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Post by Graeme on Jul 28, 2004 10:41:09 GMT -5
The breakfast menus in America are ridiculous. The amount of food at breakfast that is offered as normal in the States keeps me going all day. It is really too much food. I can't say that here in Australia. Here food is very affordable and the amount eaten combined with lack of exercise is the cause of obesity. It is the kids that are frightening, forget the adults. Those kids are going to have a reduced enjoyment of health because of childhood obesity.
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Post by eufrenio on Jul 28, 2004 15:12:36 GMT -5
Graeme is right, the huge breakfasts are a factor. Another possible factor could be the nasty habit of drinking milk with the meals, instead of water or wine.
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Afro
Full Member
Posts: 248
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Post by Afro on Jul 28, 2004 15:57:49 GMT -5
I have heard alot of excuses as to why Americans are overweight, but I personally don't think it comes down as much to exercise as it does to eating healthy and proportionately. Its all about moderation and some self control. It really starts at home at a young age if you ask me, mothers have to make an effort to raise there children to eat good foods. I know many mothers with young children, when these kids get hungry in the afternoon I see these mothers fixing hotdogs by the package or even calling up Pizza Hut! Thats just not gonna cut it, and I don't think that fast food is cheaper, its just easier! A loaf of bread, gallon of milk, and some cheese CAN'T be that much more money then a big mack meal. Anyone ever seen or heard of the documentary "Super Size Me" Basically this guy risk his own health for the sake of the movie, and spends a whole month eating nothing but Mcdonalds! Three meals a day for 30 days! I haven't caught it yet, but appearently by the end of the documentary he gains about 40 pounds and his health is so deteriorated that he gets sick. Now I'm not saying that Americans are eating at McDonalds like that, but it just goes to show you how bad some of these fast food places are.
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Post by Elistariel on Jul 29, 2004 20:20:30 GMT -5
Graeme is right, the huge breakfasts are a factor. Another possible factor could be the nasty habit of drinking milk with the meals, instead of water or wine. I disagree. I don't see many of us drinking milk with meals, unless it's breakfast. Milk is good for you, Americans actually don't get enough calcium. Gads, I feel like a commercial Have you tasted our water, tastes like shit. If you'll pardon the language. I'll ONLY drink Dannnon/Danon or Deer Park. The ever popular (here at least) Dasani, tastes like salt water. It's even in the ingredients, water, salt. WTF? Oh yes I want a nice tall glass of salt water with every meal. MMMMmm, ocean. As for wine, that should be obvious. People often stop by to eat, and then are on their way. If we drank wine, we'd have to wait before we could leave, or one person would have to drive a bunch of drunks home. Americans can't drink wine until they are 21. Also alcohol isn't too good for your liver. Now a nice grape juice would work wonders, compared to all the soft drinks guzzled down.
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Post by AWAR on Jul 29, 2004 23:07:41 GMT -5
1. Milk isn't good for me. From my personal experience, milk makes me fat, and it also makes me bloat and feel run-down for hours.
I suppose there's a bunch of people who, like me have problems with milk. I get my calcium from cheese and yohgurt.
2. Everything damages your liver. Drinking a glass of wine will damage it less than a glass of Coca Cola.
To me, it seems clear that Americans can't seem to moderate themselves. You know, drinking wine won't instantly make you drunk, but drinking a whole lot of it will, eating food and sitting won't make you fat, but eating large ammounts of food and sitting all day will make you fat.
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Post by Arwen on Aug 4, 2004 10:07:45 GMT -5
I am only 24, but I notice a large difference in the way kids are raised now than they were in the 80's when I was a child. We played outside all day, and only came inside during school and when the weather was foul. TV was limited with fewer channels. We got 3 NORMAL meals a day, and snacks rarely. If we didn't like the meal served, too bad. Our parents didn't jump and make hot dogs if we turned our noses at broccoli.
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izabet
Full Member
Canada isn't that friendly...
Posts: 128
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Post by izabet on Aug 6, 2004 12:12:13 GMT -5
I'm with you guys on the meal sizes and the lack of activity. Whenever I've been in the States, with the exception on NYC, I've been appalled at the lack of fresh healthy food. The rural midwest US is full of fast food joints, one junction to the next. Even LA is bad when it comes to finding healthy places to eat. And everyone drives everywhere. Even northern NY state, on the border with Ontario and Quebec, is frightening to visit. I recall going to a mall in Plattsburgh and nearly everyone in the mall (it wasn't that busy) was obese.
Canada is much better IMO. People are fat here too, but less so. Walking is a popular activity in Canada, as is hiking. It's probably because our urban areas (except for Toronto) are close to green spaces and provincial parks etc. We also have less crime, so going out in the evening doesn't pose as great a risk.
But I do have to say, I doubt it's a breakfast issue alone. Portions in the US in restaurants are outrageously huge. You'd only find that in a few places in Canada. I have heard that in Europe, the portions are quite small on the whole. My mother, who is European and who has been back several times, says that most Italians and Spaniards are quite thin to average weight. I've never been to Europe, but I met some Spaniards in Mexico, and they were tall and thin, and looked very healthy.
