question for fatsos and regulation sized people, why are Americans so grotesquely FAT?

Question

My questions are long. The few people that know me and write to me read them because on occasion, they believe I have something to say. Whether the issuing of a pre-emptive disclaimer makes sense will only become obvious if you bother to as well. And if you don't want to bother, well, hell, I won't lose much sleep over it.

Seriously, though. I can't for the life of me (and this from someone who understands compulsive violent behavior, substance abuse and the like, and has made a LOT of lousy decisions because of them and paid very high prices in the troubling wake they've left) understand why people would want to go through life so fat they can barely waddle to their mailbox without having a heart attack.

I can't (for seemingly obvious reasons) ask a woman that lives at the bottom of the mountain down the gravel road from me (and I pass her house jogging or on my bike from time to time - I live on top of a mountain, literally) and it just about kills her to make it to the fence and talk to me. She seems nice, About five three, and weighs well in excess af 375 lbs, and nearly dies making it that 80 feet or so. She can't be more than 35, and has somehow found a merely hefty man to look after her and enable her and somehow manage to knock her up (God knows how. I really can't figure it out). And medical types to go through whatever it is they do to deliver her babies. She has four kids she is well along in her efforts to turn into human weather balloons. All she does is talk about getting pregnant again and gripe about the holdups on getting her rascal scooter, so she can sputter after cupcakes and make it to KFC under her own power (she's too GODDAM fat to get in or out of cars, and so far the government refuses to dun the taxpayers for a van with a lift to lug her about on her grease and carbohydrate quests - much to her dismay - and that causes her to launch into diatribes about the unfairness of it all just as I'm coming up with an excuse to get out of her sight before I vomit because I can't stand the sight of the sloshing lard hanging from her arms as she waves to her other neighbor.

AND they are EVERYWHERE. Every time I look there are more of them. And I can't make sense of it. As a normal sized person, the willingness to drag 300 lbs of useless blubber EVERYWHERE I go seems utterly incomprehensible to me. It's not just an epidemic anymore, it's a pandemic. Slobs with disgustingly cantilievered Nascar T-Shirt overhanging ***** they haven't seen for years, stretchy-suited pig monsterettes that look like they are trying to shoplift sofa seat cushions by stuffing them down the back of their pants lumbering and sweating and stuffing cheap crap food between their greasy lips. I mean EVERYWHERE. I travel a lot. And I know the U.S. is the only place like this. How did it happen? Why did it happen? There's a lot to life. And I can't see there is any way to enjoy any of it like that. And c'mon, all ANYBODY has to do to change it is eat less and exercise more. Depression and thyroid this and "my daddy hit me so I have to swallow 47 Big Macs a day" whining not withstanding. That's all it comes down to.

So why are Americans so goddam FAT? (especially women, and more specifically, BLACK women)could get into all sort of high minded sociological theories of my own, but I'm interested in what folks here have to say.

Answer 1

If you really want a serious answer, I can recommend a movie that deals with exactly this issue - why Americans are the fattest nation in the world and why other countries are following in their footsteps. The movie is called Forks Over Knives. It's a documentary that explains it really well and, even though I've seen it 4 times, I can't recall all the details to answer the question perfectly. But it has to do with several government choices and the revolution of food preperation.



With the invention of pre-prepared home meals, preservatives came into the scene. That made people sicker, spiked their cholesterol. The government tried to fix that by thinking that cholesterol was spiked by fat in the food, so they invented low-fat food. But that tasted so bad that they had to replace all the missing fat with sugar to make it bareble. That caused nation-wide diabetes and even more obesity. Also there is high-fructose corn syrup which I think was invented in the USA, or at least used there first. It was approved by one of the candidates for president who thought it would make him popular because he discovered something way cheaper than ordinary sugar. But it turned out to make people way fatter and sicker than sugar... Then came fast food. The idea of fast food is to take out of the food all the fiber, all the water, all the stuff that you would need to "lose time chewing" or didn't really contribute to the taste. But that left an insanely high concentration of fat and sugar. And since they are so concentrated, they hardly take up any space. You can eat a teeny tiny chocolate bar that doesn't cover even the bottom of your stomach and be over your calories for the meal, but the stomach needs to be at least 75% full in order to register the fact you've had enough and are no longer hungry. So you can eat even an entire stick of butter but the brain will keep sending signals "Eat more! I register 20% fullness of my volume." So basically Americans on the SAD diet (Standard American Diet) are forced to overeat, just to fill the space and stop feeling hungry. Really, watch the movie, I made my whole family watch it!

