why do you think people are getting fatter?

why do you think the stats are showing fatter people?

Honestly, I think it is a combination of things. The more advanced our society gets, the less hard we have to work to get anything or go anywhere making us a lazier society as a whole. Also, we rely so much on processed foods and fast foods that many people don't even know how to cook any more but more than anything, we go for these foods faster than the good wholesome foods we should be opting for, the very foods that people throughout history have had no choice but to eat. We have eliminated fats just to gain fat. We have resorted to sugar laden, nutrient deficient foods because they have made our lives "easier" leading right back to the idea of getting lazier.  Just my opinion but you asked for it.

Ditto- especially the part about the ease and availability of processed foods and people who can't cook.  I'll probably ruffle some feathers adding this but I do feel that as a working woman my time is alot less than women who didn't work in the past- so this impacts what is eaten.  Not saying that women 'shouldn't' work- just saying it creates an additional time/stress factor for many women.

 

Em

We are getting lazy.  When I was a kid we were outside playing non stop.  At night the adults would come out and have fun too, play basketball... something.  Nobody does that anymore.  They sit in their houses eating pizza and burgers sitting in front of a computer. Kinda my theory anyway.

Activity level, overabundance of food options, portion size increase, food marketing, lack of fitness priorities, social climate, poor nutritional guidelines from the supposed to be trusted source, HCFS, processed food, chemicals... I'm sure there's more, but that's a start.

"poor nutritional guidelines from the supposed to be trusted source"   ....that assumes that many families followed those recommendations.  Studies show not many were takers on the aspect of balance or the lowfat aspect or the daily activity!  USDA's guidance fell on deaf ears and lazy butts, I'd say.

The abundance of refined sugars and starches in the American diet is certainly a contributing factor, but there's far more to it than just this. We are living in a society of "convenience".  Rarely do we walk anywhere because most of us have access to some form of motorized transportation.  We no longer have to "work" in the kitchen because modern conveniences help us limit the time and effort it used to take to cook meals and clean up.  The supermarkets are full of frozen and already put together meals.  We don't even have to walk to the corner store to pick up a paper.... we just push a button on our keyboards.  We rarely have to rifle through file drawers and communicating with a co-worker on another floor is done by e-mail.  Inventory control is only as hard as it takes to power up our puters.   We don't play sports anymore.... we pop in a video game.  We hardly walk the malls... we just do our shopping on the internet and socialize there as well instead of putting the effort into preparing to entertain.  Who's got time?   Instead of  picking up a "skinny" chicken in the supermarket.. they're all nice and plump.  I sincerely believe the chemicals used to plump up the animals we use for food have plumped us up as well.  I've noticed that children in my own family have developed features that make me think the mailman was involved somewhere.  The grandmothers have feet no bigger than a size 5.  The daughters are 6's and 7's.  The granddaughters have 9 - 11's!!!  The great grandaughters are falling right in line!   I believe the food pyramid was designed to push what the government decided could be easily grown instead of what was really appropriate.   I believe the chemicals used to grow our food have been poisoning us for years.   When I was a kid.... phys ed was a part of every single school day.  When my daughter was in high school, there WAS no phys ed!  It went from physical to academic.  She never had to walk to the library like I did, she never met the kids down at the basketball courts at night to play.  There was no "field day" like we had (once a year the entire school competed in different sports over the course of a few days at the biggest park in town).   I know there are many other contributing factors, but these are the first to come to mind.

The statement about the more easily grown things & the government...just for perspective, keep in mind that lots of people CAN and do include grains into their diet as the mainstay.  They are not only slimmer, they are indeed healthier. Japan, China, India...how many millions, look at their very low incidence of most cancers, heart disease (well until recently when more high fat, high meat western food is introduced into their culture). My running and biking communities:  those men & women do not eat meat - rarely if at all. My big bike ride in April is thousands of people who congregate to do that ride...and you can hardly find meat - they are all vegans and vegetarians. The biking magazine I get shows almost no meat entrees - all about whole grain cooking.  Meat is in small ways promoted. Yes, these rnning/biking guys may have never been fat - who knows...but nearly all have ridden and eaten this way for years on end. When I used to do running races - same thing.  I think the weakness in the pyramid is that some population canot tolerate grains in those amounts ( you and me are some of those) - but it is not as many as you may think!  Again, a basic thing to remember is that most families did nothing like the pyramid...many have never been trained on its use.  It is not taught in schools - i don't know if you realize that? A FEW teachers in my entire child nutrition career teach it - literally 4 of them over a 25 years span have asked admin for curriculum materials. SOME families and areas use it for the WIC program, targeting low income families.

I won't dispute that grains are healthy in moderate amounts  ... I guess I was thinking more of "CORN" and corn products... corn oil, corn meal etc..  and it's only in the last 20 years that even heard that vegetable oil and such were actually dangerous.  Thinking back.. my mother used mostly vegetable oil (it was cheap). I don't know what the curriculum is now.. but when I was in high school.. (in the 70's) nutrition was part of our health class.  Then again, we had gym class every day too.  It just didn't mean anything.  We'd leave health class, head to the cafeteria for lunch.. and there'd be sicilian pizza, macaroni, lots of breads.  They offered the meatloaf.. but no one ever ate it.   Now that I'm thinking of it, it may be partially related to which part of the country we live.  My daughter brown bagged it for as long as she'd let me get away with it.  There was no getting away with it in high school though.  She didn't want to be the odd man out and managed to leave the lunch bag in the locker and head to the cafeteria for FRIES!  FRIES of all things.  In our area of Florida, the meals offered were pretty nasty microwave lunches.  They started placing emphasis on nutrition when she hit high school, but they still offered take out pizza and fries and had a campus FULL of soda and snack machines.  We never had vending machines on campus.   My mother sorta kinda heard of it.. .lol.  Like you point out.. most families didn't use it.  With some folks, I imagine it's a choice... feed them something (even if it isn't the best) or feed them nothing.  I recall lots of macaroni, meatballs, stews, soups.. things that went a long way.  Heck.. I had never even had broccoli until I was an adult!  Fruit was a special treat..   I guess the carbs we did have were on the nasty side.. very starchy (cheap stuff). Is it possible that obesity is seen more in lower income families?

Yes, obesity is seen in low income - due to the cheapest food is...you guessed it...usually the worst.  I often think of when we were broke and raising our kids...we had a ****ty stove, refrigerator, no freezer. No car to get to the lower priced stores...we had to shop where we shopped. The second hand bread store was, you guessed it again, closer to us than anything. We ate all that **** - both of us had been raised on Wonderbread...so that's what we fed our kids. we bought koolaid, crisco, white flour, kraft mac and cheese, hot dogs, mustard, lot beef, etc. I see what poor peeps buy at the store - lemme tell ya, it has not changed.  Family menus have not changed - the food budget is where the budget suffers - you pay rent, gasoline, utilities....food is always last! You do what you can. You may know what to do, but budgets dictate what will be served. I never heard of or saw any of these things as a kld:  broccoli, brussels sprouts, artichokes, mung beans, italian green beans, enoki mushrooms, fresh beets & sweet potatoes, tacos, burritos, tamales, or any other ethnic food except italian.  My mother served canned veggies, fruits, unless we had fresh given to us by neighbors.  (at least she tried for balance at our meals, i give her that; we also had only one car, mom did not drive) Asparagus grew wild by the train tracks, but my ma would cook the living **** out of it and add bacon.  I was not fat until i was out on my own, living it up eating crap.