How Did Americans Get So Fat, In Seven Charts
Americans are fat. They are so fat very few would even bother to click on a hyperlink in this article explaining how fat they are, so instead we will present an animated chart showing the severity of the US obesity problem over the past 30 years.
Cartoons aside, here are the facts: today two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese. Half are afflicted with chronic conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure that can often be prevented with better diets, but aren't and as a result debt-funded healthcare costs have exploded, and while this chronic obesity has made pharma companies richer beyond their wildest dreams, it means future US healthcare spending and welfare obligations are unsustainable.
America didn't get this way overnight. The average calories available to the average American increased 25 percent, to more than 2500, between 1970 and 2010, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There was no extra meal added to the day, instead an evolution in the type of foods Americans eat led to steady growth in calories.
Added fats and grains account for a growing share of total caloric intake. These two categories, which include oils and fats in processed foods and flour in cereals and breads, made up about 37 percent of our diet in 1970. By 2010, they were 46 percent—a larger share of the growing pie. One of the main factor: cost; the increasingly more caloric foods become progressively cheaper and more affordable. The result: more of the lower and middle classes gravitated toward it, leading to the epidemic shown above.
Here, courtesy of Bloomberg, are seven charts showing the detail behind America's troubling obesity trend.
First, this is where America's calories come from.
Cheese is replacing milk.
A lot more fat goes into our foods.
Calories from wheat, rice, and corn have increased. This includes refined grains like white bread that provide calories but are stripped of much of the nutrients in whole grains.
There are some indications that Americans are changing their diets to become healthier. For example, we're swapping red meat for chicken.
And though corn syrup boomed since the 1970s, the total amount of sweeteners we eat has declined. That's partly because Americans are drinking less soda.
These positive changes haven't negated the overall increase in calories on our plates. More than two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, compared to less than half in the 1970s.
The government's dietary guidelines are simple: "Almost all people in the United States could benefit from shifting choices to better support healthy eating patterns." Right, now if only the government would also subsidize this healthy - which means more expensive - eating. We won't hold our breath: after all the massive pharma lobby would generate far less profits for its clients if US obesity were to sharply decline as a result of someone doing the right thing.
So until something does take place to shock the US out of its fatty momentum, here is Family Guy.
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I'm not fat. I just have heavy bones.
I'm not too fat; I just have this rare disease that makes my body spend less energy!
I have beein in medical field since 1979 and I have been watching. Whatever Americans are consuming/drinking, it is destroying their livers and kidneys. Sugary soda priced to sell. Microwavable garbage. Laboratories are creating these monsters who weight 3 times what a person should and it is intentional. American Medical Association should be held responsible for the health of the citizens under its care. They and the physicians are murdering their own people and making a forture doing it.
Medicaid (free health care) helps it along. If there's no financial consequences for the health problems, there's less accountability as with everything else out there.
Same with free food. Ever take a good look at that EBT person's cart in front of you at checkout?
Sugar byproducts and salt, hydrogenated oil/margarine - all deadly. High cholesteral is found in patients who follow strict diets low fat diets (study done in Australia). Butter has been given a bad name by physicians who would fit right into The Holocaust scenario for what they are doing to us. And I do mean that. Pancreas cannot be replaced when it goes. It's a slow kill.
Even slower if you take pancreatic enzymes.
Exhausting our life time supply of digestive enzymes and hormones from these organs is what I believe is occurring. Causing premature aging of organs and early failure. One organ goes and others follow. Feeling ill makes one immobile and of course, that leads to DVT (deep venous thrombosis) which is another epidemic because we are sitting down and not walking about as we are supposed to (long plane rides were once cause of DVT and so the comparison may be seen here). Young people are very ill in USA.
Well said.
@bunnyswanson,
agree, but imo it's nutricide from crappy farming practices since the dustbowl.
each of those organs regenerate at certain times (sleep cycle) with minerals in play for each one having both a positive & negative valance. if one is missing, ain't gonna happen.
add the EMF soup sterilyzing the soil 3' down, killing the microbes necessary for mineral uptake in the fruits & vege's, and you got a recipe for disaster.
we're past the point of no return. supplementation will help until they outlaw that too.
cannot recommend enuf: minerals for the genetic code by charles walters
Please do not tell the FSA that their EBT's are killing them. Otherwise we'll NEVER be rid of them.
"Ever take a good look at that EBT person's cart in front of you at checkout?"
Yep, nothing but processed garbage. And soda. I wonder how many people would change their ways if they actually had to pay for it. or how many would use a gym membership if it was free. A few trips to the gym a week can usually cure high blood pressure...so, what is cheaper, per month, if you have to pay for it out of pocket, the meds for your high blood pressure, or a gym membership? Probably the gym, but since sickcare insurance pays a lot of the cost of the pills, but you have to pay 100% of the gym yourself, the gym seems more expensive.
