Wow America what have you become?

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I never really paid attention to the statistics till I watched The Cleveland Show last night, which made me curious if Wisconsin was as fat as it was made out to be on the show. I went on wikipedia and ZOMG seriously 99% of adults in Mississippi are overweight or obese? You can't seriously tell me that that many people in one state are f****d from their genetics or health problems. Even the thin states like Hawaii are 70% overweight (or obese).

Mississippi has an obesity problem for a few reasons.
1. The population is generally poor and in the US, cheap food tends to be calorie dense.
2. A large number of towns in Mississippi lack sidewalks and the roads are two lane highways so it's not safe to walk along them.
3. Lack of parks and easily accessible public recreation areas.
4. Heat and humidity discourage outdoor activities.
5. A traditionally high fat diet. (down home cookin!).
6. Deer hunting. It's not safe to frolic in the woods. You might get shot by a hunter.


I don't know why you think Hawaii is a thin state. Most native Hawaiians I saw weren't all that thin, and being fat is acceptable in Hawaii due to aspects of Hawaiian culture. Royalty was supposed to be fat.

1. We have McDonalds in Florida too, yet we're somehow 11th lowest
2. A large number of towns here have 2 lane roads with seldom obeyed 45+mph speed limits, yet somehow 20% less of us are overweight, which is still too many
4. Florida is hot and humid, ask my cousins from Texas who come here and b***h about how dreadful our summers are

Hawaii is a thin state, that's just how pathetic our nation is in terms of health
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_the_united_states#Prevalence_by_state

At 20% one can infer that Hawaiians have no trouble finding a piggy for the luau. Oink oink oink!

The obesity problem is not about being shallow or vain or superficial. Excessive BMI has a significant impact on how one feels, one's capabilities and how long one will live. The morbidity and economic damage of obesity in the US exceeds the terrorists' broadest aspirations.

Last edited by sgrannel on 22 Nov 2010, 11:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

We're all a bunch of fat asses

Yes we are, thank goodness some of us still fight the statistic!

I think when everybody decided to quit smoking they started stuffing donuts down their gullets instead. I guess people have decided to die from something else. Then again, I have never been anywhere near my target weight in that ideal body weight chart, even when I was in great shape.

Actually I live in Hawai'i: a large percentage of the Native Hawai'ian population have not gone through college, so they do not have well paying jobs, unemployment and alcohol and drug abuse are a big problem here,as well as diabetes. What's the food that everyone can afford? FAST FOOD. Come visit here first then judge, if you even try to.
And also you need a license or something to hunt a pig.

nobody's perfect sheesh.
i bet these pretty young slim muscular perfect things would be in a world of hurt if their health capriciously decided to leave them with no warning. it can happen to anybody.

I just got back from Ukraine and it was very noticeable how few obese, or even a little overweight people there were.

Of course they do much more walking, but the other thing that stood out was the lack of restaurants. I never realized how many there were here compared to other places. It's like Americans are obsessed with food, it's almost a form of recreation here.

There were a few McDonalds there, and they were always packed. But the portion sizes were more like they were here when I was a kid and no bottomless soda pop dispensers, which are the biggest culprit in my opinion.

In this environment, you have to make a consistent and conscious effort to maintain a healthy weight (I do) or you get fat by default, I think the statistics abundantly confirm this.

I think you are right about eating being a form of recreation here. People here seem to want to combine socializing and eating too. I can't remember the last work function that I had that didn't include food. I eat too much myself, but work hard to keep myself in decent shape.

Does the Ukraine have a big alcohol problem like Russia? I have found that people everywhere seem to have their vices.

Yes,I always notice in other countries how few obese people there are. Everyone drives to do everything here in the US.I walk to get my groceries,people think I'm a freak,but hey I am more at home in Europe than here. ugh

We here in America need to change our transportation systems from driving to more walking & fix up our food supply ( more F&V's & less fatty fast foodsies). I don't consider myself to be fat but every time I come home from college I've gained weight .

More healthy foods and more activity (less reliance on cars) are the key. How to get there?

Americans are most passionate about the following: cars, football, alcohol, fatty foods, religion, money, social status, sex.

Upsetting something they are passionate about is where the obesity fight should start. They won't care if someone merely tells them not to eat fatty foods.

Social status? It has become socially acceptable to be fat. Yeah there are fatty jokes, but unless a person is morbidly obese they will not draw stares from the public. There's not much we can do about this right now. Society has a certain inertia built into it. It may take another half a century for smoking to become socially unacceptable, for example. Social status would eventually force people to live healthy, but not in the short term.

Cars and money? There ya go - something we can do today. Gas prices of $6 a gallon would force more people to walk or ride a bike. And would reduce pollution! Win-win. Also, someone ought to come up with an inexpensive trike (tricycle bicycle) with an enclosure so the rider won't get wet when it rains. Add turn signals and tail lights and headlights and you got a human powered commute vehicle! Like this:
http://www.shadetreebents.com/images/pa ... s2spng.jpg

Sex? That incentive already helps a large percentage of the population. All those muscular guys, or girls wearing size 4 dresses? Why do you think they are in the gym every day? BINGO!

Fatty foods? Government should tax the hell out of the unhealthy foods, just like they are taxing alcohol and tobacco. Make the healthy food cost less than the junk food and you get a great incentive for people to eat healthy.

Tell them Jesus doesn't want any more oil money going to the Middle East? Who knows it may work. If they believe in a 2K year old fairytale they'll accept anything.

Basically hit them where it hurts. Make it so it's their idea to change their bad lifestyles.

There's no way our country is going to change anything to do with transport, or media manipulation and consumerism-targeting people into "needing" cars,"needing" so many things,to look this way and that,etc. I always get SO DEPRESSED coming back from Europe.Cars nearly run me over..I've given up riding my bicycle as the "bike lanes" are less than a foot wide and cars like to drive over the line all the time,it really is so stressful and I'm doing my best to cut excess stress out of my life. In the Netherlands, there are some bike paths that are as wide as the main road here,people actually stop for you to cross,etc.You feel safe...here I feel like a target or a victim.
I love being able to walk everywhere to do everything,it's part of a natural human pattern to walk and do physical things throughout the day. I actually did find Cave Man Exercises once, illustrating the basic postures that humans USED to do numerous times every day: squatting,lunging,pushing,pulling,running,etc. Now we sit ON a toilet, have machines to things for us,shelves,carts...ugh I could go on for days. Having worked on a friend's farm, you really reap the benefits of an active and natural life and cycle.I miss it,I've never felt so great and alive in my life.This country...

america is, by and large, too large and spread out for every place to have practical public transport. the only solution would be if everybody lived in large cities, and left the countryside for it to go back to nature.