Obesity a problem among the affluent

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-05-02-obesity-affluent_x.htm

The poor are most likely to be fat, but the more affluent are closing the gap. Obesity is growing fastest among Americans who make more than $60,000 a year, researchers reported Monday.
"This is a very surprising finding," said Dr. Jennifer Robinson of the University of Iowa, whose study was presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association.

But it "underlines the whole complexity" of the obesity epidemic, she said.

For years doctors have known that the people most likely to be overweight have the lowest incomes. Fresh produce and other healthful fare can be expensive as well as less accessible than fast food and other high-fat options in low-income neighborhoods.

[UCLA Dem]

1. Too much food and not enough exercise period.

[jean]

2. have you ever wondered about the glut of potato products we

consume by the hour and at all hours in this country? Honestly, it is stupendous - even just french fries - when you consider all potato products. The fast food versions, especially, crank up caloric intake and blood sugar levels of consumers.

(By the way, where the heck do potato conglomerates GROW all those spuds?)

The collective blood sugar level of our great nation would be healthier if we could modify fast food potato consumption, for starters. This would clash with Big Pharma though, and its ongoing program to mass-medicate the nation for diabetes.

[Skittles]

9. people have been eating potatoes since time began

it's TOO MUCH potatoes making people fat - and not enough exercise.

[politicat]

11. I'd argue that it's too much fried and modified potatoes.

A 5.25 (148 g) ounce potato has 100 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium. It has 4 grams of protien and 3 grams of fiber. It's high in vitamin C and in Potassium (double that in a banana.) A potato is very healthy, as long as it is baked, steamed, boiled or dry-fried. The glycemic index is also under question, as there are serious concerns about the calculation used on potatoes.

Potatoes become unhealthy when they are processed into instant mashed potatoes (where they lose their fiber and most nutrients, and because of the added fat necessary to make them taste like food, become much higher in fat and calories), french fries (especially commercial ones, since those are deepfried TWICE! and usually in hydrogenated fat or in beef tallow) chips (As bad as french fries), or hash browns.

A plain baked potato, or one with broccoli, non-fat sour cream, low-fat cheese, ham, or other low fat, low cholesterol toppings is very healthy.

[Skittles]

18. funny

I eat french fries every day, can't stand baked potaotes - secret is I exercise and hour every day. It's true - if you exercise regularly you can eat what you want. But you still cannot eat TOO MUCH of it!

[politicat]

27. It's true, if you have the metabolism for it.

I don't. I have a thrifty gene from hell - I *maintain* weight on 1- 1.5 hours of daily exercise and 1300 calories. (Yes, that means I technically expend more than I take in. It's thrifty in here.)

I cannot eat fries. Even the littlest serving size is too much fat for me for one sitting. I can have two or three. That's it.

So it really does depend on more factors than exercise, moderation, and current body size. Genes play a huge role, as do a rapidly expanding set of neurotransmitters and hormones produced by the stomach, fat cells and the brain. Obesity is very complex.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. I get the feeling this obesity stuff is being pushed by the diet

and fitness industry - a huge industry.

[bvar22]

4. It is being matched by the Fast Food Industry...

...which bought a revision of a governmental report last week that says being FAT is healthier that we once thought!

[Sugarbleus]

7. ExactoMundo! I am SICK TO DEATH OF FAT BASHING..

Fat bashing is just another predjudice. It has little to do with health as we see it HYSTERICALLY proclaimed every single fucking day. I resent it. People are over weight for a VARIETY of reasons; most of it because of lack of exercise. Only a TINY portion is attributed to overeating.

When your daddy said 'Son, work with your head instead of your back', HE WAS DEAD WRONG. All of you sit in front of your computers at work and at home. Sit at desks etc. Gone are the days of lifting and assembling and standing on ones feet and/or farming-like tasks. Gone are the days of REAL LABOR. Few people were overweight in that era and they were eatining pork chops and gravy all the freaking time!!

Today, we are being chased by a frieght train of "Achievement" aka aquire wealth and status. EVERYONE has to work to keep body and soul together; we are EXHAUSTED. Too exhausted to to stay very happy or to do much else.

CHANGE the life and economic life style of this country; create less stress and more free time and see people ease up and slim down. Bring back physical labor: ie MANUFACTURING/industry.

And when any of you go to "judging" some heavy person; looking them up and down or smirking at them, just remember that person could very likely have JUST LOST 150 LBS already but still has a way to go. GIVE US ALL A FUCKING BREAK.