I hold no ill will toward people who go to the gym, but I don't get it. Walk when ever possible, take the stairs, mow your own lawn, shovel your own snow, do your own landscaping, find a very part time job doing physical labor that pays you. I know those who live in apartments in urban areas don't have some of those options, but my point is why expend so much energy without economic benifit. I left a large city a 8 years ago and moved to a 200 acre farm in the country. I do so much physical labor that I can eat almost whatever I want and my labor makes ME money, I don't pay others to go and workout. What would our ancestors have thought of the idea that people have so much access to high calorie food that they need to pay money to lift weights, work machines... Do labor... To keep from getting fat.
With the coming economic collapse, it's probably a good thing that Americans have a million tons of fat around their collective waistlines.
Sometimes two wrongs do make a right!
Exactly. Mobile food storage, can't be eaten by others.....well.....put the lotion in the basket...
MAKE YOUR OWN FOOD!!! Do NOT eat "out of a box". Stop eating fast carbs, and sugars. Stop using as much "processed" food as yu can and get back to "real food".
Motor oil is going to become cheaper than vegatable oil.
Probably make an ugly ranch dressing.
It is quite easy to make everything from scratch. Going to grocery store for fresh perishable products milk/eggs once a week. Dried eggs, butter milk is available on amazon. Spices are the key ingredient. It should be pushed upon the citizens as much as Dear Abby stressed "clean" houses. Houses are spotless but the refridgerators are empty.
Agreed -- I do most of the shopping/cooking at our house, and I'm amazed at the other customers in the grocery store. I shop for dinner, and get some fresh veggies and a hunk of fresh meat, perhaps a loaf of bread. The folks in the line in front of and behind me have carts full of soda, diet soda, TV dinners, packages of sushi-helper, and other processed glop. I don't have any macrobiotic/non-gmo/organic/natural/greenie/veggie/wholistic/dirt-eating prejudices, I just prefer to eat fresh food. The downside is that the folks in front of and behind me in line save 10-20% of their grocery bill in those freq-customer-discount cards, while I usually save about 20 cents or so....they don't seem to discount anything fresh, just the packaged shit.
Y'all invited over here next Easter for bbq grilled tequila-marinated rabbit....always cook a rabbit for Easter. Cheers!
So, no visits from the Cadbury™ Bunny for you, then!
Soon to be followed by decline in IQ graphs. Coincidence?
Well mexicans and blacks score about a standard deviation low on IQ tests and tend to be overweight sooooo maybe.
ZH Continues pllicy of ignoring Mexican invasion.....Any questions?
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2009/04/15/mexican-immigrants-in-the-united-s...
http://stateofobesity.org/disparities/latinos/
More latinos more obesity and diabetes duh
The Taco Bell Effect.
The more Taco Bells, the more Mexicans.
But Mexico said it will build 20,000 Taco Bells for us if we accepted the Mexican refugees.
Mexico is no different from any other country. Pegging Peso against US greenback led to great poverty many decades ago. Oppression through EZ access to drugs, bad food choices and only basic medical care is obvious in that country. But in USA, these women on WIC get medical care when pregnant that lasts the life of the child. All the instructions are there but applying them in real life is the challenge.
Sleep deprivation is another factor involving all people. We are not sleeping enough. There are times when 12 hours of sleep would restore our energy level (stress, illness, over doing it) but we go to bed 6-8 hours and those who "Only need 4 hours" are some type of hero for reasons I do not know. Fatigue is depressing.
Coke/Minute Maid has moved into Mexico rather aggressively over the past several years through the Mexican bottling company FEMSA. FEMSA has spread their little OXXO stores all over the place and undercut prices. Sugary drinks are advertised and readily available. It is faster, cheaper, and more convenient to buy soft drinks in a plastic bottle than it is to buy fresh fruit juice to consume on the spot or take in a cup with a lid. A coke is cheaper than a Penafiel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEMSA
I've watched this roll in and I honestly don't give a shit. I don't have a body like that and I don't have to deal with it. When the time comes I will be able to move faster and farther.
Am I supposed to care how no-neck stupid my fellow Amerikans are ? It has been made plain, even more obvious than smoking - you eat that shit and you will be a wobbling, spraddle-legged whale. End of story, and all your fault. Have at it, Amerika.
Problem is insurance companies, with Obama's help have cost shifted THEIR health costs to you and me. So th egubmint not only forces us to pay for all the bad bankers, but all the fat people's diabetes, bypass surgeries, etc.
That stinks!
You should care because the entire world just laughs at Americans, and yes, you are an American. If you do any international traveling you will quickly understand.
Ironically. It's healthier to not eat anything at all than most of the choices on offer.
Reminds me how the general public is treated like livestock. The bankers fatten them with debt. The food companies with food. Big pharma with drugs. Government with bullshit propaganda. All aimed to keep them docile and lethargic.
I can't get any drugs that make me docile and lethargic unless I grow em myself.
You have not met the right doctors.
