S/o why are we so fat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH grew up in SA and had lunch at school, which was steak and veggies. When he came to the US in HS and saw macaroni and cheese, he said he wanted to vomit. (Now he likes it, btw.) Not all schools abroad do not provide lunch or lunchtime for kids. Where were you, PP?!

I was in Eastern Europe.

Well, no wonder. If that was during the Cold War there was no food to serve. I remember when I visited East Berlin. In the Lebensmittelgeschaeft there was like one can of peas on the shelf.

PP, did you see bears walking the street as well? I also went to school in Eastern Europe. Our kitchen was pretty basic, and only some of the older students took advantage of it, probably because, as a PP pointed out, the second meal of the day in our culture is traditionally around 3pm, not noon. Most schools in the f.USSR did provide a subsidized meal to the primary grade students. For the same reason as in the US -- they wanted to make sure that even kids living in squalor had at least one hot meal a day.

What I'd like to know is since when did the US school boards decide that this one meal could consist of prison-grade chicken nuggets? I started school in the USSR in the late 80s. The big empire was falling apart. Corruption was rampant. There were shortages of everything. We stood in line for hours to buy a bag of sugar. And yet the lunch I ate at school was infinitely more nutritious than the crap they feed my daughter in one of the richest school districts in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH grew up in SA and had lunch at school, which was steak and veggies. When he came to the US in HS and saw macaroni and cheese, he said he wanted to vomit. (Now he likes it, btw.) Not all schools abroad do not provide lunch or lunchtime for kids. Where were you, PP?!

I was in Eastern Europe.

Well, no wonder. If that was during the Cold War there was no food to serve. I remember when I visited East Berlin. In the Lebensmittelgeschaeft there was like one can of peas on the shelf.

PP, did you see bears walking the street as well? I also went to school in Eastern Europe. Our kitchen was pretty basic, and only some of the older students took advantage of it, probably because, as a PP pointed out, the second meal of the day in our culture is traditionally around 3pm, not noon. Most schools in the f.USSR did provide a subsidized meal to the primary grade students. For the same reason as in the US -- they wanted to make sure that even kids living in squalor had at least one hot meal a day.

What I'd like to know is since when did the US school boards decide that this one meal could consist of prison-grade chicken nuggets? I started school in the USSR in the late 80s. The big empire was falling apart. Corruption was rampant. There were shortages of everything. We stood in line for hours to buy a bag of sugar. And yet the lunch I ate at school was infinitely more nutritious than the crap they feed my daughter in one of the richest school districts in the US.

Maybe the suppliers are providing special incentives for the school district to award them the bid. Jamie Oliver tried to get in with the LA county schools with healthy meals. Great for the kids but not too shabby for Jamie Oliver, Inc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, good. Another fat hating post.i I was just thinking it was time for some self righteous thin person to tell the MAJORITY of us what we're doing wrong, and how it all boils down to my desire for six flat screen TVs.

Please tell me your job requires no thinking, OP.

+1. Don't have one flat screen TV, much less six. Don't even have a car. I walk everywhere, don't eat fast food, and I'm still overweight. I don't know why, but I'm sure OP and the legions of sanctimonious DCUM posters will tell me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The same is true for adults. At work, folks send an email rather than walk the 10 feet or so to actually speak to a colleague. At home, we can't even be bothered to get off our asses to change the channels on the television. Our dishes are washed in a machine. Our clothes are washed and dried in a machine. Our food is quick and easy to obtain. We simply do not have to perform very many physical tasks during the day. Those of us who value our health find ways to stay active. But it takes effort. And that goes back to my main point. People are overweight because they are lazy. They lack the inner drive necessary to really exercise. Power walking doesn't count. Gentle Yoga doesn't count. Swimming a few laps in the pool doesn't count. Walking on a treadmill doesn't help. If you are not uncomfortable while you are exercising, you're wasting your time. It hurts like hell to run 26.3 miles. But you push through the pain every single day while training and you give everything you've got (and then a little more) on race day. The same can be said for any endurance sport. If you're going to work out, it's going to hurt. You are going to be exhausted. You are going to sweat. You might throw up. You either want it or you don't. Half assing your way through a zumba class just doesn't cut it. There is no magic diet. You have to work for it.