Weight is a problem for the heart and the joints. It apparently is a problem for other folks eyes too. Fuck that!!!!!!!

[psychopomp]

20. I've lived in Japan for some time

and I rarely see really large people who are not sumo wrestlers.

The U.S.A. has a real problem with overeating, it is not related to the type of work people do. Japanese people eat smaller portions of everything and typically have a better-balanced diet. The Japanese economy is also a highly knowlege-based one so I do not see your argument about desk-work being a factor as a credible one.

I love the U.S.A. but really, there are a lot of grossly overweight people there, and run-of-the-mill fat ones, too.

[Selatius]

22. No judgments here, but I think we should identify why people are fat

Overeating is not the only answer. In reality, it is several factors that are causing this from the cheapness of junk food, the higher costs of healthy food, inadequate or no exercise, etc. It is also impacted by less leisure time to work-out and prepare healthy food, as opposed to fast food. Our diet is poor, and it's showing.

The only time I've seen something like fat-bashing was when that obese guy started sueing fast food restaurants for his weight problem.

[AndyTiedye]

25. "Phys Ed" Classs Teaches Many People to Despise Exercise

In "Phys Ed" class, the least-athletic among us are routinely humiliated
and abused.
We are also taught that exercise must be either in the form of
competitive sports, or mind-numbingly boring calisthetics.

Is it any wonder that so many people turn into couch-potatoes?

These people would market sushi as cold, dead fish.

Since I took up dancing and bicycling I'm in better shape than I was when I was a teenager.

[Sugarbleus]

28. You have a good point about Phys Ed. I remember when I was

In high school, it was mandatory to get involved in PE. We ran, we swam, we played all sports, we had all types of gymnastics. We did all of this from grade school to 12th grade. (Kennedy era) There were regular dances that the kids were encouraged to attend (dancing is good :)) In grade school we had REAL cafeterias with FRESHLY cooked real food but not sushi. It was mashed spuds w/gravy, macaroni, a meat protein, fresh fruit, a salad etc. No snack food like chips. In Junior Hi and Sr High we still had the cafeterias but some snack bars were added. There were so many sports programs that calories were burned off.

Regular public school had many more programs than they do today. It was much more of a blast than what I see the kids dealing with now. It's sad. There weren't many FAT kids in school those days but when one did appear, LIKE NOW, it was a huge circus of tauting and ridicule and ASSUMTION.

The very fact that there is ANOTHER THREAD on OBESITY/FAT with a graphic in one of the posts of a PIG is EXACTLY my point about fat bashing and the paranoid, predjudiced approach to the subject. WHY EVEN BRING IT UP? What the hell difference does it make to YOU (in the collective sense) whether someone is fat or not? It's not your life undergoing some trauma.

Leave people alone. Treat all the people with respect. Understand something is happening in their lives to cause them to gain weight and not necessarily OVEREATING. Show some sympathy. Show some kindness. Show some CLASS and let them work out their troubles the best way they can.

Do you even realize that the constant drip drip drip on the subject of FAT over boards, in newspapers, magazines, and on the news causes overweight people to feel less like going outside?????????? It causes MORE ANXIETY. By HARPING on this subject day after day after day, a person begins to feel shunned and depressed and, yes, ANGRY.

Do you realize the pressure to be thin killed Schiavo? She was bulimic. I watched a program called "Intervention" where a woman who had been sexually assaulted as a child, neglected, then beaten by a husband, then turned to substance abuse------>food as her "lover/safe place" She married again but could not find happiness. She would be okay around the family until they left then she'd eat uncontrollably until she felt guilty then she'd go take water pills and laxatives to purge that way. Then she'd get depressed and weird towards her family. then she'd start the damn thing over again. Finally they intervened, sent her to a clinic where she was able to stop the madness. She is over weight now, but she is HAPPY.

My sister and her husband were overweight. He loved to eat. He kept her in the kitchen cooking. They had a strained marriage. She drank too much because of it. He was over 400lbs. Two years ago he came down with some sort of Leukemia from having worked around transformers (PCBS). Ironically, his enormous body fat kept him alive a long time. He lost his appetite for awhile so his body used up his stores of body fat for nourishment. We lost him in the end, but guess what? My sister LOST WEIGHT. The strain of her relationship with my beloved bro n law caused her to be set free I guess. No more stress for her. The pounds just dropped off and she looks GREAT. No diets, no exercise except a night on the town dancing once in awhile. :evilgrin:

Another show I watched was on extreme surgery. (how many can afford this kind of surgery???) A woman had dieted and exercised as far as she could go then elected to use liposuction for the rest. Then she had all this flabby skin hanging down. She went in and had all that cut away *shudder* so she could look thin and "beautiful" and "sexy" again. (she should have had her hair done) She went from a size 4x to a size 9.

