Posted on 05/16/2006 6:45:28 AM PDT by A. Pole
MEDICAL researchers recently set heads to shaking on both sides of the Atlantic with a study showing that white, middle-aged English people are much healthier than white, middle-aged Americans. The English have less cancer, less high blood pressure, less heart disease and stroke, and less diabetes. To make sure that the difference was not just the result of stiff-upper-lip Brits keeping quiet about what ails them, the researchers also examined biological data, which confirmed the disparity.
The results are so striking because there is no ready explanation for them. Yes, the English have a national health insurance system and we don't, but the gap is just as great between wealthy Englanders and their wealthy US counterparts, nearly all of whom have insurance coverage. In both countries, health relates directly to wealth, but the richest third of Americans have as much heart disease and diabetes as the poorest third of the English. The study focused on persons aged 55 to 64 and included only non-Hispanic whites, to keep health problems related to race or ethnicity from skewing the findings.
[...]
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has prompted considerable speculation about the roots of American bad health. One theory is that it reflects the fact that Americans on average have fewer vacation days than the English, contributing to an unhealthy level of stress on this side of the Atlantic. The average American gets 12 days of vacation a year; the average British person gets 23.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Haven't been to Australia, so I cannot evaluate it fairly. I do know that their export stuff (e.g., Foster's) is horrible. Likewise, the beer that the English export here is pretty bad as well (with some exceptions, most notably, Abbott Ale).
I do however like English beer. And there is a lot of room for agreement and disagreement on the merits of various country's beers.
The one constant is:
American beer is like sex in a rowboat, it's f...ing close to water.
Ya, ok. You keep telling yourself that.
It ain't so bad. Besides, the Brits have many, many fine dining establishments in their towns large and small. It is also one good result of the EU that French and Italian dining styles are becoming the norm all over Europe.
Oh yeah, when you order dinner in a good restaurant in England, you actually get decent, human-sized portions. For some reason, American restaurant portions are huge beyond satiety... literally enough to feed two or three people! New Englanders, who used to be known for being 'lean and mean' are still mean enough, but now every small town has a sizable cadre of bizarre gigundos that approximate baby elephants in size and shape, although the elephants dress better.
Saddest of all: the now-very-common 250-pound, 12-year olds.
'Practically all of the Hamburgers in the US are 100% beef, at least 75% of the hotdogs are'
100% beef includes organ meat, lips ears, you name it! Same for hotdogs. 100% beef mean 100% from a cow, it doesn't mean prime steak. If I order a burger in the UK it wiil probably be from MuckDonalds or Burger King and will therefore have exactly the same contents as one of your burgers with the exception of the growth hormones US farmers are allowed to feed their cattle and are banned here.
Feel free, I can't see why the muscles of an animal are necessarily more appealing than it's other parts!
Slightlylonger life expectancy in England. Bear in mind the report only applies to the English, not to Britain.
Obesity contributes to this, I suppose.
Yeah, US portions can be on the large side.
One thing that unreasonably irritates me is that increasingly motorway service stations here in the UK will only stock big bags of potato chips (I’ll use your lingo). So if I want some to go with a sandwich, I have to buy more than I want. If people want to gorge themselves on them then fine, but at least give me the option to have a sensible amount!
'Or, live to 85 with an umbrella permanently attached to your wrist, teeth that could frighten a wolverine, 6 TV channels (two of which are left wing propaganda mills for which you're obligated to pay a steep user fee), a car that might well fit in your average size pantry, in a culture of "don't do anything to hurt the nice young thug", and a medical rationing system right out of George Orwell.'
And you consider yourself an anglophile do you? :D
FYI I have a 5 bedroom house originally built in 1720 on an acre of land, have a large car and a Range Rover, 80 satellite channels and (legally) own a .303 rifle and 2 shotguns. I also have nice teeth and private healthcare - hard to believe I live in England from your ill-informed rant isn't it? :D
As for the weather, the avg annual rainfall in Washington DC is 39.3 inches versus 32 in London and the average temp in January is 36 in DC and 43 in London. We'd better start sending you those brollies and thermals in red cross parcels. . . . . :D
Don't worry about the failings of the US - I have complete faith in the US ability to put right what is wrong, it just takes a while sometimes.
Scientific proof beer is good for you:
1) Americans eat more
2) The English smoke more
3) Americans take less holiday
4) The English watch soccer instead of American Football / Baseball / Basketball
5) The English drink more beer
2 counteracts 1. No way is watching the England football team good for your health so 4 counteracts 3.
Leaving 5 – ergo, beer is good for you.
I just had a four weeks vacation and went to Poland. It was great!
For American white males, life expectancy is 76 and for American white females it is 81. Same as in the United Kingdom. Remind me again why I should eat my heart out.
Do you know why men die earlier? (Answer is below)
...
...
... Because they want to.
Use as much of the lingo as you please. Just don't use the chips. They could kill you.
Aw, I ain't that worried. I am just scared that one of those Wal-Mart tubbies will trip and fall on me!
Lots of people in the US get that much paid time off (most that I know of off-hand, in fact), and I know a few that get more than 4 weeks. American vacation allocations are often pretty generous these days, at least in the private sector.
Of course, I also know that most of these same people do not come anywhere near using all their vacation.
Where could you possibly have in mind, I wonder? Obviously not the UK, which this caricature doesn't remotely resemble - and I have lived here for the last 62 years, so I have a fair idea how things are...
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