Why are we fat? (I mainly mean Americans, but anyone can postulate.)

[SKL]

I think it's too complicated for a poll.  Physically some people put on weight more easily than others.  Lifestyle choices are obviously significant, but two people with the same lifestyle can have very different shapes.  Even on the same person, the same lifestyle can leave you skinny at one life stage and fat at another.  Most folks could choose to exercise, but some can't ever exercise enough to get "healthy."  Then there are various types of addictions and other human weaknesses.  And lots of other things.  Sometimes it just boils down to: eating is more fun than exercising.  If enjoying food kills us, "what a way to go," as a plump friend recently commented.

 

I found it hard to answer the later poll questions because I'm in a hopefully temporary state of unhealthy (for me - still not "overweight"), though my lifestyle has generally been healthy over the years.  I am going through the change and it requires some readjustments.  I'm not in the same body I used to be in.  But I'm working on fixing things.

[unsinkable]

SKL! How was your trip?

[Mergath]

I pretty much agree with everyone else.  Too much food, most of it's crap, and no one gets any exercise.  Also, I think chronic dehydration is part of it.  Many people drink coffee, energy drinks, soda, but hardly any water.  Your body needs water, and when you don't get enough of it, it's easy to mistake thirst for hunger.  Add that to a lack of sleep and the resulting wonky hormones, and the pounds are going to pile on for most people.

 

And I don't know that working vs. stay-at-home moms are as big of an issue as it might seem.  Dd and I recently attended a lunch bunch thing at the local library, where you bring in your lunch and listen to a fun speaker, and I couldn't believe what all the other kids were eating.  There were around ten other families there-  several I know for a fact are stay-at-home moms- and almost every kid had a Lunchable thing, Capri Sun or a can of soda, a bag of crackers or chips, and some candy or a Little Debbie snack.  We were literally the only family that brought vegetables.  Or fresh produce of any kind, for that matter.  (Which was kind of sad, because the speaker that day was an organic farmer.  I think he wanted to cry.)  I mean, if this is what kids are being fed- even kids with a parent at home- and what they're learning to eat, no wonder so many of them are morbidly obese before they even start kindergarten.  It's horrifying to think what people are going to look like in another twenty years.

[Χά�ων]

We do not drink soda.

We do not eat fast food.

I am a stay at home mom.

I do not buy snack type foods (not even the organic alternative found in the health store)

We work out daily (ds does an extra 2 hours on the ice and another hour dry land 6 days a week and plays other sports)

I cook from scratch.

I do not make cookies, cakes, brownies or any type of sugary treats.

The only type of sugar in my house is maple syrup I bought for a recipie. That is correct, I do not have honey or brown sugar or white sugar in my house. There is nothing processed in my house except the dog food.

We do not eat hardly any carbs.

We do not eat wheat flour.

We eat lots of protien.

I am still fat.

DS is still (somehow) considered overweight.

 

ETA: Our food is all non gmo (or is claimed to be by the store, without DNA testing It myself I cannot be sure)

 

ETA2: I do buy coconut oil and olive oil.

[Laura Corin]

I meant to post yesterday: you can use this tool to compare your BMI with that of women worldwide.  I've been losing weight for the last six months and it's been fun to track my movement down the list.

 

Remember to change both the height and the weight to imperial if that's what you prefer - changing one doesn't change the other, and otherwise you'll get some strange results.

 

L

[LucyStoner]

Nowhere else have I seen people eat with so much guilt and so little genuine appreciation for quality.

 

Truer words...

[Laura Corin]

 Snacking. It's everywhere. I'll bet you don't see, in many other countries, people snacking while walking down the street, standing in line, pumping gas, etc. Nearly every establishment sells snack food/has vending machines.

 

I've talked before on this board about Calvin attending an all-afternoon Taekwondo class in China.  The children came out periodically for drinks of water and the adults sat around drinking unsweetened green tea.  There was no snacking.  The children were given large snacks (not too healthy - nasty looking sausages) after class.  Most would have long bus rides home.  The adults didn't eat.

