ExRx.net

The people of this country or the corporations? (sorry if your not from America but I am sure the same could be said of any country, its just not as bad there as it is here). I go back and forth on this. I just saw Super Size me again, and it makes me think, that corporations and our own government and leaders set us up to fail. Even our parents. A kid has no choice if his/her parents only buy him crap to eat and encourage no physical activity (like mine did). But then again, there's plenty of not fat people to dilute this theory. I know it had shades of gray but something should be done soon...obesity is on the same level with tobacco and will only get worse. But yet, smoking is so offensive to people stuffing their faces with hostess cupcakes and doritos. Do you think there will come a point when you have to be 18 to buy/eat a twinkie too?!?!

Ancel Keys

I'm to blame for my obesity! I truely believe I am the number one cause of my obesity! If a few more people realised that instead of blaming whatever is popular to blame then there'd be less obese people!

HOWEVER:

I think the advertising techniques used to sell food and drinks that are of the highest profit percentage and often the lowest nutritional value have become overtly crafty and sometimes so misleading they are baltant lies! So yes I feel I am sometimes sub-conciously lulled into a false sense of security about a products "healthiness", but in the end I have to buy the product for it to do me damage!

I also believe a lot of children fall victim to their parents view of food and down right laziness in some cases!

I'm cutting off here at 1c worth as I gotta get some sleep!

John

I am only responsible for my own condition.

Yeah, but if you're working with false/misleading information, you may be doing your best to do the right thing, and just plain get it wrong.

Thereis a lot of blame to go around for the obesity, but like John stated, I think it boils down to the fact that it is an individual choice whether to eat correct and exercise, regardless of how much hype is put out by the less than honest marketing practices. I'm just chiming in to add another group intothe mix that may have been left out, and that's nutritionists. I think nowadays they're finally coming around, but back in the 80's, all the nutritionists were pushing these low fat, low protein, high carb diets (which include all the Snackwell fat free cookies and crackers) that worke in tandem with the other existing factors to create this obesity "epidemic" .
Tim

I should probably also say McGovern. He had a lot to do with pushing this crap over the objection of scientists. It is very hard for a scientist when you are offered tons of money to go with the flow, and the threat for not going along with it is loosing your grant money and being black listed.

My wife works with "nutritionists". (She is an economist for the Dept. of Public Health; W.I.C. - Women and Infant Children.)

3 out of the 5 are morbidly obese. So yeah, they normally don't help.

My mom is really scared of my high fat , high protein, low carb diet lol she thinks im going to get high blood presure, bad cholesterol... and get sick.

You should see what she buys us for food, my pantry is actually 70-80% Carbs and my fridge has hardly any eggs, meat or fuits and vegetables.

It's mostly filled with condiments and juice.
She buys boxes and boxes of cookies and tons of concentrate juice.

And shes thinks I'm eating unhealthy lol. Its really hard to get the food i want, since i don't have a car.

I don't even want to list the health problems my mom has had or does have.

I blame everyone lol buisness, government, parents and myself.

Jungledoc: Agreed! A coach I once said to me he old addage of "Practice Makes Perfect" is flawed, it should be "Perfect Practice Makes Perfect". In any situation you must have the right info to get the right outcome. However there are a lot of wrong ways to diet that still "work" i their own way if applied as prescribed, but one big problem is the tinkering mind of a lot people!

As for kids, I think obesity needs to become a welfare issue and grossly overweight children need to be assessed as an abused child! Not in every case obviously, there are medical reasons that cause udue obesity, but in the case of say a 400lb father and 300lbs mother with a 250lbs 10 years old none of whom have any physical or mental abnormalities underlying their size (based on a family I know!) I think that kid needs to be helped out! But again the issue comes up of "how?". Well that's a bigger question. As the kid grows up they need to take responsibility for their weight and eating habits to succeed, but in the interim they need to be taught some form of healthy eating, be it the carb heavy or protein heavy way they need info on a good dietary intake of some sort!

The best way to get obesity down is to educate from the start! If kindergarten is the earliest we can get to kids, so be it! They may have learned terrible things from mum and dad, but schools should provide at least on healthy snack (recess) and one healthy meal (lunch) in every child's day, in my opinion! Doesn't have to be free, but heavily subsidised would be good! And it should be compulsory that if a child's "from home lunch" isn't adequate a school should fill in the gap/cut out the crap as needed! Sounds a but Nazi and totalitarian, but it has to start somewhere for this generation to stop it from passing down the line and increasing the problems for their kids/the next generation! In the end tax payers need to realise that money spent now to stop obesity before it happens means less taxes for public health care systems in the future due to obesity related disease!!!!

Anwyay, I could rant on forever about nutrition for kids, but I doubt it will change anything!!!

John

The thing is many of those kids do eat "healthy" most of the time. It's just that what was said to be healthy is actually not. It is the same stuff we use to fatten food animals. Our current dietary guidelines are making people fat. Hence the reason I blame the early 70's food crusaders. If you want to go back further, the roots of it are in militant vegetarianism.

Ironman I refuse to mess with Militant Vegetarians! lol

I don't agree that even if it is an adult, it is entirely personal responsibility (or lack thereof) that made them fat. Here's why-

Like Ironman said, people are often told the wrong way to stay not fat.

Corporate America has made it so easy for everyone to have access to the unhealthiest food available, yet healthy food is often more expensive. When a family who is already struggling has 3 kids, they might not even want the crappy food but its all they can afford.

That being said-

I know most of the general public is full of lazy slobs (I work with them). So I don't attribute excuses to everyone. If anything I'd say perhaps 90% of them because of their own doing and the other 10% have a valid excuse. Pure guesstamation that is. No backing for it, just what I would see from working with the public.

But children, its hard to blame the child at all. Most children adopt their parents eating habits. And I'm not always for blaming the parents if children don't turn out right (because I've seen kids turn out bad even with good parenting), but the percentage is vice versa in this category perhaps.

On another note, I just want to point out its really scary when you think what school lunches consist of. I just wanted to point that out...or for instance, prison/military food as well. I was in the military- not the best. LOL>

Yea some of them are crazy.

They could atleast excersize, if you have only enough money to purchase crap food then you could go running or swimming more often.