Obsesity in America

High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Doesn't cause an insulin response.

Result; keep drinking and eating.

 

Tobacco no.
HFCS is one, but the erst of the world has that too. I'll add:

- Laziness. Americans (esp here in middle America) prefer to drive than walk, or go for a walk... even their kids to school for F sake! When I go home to Canada or even the coasts, I see a lot more people out walking around.
- Entertainment choices: TV, gaming, massive movieplexes, streaming, internet. Easy, comfortable, cheap, fun, convenient.
- Government: the food pyramid is completely wrong. The FDA is corrupt.
- Advertising and lobbying: Dairy counsel, grain counsel, Doritos this, wheat that. Constant bombardment with glitzy star-laden ad campaigns to people that don't want to think about what they dump into their bodies.
- Doctors (most, but not all), worshiped, revered, and having the first and last say are not educated in nutrition and willing to dispense a pill instead of rec'd a lifestyle adaptation.

-Billy

 

It's a disaster of epic proportion.

I was commenting to my wife just yesterday about these exercise programs to keep kids active. I completely agree that they are important. However, I don't think that those programs will help as much as they should when DIET is the real problem.

I've been doing a lot of reading lately about nutrition. I'm years away from being an expert but one thing is clear, the majority of Americans don't eat properly. Hell, until the last 45 days I didn't either.

I find myself looking in other people shopping carts when I'm at the store. It feels invasive but it is also very revealing.

Family number one: 320 pound mother, 250 pound father and two children obviously on their way to poor health. Their cart revealed why: very poor food choices - spaghetti-O's, colas, chips and crackers. Not a veggie in sight.

Single man: 440 pounds. - Little Debbie snack cakes, Chee-Tos and a half rack of Dr Pepper.

For most of my life I made poor food choices and I paid for it to the tune of 320 pounds. Now I've learned a balance of the right foods and am on my way (273 as of this morning) to better health.

I want to help these people but I don't know how.

GT

 

Unfortunately there's not much you can do for the people with the ridiculous shopping carts. Someone has to seriously want to change themselves and be committed before they'll be ready to change. There's no magic solution and most people don't want to accept that.

I think Billy pretty much hit the nail on the head with all of the contributing factors. The sad thing is you see examples of almost every one of these problems every day with no signs of it changing. People at my office take an elevator to go up a single flight of stairs, talk about how many hours they played video games for the previous night, and go to Whataburger/Taco Bell/burger joints daily. As long as doctors are willing to keep providing pills to solve problems that could be eliminated by proper diet and exercise (diabetes, high cholesterol, etc.) I don't think we're going to see any serious effort to curtail the problem.

The best thing anyone can do is take care of themselves and try not to worry about changing anyone outside of their close friends and immediate family. As someone who used to be 60 pounds heavier than I am today, I try to put myself in others shoes and realize it's mostly on them to put in the work.

 

Has anyone seen that ridiculous commercial (i can't remember the sponsor) that says the body can't differentiate between hfc and cane sugar? They're trying to tout hfc as safe.

It's pretty funny.

 

Cane sugar is junk too, along with the pink, yellow, and blue packets.
The only sweeteners that are anyway descent are: Agave Nectar and Stevia. Although those too have an effect on insulin. I don't sweeten anything but get fructose from my frozen fruit, that's it.

-Billy

 

Shopping carts, I know!! What a horror story!

Although I'd like to just blow people off and let them eat what they want to eat, I try to, if they are willing to listen, offer suggestions. Even a small good seed planted may sprout and grow, right?

What really pi**es me off though is when you offer objective, realistic knowledge to people, such as not eating grains, starch, and sugars they turn around and say "Well, you're the only one that I hear saying that." You should hear the crap my GF's 'Nutrition' professor in Nursing School is peddling about Carbs, Grains, etc. Unbelievable archaic thought process!

I applaud people like GT who take on the willingness to learn the truth and make a dedicated change for the better.

-Billy

 

Mainly because I see it all the time, I have to place some of the blame on social drinking -- going out at night and sucking down a bunch of calorie and sugar laden mixed drinks, then going straight to bed, even if it's only on the weekend, isn't a good idea. Adding in a beer here, beer there during the week on top of whatever else is eaten/imbibed, plus nowhere near enough vigorous activity has contributed to the dramatic weight gain of several people I know. Not being sexist, but women need to be especially careful and have to realize they can't "drink like the guys", which seems to be some f'ed up badge of honor. Heck, the GUYS shouldn't drink like the guys!!

Of course general diet is more to blame, but I can't believe how few people realize how many calories they are drinking.

 

It makes me very sad. And unfortunately, the state of the economy is driving more and more people to fast food (for 99 cents, you can get a 1,200 calorie big gulp; if you're poor, that's an appealing option). Some positive trends such as the growth of urban farming and "buy local" are emerging. Bottom line, healthy foods need to be more economical for most Americans to eat them in bulk. Although, with a college student's income and a little planning, I manage to eat very healthy shopping at trader joe's.