 

L

[MistyMountain]

I think Americans in general are getting bigger at rates that are really unprecedented. The reasons for it are that we are less active, we have a car culture, we eat more food in bigger portions and more food is heavily processed and unhealthy. They also drink a lot of stuff like sports drinks rather than water. I don't think it has anything to do with diet trends nor do I think any of these new diet trends are the cure. I also don't think everyone needs to cut out carbs or should never eat grains etc but thereare definitely people that do not eat a healthy balance diet and eat too many carbs. You can't look at any one person and assumethat is the cause though. Some people are prone to put on weight and even if they have a healthy diet they will fall into obese ranges just like some people eat tons of unhealthy food and are skinny. Genetics does play a part but it does not describe the trend where obesity rates are skyrocketing over time.

[Scarlett]

According to the USDA, in 1960, only 26% of food was consumed away from home (and even a good portion of that food was prepared at home & brought to school/work). Today it is 49%. You are being totally disingenuous if you claim that is not the direct result of more women employed full-time. Greater disposable income and less time = more eating highly processed restaurant-prepared foods. Of course employed moms do not HAVE to feed their families that stuff but many (if not most these days) do.

When I was a kid people did not eat out. When my gm got her ss check on the first my mom would take her grocery shopping. A big treat was that we would stop by sonic for a burger and fries.

 

In my family mow, I have one dss who is over weight....and my ds who is thin looking...but certainly not skin and bones. 5'9" 140 pounds). Dss12 easily eats twice what ds eats. For dinner last night we did ' eat leftovers'..... Ds had a peanut butter and honey sandwich ...dss12 had 2 pieces of pizza with a quarter cup of ranch dressing.

 

We were at a Bible convention this weekend and we packed our lunch...dss12 had 2 slices of cheese, a half a sleeve of ritz, 4 or 5 slices of ham....1/2 cup of mixed nuts and two cookies. Ds13 had a PB and honey which he scarfed down and then took off to talk to his friends. He came back later and ate 2 cookies.....dss12 stayed with dh and me for 20 min longer than ds.....and he would have eaten more had I packed more. He in fact asked me if I has a yogurt.

 

If dss12 lived here, I could gently and kindly help him lose weight. As it is the best I can do is keep the junk away, have him drink lots of water and make sure they are in the pool every day that he is here for summer visitation.

[bettyandbob]

I still think the stay at home parent issue is way too simplistic. The studies cited do not show that children with stay at home parents are no larger than they were 30 years ago. All children on average are larger including children of stay at home parents. There may be less percentage wise, but not compared to their counterparts a generation ago. I dd not see controls for single parent families or controls for income. It was just comparing mom working to weight gain.

 

Like I said my mom worked. She attended college when I was in preschool. She finished her masters when I was in second grade. Then she was working, gon fom home 7am to 7 pm. She and dad commuted together. And we were not fat. We ate dinner at home. The convenience food we relied on most was frozen vegetables. My sister was 12, brother 11, me7. We made dinner. Mom wasn't really available for cooking or play when she was in school either. But we ate vegetables. We ate fruit. We didn't eat frozen meals. We didn't eat chips. The other thing is the junk I wanted bady that my parents wouldn't buy contained actual sugar not twice the amount of sweetening in the form of HFCS.

 

I've gone to co op and seen kids regularly bring crap for snack. I can look around the pool at swim practice and see kids who are overweight who have stay a home parents and kids who have work away from home parents.

[KayT]

How about Obesogens : An Enviromental Link to Obesity?  I wonder how big of a role this really plays?

[EmilyGF]

I've talked before on this board about Calvin attending an all-afternoon Taekwondo class in China.  The children came out periodically for drinks of water and the adults sat around drinking unsweetened green tea.  There was no snacking.  The children were given large snacks (not too healthy - nasty looking sausages) after class.  Most would have long bus rides home.  The adults didn't eat.

 

L

 

On the American side, my son did winter soccer. It was 1 hour long, and he's young, so it wasn't that exhausting. The coach kept on telling them they needed to eat extra snacks (before, during, after) to keep their blood sugar up. 

