America has an oversimplified "solution" for losing weight

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MattHanson1990
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America has an oversimplified "solution" for losing weight

Post by MattHanson1990 »

America is the most obese country in the world as we know it, and it's not really doing anything to curb obesity. The food industry continues to place profit above health. Junk food is still being made. And we're conditioned to blame ourselves for why we get obese or overweight. Everything is oversimplified. There's even an oversimplified "solution" that doesn't work in real life. America is a sinking ship, and your first thought would be to evacuate.

First of all, Americans believe that the only reason for the obesity epidemic is because people eat too much. Yeah right. If you go back to the 1950s and 1960s, you'll see that Americans ate large portions and still didn't get obese like they do today. And even if they did get overweight, their body fat would be distributed in the right places. Plus, it was a lot less likely to get diabetes back then. The real reason for this is because American food was more natural, and people didn't have to spend a lot of money at organic health food stores. Ever since the 1980s when the food industry removed fat, they replaced it with processed flowers, MSGs, GMOs, and artificial ingredients just to make the food more addictive. Add to that people started working longer hours/multiple jobs and took longer commutes.

Second, America's oversimplified "solution" to lose weight is by balancing calories in with calories out. Or the diet industry will tell you to eat less and exercise more. In reality, calories are not the sole determining cause of weight gain or weight loss. In other words, calories are not created equal. And it depends on which food you eat. For example, if you have 500 calories of broccoli and 500 calories of soda, the results are going to be different. Broccoli has nutrients like fiber, so they won't turn into body fat no matter how many calories you consume. But soda has sugar (mostly corn syrup) and no nutrients, so those contents will turn into fat. With processed food, one can tweak the number of calories, the amount of fat, or what not. So the food industry has been brainwashing people into thinking there are healthier alternatives. But in reality, those "alternatives" are anything but healthy.

America, you're not really providing the real reason why the obesity rate is the highest on the planet. But I'm noticing more people are finally waking up and realizing that it's not how many calories they consume. Another factor contributing to obesity in the US of Gay is that most places were built for cars and bland architecture is everywhere. It's tough to stay healthy when you live in a dull environment. The best solution to obesity is by going abroad, not only to where the local food is more natural but also to where places are more walkable and have beautiful architecture.


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IraqVet2003
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Joined: March 26th, 2014, 5:42 pm

Re: America has an oversimplified "solution" for losing weig

Post by IraqVet2003 »

MattHanson1990 wrote:America is the most obese country in the world as we know it, and it's not really doing anything to curb obesity. The food industry continues to place profit above health. Junk food is still being made. And we're conditioned to blame ourselves for why we get obese or overweight. Everything is oversimplified. There's even an oversimplified "solution" that doesn't work in real life. America is a sinking ship, and your first thought would be to evacuate.

First of all, Americans believe that the only reason for the obesity epidemic is because people eat too much. Yeah right. If you go back to the 1950s and 1960s, you'll see that Americans ate large portions and still didn't get obese like they do today. And even if they did get overweight, their body fat would be distributed in the right places. Plus, it was a lot less likely to get diabetes back then. The real reason for this is because American food was more natural, and people didn't have to spend a lot of money at organic health food stores. Ever since the 1980s when the food industry removed fat, they replaced it with processed flowers, MSGs, GMOs, and artificial ingredients just to make the food more addictive. Add to that people started working longer hours/multiple jobs and took longer commutes.

Second, America's oversimplified "solution" to lose weight is by balancing calories in with calories out. Or the diet industry will tell you to eat less and exercise more. In reality, calories are not the sole determining cause of weight gain or weight loss. In other words, calories are not created equal. And it depends on which food you eat. For example, if you have 500 calories of broccoli and 500 calories of soda, the results are going to be different. Broccoli has nutrients like fiber, so they won't turn into body fat no matter how many calories you consume. But soda has sugar (mostly corn syrup) and no nutrients, so those contents will turn into fat. With processed food, one can tweak the number of calories, the amount of fat, or what not. So the food industry has been brainwashing people into thinking there are healthier alternatives. But in reality, those "alternatives" are anything but healthy.

America, you're not really providing the real reason why the obesity rate is the highest on the planet. But I'm noticing more people are finally waking up and realizing that it's not how many calories they consume. Another factor contributing to obesity in the US of Gay is that most places were built for cars and bland architecture is everywhere. It's tough to stay healthy when you live in a dull environment. The best solution to obesity is by going abroad, not only to where the local food is more natural but also to where places are more walkable and have beautiful architecture.
Excellent post!!!
Ghost
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Post by Ghost »

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Last edited by Ghost on December 17th, 2019, 10:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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HouseMD
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Re: America has an oversimplified "solution" for losing weig

Post by HouseMD »

It is largely the processed nature of food. Losing weight is pretty damn simple- eat better food (cook your own meals from scratch every damn day), work out, and stop drinking alcohol. That's it, enjoy.
CB8
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Re: America has an oversimplified "solution" for losing weig

Post by CB8 »

MattHanson1990 wrote:Second, America's oversimplified "solution" to lose weight is by balancing calories in with calories out. Or the diet industry will tell you to eat less and exercise more. In reality, calories are not the sole determining cause of weight gain or weight loss. In other words, calories are not created equal. And it depends on which food you eat. For example, if you have 500 calories of broccoli and 500 calories of soda, the results are going to be different. Broccoli has nutrients like fiber, so they won't turn into body fat no matter how many calories you consume. But soda has sugar (mostly corn syrup) and no nutrients, so those contents will turn into fat. With processed food, one can tweak the number of calories, the amount of fat, or what not. So the food industry has been brainwashing people into thinking there are healthier alternatives. But in reality, those "alternatives" are anything but healthy.
Very true, but don't completely blame the food industry for this mentality. Americans desperately want to believe that 500 calories of pound cake is the same as 500 of broccoli, no matter how nonsensical it sounds. If you talk about how wrong on most forums, you'll get an angry backlash about how what you eat doesn't matter and how someone's brother can eat ice cream all day and not get fat. :roll:

