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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But the three major food groups in America are sugar, salt, and fat. Where would we be without them?
Oh come on. Carbs are 50%+ of the diets of a lot of americans.
Karl Denninger over at Market-ticker.com has written several pieces about the *criminal* malfeasance of the american medical industry for the way they told people not to eat fats without distinguishing between kinds of fats. They lied. And they *knew* that the result of their false counsel would be that people would drop the amount of fat in their diet and radically increase the amount of carbs they were eating. They knew this and they knew that it was not healthy.
I wouldn't trust most doctors to tell me whether what the weather was like outside or what time it was.
Denninger is right. The dietary advice from doctors over the last 60-odd years has killed, I would guess, hundreds of millions. Mao and Stalin are seething in evy.
Jews.
America has the fattest poor people in the world.
Are they the fattest poor people or the poorest fat people? Hmmmm.
I thought that was Mexico.
No it's the US
What about a FREE refill? Or a 33 feet cornflakes wall of worry at Wallmart? Or a McSaint?
A German came over to the US about twenty years ago trying to find why obesity levels were higher than in Europe.
His conclusion was that European cities and towns were built before the age of the automobile. When the car came along it was very difficult to use in Europe because the streets were so narrow. In the US a lot of the cities and towns were built or rebuilt after the car came a long. The results, Europeans had to walk more or use bicycles. Also those old buildings had smaller rooms and hence less room for refrigerators and freezers. Also fewer elevators. The pattern was to walk up or down two to three flights of stairs then to a corner store for food. Over all the Europeans got more exercise.
The problems with sodas is not so much the sugar content but the phosphate content. The phosphates tend to bind magnesium which in turn causes problems with calcium blood levels. Which can cause mood and hunger problems. You end up having to take magnesium and zinc supplements if you keep drinking the stuff.
The calcium os refined out of white sugar as well.
No its not. You don't need any Calcium supplements either. It causes hardening of the arteries. Vitamin D and Vitamin K2 will allow your dietary calcium to go where it should.
Magnesium is more important than D when it comes to calcium distibution. Your right though. Magnesium deficiency is epidemic.
Nope, D is the capstone. Without it all others are skewed.
then cal, mag, pot, K2.
when silica & cal are sufficient, your bod will rid itself of the aluminum raining down on us.
Sigh... I'm going to let this one go because it's going to take too long and it's splitting hairs. Your right, Vitamin D is extremely important I agree.
Something to think about... ever notice how we are always told to take our calcium and how it is added to everything? This especially interesting considering that such a large amount of people are magnesium deficient and how magnesium and calcium work together. Something to think about.
Something else to tink about....where do cows et their calcium? We are told to drink milk for the Calcium. So cows obviously have a plentiful supply.
Answer: grass. Also known as a green leafy vegetable.
You want more calcium? Eat your fucking vegies!
...and grow a few more stomachs.
@Ms No,
no need to sigh...mag has to be minimum 1:1 ratio to cal w/K2 or poof, straight to soft tissue.
these dumbass allopaths tell women to take cal then wonder why they're dropping dead.
engineered right out of med skool.
chemistry of man...bernard jensen
minerals for the genetic code...charles walters
It absolutely is refined out of white sugar.
Agree with not needing milk and extra calcium. But here's a comparison of white sugar v low refuned sugar. It would surprise most people.
http://www.livinghealthymom.com/sucanat-benefits/
Wrong. Its the high fructose corn syrup. You need Mg supplementation whether you drink soda or not.
Caffiene causes sugar crash. Must consume more sugar after drinking caffienated sodas..
Wow, reading about all that food made me hungry. I'm going out for a big mac.
get one with extra corn syrup. yuummmm.
Just cut out all sugar and breads
Guarantee you will lose weight
I know a couple young people with stage 4 cancer. One 37, male who was ripped, has a six pack and biceps as big as footballs. Another 24, female, slim and active.
I asked a nurse that I do a lot of hiking with whats going on. She said, "Its our diet."
Nah. Young, otherwise healthy people don't get cancer. They are probably taking steroids and such. Especially the guy with the biceps.
From what I understand, 'roids' are just testosterone.
A man wants to cut his dick off, turn into a woman? No problem! Here's some estrogen pills.
A fucked in the head single mom wants to turn her little boy into a girl at age 11? No problem! Here/s some estrogen for the little guy!
A middle aged man has low testosterone and is feeling lethargic? PROBLEM! No testosterone supplement! Here, take some estrogen instead! It's free! Patriarcy! Rape! NO TESTOSTERONE FOR YOU!
What a country!
FUCK YEAH!
My neighbor came down with pancreatic cancer at 47. Was obese, smoked, and worked auto-body -- exposed to lots of hazardous chemicals.
He's doing chemo now, won't quit smoking. I guess at that point it doesn't matter. And I still see him eating crap food and drinking the nectar of the Gods, Mountain Dew.
It;s sad because he's got three sons, and he's the kind of guy you'll want to know when TSHTF.
Younger people are getting all sorts of diseases that used to be just for old people.
Food, lifestyle, aluminum, barium, strontium, ubiquitous EM radiation everywhere, deteriorating ozone layer, pesticides, plastics, petrochemicals, etc.
Even if you ate 100% organic, and never smoked, never got fat, and excercised regularly, you can still get cancer due to all the toxicity in our environment.
In the end it's a roll of the dice. It's all about how much toxic load YOUR body can handle. And in that regard no two humans are the same IMO.
Read Wheat Belly by Dr William Davis - That explains a lot.
Then "Grain Brain" by Dr. Richard Perlmutter.