 

WHAT??? Maybe if they were running 10 miles, but this really wasn't that exhausting. He was 7 at the time. 

 

Emily

[bettyandbob]

I don't know why ths submitted.

 

Anyway, we have an abundance of low nutritional food. And we no longer have exercise passively built into our life. I think it's great for kids to be on a soccer team, but even better would to just b outside playing long hours. We used to walk to the store in the suburbs when I was a kid. We walked a couple of miles. I can and sometimes do that today. My neighbors don't. Kids and parents do not see the bike as transportation today. The bike was my main transportation until I was 22. I rode to friends homes tht were up to 5 miles away. As a teen and college student I rode to work. People do not do ths anymore and do not encourage their kids to do this.

[bettyandbob]

On the American side, my son did winter soccer. It was 1 hour long, and he's young, so it wasn't that exhausting. The coach kept on telling them they needed to eat extra snacks (before, during, after) to keep their blood sugar up.

 

WHAT??? Maybe if they were running 10 miles, but this really wasn't that exhausting. He was 7 at the time.

 

Emily

 

yup there is way too much food at kids' sports programs. An hour of soccer should warrant water, nothing extra over a normal breakfast.

[Guest]

Still catching up. Thank you, everyone for the enthusiastic discussion.

 

I do fervently wish that I lived where it was possible/practical to walk or bike to places I need to go. The road I live on is death-defying; it has no shoulder and is 50 mph. It's also 10 or more miles to any store or market. When we (eventually) move to a new place, I will be factoring that in. I SO wish I could walk to a market, which is not to say that I want to live in the city, but still...I just wish I could walk somewhere on purpose instead of having to walk recreationally in one protected place (like a park) and do my "on purpose" trips in a car.

[Night Elf]

True, but on a percentage basis, the number who would not be diabetic if they beleived a pill would not take care of it is significiant. If they had to do injections, they would prevent getting to that weight by adjusting their intake, as their parents did. Instead, because of the belief that the Dr. can cure anything, they indulge themselves and eat what they know is inappropriate...a box of ice cream at one sitting, pounds of potato salad, yada yada. The total calories taken in daily adds up to more than anyone can possibly expend daily with physical exercise.

 

Unfortunately my stepfather is an example of this. He is diabetic and has a host of other problems. He was morbidly obese and of course the doctors recommended he follow a diabetic diet along with medication. He lost 30 lbs and he and my mom acted like it was such a big deal. But he was happy where he was. While my mom continued eating a diabetic diet, she was diagnosed a year after he was but her numbers were no where near his, he continued to eat the wrong foods and much of them. My mom said he eats the way he does because his medication makes it okay. I've tried explaining that is the wrong attitude, but they are convinced he is the healthiest he can be because of the medication.

[Jennifer in MI]

I meant to post yesterday: you can use this tool to compare your BMI with that of women worldwide.  I've been losing weight for the last six months and it's been fun to track my movement down the list.

 

Remember to change both the height and the weight to imperial if that's what you prefer - changing one doesn't change the other, and otherwise you'll get some strange results.

 

L

That is great!  Thanks for the link!

[Snickerdoodle]

I meant to post yesterday: you can use this tool to compare your BMI with that of women worldwide.

 

That was interesting and fun.

 

 

[Aelwydd]

According to the USDA, in 1960, only 26% of food was consumed away from home (and even a good portion of that food was prepared at home & brought to school/work). Today it is 49%. You are being totally disingenuous if you claim that is not the direct result of more women employed full-time. Greater disposable income and less time = more eating highly processed restaurant-prepared foods. Of course employed moms do not HAVE to feed their families that stuff but many (if not most these days) do.

 

 

Ok, so you take those statistics and you lay them solely at the feet of working FT mothers?  Those numbers have nothing to do, whatsoever, with the corresponding downward trends of decreased time off and increased hours for US workers across the board?  Since Americans are now averaging a negative savings, they are not working for "greater disposable income."  They are working now, according to economists Chris Martenson and Richard Wolff, just to pay for essentials.  That's as true for the single male worker as it is for the mother of three.