Another story was about a woman who was over 300+ pounds, went on some sort of diet with exercise and lost 150 lbs! She was ecstatic but she was still way overweight. If she goes into the public, some asshole will say look at that pig. This is just unacceptable.

At about the age of 30 your metabolism starts to slow down. It happens again at about 40-45. For women it almost stops at menopause. So, if you are slim now........watch it carefully because if you don't and your reach these jump points you will find yourself doing the very same things, eating the very same way and GAINING WEIGHT. Don't forget genentics as well. Some people eat like truck drivers and rarely gain a pound. Other's eat normally and everything goes to fat.

Once a person puts on the BIG pounds, it is harder to take it off than kicking heroin!! People will yo-yo diet..that only freaks the body out and often causes the body to store MORE fat. The exercising one must do at this point is far beyond what a thin person would have to do. It becomes a depressing and almost impossible feat.

You've seen the stories where a slender family has an obese child. Families where they are going out of their minds trying to keep the child from overeating and looking for help. There is praderwillie syndrome<sp? where the appetite center in the brain will not shut off EVER. There are depressions (many from negative relationships) that set in for men and women where food is their drug of choice to cover the pain-->Chocolate works on your dopamine (and is recommended for women during menstruation) There are eating disorders where people CANNOT EVEN PUT FOOD INTO THEIR MOUTH--->anorexia for example. They are too THIN.... :crazy:

I have led a very hard life. I used to be quite attractive. I stopped smoking in 1989; I put on 50lbs. just like that! I went to weight watchers and did marathon walking and lost 55 lbs quickly. Then I gained 80lbs. Then I dieted again. Then I gained 100 lbs. etc etc etc.

Now I have a partial disability caused by OA in both of my hips, my spine, my feet. I have a serious depression and other maladies. I have my weight watchers coupons in hand but I'll never be "the weight you all think I should be" again. I was sitting outside the hospital 7 weeks ago getting some fresh air while my husband was being treated inside. A male nurse came past me after dropping off a departing elderly couple to their car. He looked me up and down, gave a smirk, rolled his eyes, make a little tsk tsk noise and stuck his nose into the air as he egostitically strolled back into the hospital. I wished I had tripped him with my cane.

People like that don't know a goddamned thing about me. They don't know what is going on in my life; whether I happen to be dieting at the time or what. Physically disabled people tend to gain weight BECAUSE THEY ARE SITTING most of the time and not able to burn off many calories. This is why I get enraged about threads like these. They just keep this mindset GOING AND GOING. "People eat too much, they eat the wrong stuff, they are pigs, they don't exercise 'like they should"

Hells bells, look at Oprah..up,down,up,down, walking, running, books, talking yadda yadda..look at the wealthy fatsos up there eating goose liver pate and caviar and drinking the best alcoholic beverages in the world. Anyone attack Orson Wells since his demise?

TREAT PEOPLE WITH RESPECT no matter their size or gender or ethnicity. YOU don't know what they are going through physically, mentally, financially, personally or in any other way. YOU don't know where they've been OR where they are going. Neither do the doctors or the Journalists. These last two only deal in statistics, they don't LIVE IN OUR HOMES with us.

Constantly harping on the Great Obesity Epidemic of 2005 doesn't address the underlying issues and it CERTAINLY DOESN'T HELP those who need it the most. It DOES help the Insurance and diet industries. UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE NOW!

PS: To the issues of people in Japan. There may not be many fat Japanese--though I've seen stats that show there is a rise there, but we do know that the urgency to "conform" has caused a tremendous crisis in SUICIDE..................! I'd rather be fat.

[Mr.Green93]

5. Food prices should

be means tested. If they want to be pigs make them pay.

[SoCalDem]

6. Hmmmm a scale at the check out counter??

Yikes :)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. The affluent (as opposed to the super rich) are more apt to

live in car-oriented exurbs and drive everywhere, as opposed to walking, as well as eating out at chain restaurants, where the portions are immense.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. $60k is affluent?

Maybe I have a chance after all....


Bullshit.

[MO_Dem]

12. Another definition for

"fat cats"? Except that I don't think $60 thousand qualifies as fat cat.