There also needs to be more transparency of nutritional content in the dine-out market (including places like Applebees, Starbucks, and Olive Garden, etc.). But in then end, it comes down to preferences, education, and economics.

I laughed when Starbucks introduced the Trenta. Now you can gulp down 1,000+ calories of Iced Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha. At 31oz, it's only slightly larger than the human stomach but don't worry: after about 3 or 4, your stomach will stretch to accommodate the increased volume.

 

Those iced coffee drinks are HORRIBLE! I can't imagine a more perfect storm, nutritionally speaking. Tons of empty fat and sugar calories...and they're almost all HUGE!

There is a good amount of nutritional information available, so I'm still amazed when people can't believe how bad the chicken fingers basket at chain X is or how many grams of fat are in the riblet platter at chain Y, etc. Of course if you are properly informed, you know what to avoid at all costs anyway, but even I occasionally get surprised by the severity of the caloric content and breakdown of some items.

 

Not on level US has, by any stretch.

USA has highest-priced Sugar in the world.

Why? Since 1977, implemented during Carter Administration;
US Production Quotas on Sugar
Tariffs on imported Sugar
Corn subsidized

In EU, there are production quotas on HFCS.

Again, even during overconsumption, HFCS does not cause an insulin response.

Before the mass production of fructose since 1957. human beings had little dietary exposure to fructose. Fructose was limited to only a few items such as honey, dates, raisins, grapes and apples. The staples of most early diets, meats and most vegetables, contain no fructose.

Houston, we've got a problem.

 

Since we are talking about HFCS so much, for those of you that haven't watched it, please watch King Corn. You'll find it on NetFlix or can order online.

GT

 

Sure? IIRC we don't have HFCS here, although certain industries are lobbying hard for it to be allowed...

 

+1

AND, not to mention what excess and regular alcohol consumption does to retard the Liver's 300+ processes.

-Billy

 

+2

Great points.

-Billy

 

What about these kids under 15 walking around with 16oz coffee drinks topped with whipped cream. Man, that is scary! AND, where do they get the $5 to throw at that crap anyway?

-Billy

 

+3

Great Points Man!

-Billy

 

Personally, I don't eat processed food when I can help it. That crap makes my athletic performance suffer. Natural, raw foods make me feel good. I like to feel good. That being said, what happened to "if the furnace is hot enough, anything will burn"? Folks have begun collecting weight because they eat more calories than they use. It's just a math problem and as we all know, most people are really bad at math.

 

A guy at work is quite overweight, most of which is stored in his stomach area. He ended up with a medical issue that required surgery on his intestines. A side effect of his recovery process was extreme weight loss since he couldn't eat anything for quite some time. He went from bulging beer belly to almost flat stomach in weeks.

Once he was able to eat solid food, he talked about how quickly he got full. He made comments about how he needs to stretch his stomach out so he can eat more than 3 bites per meal. 6 months later, stomach bigger than ever. Tells me he wants to start exercising and quit smoking. I won't hold my breath.

Like grandpa says, "people dig their grave with their teeth."

 

What woke me up was getting a real physical. I say real because every year we have to get a physical at work but all they are really looking for is the drug testing. So any way the Dr tells me I'm obese and my blood work was all over the map. I'm 5-10 and weighed 227, (at my physical) I did have a gut but I never considered myself to be obese. So after completely changing what I eat and the amount I eat with regular exercise In a little less than a month I'm down 17 lbs.

 

That 17 pound loss is quite a change. How does it feel (still got your strength and endurance, or are you feeling weaker at times)?

 

I don't feel weak at all. I'm a firefighter and we had a house fire the other day and I noticed a big difference in that I didnt get as tired or out of breath like I use to.

The way I ate before was way out of control. I ate whatever I wanted and as much as I wanted with cookies everynight after dinner as a snack. Now I eat oatmeal with a yogurt for breakfast. I still eat sandwiches for lunch but now instead of mayo I use mustard and wheat instead of white bread. And for dinner we have been using two different cookbooks from weight watchers. The hardest part about dinner was the portion size. I was eating like 3-4 times what I should have been. And no more cookies, potato chips or sodas!! I still have coffee in the morning but only water or an occasional diet ginger ale after that. And for snacks, its fruit or nuts during the day and nothing after dinner.

 

What I use with my clients, instead of putting them on a full-blown diet and eating change, is eliminating or changing out one bad food a week.
Phase out:

- Bread
- Cereal
- Dairy (if you don't eat cereal...you don't need milk!)
- Added sugar/sweeteners

Switch:
- corn fed beef to wild fish
- potatoes or rice for steamed or raw veggies
- bread for lettuce (lettuce is great to wrap your tuna salad in)
- anything fried for grilled or broiled

It doesn't seem as overwhelming then and they are less likely to give up. Counting calories has gone by the wayside. A mentioned above, portion control and acquiring knowledge are the keys.

-Billy