Why are Americans obese?

Discussion in 'Health & Fitness' started by EmeraldAxe, Jun 3, 2009.

  1. EmeraldAxe Registered Senior Member

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    Let's find out what people think. Extra points for whomever uses evolution in their explanation.
     
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  3. mikenostic Stop pretending you're smart! Registered Senior Member

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    How would evolution fit into the scenario?
     
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  5. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    Native Americans are getting more obese because their bodies have evolved to hang onto every calorie it can due to periods of starvation.

    Other Americans are fat because they eat too much crap and exercise too little.
     
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  7. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    There is that evolutionary reason, combined with deregulation of our food industry leading to widespread use of high fructose corn syrup, and a landscape designed around the automobile.
     
  8. EmeraldAxe Registered Senior Member

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    HBO removed the interview with David Kessler MD/PhD, proprietary rights. This is all I could find.

    http://fora.tv/2009/04/27/How_to_End_Overeating_Dr_David_Kessler

    He just wrote a book called, The End of Overeating. I haven't read his book, but I'm guessing over the course of an hour (video above) he covers most of the main points.

    So, if he's right. Do we need to take action on the food companies similar to what happened in the 90's with nicotine?
     
  9. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Answer to OP, because we can be!
     
  10. nietzschefan Thread Killer Valued Senior Member

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    People eat too much. The food is shit generally. People are lazy and do not exercise, even with a sit-on-yer-ass job.
     
  11. Japarican Registered Senior Member

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    Diet. Sedentary lifestyle
     
  12. chris4355 Registered Senior Member

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    cheap fast shit food
     
  13. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    An obesity virus, or perhaps a deficit in some kind of beneficial bacteria of the colon, leading to nutrient deficiency.
     
  14. superstring01 Moderator

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    Because they eat too much junk and get too little exercise.

    ~String
     
  15. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Foods today contain more fatty crap than ever before as well as chemicals and other ingredients that create more fat in humans. Without exercising to remove all this excess fat humans become fatter.
     
  16. Carcano Valued Senior Member

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    Is there any such thing as a fat chimpanzee???
     
  17. superstring01 Moderator

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    The combination of their natural and necessarily balanced diet (veggies with a smattering of bugs they scarf up) and their mobile lifestyle keeps such things in check. I doubt you'd find an obese human being before 10,000 years ago. If so, I'd be willing to wager that they were so exceedingly rare as to be statistically unimportant.

    ~String
     
  18. PieAreSquared Woo is resistant to reason Registered Senior Member

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    it's only the men... no such thing as a fat woman

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  19. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    Eating is pleasurable, and us Americans can afford all we want. Exercise isn't pleasurable, and we've aranged our lives so that we really don't get any exercise in the course of a normal day unless we go out of our way to hit the gym.
     
  20. PieAreSquared Woo is resistant to reason Registered Senior Member

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    I find exercise quite enjoyable .. I like my 5 or 6 mile bike rides everyday.

    I don't want to be a sloth.
     
  21. Carcano Valued Senior Member

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    What happened 10,000 years ago...grain agriculture???
     
  22. Absane Rocket Surgeon Valued Senior Member

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    1) Caloric intake has remained static if it hasn't increased slightly over that last few hundred years. In the same time frame, physical activity has been slowing gradually.

    2) Processed food. High fructose corn syrup has been show in rats to fatten the liver and induce type 2 diabetes when combined with a high fat diet in just 4 weeks. Also, HFCS doesn't signal to the brain that any food has been eaten. So if you down a 300 calorie Coca-Cola... your body just looks at it like it's water.

    3) In a few social circles, one is applauded if they are fat.

    4) The shift in our diet over the last few thousand years. Our bodies evolved to eat high protein and high fat foods. Meat, nuts, and a few berries along the way. When fruits were in season and they were plentiful.. that's when we would eat them.
     
  23. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Hey why not, sloths are very interesting animals that are very fit although they just "hang around" allot. They also don't get fat either.

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