What the heck is going on people.
What the heck is going on people.
I bet the lockdowns have made things worse. But the situation was already very bad in the US way before that.
It seems that your country have the worst of the worst of the bad eating habits. Lawmakers should make an intervention to stop that epidemy.
Obesity is way worst than COVID in the long term.
At least the Letsrun population shows the good way, with probably around 0% of obesity among the community.
I'm personally in disbelief that it has gotten worse during the pandemic. You have a death warrant out for people who are overweight and/or obese yet people as a whole have gotten bigger. Unbelievable.
Americans are definitely fat, but BMI is a really poor metric for determining individual health. I am 5'11", and I was 185 lbs at my fittest. I was "overweight" and could run a sub 2 800m. Plenty of similarly "overweight" guys are playing wide receiver and defensive back in the NFL.
This is the Arnold Schwarzenegger example people always used to give on BMI and an example of why anecdotes/outliers are a bad way to justify an approach to a problem. I bet less than 0.01% of "obese" people fall into this category.
flyoverstaterunner wrote:
This is the Arnold Schwarzenegger example people always used to give on BMI and an example of why anecdotes/outliers are a bad way to justify an approach to a problem. I bet less than 0.01% of "obese" people fall into this category.
But the stat being discussed includes not just obese people, but "overweight" as well. Sure, it's rare for a healthy person to have a BMI of 30+, but a healthy person with a BMI of 25 is hardly an outlier.
LOL @ BMI wrote:
Americans are definitely fat, but BMI is a really poor metric for determining individual health. I am 5'11", and I was 185 lbs at my fittest. I was "overweight" and could run a sub 2 800m. Plenty of similarly "overweight" guys are playing wide receiver and defensive back in the NFL.
This is a problem. Pick an exception to the rule and pretend that a test that accurately describes something 96-99% correctly isn’t a good measure. There is some merit in making sure you don’t create rules that I’m anyway penalize the exception but BMI is good test. I had read an article making a case for height to waist ratio which would be more indicative of obesity/metabolic syndrome; which you would have liked fallen in the healthy category.
jonathon wrote:
What the heck is going on people.
People eat to much crap, that's all.
Having too much muscle weight is also bad for the health.
we should do more in terms of public legislation. In the 1990s i bleieve their used to be a tax break for fitness/gym club memberships.
We should do more spending on public amenities like trails, pedestrian paths, playgrounds, ballfields, etc.
Must be more ideas out there.....
seattle prattle wrote:
we should do more in terms of public legislation. In the 1990s i bleieve their used to be a tax break for fitness/gym club memberships.
We should do more spending on public amenities like trails, pedestrian paths, playgrounds, ballfields, etc.
Must be more ideas out there.....
People are overweight and obese almost exclusively because of caloric intake. While parks etc are nice they won’t change the behavior above. We as a society are glued to our screens for the dopamine. That will win over going outside and running any day for this 73%
You could reward health and penalize obesity but the people you are rewarding are already more successful/affluent and the ones you would penalize if not exclusively less affluent; encompasses a supermajority of the bottom 50%
seattle prattle wrote:
we should do more in terms of public legislation. In the 1990s i bleieve their used to be a tax break for fitness/gym club memberships.
We should do more spending on public amenities like trails, pedestrian paths, playgrounds, ballfields, etc.
Must be more ideas out there.....
How about a fat tax? I'd go for that. More trails and such will just play into the hands of those who care about their health.
On the comment above, it is amazing that people are fatter now esp. the ones that are at risk for the covid. And that's who are having problems, along with frail elderly.
I work a Walmart PT stocker, and see people driving around in the carts. They are all way fat and sometimes it's two shopping together! So it's like a fat family convoy! It's pretty sad.
gts1234 wrote:
LOL @ BMI wrote:
Americans are definitely fat, but BMI is a really poor metric for determining individual health. I am 5'11", and I was 185 lbs at my fittest. I was "overweight" and could run a sub 2 800m. Plenty of similarly "overweight" guys are playing wide receiver and defensive back in the NFL.
This is a problem. Pick an exception to the rule and pretend that a test that accurately describes something 96-99% correctly isn’t a good measure. There is some merit in making sure you don’t create rules that I’m anyway penalize the exception but BMI is good test. I had read an article making a case for height to waist ratio which would be more indicative of obesity/metabolic syndrome; which you would have liked fallen in the healthy category.
It is a sensitive but nonspecific test, which makes it a good screening tool, but a poor diagnostic tool.
gts1234 wrote:
seattle prattle wrote:
we should do more in terms of public legislation. In the 1990s i bleieve their used to be a tax break for fitness/gym club memberships.