 

Also, women have had to work throughout most cultures, throughout human history.  They labored in the fields alongside their men, or helped run the general store with their husband, or supplemented his income in the mine by selling flowers at the street corner, etc.  Food preparation often fell to the grandparents, and the later, to the oldest female child.  Even in the 1950's, that idealized blip on the radar of American history, the number of women employed outside the home was 30%--nearly one in every three women.

 

So, the idea that Americans are fat because married women work outside the home is fairly biased and completely ignores the other 95% of data out there on the many complex factors contributing to this health crisis.

[Joanne]

Ok, so you take those statistics and you lay them solely at the feet of working FT mothers?  Those numbers have nothing to do, whatsoever, with the corresponding downward trends of decreased time off and increased hours for US workers across the board? 

 

 

So, the idea that Americans are fat because married women work outside the home is fairly biased and completely ignores the other 95% of data out there on the many complex factors contributing to this health crisis.

 

Rebecca, thank you.

[SKL]

I should add that neighborhoods are increasingly being designed so that nothing (not even a park or corner store) is within reasonable walking distance for everyday.  And if you let your kids play outside or walk anywhere, you get a lot of judgment and sometimes even official interference.  So that's definitely a factor.  When I was a kid we played all day without our parents anywhere near.

[SKL]

Oh and btw, I have always been a full-time working mom and my kids have always had a relatively good diet and decent amount of exercise.  It isn't that hard to make good choices, assuming you're aware of what constitutes a good choice.  Buying organic carrots/strawberries is no more difficult than buying a "lunchable" or whatever.  We do "fast food" often, but still make decent choices.  I honestly don't know where people get the idea that working means having no control over your kids' diets (and a lot of other things).

[SKL]

SKL! How was your trip?

 

Thanks for asking.  :)  If I have time, I'll post about it.  It went fine, mostly according to plan, but nothing really earth-shattering.  I don't recommend a trip to India at this time of year - it's oppressively hot - but since my kids are not homeschooled, we have a limited travel window.  Thank goodness for air conditioning.  :)

 

[bolt.]

Has anyone mentioned yet the factor of stress hormone (is it cortisol?) on weight gain? If would find it plausible to include 'more daily stress' as a change that corrolates with obesity -- hypothetically. Even in children. Though, of course, I can't be sure that people were less stresses in previous generations. There were certianly enough non-iydillic circumstances!

 

It's really very hard to say.

 

I'd be willing to also say 'people differ' in their bio-chemical response to food (and perhaps in response to particular types of food). It's quite normal for species to have diversities like that -- it's a pro-survival adaptive trait.

[Jane in NC]

yup there is way too much food at kids' sports programs. An hour of soccer should warrant water, nothing extra over a normal breakfast.

I did not have a problem with orange slices at half time--particularly on some of our sweltering days. But why sports drinks like Gatorade and Little Debbie snack cakes after the game?

 

It seems to me that many kid activities revolve around food or include food unnecessarily. Yes, some children have metabolic conditions that require more frequent eating but the majority do not. I teach in 4-H sponsored programs and am astounded by the number of children who say they are hungry after an hour or so. It could be that they are bored with the activity and have learned to appease boredom with food. Or it could be that they ate Sugar Bombs for breakfast and are literally starving.

 

One of the local physicians had a chat with parents about how all of the good they were doing for their kids by enrolling them in sports programs was being undone by going through the McDonald's drive through before the game and consuming sugar snacks after the game. Packing baby carrots, apple slices, cheese and yogurt is not any harder than buying sugar snacks!

[SKL]

Interesting about the "need" for kid snacks.  My kids have not been raised with snacking/grazing.  They generally get one snack between lunch and dinner; not always even that.  So this summer they are attending "camps," and unhealthy snacks are prevalent.  One of their one-week camps sent a questionnaire and I mentioned that Miss A doesn't do well with sugar, so some of the teachers went way out of their way to give her alternative yummy drinks etc.  (Water or milk is all she'd get from me.)  Of course the stuff they gave her was sweetened and colored with yucky stuff that is probably worse than sugar.  One day a counselor felt so bad that she couldn't have the sugar, she gave my kid her ring watch!  Seriously.