You are super dramatic. I just worked out this morning and wasn't in any "crazy pain!!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The same is true for adults. At work, folks send an email rather than walk the 10 feet or so to actually speak to a colleague. At home, we can't even be bothered to get off our asses to change the channels on the television. Our dishes are washed in a machine. Our clothes are washed and dried in a machine. Our food is quick and easy to obtain. We simply do not have to perform very many physical tasks during the day. Those of us who value our health find ways to stay active. But it takes effort. And that goes back to my main point. People are overweight because they are lazy. They lack the inner drive necessary to really exercise. Power walking doesn't count. Gentle Yoga doesn't count. Swimming a few laps in the pool doesn't count. Walking on a treadmill doesn't help. If you are not uncomfortable while you are exercising, you're wasting your time. It hurts like hell to run 26.3 miles. But you push through the pain every single day while training and you give everything you've got (and then a little more) on race day. The same can be said for any endurance sport. If you're going to work out, it's going to hurt. You are going to be exhausted. You are going to sweat. You might throw up. You either want it or you don't. Half assing your way through a zumba class just doesn't cut it. There is no magic diet. You have to work for it.

You are super dramatic. I just worked out this morning and wasn't in any "crazy pain!!"

Sorry but this is nonsense. If you eat little you will be skinny without any notable physical activity. Gyms are full of fat people.

[Anonymous]

This. I go for years without working out and my BMI is usually 20-22. I just eat less.

[Anonymous]

I think it's a host of factors.
(1) Food that is bad for us is easily accessible and cheap.
(2) There's less physical activity built into the average person's day than there used to be. People used to farm, do manual labor, walk more places, ride horses, do housework and laundry by hand... we have machines for that stuff now.
(3) Kids are less likely to play outside now. We were always outside when I was a kid and teen. Now all the kids are playing on their X boxes and watching TV.
(4) Fat has become less stigmatized.
(5) Fat parents are more likely to have fat kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"So schools are supposed to prevent children from being fat, as well as educate them in academic subjects? Isn't anything the parents' job nowadays? You'd like the schools to serve as fat camps as well?

No it is not the job of the schools."

Of course it is. Why do you think we adopted universal free education in this country? It wasn't just to educate people in academic subjects; it was to form good citizens to benefit our society and shore up our democracy.

In any event, I'll throw in another culprit, which is how our food is grown and processed in this country. It isn't easy to eat really clean food - food that hasn't been genetically modified, hasn't been processed with chemicals. Think about cooking oil - the molecular structure changes when it is made through a warm pressed vs. cold pressed method, which is the cheapest and most common way to do it. So even people cooking from scratch made be using oil that has been processed in a way that our bodies are not used to. Same with so many other ingredients. Grain fed vs. grass fed beef differ nutritionally. My theory is that we're not getting the nutrients we need, which makes us crave more/eat more food in general. Couple that with the wide-scale availability of foods that we know are not good for us but we want anyway, and it is really hard to maintain a normal weight.

Schools can serve healthy food, talk about nutrition, and run kids for hours, but when the kid comes to school with a Coke in one hand a bag of Cheetos in the other (bought by a parent at the hot dog stand down the street), the whole "healthy food" message is diluted.

I don't get it why American schools serve any food to begin with. It really amazes me. I am an immigrant and went to school in Europe. There was no kitchen in my school. Some students ate snacks during recess (that they brought from home or purchased in neighboring stores) but most children didn't eat anything. You ate before you go to school and then when you get home. It's not like you anybody starved though there were very few (like 1 per 30) overweight children.

My kids get on the school bus at 8:30 am and off about 4 pm. I can't imagine not feeding them for 7.5 hours...

But why? What would happen if they didn't eat for 8 hours?

They would be so hungry they wouldn't be able to concentrate on their work.

Nope. They'd probably eat every morsel of whatever healthy thing you put on their dinner plate. And maybe even ask for seconds. Yep, lima beans, tomatoes, kale, fish, chicken and all.

[Anonymous]

I visited the Soviet Union back in 1986 and when our US tour group walked by the beach in Yalta (now in Ukraine) we were amused at all the overweight Soviets. Now I'm guessing that foreigners come here and laugh at us.

[Anonymous]

David Kessler argues that the food industry manipulates the US appetite.

http://www.amazon.com/The-End-Overeating-Insatiable-American/dp/1605297852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340130115&sr=8-1&keywords=kessler+fat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The same is true for adults. At work, folks send an email rather than walk the 10 feet or so to actually speak to a colleague. At home, we can't even be bothered to get off our asses to change the channels on the television. Our dishes are washed in a machine. Our clothes are washed and dried in a machine. Our food is quick and easy to obtain. We simply do not have to perform very many physical tasks during the day. Those of us who value our health find ways to stay active. But it takes effort. And that goes back to my main point. People are overweight because they are lazy. They lack the inner drive necessary to really exercise. Power walking doesn't count. Gentle Yoga doesn't count. Swimming a few laps in the pool doesn't count. Walking on a treadmill doesn't help. If you are not uncomfortable while you are exercising, you're wasting your time. It hurts like hell to run 26.3 miles. But you push through the pain every single day while training and you give everything you've got (and then a little more) on race day. The same can be said for any endurance sport. If you're going to work out, it's going to hurt. You are going to be exhausted. You are going to sweat. You might throw up. You either want it or you don't. Half assing your way through a zumba class just doesn't cut it. There is no magic diet. You have to work for it.

