Besides not getting enough time outdoors exercising, I think it's the chemicals in our processed foods and not enough low pesticide fruits and vegetables. When I truly went unprocessed to low processed foods with diet and focused on getting a variety of plants in my diet, it was 100% easier to lose weight. Over time my appetite became so normal. I eat a good size breakfast, a huge lunch, a nice size snack and a small dinner (recommended by a doctor because I was getting reflux in middle age). I am so satisfied. When I ate more processed food and these were processed foods considered "healthy" I was hungry ALL.THE.TIME.

Americans don't walk. Everything ist built around cars. In my european hometown kids walkt to school, even the little ones from age 5 walk in groups to school and back home. And there is always a lot to do on the way to school.

because kids aren't starving themselves in the name of thinness like we did.

Anonymous wrote:Our food is junk.

That's it! Food is so bad in this country. I recently walked into Walmart, I was terrified looking at all these giant plastic bottles of cheese balls, chip bags, cookies etc. Gross.

I think it's a lot of factors. All the junk food, chemicals, snack culture, screens, no play time affect the kids who are already somewhat predisposed to overeating. I see this play out with my kids. One of my kids just doesn't like food that much, and is not at all good motivated. He doesn't even like eating cake or pies or chips or most snacks. He is just unlikely to ever be overweight. Other kid is way more of a typical eat whatever snack he can get his hands on kid.

Less physical activity. Youth sports are not the answer. Kids in the 50s-80s weren’t participating in travel baseball and soccer. But they were out riding bikes, walking, and just playing pickup ball with their friends and neighbors. But because of safety concerns - not just stranger abductions, those are very rare - kids don’t really do all that anymore. Parents are concerned about traffic/pedestrian accidents, and kids having CPS called on them for being out away from home. And people complain about “noise,” so parks and playgrounds get shut down - plus also, the parks budget is an easy thing to cut when budgets have to be balanced, AND with the very imminent “demographic cliff”/recession baby bust, there will be even less demand for kid friendly recreation in the near future.

Also too many restaurant meals and meals out. I’m an older Millennial and meals out and even fast food were treats for us. Younger people now get the apps for everything and it’s soooo incredibly easy to mis-judge how many calories you’re consuming when 500+ a day comes from sugary coffee drinks and energy drinks. Portion sizes are huge these days. A regular sized fast food drink was a large in the 80s. In the 70s an adult would go to McDonalds and get a regular cheeseburger and a medium fry (which is the same as a small these days) and maybe a 12 oz soda and that was a good meal. But that’s what the kids meals are today.

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.

Lucky charms, pb&j and pasta is not much better.