against the USSR, which was dependent on the US for grain imports.

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If read on the Internet, it must be true, otherwise someone would correct it. Studies say 90% of people believe studies.

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TheCupboard said:
In this case I think their proximity to America is working against them.

As the old saying goes:

¡Pobre México! Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de Estados Unidos.
(Poor Mexico! So far from God and so close to the United States.)

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Phml said:

It pales down compared to the obsession americans have with calling their very specific case "the Western world", though.


No I don't think it does because the US is exporting obesity around the world. If you want to moan about semantics you can continue to ignore all the fast food places on main street. No one is high and mighty here. People in my country and everywhere else have equivocated prosperity with consumption of brand name products (fast food, toys, electronics). I'm sure everyone on DW "lives with moderation" or whatever but countries are going to have to start taxing the hell out of unhealthy living habits or face the consequences as their public or private healthcare systems feel the strain of the national waistline. Either that or find a benevolent way to promote active lifestyles.

As much as I admire some of the traits and governance of Northern Europe, any solutions found there will continue to be incompatible with the "can't hear you over the sound of muh freedoms" model of US government for the next few decades. We can't even limit the size of our soda cups here for Gods' sake.

Quasar said:

By and large this grain-centric, high carb diet was adapted greedily by the governmental agencies in charge of food supply and nutrition guidelines because it benefited the ability to commit economic warfare in the form of sanctions against the USSR, which was dependent on the US for grain imports.


There is probably something to this theory. Additionally, the grain we eat today is a different plant than it was fifty years ago, let alone when we were hunter-gatherers. It used to be a naturally-occurring grass, now it is a genetic Frankenstein, essentially a new species. I hear folks talk about Celiac disease like it is an expression of vegan haughtiness. Rather it seems to be an evolving problem as grain companies receive huge subsidies to engage in gene manipulation of crops that will have a nearly unknowable impact on metabolism.

myk said:

As the old saying goes...


As William McKinley said:

The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation.

Full-regalia imperialism based on resource extraction and Christianization is nearly in the dust bin of history. It's a brave new chapter written by corporate regimes who have no nationality, no stomach for war, and no will to pay taxes to any host country to correct for greed/pollution/the evils of human nature. The US does not hold their leash because they handle the dirty work now.

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Talking at length about the United States in answer to accusations of american egocentrism isn't the most convincing retort you could make.

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Would it help if you evolved beyond one-liners to defend your world-view? I am not retorting, you are. I am arguing, or at least trying to.

Would you like me to talk about the virtues of socialist revolution and the creation of a cosmopolitan society? Would you like me to be less of an apologist for my country and extol the virtues of starving Brazilian city-dwellers who fall equally under the category of "american" you toss around like a four-letter word?

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It's somewhat sad DoomUK's picture, posted in jest, doesn't even match the reality of your attitude so far.

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Phml said:

It's somewhat sad DoomUK's picture, posted in jest, doesn't even match the reality of your attitude so far.

what the hell does this even mean? it sounds condescending, but there's no argument, so it's kinda hard to evaluate beyond "fluff".

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DoomUK posts a picture referencing the "ignorant and arrogant" american stereotype.
I say TheCupBoard manages to be worse than that.

How tragically stupid do you have to be to not understand what is being said here?

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Nobody understands what you're talking about. Apparently you're pissed off at TC from something he said, but you don't present an actual correction to the wrong thing he said, so leave everybody guessing what point you disagree with.

If you want people to understand you, try arguing like "You're wrong about (specific point X) because of (reason Y)." It will get you a hell of a lot farther than what you're doing right now. Just pointing a DoomUK's comment and laughing at TC doesn't accomplish anything.

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In this particular instance, I find having people who can't understand what I said unable to understand what I said to be the most desirable outcome.

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The Western world is commonly defined as both Americas and Europe. While some influence from the United States to European countries can be argued, the food culture in the United States is not representative of the food culture in most Europe countries, to the extent this should be evident to anyone with even a passing knowledge of both. Referencing the United States as the Western world when it comes to nutrition is inaccurate; and to do so assertively is arrogant, as pointed out in my first reply.

Your answer to those accusations of ignorance and egocentrism is to talk some more about the United States, the United States and the United States, coupled with repeating your previous incorrect and arrogant assumption Europe countries are basically "little United States", with fast foods on main street or whatever. There's two fast foods in the ~30,000 pop. city I live in. There's none in many cities of similar size.

There is no world view whatsoever here. There is no act of war towards the United States. There is no deep argument, nor there is any one liner. My posts happen to be one line long because the very simple point being made, a point correctly understood by at least one person, shouldn't need any explanation.

Some of you happen to require a page long post to understand what normal people get in one line. Congratulations, all three of you. Now settle down, shed your tears, take a deep breath, don't even try to whine about this wall of text you specifically prompted me to type or this derail caused by your relentless need to show the world how stupid you can be, and carry on with the topic already.

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Rayzik said:

'MURICA

But where the hell are all these "1 in 3" obese citizens? I rarely even see one in a week.


Maybe it's because I live in Texas, but I see a lot of fat and obese people every single day of my life, no matter where I am.

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Phml said:

The Western world is commonly defined as both Americas and Europe. While some influence from the United States to European countries can be argued, the food culture in the United States is not representative of the food culture in most Europe countries


Some of food in Europe is not representative of the food in Europe. Pasta comes from China, Tea comes from India, if you use anything involving tomatoes, it comes from the Americas.

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