 

I don't even think most kids had "snacks" when I was growing up - despite running and sweating all day long.  That was what the water spigot was for.  I used to hear of moms having cookies and milk for kids when they got home - on TV - but I always assumed that was only for Brady Bunch type families.  Nobody I knew had that.

[Jane in NC]

Ah but see there is a ton of sugar in many yogurts.  So combine carrots, apples, and sugary yogurt and you might as well eat the sugar bombs.

 

And it actually is harder to pack those things.  They require a cooler, prep time, are more expensive, and spoil more quickly.  Not to mention a picky kid might not eat it.  Not to sound like I'm coming up with excuse after excuse, but I can see how people fall into bringing the Little Debbie verses the alternatives you listed.  And "I" would need more fat than any of those listed.  My kids once went to some summer camp cooking thing.  They fed the kids all these fat free "healthy" everything.  They came home starved.

Sorry, I was not suggesting that the post game snack be a banquet. A few carrots or a couple of apple slices with a piece of cheese would do. I don't buy the sugary yogurt so I forget that it exists.

 

I disagree that most children need a massive snack after an hour activity. You may or your children may but most of us should be able to be physically active for an hour without requiring a meal afterward--particularly if we ate a proper breakfast or lunch.

[SKL]

My kids have Little Gym for 3 consecutive hours on Thursay evenings.  If I remember, I pack them each one Go-go-squeeze applesauce to slurp in the seconds between classes.  If I forget, I tell them to make use of the water faucet.  The teachers chuckle, because most of the kids don't bring anything to eat/drink at the gym.  There's nothing on site nor anywhere near to grab and eat.  Which seems mostly a good thing.  Though I would not mind a few healthy options for folks who are waiting there.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I am happy that our little city has been going back and putting in sidewalks where none existed so that it is getting to be much safer to walk.  Putting sidewalks in after the fact though, can make the roads a bit narrow for cars.  

[Jane in NC]

I don't even think most kids had "snacks" when I was growing up - despite running and sweating all day long.  That was what the water spigot was for.  I used to hear of moms having cookies and milk for kids when they got home - on TV - but I always assumed that was only for Brady Bunch type families.  Nobody I knew had that.

My Mom usually had orange slices or carrot sticks waiting for me after school, that is, after my walk of a mile home. On exceptionally cold days, I might have had cocoa.

 

Individually packaged snack items are often large in terms of portion size--a double whammy of empty calories.

[fairfarmhand]

The issues here are so complicated and frankly I don't think science yet understands why people are getting so fat.

 

Personally I think that microbes and micro-nutrients are pieces of the puzzle that will help scientists understand the relationship between diet and weight. It appears that the microbial worlds within us may dictate other health issues too (i.e. the connection between gingivitis and heart attacks).

 

With respect to micronutrients, these are the things that processing removes from our food supply, things that a supplementary vitamin may not be supplying either. I wonder...

our ground has been over farmed with heavy feeding crops, not rotated, sprayed with herbicides and fertilized with chemical fertilizers. Our ground is not packed with micronutrients any more.

 

Still catching up. Thank you, everyone for the enthusiastic discussion.

 

I do fervently wish that I lived where it was possible/practical to walk or bike to places I need to go. The road I live on is death-defying; it has no shoulder and is 50 mph. It's also 10 or more miles to any store or market. When we (eventually) move to a new place, I will be factoring that in. I SO wish I could walk to a market, which is not to say that I want to live in the city, but still...I just wish I could walk somewhere on purpose instead of having to walk recreationally in one protected place (like a park) and do my "on purpose" trips in a car.

 

 

 

Have you evre gotten behind a school bus? Around here the bus stops every ten feet. They don't release the kids at the corner and expect them to walk home. They stop constantly. Can;t have kids walking half a block home! (these were middle schoolers. It was nice weather!)