Read Wheat Belly by Dr William Davis - That explains a lot.
I am not trying to be a dick at all so if you want to downvote me go ahead but many of our Mexican immigrants are heavy as well, especially the women. Nearly 100% of the immigrant women I see are overweight. I'm nice to everybody, I don't care if they are fat or Mexican.
Another thing I have wondered about is what is happening to their kids. The kids are normal sized but a huge percentage of these kids have eyes that are off a bit and when you smile at them or say hi they just stare unresponsive. It is similar to some fetal alcohol symptoms but I highly doubt that is the cause as Mexican mammas aren't usually getting wasted when their pregnant. They are religious housewives most of the time. Something isn't right with a lot of these kids and I can't figure it out.
Massive carbohydrate overdose from beans and rice and tortillas.
It's worse than that though for the kids, it's like a borderline fetal alcohol retardation without the big head. They eyes are off balance though. I wonder if they get jabbed with a bunch of extra vaccines after jumping the border and before school, more so than our kids or something. They also have this contagious bacteria in their mouth that rots out all of their teeth. It's something we don't usually have in the states. If you see a little hombre with all silver teeth that is often why.
It also doesn't help that they eat what you were saying above plus a huge portion of their diet is GMO corn. They often have a lot of really bad acne too and I don't care what Western Medicine says, if you have that going on really bad there is something seriously wrong in your system.
The US .gov loaded Natives down with starch and then they had acne problems too. It's probably related.
That look is the 'Injun looking at Whitey" gene in their DNA.
Four factors that converged in about the same 10 year period:
1) Industrial corn
2) Growth hormone in livestock
3) Institutionalization of physical activity for children, i.e. disappearance of unsupervised physical activity.
4) Emphasis on self esteem, lack of personal shame or embarrassment for personal appearance.
I work in peds, and I can tell you things have changed. The size of their heads have changed. Developmental landmarks are out of whack (just referred a 14yo girl for 3rd molar surgery, wtf). 12 year olds that weigh 220.
Pretty much. You forgot soy though. Kids that are 8 years old should not be going through puberty. GM soy is absolutely part of that problem as well.
Eat organic people and eat food that looks like real food not processed crap.
eat organic people?? Soylent green?
he means eat the lean fit people, don't eat the fat fucks
Sugary breakfast cereal. I also believe 3 meals a day is too much, that we should eat when we are hungry, that we are actually thirsty when we think we are hungry (same physiologic response) and should snack on roughage because diverticular disease is also a new epidemic (digestive tract out pouches in lower GI/colon).
Regarding head size - Infant Formula.
This is purely anecdotal, but I've seen enough kids for it to make some sense to me. Those kids who are switched to infant formula earlier than is normally required, end up having larger heads during their first few growth periods. Those who are breastfed, and then fed with fruits, vegetables and meats and other minimally processed foods, end up being optimally proportioned.
So perhaps there's something in the formula, and also things missing, that cause this to happen.
Hi incidence of diabetes in the Latins, lots of carbs, won't find one drinking sugar free sodas. Could be low blood sugar you're seeing which turns to hi blood sugar. Lo blood sugar affects vision, ability to focus and causes bad headaches. Eyes are off and behavior would be called zoning...
Most Mexicans are mestizo -some Euro blood some indian. Many inherit the indian metabolism that doesn't do well with carbs, sugars, refined foods. Mexican food while tasty isnt all that healthy -salt, carbs. We have lotsa fat little chicas running around in NM, they become gargoyle-like when they get older. The men get fairly round. Mexican style religion is more superstition and native-like beliefs which is why premenstrual chicas see the virgin mary in a piece of toast.
If you ever pass thru NM on I40 west, be sure to go to Acoma Sky City, not the casino, the ancient peublo. You'll learn how the indians oppressed by the spaniard priests were able to combine christianity with their native spiritual beliefs and practice it right under the church's nose.
Seth Mcfarlane's interpretation of mexicans is pretty much spot on. I grew up with the culture.
"Multiple clinical trials have shown that caffeine triggers a surge in pancreatic insulin secretion. Insulin stimulates the cells in your liver, muscles and fat tissue to absorb glucose,"
Caffiene doesn't help. It causes a spike and subsequent crash in the level of blood sugar, which causes all sorts of symptoms (shakes, sweating, dizzyness) and one important one of hunger/craving for sugar. Which is often the trigger for another highly sweetened caffienated drink.
It basically drives blood sugar -> fat, and then tells you that you need to eat/drink more.
I don't see that effect at all. It raises pulse rate an BP tho.
Issue with caffeine is that it dehydrates (increased urine output). My friend from Central America and my neighbor, a Mexican gal, describe to me that water is more expensive than soda (Coke, Pepsi, Mt. Dew) and that the children are given soda when water out of tap is too nasty to drink. One has been on dialysis for years, kidney transplant that failed, The other has just had pancreatitis and basically has to eat like a bird (no dairy, meat, sugar, salt, spices). Men from that region who work in fields see their kidneys go sooner due to the heat and extra hydration requirement.
Does not take a rocket scientist to see what is going on here. This is intentional. The Pyramid of food requirements are for the lecture in the Dr's office but the available of this food via price and access should be made easier. And sugar is addicting. Flavor is lost in a fresh veggie after a candy bar, as we know.
I get the shakes somewhere round an hour after drinking coffee. Result is though I love it, I don't drink it regularly, or any other caffienated beverages. It's the difference of going from feeling full -> hungry gradually vs falling off a cliff.
The real answer is EBT cards and no more factory jobs....
How many fat, OLD people do you see?
Six.