America's Most Obese Cities

Forbes ^ | 11/25/07 | Rebecca Ruiz

[austinaero]

The question for us conservatives is this - how can we, in the free market, encourage fitness and healthy living? How can we make nutritious food cheaper without too many handouts?

That is a great question. Maybe those of us who are trying to live a healthy life get an insurance break (medical and life). It doesn’t help with making nutritious food cheaper, but, it might offset some of the costs of that food...Just a quick thought..

(I feel the flames a’comin’)!

[steve8714]

People in Mogadishu don’t have these problems; their city is not victimized by a “sprawl policy” or “car culture”.

[weegee]

There’s also that song that says New York is spelled c-o-c-a-i-n-e. That’ll drop the pounds too.

[weegee]

50% of the world (50% of the US, 50% of Europe, 50% of New Zealand...) has been reported to be “obese” by BMI standards.

And they make no distinction between the build of a man or a woman.

[willgolfforfood]

Yeah, I can’t say I actually noticed that problem in the short time I was there. But most of the guys making that claim were a bunch of corporate nerds anyway.

[occamrzr06]

driving everywhere plus the fastfood take outs. people here drive even to a liquor store a block away

Hey, it's for my 40!

[canuck_conservative]

A lot of it is simple.

For starters, STOP FRYING!!

Yes, it’s fastest (that’s why the fast-food places use it) and it makes everything taste good, but it’s also the MOST UNHEALTHY way of cooking (and probably the most work).

Re-discover baking - takes longer, but it’s heathier and a lot less work.

[Ditto]

I was surprised to see so many southern cities on the list.

Did you ever eat in a Southern diner? Breakfast is like 100,000 calories before your even taste the grits. ;~)

[Hemingway's Ghost]

And herein lies the problem. If you aren't built like Barbie or Ken, you are obese by these loose standards.

Precisely right. BMI does not take muscle mass into account; as a result, as you illustrate, some of the world's greatest athletes can be considered "obese" by this silly standard.

[Erasmus]

Oskee-wow-wow, dude.

(I think Asshole Miles Brand still lets us say that.)

[Slapshot68]

“Government subsidizes high calorie junk foods for one thing.”

I didn’t realize food stamps and the Independence Card were calorie discriminatory.

[discostu]

Why should we, as conservatives, care how people are eating and exercising? The reality is that by and large healthy food actually is cheaper than the non-healthy stuff, but it’s not as convenient, and the same laziness that drives people into perpetual poverty drives them to eating crappy food. I guarantee that even with my mediocre culinary and shopping skills I could feed a family cheaper from the fresh sections of the grocery store than from the boxed sections or fastfood joints, I can even beat the dollar menu at McDs. The key to making fresh food cheap (and I’m talking from the consumer perspective) is to remember that they don’t keep so you’ve got to go to the grocery store often buying little on each trip.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Billy Beer has been gone for 30 years.

The locally produced drink where I live is called “Wildcat”—homemade whiskey.

[P.O.E.]

Is that anywhere near Capa City?

[Publius Valerius]

blocks efforts to be able to roll over personal medical savings from year to year.

Don't forget, with HSAs, you can now roll over medical savings.

[jdub]

The question for us conservatives is this - how can we, in the free market, encourage fitness and healthy living? How can we make nutritious food cheaper without too many handouts?

While your suggestion that cheaper food is more fattening certainly has merit, there are other significant factors as well.

Time and effort come to mind. No one cooks for their children anymore, they buy them a happy meal so they don't have to miss the next episode of The Biggest Loser. How much does a sack of rice cost? A bag of beans, A sack of potatoes? Pennies a serving. Cans and frozen packs of vegetables cost $0.30 cents a serving, perhaps.

Here is a sampling from yesterday's Kroger flyer: Round steak $1.99/lb. Whole chicken $0.79/lb. Bananas $0.39/lb. loaf of bread $0.88. Canned veggies 50 cents.

So you can feed a family steak, green vegetables and pinto beans for about seven bucks. cheap, and while not health food, it certainly isn't loaded with fat and sugar.

[MotleyGirl70]

Did you ever eat in a Southern diner? Breakfast is like 100,000 calories before your even taste the grits. ;~)

Cagey, can you post the picture (I couldn't find it on GIS) and the quote; I don't have it. Ping Ditto when you do. Thanks :)

[Misterioso]

Perhaps the key to weight control is just eating less calories. If you do that, you can eat anywhere and not get fat.

[Greg F]

No, farm supports are the subsidies I’m talking about. My only example is the subsidy for the high fructose corn syrup. Probably corn oil as well. So fried foods, high sugar foods are artificially inexpensive.

[dan1123]

“fitness is expensive.”

It’s money-expensive and time-expensive. You need free time to not just exercise for 20 minutes, but drive 20 minutes to the gym each way, changing and showering for over an hour of time taken away from daily duties where you have to have someone else watch the kids.

I think there are three main reasons for obesity. The first is the expanded 60-80 hour work week in sedentary desk jobs. The second is agricultural subsidies that make grains, sugar and meat artificially cheap. Exempting everyone under the sun from the 40 hour work week and subsidizing fattening foods is a perfect recipe for obesity. We have to either remove subsidies for grains and meat, or add them to fruits and vegetables. Which do you think is more likely to happen?

The third? Anti-smoking laws. Smoking used to do a good job keeping people thin. Taking that away without changing anything else is going to cause more people to get fat.