You are super dramatic. I just worked out this morning and wasn't in any "crazy pain!!"

Also that pp is ignorant about the latest research. Power walking actually does help if you do enough of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"So schools are supposed to prevent children from being fat, as well as educate them in academic subjects? Isn't anything the parents' job nowadays? You'd like the schools to serve as fat camps as well?

No it is not the job of the schools."

Of course it is. Why do you think we adopted universal free education in this country? It wasn't just to educate people in academic subjects; it was to form good citizens to benefit our society and shore up our democracy.

In any event, I'll throw in another culprit, which is how our food is grown and processed in this country. It isn't easy to eat really clean food - food that hasn't been genetically modified, hasn't been processed with chemicals. Think about cooking oil - the molecular structure changes when it is made through a warm pressed vs. cold pressed method, which is the cheapest and most common way to do it. So even people cooking from scratch made be using oil that has been processed in a way that our bodies are not used to. Same with so many other ingredients. Grain fed vs. grass fed beef differ nutritionally. My theory is that we're not getting the nutrients we need, which makes us crave more/eat more food in general. Couple that with the wide-scale availability of foods that we know are not good for us but we want anyway, and it is really hard to maintain a normal weight.

Schools can serve healthy food, talk about nutrition, and run kids for hours, but when the kid comes to school with a Coke in one hand a bag of Cheetos in the other (bought by a parent at the hot dog stand down the street), the whole "healthy food" message is diluted.

I don't get it why American schools serve any food to begin with. It really amazes me. I am an immigrant and went to school in Europe. There was no kitchen in my school. Some students ate snacks during recess (that they brought from home or purchased in neighboring stores) but most children didn't eat anything. You ate before you go to school and then when you get home. It's not like you anybody starved though there were very few (like 1 per 30) overweight children.

My kids get on the school bus at 8:30 am and off about 4 pm. I can't imagine not feeding them for 7.5 hours...

But why? What would happen if they didn't eat for 8 hours?

Low blood sugar, inability to concentrate, irritability. Get a clue. I teach Pre-K and can't imagine my kids not eating for eight hours. What a nightmare.

Well, sure, that's because they are eating Cheerios and frozen waffles for breakfast. Even the "healthy" varieties of these foods seriously lack good nutrition.

My kids eat eggs, sausage, tomato and homemade bread with lots of real butter for breakfast. Washed down with a huge cup of full-fat raw milk. They are sturdy and healthy and run hard all day long. No blood sugar crashes. Not irritable. And they often don't eat anything again until mid afternoon, and sometimes nothing until dinner.

[Anonymous]

It's definitely the food. We eat so unconsciously. If you ever look at the calorie count of restaurant meals - including Starbucks - it would really blow your mind. Also, as previous posters noted, the way food is processed has changed dramatically.

One more thing: I run in a crowd that shops at Whole Foods, farmer's markets, the whole nine. What separates the chubs from the non chubs (and the chubs exercise way more than I do) is portion sizes, SUGAR and FLOUR. I have this one friend who makes her children's meals from scratch every day, but there's a lot of baking going on there. I don't even think she realizes how much she bakes (It's that food-love connection). I am really cognizant of how certain foods metabolize. Items, from scratch or not, made with sugar and flour are not metabolized in the same way as an apple or carrot or even red meat. Please limit these items and do not drink your calories if you want to keep those pounds from sneaking onto your behind.

Exercising hard may work for some once the extra weight is gone. First, clean up your food game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, good. Another fat hating post.i I was just thinking it was time for some self righteous thin person to tell the MAJORITY of us what we're doing wrong, and how it all boils down to my desire for six flat screen TVs.

Please tell me your job requires no thinking, OP.

+1. Don't have one flat screen TV, much less six. Don't even have a car. I walk everywhere, don't eat fast food, and I'm still overweight. I don't know why, but I'm sure OP and the legions of sanctimonious DCUM posters will tell me.

I actually think this thread has been fairly non-sanctimonious given DCUM standards. Lots of people are offering their various speculations and ideas, without harshly condemning anyone. I think we all are agreeing that it is a multi-faceted problem, and it is not as simple as "just eat better."

[Anonymous]

I just know one thing. I have been living in US for 4 years. I gained 85 pounds. I just fell in love with the crap food here and went hard on it. Now I am trying to lose all these weight. But it is tough. I weighed -8 lbs this morning but boy I am having a hard time dieting.