[Joker]

As far as snacking when were kids goes, we did all the time. My mom always had peanut butter and jelly on crackers waiting when we got home from elementary school. In middle and high school we usually came home and ate chips or made ourselves a small frozen pizza. I had McD's after school twice a week during cheer season. That was just a pre-game snack. At our sports fields there was always an open concession stand with crap food. We ate out of it often. My grandparents always had Little Debbie's, ice cream and soda. We saw them several times a week and were never restricted on what we could eat there. Even with all the unhealthy snacking, we weren't overweight. I didn't start gaining weight until I hit my 30s and I eat way less than I did when I was younger and I eat healthier now.

[SKL]

Oh, we definitely snacked in jr hi / high school.  We were also "walkers" and growing and had a little pocket money from paper routes etc.  We would stop at some place that sold gross fries or whatever.  I personally overdid it and got a bit "padded" for a while, but still never technically "overweight."  Not to say there were no overweight kids then - there were, and my sister was one of them.  But certainly not everyone who snacked got fat.

 

I think growing teens are just plain hungry, but if we're talking about tweens and younger, that's a different story.

[Jane in NC]

our ground has been over farmed with heavy feeding crops, not rotated, sprayed with herbicides and fertilized with chemical fertilizers. Our ground is not packed with micronutrients any more.

Is restoration possible? I assume that compost and time can fix this--I hope!

[Joker]

I think that is a common misconception though.  Young kids are growing.  Their metabolisms are much faster than ours.  I have even read on this board that people can't believe their 10 year old eats more than they do.  Well they probably should be eating more than you do because you aren't growing anymore. 

 

For example:

 

Younger Kids

Caloric needs jump quite a bit as kids enter the school years and become more active. According to the USDA, for boys, 4 and 5 year olds need between 1,200 and 1,600 calories each day, 6 and 7 year olds should consume between 1,400 and 1,800 calories. Eight-year-old boys need 1,400 to 2,000 calories daily. For girls, the average 4 year old needs 1,200 to 1,400 calories a day, and 5 and 6 year olds should eat between 1,200 and 1,600 calories each day. A 7-year-old girl needs 1,200 to 1,800 calories daily, and an 8-year-old girl needs 1,400 to 1,800 calories each day.

Pre-teens

Pre-teens going through growth spurts and preparing for puberty need lots of energy for their changing bodies. The USDA reports that for boys, 9 year olds should consume between 1,600 and 2,000 calories each day. A 10-year-old boy needs 1,600 to 2,200 calories daily, and an 11 year old needs 1,800 to 2,200 calories daily. For girls, the USDA recommends that 9 year olds eat between 1,600 and 1,800 calories each day, and 10 year olds eat between 1,600 and 2,000 calories each day. An 11-year-old girl needs 1,600 to 2,000 calories daily.

 

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/256927-how-many-calories-should-a-child-be-eating/#ixzz2YZ9cRcU6

Yes. My just turned 11 year old dd is already 5'4". She's also stick thin. She out eats all of us and isn't really that active. She's always been a snacker and I feel she actually needs the food.

[nmoira]

our ground has been over farmed with heavy feeding crops, not rotated, sprayed with herbicides and fertilized with chemical fertilizers. Our ground is not packed with micronutrients any more.

Studies show either no significant difference in the micronutrient content of organic vs conventional produce or differences of less than 10%, depending on the crop and nutrients analyzed. Yes, most organic farming is done on a large scale. If you have links to some studies comparing micronutrient content of larger scale to smaller scale farmed produce, I'd be interested to see them.

[SKL]

 

I think that is a common misconception though.  Young kids are growing.  Their metabolisms are much faster than ours.  I have even read on this board that people can't believe their 10 year old eats more than they do.  Well they probably should be eating more than you do because you aren't growing anymore. 

 

For example:

 

Younger Kids

Caloric needs jump quite a bit as kids enter the school years and become more active. According to the USDA, for boys, 4 and 5 year olds need between 1,200 and 1,600 calories each day, 6 and 7 year olds should consume between 1,400 and 1,800 calories. Eight-year-old boys need 1,400 to 2,000 calories daily. For girls, the average 4 year old needs 1,200 to 1,400 calories a day, and 5 and 6 year olds should eat between 1,200 and 1,600 calories each day. A 7-year-old girl needs 1,200 to 1,800 calories daily, and an 8-year-old girl needs 1,400 to 1,800 calories each day.