We should do more spending on public amenities like trails, pedestrian paths, playgrounds, ballfields, etc.
Must be more ideas out there.....
People are overweight and obese almost exclusively because of caloric intake. While parks etc are nice they won’t change the behavior above. We as a society are glued to our screens for the dopamine. That will win over going outside and running any day for this 73%
i agree with you and my suggestion is just part of the answer, to encourage a change of habits and behaviors. Let's attack the problem, by first, recognizing it as a challenge worth time and attention and money, and then attack it from all angles. Including educating the public. It is a pandemic at these levels and we need to address it as such.
seattle prattle wrote:
we should do more in terms of public legislation. In the 1990s i bleieve their used to be a tax break for fitness/gym club memberships.
We should do more spending on public amenities like trails, pedestrian paths, playgrounds, ballfields, etc.
Must be more ideas out there.....
No, we shouldn't because legislation is a huge part of the cause. The American diet of diseased animals stuffed full of corn at an artificially low price is driven by government subsidies in the farming industry. This and other corn and soy based processed products are a massive part of the epidemic.
The other is the government's interference in healthcare. What you pay now has nothing to do with how well you take care of yourself. If there was an honest market for insurance where there was a connection between the consumer and insurance providers it would incentivize people to be healthier to pay less for insurance. Healthy people wouldn't be subsidizing the unhealthy.
Government interference in these markets is the problem, get the government out and the problem will generally work itself out to a much better place. The last thing we need is new regulations and laws that by politicians bought off by special interests that will surely not benefit the common man.
Primo Numero Uno wrote:
seattle prattle wrote:
we should do more in terms of public legislation. In the 1990s i bleieve their used to be a tax break for fitness/gym club memberships.
We should do more spending on public amenities like trails, pedestrian paths, playgrounds, ballfields, etc.
Must be more ideas out there.....
No, we shouldn't because legislation is a huge part of the cause. The American diet of diseased animals stuffed full of corn at an artificially low price is driven by government subsidies in the farming industry. This and other corn and soy based processed products are a massive part of the epidemic.
The other is the government's interference in healthcare. What you pay now has nothing to do with how well you take care of yourself. If there was an honest market for insurance where there was a connection between the consumer and insurance providers it would incentivize people to be healthier to pay less for insurance. Healthy people wouldn't be subsidizing the unhealthy.
Government interference in these markets is the problem, get the government out and the problem will generally work itself out to a much better place. The last thing we need is new regulations and laws that by politicians bought off by special interests that will surely not benefit the common man.
we've already had much of what i am recommending. It was a law in the 1990s about the tax break for instance, Nothing new.
But i do agree with much of what you say in the specifics, but not generally. I think some govt. backing in addressing this health pandemic is warranted and can be done effectively, and absolutely necessary.
Again, i don't argue with the examples you sited, though, in general.
seattle prattle wrote:
gts1234 wrote:
People are overweight and obese almost exclusively because of caloric intake. While parks etc are nice they won’t change the behavior above. We as a society are glued to our screens for the dopamine. That will win over going outside and running any day for this 73%
i agree with you and my suggestion is just part of the answer, to encourage a change of habits and behaviors. Let's attack the problem, by first, recognizing it as a challenge worth time and attention and money, and then attack it from all angles. Including educating the public. It is a pandemic at these levels and we need to address it as such.
From the diet side, I'd like to see the government subsidize the cost of fruit and vegetables at fast food places. I'd be more likely to skip the fries, and go for a side salad or fruit cup if it was a $1, but when its $3.79, it makes me more hesitant.
gregmacd wrote:
seattle prattle wrote:
i agree with you and my suggestion is just part of the answer, to encourage a change of habits and behaviors. Let's attack the problem, by first, recognizing it as a challenge worth time and attention and money, and then attack it from all angles. Including educating the public. It is a pandemic at these levels and we need to address it as such.
From the diet side, I'd like to see the government subsidize the cost of fruit and vegetables at fast food places. I'd be more likely to skip the fries, and go for a side salad or fruit cup if it was a $1, but when its $3.79, it makes me more hesitant.
THere is a ton written about access to food at reasonable prices is driving a lot of the obesity problem, Fresh fruit and vegies are less available in inner city, low income neighborhoods, and instead, there is an abundance of exempinsive, subsidized sweet, starchy foods that are not healthy. Like the guy said, there are subsidies for the corn starch in many of these products, making them cheaper and thereby promoting their use in processed foods and in making that the only affordable way to get necessary calories.