[Nachum]

Hmph

Not one mention about all the white flour, white rice, and sugar Americans eat.

[Rodney King]

To the extent that people choose to be obese, I have no problem with it. I have a problem with it when I have to bear the costs of their lard-assedness because health care is not a free market. I also have a problem with it when I go to Walmart and have to look at their disgusting whale-turd selves ride around on the little Walmart electric scooter because they are too fat to walk to the twinkie department.

[Lib-Lickers 2]

It's these damn M&Ms,,, yumm yum yum,,,,,,

[Restorer]

Pretty good article. A major reason for obesity is that our cities and suburbs are designed so that it is extremely difficult, even dangerous, to use any method of transportation other than a car.

Thus, exercise has to be something that you do for its own sake, rather than something you do in accomplishing something else, such as getting to work.

I travel a lot, and often try to get along without a car when in a strange city. Getting from a hotel to a restaurant without a car, even if it's quite close, can be a harrowing experience.

I'm not one of those who wants to ban the car. But a person should be able to get where he needs to by bike or on foot, if he wants to, without risking his life.

[Dan from Michigan]

We’ve built suburbs (“the built environment”) so spread out that people must rely on cars because walking or biking simply isn’t an option

How come the fattest are in the inner city?

But public health officials are rarely, if ever, consulted, so our subdivisions actually make us fatter and lazier.

In the subdivisions, there were lots of football, basketball, and roller hockey games. Exercise is there and availible. People walk all the time in those as well.

Suburban sprawl also makes us lonely

I did alright in the country, let alone suburbia.

and cause “a lack of social networks and diminished social capital,

Ever hear of making your own networks?

which can contribute to obesity, cardiovascular disease, mental health problems, and increased rates of mortality.”

How so?

Instead of designing walkable cities, we build sprawl that makes us even more dependent on the automobile

Why are people moving to sprawling areas and moving OUT of cities?

[w1andsodidwe]

How about the fact that we give mommy food stamps to feed her kids, then we provide three square meals for the kids at school. No wonder the kids are fat.

Everytime I am in a restaurant and I hear a parent say "Clean your plate" I want to scream "NO". We are a society who cannot leave food on our plate because we are trained from birth that it is bad.

A couple weeks ago, there was an article here about a school in Iowa that impossed silence during the lunch hour, so that the kids would concentrate on eating and clean their plate. Outrageous.

In TV guide this tonight I was reading about a couple of kids who got an award for feeding the hungry. Providing birthday cakes of all things. Where are the hungry? Why are they hungry?

It's a vast left wing conspiracy to force feed everyone.

[cyborg]

Or the marathon FR posting sessions sitting on a computer's subwoofer...did I just out myself?

[tubebender]

Gersh Kuntzman...what a cool last name.

[LibKill]

My theory is not complex.

Our remote ancestors ate whatever they could get and what they got was not a lot.

As mankind moved from hunter-gatherers to farmers and herdsmen our food supply became more reliable. But those folks had to work hard for their food and so they remained trim (for the most part).

Now we have harnessed technology and put it to work making more food than any civillisation on earth has ever had.

And we don't have to (physically) work so hard for that food.

For all the stress I endure on the job it is not all that demanding physically.

So, if I don't moderate my food intake or excercise in my spare time, I will balloon.

As it is I have hit a sort of happy medium, but I could still shed a few pounds and be better off for doing so.

[Rodney King]

The real answer to why America is so fat is this: Because we can be.

For mots of history most people have struggled for most of the day to provide themselves with enough calories to live to the next day. As society became wealthier and food output had required less calorie input, we have gotten fatter.

Some of use choose not to become obese, others choose obesity.

Because of our wealth and freedom, the economy has adapted to support this new lifestyle; ergo the lard-ass scooters available at Walmart.

The only thing that can change this is education and improved self-esteem.

[Shooter 2.5]

We became fat because food became a recreation instead of fuel.

[Fledermaus]

Forget the white flour and sugar...it's the beer man!! lol

[eleni121]

The great Columbian artist Botero really had a handle on the fat issue. So did Rubens.

[handk]

Americans are fat because they are not feeding their bodies, they are feeding their stomachs. Even though their stomachs are "full", their cells are starving.

[ampat]

You're right. I laugh everytime I see Subway commercials, and all they talk abou is fat. No mention of all the carbs in the bread they bake. Now Wendy's is doing the same thing: Eat a big plain baked potato and you won't get fat. What a bunch of BS.

[Pietro]

How about the fact that the gov. has set "normal" weight standards so low that only the anorexic are not considered over weight.

This is one of those invented crises designed to provide income to a group of social engineers w/ no viable method of employment. It is bolstered by the do-gooder class who seek impowerment over other peoples lives and love nothing better than telling people that they are too ignorant to make their own decisions.

Has anybody ever seen old videos of people on the street back at the turn of the century. Lots of fat people back then, somehow though it wasn't a crisis.

[boris]

What's for lunch?

CHON. It's always CHON, with subtle adulterants.

Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen: CHON.

Today's chemistry quiz:

The chemical formula for table sugar is C₆H₂₂O₁₁: six atoms of carbon; eleven molecules of water. Is carbon fattening? You could eat a coal mine and have zero calories. Is water fattening?...Then why is sugar fattening?

--Boris

[MHT]

I always liked the story about the woman who got a deal-a-meal from Richard Simmons and called him one morning asking him what she was supposed to eat for the rest of the day. Apparently, she had gone through all the cards with what she had served herself for breakfast alone!

Moderation in all (including exercise--a little is almost as good as alot, and alot less likely to cause an injury)--alot more protein (Atkins) and ALOT fewer Krispy Kremes, pizzas, double fries and sugared-colas and we would all look better.

Too bad Walmart doesn't post a sign saying, "It's the carbs, stupid."

[Mr. Mojo]

Why Americans are so fat

Yet again, someone attempting to complicate a very simple issue.

Stop stuffing your fat face, and get your fat ass off the couch.