Pre-teens

Pre-teens going through growth spurts and preparing for puberty need lots of energy for their changing bodies. The USDA reports that for boys, 9 year olds should consume between 1,600 and 2,000 calories each day. A 10-year-old boy needs 1,600 to 2,200 calories daily, and an 11 year old needs 1,800 to 2,200 calories daily. For girls, the USDA recommends that 9 year olds eat between 1,600 and 1,800 calories each day, and 10 year olds eat between 1,600 and 2,000 calories each day. An 11-year-old girl needs 1,600 to 2,000 calories daily.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/256927-how-many-calories-should-a-child-be-eating/#ixzz2YZ9cRcU6

 

 

Of course everyone's different - and they start their growth spurts at different times.  But speaking of why people are fat, people who understand sustainable, healthy lifestyles have said that the USDA guidelines are way too generous.  Unless you're an athlete, the 2000 calorie per day guideline we've been told all our lives is too much.  I've read (can't remember where) that on average, we'd be healthier if we cut the USDA guidelines by a third.  This means that many people who think they're doing everything right "based on the guidelines" are actually overeating to the point of a weight management problem.  No wonder people are confused and frustrated.

[Joker]

Just saw this. Apparently, the US isn't the world's fattest country anymore.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/news/america-fattest-obese-un-144341236.html
 

[unsinkable]

 

Just saw this. Apparently, the US isn't the world's fattest country anymore.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/news/america-fattest-obese-un-144341236.html

F^CK YEAH! 'MERICA!

[SKL]

Just saw this. Apparently, the US isn't the world's fattest country anymore.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/news/america-fattest-obese-un-144341236.html

 

 

Maybe, but if they are basing it on BMI, I call BS.  My daughter is the biological equivalent of most Mexicans and according to her BMI she's a chub.  NOT.  Bone structure plays into this.

 

Here's another thought though.  The proportion of US who are Hispanics has been increasing over time (maybe not the last couple years, but over a longer period).  If Hispanics tend to have higher BMIs, that could explain part of the US trend too.

 

ETA:  that's my lil fatty in the blue and white bathing suit (left).  Put that kid on a diet!  (Sorry, it took me some time to attach it.)

[LucyStoner]

 

I don't even think most kids had "snacks" when I was growing up - despite running and sweating all day long.  That was what the water spigot was for.  I used to hear of moms having cookies and milk for kids when they got home - on TV - but I always assumed that was only for Brady Bunch type families.  Nobody I knew had that.

 

My dad was born in 1943.  His brothers and sisters came home from school to bread, a cookie jar or a pie, with milk, every day.  They were not the Bradys or Cleavers.  My grandmother hated domesticity and as soon as that pie could be bought rather than baked, it was bought.  

 

Children have small tummies.  More nutrients are absorbed when you don't overeat in one sitting.  I give my kids snacks.  Neither is overweight.  My older son is rail thin, my younger still nowhere approaching heavy though he does have his tot chub layer (he is losing it rapidly now that he is 4, same time his big brother did) and his pants won't stay on his butt.  

[fairfarmhand]

Is restoration possible? I assume that compost and time can fix this--I hope!

 

I think so. Compost. Time. Natural farming practices like using grazing animals on fallow fields. But some things are beyond the ability of a single farmer to change. For instance if your field is on the downstream side of other fields using harsh chemicals, you will end up with that stuff in your garden when it rains.

Studies show either no significant difference in the micronutrient content of organic vs conventional produce or differences of less than 10%, depending on the crop and nutrients analyzed. Yes, most organic farming is done on a large scale. If you have links to some studies comparing micronutrient content of larger scale to smaller scale farmed produce, I'd be interested to see them.

 

 

I am not really talking about organic, because it's become a buzzword that often means little. I am referring to working within natural processes, rather than farming with a big farm, big money mindset.