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Post by murphee on Aug 8, 2004 13:48:43 GMT -5
I've travelled throughout most of the States, and you are right that outside of the larger cities, it is often not easy to find good, fresh healthy restaurant food. Sometimes, when in rural Idaho, the only thing I can find for road food is a veggie Subway sandwich. Places such as the Pacific Northwest, Santa Cruz, CA and Ithaca, NY, there is a great choice of good places to eat. Locales such as Huntsville, Texas, when I go out to eat it's Chinese or Mexican food. Sometimes, there are surprises. In Fairbanks, Alaska I ate some of the best vegetarian Thai food I ever had. The restaurant billed itself as "The Furthest North Thai Restaurant in the World." I enjoyed the movie, "Supersize Me." Though it had some flaws, it was highly entertaining and informative.
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Post by Polako on Aug 9, 2004 0:47:00 GMT -5
Ok, I think that's its mostly a cultural issue, but that genetics are also involved.
Many Americans are of German and West African descent, where people who put on weight easily are common. That "Borreby" strain observed by old anthropologists is definitely present in Germany. It might not really be Borreby as such, but those physical characteristics are typical of many Germans.
Of course, Germans aren't as obese as Americans, and that's where the culture comes into it.
In Germany, people eat better, and they exercise much more.
On the other hand, in the US and even Australia, many people just sit on their asses and watch tv. Australians have this image of being the outdoor types, but most aren't really. They drink a lot of beer and eat heaps of junk food. Kids are starting to have heart problems in Oz as a result.
So that's my take on the issue. It's a double whammy of genes and lifestyle.
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Post by pconroy on Aug 10, 2004 15:21:03 GMT -5
I grew up in Ireland and when I left to come to the states was playing sports 6 days a week - tennis and field hockey - and weighed 150 Lbs (6' 1" tall) and was very fit. I tried to maintain my habit of playing sports regularly, but found that here in New York city to be a successfull professional, you need to work about 55 hours a week at least, so you have very little time left for anything - all I manage is volleyball once a week. In the 15 years I have been here, I have hardly ever gone out for lunch during the day, always eating food at my desk, working late and eating snacks to sustain me. Now I have gained 60 Lbs - to weigh 210 Lbs - and am much less fit. So basically I think it's down to the habit of rapid eating, on the go - "scarfing" as they say here - and the ready availability of saturated fatty foods and snacks. I say this as I eat fried chicken. Most people are too tired when they get home to take the extra time to prepare a healthy dinner.
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izabet
Full Member
Canada isn't that friendly...
Posts: 128
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Post by izabet on Aug 11, 2004 12:06:58 GMT -5
I agree, pconroy, the work hours required in the US are not generally family-friendly and force people to go home late and make quick and easy (fattening) meals. Canada isn't much better, depending what industry you are in.
I get sickened watching US television sometimes (we get channels from Detroit...the fattest city in the US). Diets and junk food, all juxtaposed by these horrid reality show people and Entertainment Tonight, showing "perfect-looking" actors and attention-whores. I can't bear to open the TV any more.
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Post by citadel on Aug 17, 2004 23:30:11 GMT -5
The worst problems I see with obesity in America are among poorer white people and minorities. I think part of it has to do with the fact that for hundred of years, these people led a subsistence existence - they raised a few crops, hunted or fished and butchered a hog or chicken every now and then. Their diets were starchy and sometimes fatty, but since they worked in fields all day or hunted and gathered, they sweated this off. But now their descendants live in a fast food world.
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izabet
Full Member
Canada isn't that friendly...
Posts: 128
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Post by izabet on Aug 19, 2004 12:09:10 GMT -5
Hi citadel, I agree with you and think this goes for Western people overall. The human body is still in its pre-industrial(?) form, designed for activity, sleep, and periods of uncertainty wrt the availability of food, but not 16 hours a day of sitting on one's rear and having food on every corner (not to mention fatty food on every corner). I find it hilarious (yet sad) in the light of the Population Reference Bureau's 2004 World Population Data Sheet, which projects populations in the 3rd world far exceeding those in the west (except the US) while the west gets fatter on all of the food *it* grows in the 3rd world. "Developing countries in Africa and Asia will account for about 90 percent of the increase in world population projected by 2050, while the populations of most developed countries will decrease. Among the developed countries, only the United States is likely to see significant growth, a result of immigration and a birth rate higher than other developed nations." www.prb.org/pdf04/04WorldDataSheet_Eng.pdf
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Post by Gus Morea on Aug 19, 2004 13:33:00 GMT -5
I'm no nutritionist, but I think the main culprit in the US is the proliferation of foods that most people can't digest properly. For instance, most of the the population is lactose/dairy intolerant to some degree, and yet most put cheese on everything. Most people can't tolerate certain wheat and corn products, yet these pruducts are now rampant in fast/processed foods. Metabolism gets screwed up and more people get fat (not to mention diabetic). It's probably just the result of civilization, and I bet all those countries laughing at fat Americans will be in the same boat sooner or later. As for me, I tend to shy away from foods that are closely connected with organized civilization, and I'm as fit as a fiddle. Anyone who's ever been to the US and Australia has surely noticed that, compared to Europe, there are a hell of alotta fatties running (or rather, hobbling) about there. Ok, I have to say that the difference between US/Oz and Germany is not as big as between the other Euro countries. But otherwsie my comment stands. So what's the reason for this? Any ideas? I have some of my own, but will wade in with more comments later. Regards
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Post by Crimson Guard on Aug 19, 2004 23:53:40 GMT -5
Cows milk is NOT healthy ,though goats milk is a bit more healthy then cows.
Only womens milk is good for humans.
I cant speak for the rest of the americans here in the USA,their are going to be fatso's the world over.But I pump Iron and eat healthy and weigh 240lbs of muscle.
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