Posted on 08/02/2006 3:37:05 PM PDT by nckerr
Survey: Most Obese Claim to Eat Healthy By MIKE STOBBE , 08.01.2006, 11:59 PM
More than three-quarters of obese Americans say they have healthy eating habits, according to a survey of more than 11,000 people.
About 40 percent of obese people also said they do "vigorous" exercise at least three times a week, the telephone survey found.
"There is, perhaps, some denial going on. Or there is a lack of understanding of what does it mean to be eating healthy, and what is vigorous exercise," said Dr. David Schutt of Thomson Medstat, the Michigan-based health-care research firm that conducted the survey.
The survey also found that 28 percent of obese people reported snacking two or more times a day, only slightly more than 24 percent of normal weight people who said they did.
But the survey failed to ask people what - and how much - they ate, noted Dr. Jeffrey Koplan of Atlanta's Emory University.
"The questions leave out quantity," said Koplan, who chairs an Institute of Medicine committee on progress in preventing childhood obesity.
Roughly two-thirds of Americans are overweight or heavier, and nearly one-third qualify as obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Respondents to the survey were contacted through computer random digit dialing in January through March. The surveyors relied on the respondents to be truthful about their height, weight and other answers.
Obesity was determined by body-mass index, a calculation based on height and weight. Using BMI, a man 5-feet-10 would be considered overweight at 174-208 pounds, and obese at 209 pounds or more.
About 3,100 of the people in the survey were obese or morbidly obese; an estimated 4,200 more people were overweight; about 3,800 were normal weight and about 200 were underweight, according to the Thomson Medstat.
Those demographics are generally consistent with the federal health survey that actually measures and weighs people, said Schutt, the company's associate medical director.
It was surprising how some responses from obese and overweight people paralleled those of thinner respondents.
For example, about 19 percent of obese people said they always read nutritional labels on food packages, compared with 24 percent of normal-weight people. And about 29 percent of obese people said they eat out at restaurants three or more times a week, compared with 25 percent of normal-weight people.
"The numbers aren't wildly different," Schutt said.
One of the largest differences was the answer to the question: How often do you eat all of the food you are served at restaurants? About 41 percent of obese people said they always did, while 31 percent of normal weight people always did.
Thomson Medstat is a data collection and analysis company that contracts with the federal government and about 20 states, on health projects. The data about eating and exercise are part of a larger package of survey information being marketed to employers, hospitals and other customers. It is not being published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
The survey had a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point, according to the company.
I haven't been to a pool lately but when I see overweight kids, they usually look like shorter versions of their parents. The entire family will be overweight.
My FIL thinks he eats healthy, and he is over 300 pounds. He does his "version" of South Beach Diet. He doesn't eat carbs at the Chinese Buffet. He only eats 6 plates of meat/veggie dishes and thinks the sauces are fine, and did I mention he eats 6 plates?! And, he stopped drinking beer, he and his buddy (also very obese and on the diet) drink 3 bottles of wine a night, instead of the unhealthy beer they used to drink. I also had to explain to them that empty calories don't mean they can have as much as they want. It took about 10 minutes and 2 other people to help convince them.
The epidemic of fat children is alarming...
(I'm not over weight)
Apparently some count walking really fast from the couch to the fridge as 'vigorous excercise'.
Ya think?
Not to mention all the curls they do when they shovel food into their mouths. ;)
At my usual campground in Calif., half the kids looked overweight and most of the women were haystacks.
Yeah, either that, or fat people are telling the truth and the diet nutritionists tell us is healthy, is not. What is it, twelve servings of cereals they used to push?
It's already happening to women who are slim, average-sized , or only slightly plump by pre1990s standards: They get "joking" remarks about how they're obviously anorexic from what one freeper here called "haystack" women (gotta remember that one, it's so apt.)
"The entire family will be overweight."
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Perhaps some of this is hereditary, but my suspicions are on 'agri-business' and the doping of animals with chemicals which are not fit for human or animal consumption. Fast food chains are a more obvious culprit.
The longer term consequences on health care and diseases such as Type II diabetes might be further down the road, and all of us end up footing the bill in one way or another.
While I wanted to like the tape for it's contrarian opinions -- I found out that it was a sham.
Here is one of many links that expose Joel D. Wallach, joining the ranks of Nobel prize nominees such as Tookie Williams:
http://skepdic.com/wallach.html
But the food pyramid could be wrong, I am highly suspicious of the weight in which an individual is claimed to be overweight. I know lots of people in great shape that would be overweight by the government's standards.
I do that once in a while. I order Diet Coke because it doesn't taste as cloyingly sweet as the regular sort.
LOL! I'll never make it.
Ditto on the Diet Coke w/ whatever--I can't stand regular soda anymore.
In the other post I mentioned the fat kid in "Stand By Me" -- Jerry O'Connell. He sure managed to grow out of that.
Odds are, he or she will bypass the fresh produce section, or at most, they'll pick up some onions and potatoes to throw into the pot roast. Green veggies? Nope. Fruit? Well, maybe a couple of lemons for cocktail garnishment, but melons, apples, plums, bananas? Not likely.
They'll stop at the bakery section, of course -- white bread, not whole wheat. And, God knows, at the butcher section. Heavy on the beef and bacon, light on the fish.
Watching them at the dairy case is like watching the Huns sack Rome. Cheese, whole milk, butter (or margarine, just as bad), sour cream. And eggs, of course. Double up on them.
Still, all of the foregoing can be defined as "real food" -- all fine, in moderation, a concept that many find difficult to grasp.
Where the porkers really go wrong is in the soft drink aisle, the chips and snacks aisle, and in the "convenience food" aisle. Rest assured, whether it's packaged, canned or frozen, most products will be full of fat (mostly saturated), sugar, and salt -- because those ingredients are cheap, and, let's face it, tasty (at least to some).
When you go to a restaurant, they give you enough food for 3 meals. I always eat about a third and take the rest home for lunch or dinner for a couple of days.
Gravity - the new force of family togetherness.
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