Why is obesity so prevalent in the US?
The pictures I compare in my mind are BART and any of the JR/Tokyo Metro lines. It is striking when you go to Japan for the first time. Why is obesity such a huge problem in the US? The crowd on BART is disgustingly obese and many look deformed in comparison.
Here's my take: 1. Very less physical movement (Americans just drive everywhere, walking is not a part of the lifestyle) 2. Bigger portion size (American restaurants serve large portion size and cutleries are also bigger) 3. Diet (soda, alcohol, bread, pizza, sauces) 4. Eating out culture (I hardly see any Americans cook at home. I would go to an extent to say some of them don't know what cooking looks like apart from grill) 5. Being fat is acceptable (no fat shaming) 6. The mentality to blame it on genetics (while it may be the reason for some, I am sure a much higher percentage of people blame their obesity on genetics) 7. Reliance on pills over diet combined with poor knowledge (Americans would prefer to take an inflammation medicine than include turmeric in their diet)
4. Asians and Europeans eat out a lot too, they just eat way less. Americans have bigger kitchens and do actually cook a lot, but their cooking is not very healthy.
Go to the cereal isle in any grocery store. You know the one, a half football field's length of choices. Find one without added sugar or artificial sweeteners. Just one. I'll wait. 99% of the time it's one of the first three ingredients. When you learn how truly fucked up this is is when you have kids and realize that the aisle with all of the baby food and toddler snacks is EXACTLY THE FUCKING SAME.
Sugar. Processed white flour foods like pizza, burger buns, doughnuts etc also breakdown to Sugar.
Do you see the food being consumed by a vast majority of Americans. Lots of sugar, flour, high fructose corn syrup. Consume little to no vegetables. Processed food is easy and cheap. Most are not thought good eating habits at an early age. Most people are not active throughout their lives. That’s a recipe for obesity. Foreigners who follow the typical American way of eating end up obese. It’s a lifestyle thing.
Sugar. Sugar. Sugar. Sugar. Sugar.
1. Food industry is badly regulated in US -- FDA drops the ball on many things and is bought out by food industry so Americans have gotten accustomed to ingesting all kinds of crap 2. Americans tend to care more about end results and very clear black/white versus subtlety -- if the food has strong taste then who cares about anything else 3. Lack of decent food regulation have made Americans forget what natural flavors taste like. Everything needs a shitton of sugar, salt, fat, oil, sauce, and artificial flavorings 4. Mindset of bigger and more is better, quantity over quality. Portions can be 2-3 times larger other countries' 5. Dependency on cars. I can't get out of my head the times I've been with people who would prefer to drive 15-20 mins to find a parking spot which only makes them walk 2-3 mins versus getting a spot immediately that requires 5-10 mins of walking
Asians eat a lot too, if not more. Portions may be smaller, but we eat continuously. I’m Asian and have been in the US for 36yrs, eating American and international food, but still remain thin. Genetics and metabolism of Asians play a large role considering that Asians consume a lot of carbs in rice and noodles.
Combination of diet and culture. “Americans” just eat too much and you can’t really shame someone for being fat cause everyone else is fat too. I’ve known a few Japanese who move to America and get fat too and lose their weight when they get back to Japan. People in America drive move, eat way too much and basically think it’s okay to be that way.
Makes sense. This seems to me like an area that is ripe for disruption. How can we incentivize people to lose weight? How about an app where you if you lose incremental amounts of weight toward a healthy BMI, you get cash rewards or other prizes?
We are all waiting for you to teach us yoga ! O great one