 

Using animals to graze off of the land in the off season. Pigs will root up the dirt and kill the larva of overwintering pests. Mixing herds of animals in a field because each species eats a different kind of plant can help break the parasite life cycle. Only stocking a piece of ground with the # of animals that the land will easily support. Planting veggies that naturally grow in an area without having to rely on irrigation. That sort of thing.

[nmoira]

I am not really talking about organic, because it's become a buzzword that often means little. I am referring to working within natural processes, rather than farming with a big farm, big money mindset.

 

Using animals to graze off of the land in the off season. Pigs will root up the dirt and kill the larva of overwintering pests. Mixing herds of animals in a field because each species eats a different kind of plant can help break the parasite life cycle. Only stocking a piece of ground with the # of animals that the land will easily support. Planting veggies that naturally grow in an area without having to rely on irrigation. That sort of thing.

 

I get that. But you made a specific comment about micronutrients and I was curious if you were aware of any data comparing micronutrients in produce raised in the manner above vs. a more larger scale model, whether conventional or organic. :)

[fairfarmhand]

I get that. But you made a specific comment about micronutrients and I was curious if you were aware of any data comparing micronutrients in produce raised in the manner above vs. a more larger scale model, whether conventional or organic. :)

 

hmmm.. I have a vague recollection of a reference to it in my "The Contrary Farmer" book by Gene Logsdon. I can't remember. That would be a very interesting study.

[Moxie]

I think so. Compost. Time. Natural farming practices like using grazing animals on fallow fields. But some things are beyond the ability of a single farmer to change. For instance if your field is on the downstream side of other fields using harsh chemicals, you will end up with that stuff in your garden when it rains.

Does anyone else think we need Brawndo?!? It's got what plants crave!

 

(sorry, I can be such a child)

[Guest]

I think most Americans eat too much (quantity) and unhealthy foods.

 

I only exercise and diet after having a baby.  Once I reach my normal weight (which is a good weight), I do not have a set diet/exercise plan.

[Firefly]

I don't know about the snacking thing... we have always been grazers here (fruit and nuts mostly-- also veggies, cheese, plain yogurt, homemade treats) and all of us are thin and healthy.  Maybe that's genetic though.

[Guest]

I'm musing on a couple of points...

 

Snacks when I was a kid (the 70's): I did usually eat when I came home from school. We ate dinner pretty late by most American's standards, so that was a way to tide myself over. They were virtually never healthy by current standards. Most of our meals were not healthy...by any standard. After school snacks were Spaghetti O's or white (Wonder-type) bread with butter and sugar on top (I kid you not!) Sometimes cereal (Cheerios, Rice Crispies, Wheat Puffs, etc.) For beverages, it was Kool-Aid, sometimes whole milk, iced tea (sweet) or water (which we never chose at the time). Or Tang. *blech* Most dinners were LaChoy something, Spam with pineapples (because the pineapples make it healthy?) tacos, spaghetti, frozen dinners, boil-in-a-bag dinners or hotdog casserole. We also had virtually unlimited access to ice cream and my mom kept several 1/2 gallons stocked. Other families had a lot of snacks that we did not usually have; we were kind of poor. (Most of my friends usually had Utz Potato chips, some type of Keebler cookies, soda and Little Debbie/Tastykake snacks.)

 

What is strange is that I don't think anyone I know (save one SIL) feeds their family this way. Although I do know families who eat out a LOT - WAY more often than we do, I don't know of anyone who regularly serves these boxed-mix prepared foods as dinner. Unless they keep it a secret. (After all, someone is buying this junk.)

 

Hmmm...

[Halcyon]

Sugar. Watch this video by Lustig, md at UCSF ( it is 90 minutes, so watch when you have some time. You won't regret it)

 

 

And there is zero difference between HFCS and sugar. Both are toxic.

[Mergath]

Here's another thought though.  The proportion of US who are Hispanics has been increasing over time (maybe not the last couple years, but over a longer period).  If Hispanics tend to have higher BMIs, that could explain part of the US trend too.

 

I seriously doubt that.  Anyone who leaves the house occasionally can see that Americans are, on average, extremely fat.  It's not the immigrants.