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

There are 2 main factors:



1. Food:

Because the USA has a lot of cheap, processed foods and fast foods that are loaded with fat, sugar and sodium. Human beings are biologically conditioned to like the taste of fat, sugar and salt, so companies know that the more of this stuff they load into their products, the more people will eat them.



2. Lifestyle:

They have inner cities where people are scared to go outside and suburbs that are designed for cars rather than people. In the suburbs you might have to drive 15 minutes to get to the nearest store and there may not even be any sidewalks. In the inner cities there may be no supermarkets at all, only convenience stores selling cheap fat/salt/sugar-laden processed foods. They have a culture that actively celebrates automobiles. People who don't own 3-4 automobiles and who actually walk on their own 2 feet once in a while are considered losers.



So basically they're eating unhealthy, high calorie food while sitting on their butts all day. They don't even walk anywhere or ride bicycles cause that is for losers. They drive everywhere in cars or just stay at home sitting on their backsides all day, with periodic trips to convenience stores and fast food places for more unhealthy foods to stuff down their blowholes. No wonder so many of them are morbidly obese.



Why are black women somewhat fatter than their white counterparts? Probably because of socioeconomic factors. Unhealthy high calorie food is cheap, but healthier foods tend to be more expensive and less convenient. Poorer people have less access to healthier, more expensive foods. Canned meat and fast food burgers and much cheaper than fresh fish. Secondly, better educated, wealthier white people tend to be more into healthy living and exercising.



At the end of the day it is just about calories in vs. calories out. People who take in significantly more calories than they burn (high calorie foods + sedentary lifestyle/no exercise = fatness).

Answer 4

I think it has to do with medications and their side effects. My father had Graves disease. He had to get his thyroid killed by drinking radiation. My father takes a bunch of medications and I highly believe that that is what is causing him to stay fat. My father has 10 siblings. Only 2 of them do not have a medical condition with their thyroid. All the rest of them take the same medication and they are all fat.



I made my father go on a diet. I banned 99.999% of foods (high sodium foods and processed foods). He ate whole grain bread (I excluded white bread completely), salads with only 2 tablespoons of Italian dressing, and a variety of fresh fruits. He use to eat 3 or 4 cups of ice cream. I downsized that to only half a cup of ice cream a day. We also made these wonderful fruit/vegetables shakes- placed a ton of fresh baby spinach with apples and grounded it up. The sad part is that he GAINED 5 lbs while on this diet for a week. I couldn't believe it! We also did tons of exercise together- went to the woods and public trails and hiked every day.



A distant family member of mine hated fat people. She always thought that it was their fault for being fat. After all, they could just loose weight when they wanted to. The funny part was that she ended up being very obese and she still couldn't loose the weight. She never talked about fat people again.

Answer 5

That was hilarious :'), I think it's because Americans were the first to come up with junk food and all that, so there are like LOADS of junk food stores, restaurants etc. and Americans just can't stop pigging out I guess. You're so funny, couldn't stop laughing :)

Answer 6

Because cheeseburgers are $.99, and a salad is $4.99...



People don't exercise, even make daily routines into exercise [i.e., run the cart back into the grocery store; take the steps; take a walk; dance around the house to your favorite songs, etc...] Essentially, people have become too lazy.

Answer 7

You apparently live in the wrong place. I do not see very many fat people at all where I live.