The American instant gratification culture has made Americans think they should be able to eat whatever they like and still be able to lose weight. In fact, it's their right! The food industry only capitalized on this unrealistic mentality.
GoingAwol
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Re: America has an oversimplified "solution" for losing weig

Post by GoingAwol »

I don't agree with most of what you said. The biggest reasons we are fat is because of: the shitty food we eat, the portion sizes, and the fact that most Americans don't have to exercise or do physical work. Scientists have figured out that laziness is an evolutionary trait. By that, I mean that humans are hardwired to conserve energy and generally won't do more than we have to. The fact is today most Americans don't have to do any kind of physical work or get any exercise to survive. Technology does most of the physical work for us and we only have to walk a few feet between our car and our destination. In the past, people naturally got exercise doing activities they needed to do to survive. People hunted, chopped wood, worked in gardens, carried heavy things etc as part of their daily routine. The factors that are making people fat have only been around since the 20th century.
Having said all of that, I do agree with you that our car culture is part of the problem. In Europe, most people live in big cities and walk a lot on a daily basis because they don't need or own cars.
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Yohan
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Re: America has an oversimplified "solution" for losing weig

Post by Yohan »

GoingAwol wrote:.....our car culture is part of the problem. In Europe, most people live in big cities and walk a lot on a daily basis because they don't need or own cars.
You can observe the same here in Japan too, people in general walk a lot or are using bicycles.

In USA this is often not the case, all done by car, even ridiculous short distances.
Some people explain this with security issues, other say their streets are in a rather bad condition, others are claiming the weather situation like snow and wind etc.

I am not sure if these arguments are true or if they are only an excuse for being lazy.
GoingAwol
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Re: America has an oversimplified "solution" for losing weig

Post by GoingAwol »

Yohan wrote:
GoingAwol wrote:.....our car culture is part of the problem. In Europe, most people live in big cities and walk a lot on a daily basis because they don't need or own cars.
You can observe the same here in Japan too, people in general walk a lot or are using bicycles.

In USA this is often not the case, all done by car, even ridiculous short distances.
Some people explain this with security issues, other say their streets are in a rather bad condition, others are claiming the weather situation like snow and wind etc.

I am not sure if these arguments are true or if they are only an excuse for being lazy.
Laziness definitely plays a role in it. Like I said in my earlier post, laziness is an evolutionary trait. Humans in the ancient past had to conserve energy in case they had to run from or fight off predators or other hostile tribes. This means people aren't going to do unnecessary things that waste their energy. In America, most people do not have to do much of anything that is physically taxing and that's why they don't. The concept of "working out" is a new human invention. In the past, people did not have to make time to go to a facility and pay to get physical exercise because they got their exercise naturally during their daily routines doing things that were essential to their survival. Men stayed in shape by hunting, gardening, chopping firewood etc.
momopi
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Re: America has an oversimplified "solution" for losing weig

Post by momopi »

Two methods I use to maintain weight:

1. Cut American serving size meal in half. Eat half and pack the other half to go for another meal when possible (I don't expect you to do this with Pho). You save money too.

2. Make food disappear from your plate and reappear on your GF or spouse's plate. Works if you date foodies, but your SO will gain 30 lbs in 3 years.


The key is NOT to eat until you are full!!

I repeat, do not eat into you are full.

Being a little hungry keeps you alert and healthy.
Nomad
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Re: America has an oversimplified "solution" for losing weig

Post by Nomad »

I think the problem is 3 fold.

1. Government. Its no secret that the government doesn't care about the American people and has its own agenda. So it does anything possible to promote the unhealthiest of options. It wants a fat population. Since the American people hold unto their government more than the Bible, they take its words as gospel. The government ends up banning healthy food in favor of chemicals that are banned in other countries because they are so toxic.

2. Corporations. They don't care about the people either, and make all kinds of short-cuts to save money, even at the cost of your health. GMO's, junk food, additives, you name it, they'll do it. If it saves them a dollar, they will do it. This means normal food gets so over-processed that its not food anymore. Oreo's are delicious, but they don't grow on tree's.

3. The American people. They are so fat, lazy, ignorant, and careless, that the top 2 problems mentioned above can easily take advantage of them. I once saw a woman go to the gym and all the front parking spots were taking.. so what did she do? Go around the gym 3 times in a circle until she could get a front parking spot. Apparently walking 10-20 more feet into THE GYM was a problem for her. Plus, Americans love to be victims. They would rather tell themselves "healthy food is more expensive, which is why they are so fat".

You can get 12 apples for 1.75$ at Walmart. That cheeseburger they "have to buy" at Wendys is 4$. They always lie to themselves and give themselves reasons and excuses why they can't make it. In a country where your suppose to do any kind of hard-work to make it. But its the entitlement culture.

Anyways, so add all 3 of these problems together, and you get the fat epidemic we see today.
gravity25x
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Re: America has an oversimplified "solution" for losing weig

Post by gravity25x »

Just moving overseas did it for me. I always lose weight when I am overseas, and I gain weight when I am in America. Higher quality food is almost impossible to find in America. Whereas it is dirt cheap in most 2nd/3rd world countries. Even the "organic" stores like whole foods don't have very good quality in America, when compared to 2nd/3rd world countries. Very sad.
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