Why is Gen Z so obese?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of lower income families are getting priced out of youth sports.

This and many families no longer have the veiled eating disordered mom who masks as a healthy eater. Almond moms are not cool.

[Anonymous]

No smoking. People used to start as teens. It cuts your appetite.

The normalization of eating all the time at every event and the acceptance of snacking and its ubiquity. Even drinking a lot more water than people used to--just a constant reminder and expectation to consume.

Drinking sodas (in giant cups) and coffee drinks with 1K calories.

[Anonymous]

screens

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because they were raised on screens and are still sitting and on screens almost non stop? My teenager finds it practically impossible to get his friends to do anything but game. He skates, is in sports, has limited screens, etc but his friends are online almost all the time.

Outside is dangerful. Avoid outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because they were raised on screens and are still sitting and on screens almost non stop? My teenager finds it practically impossible to get his friends to do anything but game. He skates, is in sports, has limited screens, etc but his friends are online almost all the time.

Outside is dangerful. Avoid outside.

There’s a piece in NYT fr 9/4 “How Did the Latchkey Kids of Gen X Become the Helicopter Parents of Gen Z?”

It made me think about this a bit more…
I think us Gen Xers are also part of the problem. We were wild, but many of us didn’t thrive in the latchkey experience so we over schedule and micromanage our kids. And often keep them home, where it’s “safe”…sedentary on screens. We know that for adults, one hour of physical activity doesn’t beat a day of on/off exertion for our long term health, but that’s what we’re often designing for our kids.

[Anonymous]

I don’t want to read all six pages but has anyone said hormone interrupting chemicals like phthalates? That’s pretty obviously the answer. Crap food has been around since We2 as have screens. But boomers and gen X did not grown up with the extent of these chemicals in the air, water and food. We’ve known for at least 30 years that the plastics interfere with hormone development. Hormones have a huge huge impact on weight. If you’re talking about a population level effect, this is pretty obvious. This generation has been bathed in hormone disrupting chemicals since the uterus. Also check out the stats on increasing infertility in males.
I read an article about this in the 1990s, when they were first starting to see effects in some animals, and was pretty horrified but it seems like no one really cared.
Here’s one article but there are a bunch:
https://www.endocrine.org/topics/edc/what-edcs-are/common-edcs/metabolic

[Anonymous]

Boomers are fat too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t want to read all six pages but has anyone said hormone interrupting chemicals like phthalates? That’s pretty obviously the answer. Crap food has been around since We2 as have screens. But boomers and gen X did not grown up with the extent of these chemicals in the air, water and food. We’ve known for at least 30 years that the plastics interfere with hormone development. Hormones have a huge huge impact on weight. If you’re talking about a population level effect, this is pretty obvious. This generation has been bathed in hormone disrupting chemicals since the uterus. Also check out the stats on increasing infertility in males.
I read an article about this in the 1990s, when they were first starting to see effects in some animals, and was pretty horrified but it seems like no one really cared.
Here’s one article but there are a bunch:
https://www.endocrine.org/topics/edc/what-edcs-are/common-edcs/metabolic

I think people care, but the problem is so massive we feel helpless to actually DO anything to make change. There's one group that I think is in DC called the plastic pollution coalition that is working to fight it. And then, of course, the ewg. Surely there are others, but what actual change can we make? We try to avoid plastics as much as possible at home, but feels like one step forward two steps back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boomers are fat too.

Have you ever seen photos from the 60s and 70s? American youth were NOWHERE near as fat as they are now. Of course Boomers are fat, many are over 70. But compare obesity of boomers when they were the same age as current Gen Z. Boomers were the last normal weight people in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers are fat too.

Have you ever seen photos from the 60s and 70s? American youth were NOWHERE near as fat as they are now. Of course Boomers are fat, many are over 70. But compare obesity of boomers when they were the same age as current Gen Z. Boomers were the last normal weight people in the US.

Fast food hasn’t caught on yet. The school lunches were actually cooked on the property and not sent in frozen. Couple that with less physical activity and you have a high rate of obesity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers are fat too.

Have you ever seen photos from the 60s and 70s? American youth were NOWHERE near as fat as they are now. Of course Boomers are fat, many are over 70. But compare obesity of boomers when they were the same age as current Gen Z. Boomers were the last normal weight people in the US.

Fast food hasn’t caught on yet. The school lunches were actually cooked on the property and not sent in frozen. Couple that with less physical activity and you have a high rate of obesity.

People didn't really eat all that healthy, but they seemed to eat a lot less and most of it was cooked at home. My parents, for example, grew up on bologna sandwiches on white bread, and a lot of fatty beef, pork and potatoes. The standard meat and potato diet. But they didn't eat out, they drank water or milk as kids, and walked everywhere as they grew up in a large city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers are fat too.

Have you ever seen photos from the 60s and 70s? American youth were NOWHERE near as fat as they are now. Of course Boomers are fat, many are over 70. But compare obesity of boomers when they were the same age as current Gen Z. Boomers were the last normal weight people in the US.

Fast food hasn’t caught on yet. The school lunches were actually cooked on the property and not sent in frozen. Couple that with less physical activity and you have a high rate of obesity.

People didn't really eat all that healthy, but they seemed to eat a lot less and most of it was cooked at home. My parents, for example, grew up on bologna sandwiches on white bread, and a lot of fatty beef, pork and potatoes. The standard meat and potato diet. But they didn't eat out, they drank water or milk as kids, and walked everywhere as they grew up in a large city.

People don’t realize how many calories are tacked on just from sugary coffee, soda, and fried food. Our portions are also big compared to other countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers are fat too.

Have you ever seen photos from the 60s and 70s? American youth were NOWHERE near as fat as they are now. Of course Boomers are fat, many are over 70. But compare obesity of boomers when they were the same age as current Gen Z. Boomers were the last normal weight people in the US.

Fast food hasn’t caught on yet. The school lunches were actually cooked on the property and not sent in frozen. Couple that with less physical activity and you have a high rate of obesity.

People didn't really eat all that healthy, but they seemed to eat a lot less and most of it was cooked at home. My parents, for example, grew up on bologna sandwiches on white bread, and a lot of fatty beef, pork and potatoes. The standard meat and potato diet. But they didn't eat out, they drank water or milk as kids, and walked everywhere as they grew up in a large city.

People don’t realize how many calories are tacked on just from sugary coffee, soda, and fried food. Our portions are also big compared to other countries.

People used to drink a lot of black coffee. Now people prefer so much more sugar now than they used to. desserts, bread, salad dressings, all of it is much sweeter.

[Anonymous]

Fluoride, vaccines, HFCS, and all the other horrors of science will do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because they were raised on screens and are still sitting and on screens almost non stop? My teenager finds it practically impossible to get his friends to do anything but game. He skates, is in sports, has limited screens, etc but his friends are online almost all the time.

Outside is dangerful. Avoid outside.

There’s a piece in NYT fr 9/4 “How Did the Latchkey Kids of Gen X Become the Helicopter Parents of Gen Z?”

It made me think about this a bit more…
I think us Gen Xers are also part of the problem. We were wild, but many of us didn’t thrive in the latchkey experience so we over schedule and micromanage our kids. And often keep them home, where it’s “safe”…sedentary on screens. We know that for adults, one hour of physical activity doesn’t beat a day of on/off exertion for our long term health, but that’s what we’re often designing for our kids.

To be fair 1/4 girls and 1/5 boys were victims of SA.