[seg4527]

13. my dad makes 60k a year, and we are rich. bottom line.

and he was relatively poor growing up. he thinks he's rich. 10 years ago he made 20k a year, now he makes 60k. got promoted within the company.

over the course of ten years, i went from having not that much of a chance of affording college to being a freshman paying 13k a year after scholarships, and my RICH dad paying for it.

people need to take a step back and look at the whole grand scheme of things. i work at wendy's over the summer, i work with a 23 year old making 7.75 an hour as a shift supervisor trying, along with her husband, to raise three kids.

people need to take a step back and examine the world. there is a big difference between making 60k a year and being in the top 1%. but i consider myself very rich to have a dad who makes 60k a year (my mom makes anywhere from 0-4k a year, depending on whether or not she has a job). lots of it does depend on how well you spend your money, my parents have no debt at all. sold their townhouse in new york for 140,000 and bought a nice home in rural PA for 100,000 dollars.

but 60k a year is pretty damn good, as far as i consider it. and a lot f people in the world would say the same.

my two cents.

[MO_Dem]

14. You are right, seg

those of us that have seen the bottom are rich to be able to pay for the necessities and, once in awhile, get a few extras, and I am very grateful to be in that category. I never forget that there are many among us that struggle every day just to survive. I was making a silly attempt at a sick joke. What I consider "fat cats" are the likes of the Booshes, who can sqaunder $60k in a day and not blink an eye. It is pocket change to them.

[LSU_Subversive]

15. you have a good point

most of my colleagues are former sorority/fraternity brats with well-to-do parents and loads of opportunity. it's easy to start feeling sorry for myself and sometimes i forget how easy i have it. thank you for the reminder :)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

19. I'd feel rich if I made 60K a year.

I don't know if that would make me any skinnier, though. :hi:

[ebayfool]

21. I know I'd be skinnier on 60K - not having to fill up on cheap carbs & fat

make all the difference in the world! Having to pass on the protein to make sure the boychick gets enough makes gramma a wee bit chunky! (but he's so worth it, my manchild ... just wish it wasn't so hard to make sure he gets enough quality food to eat). I garden to supplement, but 60K would mean not having to bust it so hard. LOL

[AndyTiedye]

24. Not Out Here, You Wouldn't

Funny housing has gotten so much more expensive in the blue states.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

26. I'm in MD

near Washington DC. Admittedly, I'm living on the poor side of town; but there's no way that I could live in any other sector on what I earn now.

[Gregorian]

16. Obesity- not much of a problem, in Darfur.

Darfur. Doesn't anybody report on Darfur? Why does obesity take up news attention, when there are much much more important things that are being totally ignored. Hello....

[flygal]

23. sad isn't it

When I see on the internet about the runaway bride and other "problems" affecting the US I am sooooo glad I live overseas. When I go back home to visit I can't stomach tv news.

[dArKeR]

17. I disagree with this finding. My observations sre that lower incomes

people are more over weight.

[DARE to HOPE]

29. The lipid hypothesis is WRONG, folks! We are eating the WRONG fats!

The increase in obesity, heart disease and cancer all began about the beginning of the 20th century. Crisco was introduced in 1907. Heart disease was considered rare still in 1920. Margarine took off in the Depression because it was cheaper.

They knew as early as 1946 that feeding pigs and cows corn and soy oils made them SLUGGISH, and MARBLED WITH FAT! It also had the effect of reversing the ratio of omega-3 fats to omega-6's in the meat and other animal foods.

It is not simply the trans fatty acids (which are everywhere, still.) But all soy and corn oils, and especially, get this, canola oil (!) SLOW DOWN THE THYROID of people, too.

We need grass fed beef, butter, free range chickens and eggs, a few low mercury fatty fish (sardines and anchovies) (all these are high in omega-3's) and coconut oil, a staple of Thai, Indonesian, island cooking in general, that promotes health and youthfulness--and HEALS THE THYROID.

After exercising for many years (running. walking. weights, and 500 mi swimming in 5 years!) I have struggled up and down. Turns out all the soy I was eating in my vegetarian, almost starvation, diet was SLOWING my thyroid, too. Now, since October I have NOT (for various reasons) been able to exercise, just lately maybe, walking 15 minutes twice a week. But the coconut oil has my body's temperature as warm as my naturally skinny husband's! And the weight is just peeling off, unbidden, since then, 38 pounds in 6 months, completely satisfied. :-)

Just look up "coconut health" in Google for more. It really has been a miracle for me.

And the key variable about "affluence" is not the money so much, but the knowledge, the information, that one gains.

BTW--health IS a political issue.