I do not take any meds. When I go in for check ups they are always amazed, they don't believe me at first apparently it is so rare. One doc I had a few years back kept asking me over and over if there was anything I wanted at all, but just was to shy to ask. I told him no. To be fair, I do have a problem with making "friends" with my docs and needing to go see other ones because of it. Had to leave 3 doctors because of that issue (one moved to another state, but we ended up having that issue). All of them would have given me anything I wanted.
I saw a young woman 2 years ago, same thing. She actually got mad at me that I didn't want anything. If I get a check up and I am not sick, she does not make any more money off me is as close as I can figure. She probably was also picking up on my contempt for the medical system.
I have a dentist right now, he is great. He offered to do some work on me without pain killers. I tried it. Wouldn't you know it, I did not need them. We are so used to getting them we think it is the right thing to do. Yes there was minor discomfort, and one or two shocks, but I left his office without a numb face. I like that guy and will be back.
I worked in an emergency room for a few months. It was incredible to see so many people who were on mind-altering drugs of one kind or another. It was a rare adult patient who took no Rx meds. We saw the whole spectrum. They did not all have chronic illnesses. The SSRI's etc. are just too readily dispensed.
My experience in that ER cost me a certain amount of respect for the people in the community even though they almost certainly do not consume "happy medicine" in any greater quantity than the rest of the US population.
Interesting to note a few of my normally weighed coworkers gained a significant amount of weight when they were prescribed antidepressants to deal with some tough issues. They all wanted me to follow suit when I had a crisis. I declined. I figured I would deal with my issues without chemical assistance and an expanding waistline which certainly would have added to the stress.
It seems our ancestors managed to deal with the problems of life without such things. They are no solution, just a numbing of reality.
Miffed
Insurance companies will not pay a psychologist, often, unless they send the client for a script after so many visits.
Why do you go for "checkups" Ms? The odd pap smear maybe but beyond that you're just stepping into the lion's den.
My insurance company requires an annual check up. It's an Obama thing. I had not been in 5 years, then they required it. I go and my rates are lower. If I need "coaching" I must accept it. Weight up, blood pressure up, bad blood sugar reading, high cholesterol, will all trigger coaching. I agree, I don't want to be there. The docs know I don't want to be there and don't want excessive "services" when I walk in.
I had not been to the dentist in 9 years. Went a month ago. They were amazed, everything was fine, no problems (except that some of a tooth had chipped off). They fixed that (no pain killer), gave me a cleaning (they said I did not need much) and sent me on my way. Common sense self care, I am fine. The dentist and I both agreed we did not like docs and meds.
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Move over lard ass and let the tide in!
It's pretty simple. The middle class is disappearing. More and more people are poor. Poor people can no longer afford healthy items such as fresh meats and produce. They can't afford that gallon of milk. They can however afford that box of macaroni and cheese that's $1 on sale. So they buy a dozen of them. The foods they can afford are typically high carb which sends weight and often blood sugar levels skyrocketing.
Conversely the wealthy tend to be healthier because they can afford to be.
When I was a kid poor people actually tended to eat better than the wealthy because their backyard was a vegetable garden and they'd hunt and fish. Nowadays a lot of the poor don't even own the land they live on and landlords tend to frown on that sort of thing.
Bullshit.
They don't eat bad because they're poor. They eat bad because they are lazy.
Going to the grocery store, planning meals and actually preparing them requires just a little more effort than most are willing to put in.
KFC tonight. McD's tomorrow. No problem.
"We don't have the money to go grocery shopping."
The KFC 'original' is delicious, but you are right, it's deadly! [like most of the FF]
I second your "bullshit" call on poor not being able to afford the good food. Cheap and easy food is not good.
Time has a value too.
I cook all of my own meals, so I eat very well, but I wouldn't be able to do that if I had to work 60 hours a week as seems to be the norm these days.
well, cooking is a routine you can train yourself into, and once you've practiced it enough, it no longer becomes a hassle and will flow into your day just like brushing your teeth and showering.
I had to force myself to cook all my meals after my health went to shit due to the hectic 6+ working day weeks I was pulling in the early part of my career, everyday was eating out, every night I wasn't finished with work till it's dark.
One day I woke up and found myself unable to sit up in bed without the help of my arms, and I was still in my 20s then, it just shocked me. I had to make a decision to rectify the situation then and there.
Cooking was the first part, exercise was the second. I had to find time to do both whilst working 6+ days a week, and I was in the job type that included a lot of unofficial after hours "work".
Of course, eventually getting off the hectic work schedule was also necessary but sometimes that can't be helped until you are more in charge of your career and finances at a later time in life.
long story short, it's still more about willpower, if you are focused on doing the right thing, you will be able to find the time and effort.
The hardest part is always the "fear of making an effort" rather than making the effort itself.
Although I would believe the animated chart above, but the BMI is a totally wrong metric to measure this and can be misleading. It should be body fat percentage for the most part.
As we are all sitting on out ass reading this - it should be ovbvious.
Not me.
I'm getting dinner.
Well, that's why people buy a $138 arm band "Fat Band" that tells them to get off their fat butts every 30 mintues ...and go get another donut!