The USA Leads in Obesity

So is this supposed to be news?

Let me just pull out my soap box for a minute.

The U.S. (and some other countries) are obsessed with what the scale says when they step on it in the morning, with little or no regards to other, sometimes detrimental factors.

I'm concerned with individuals who are overweight or obese if they are extrememly inactive, eat foods laden with man made chemicals or foods that are so altered by processing that they contain little resemblance to the original food.

I'm very concerned with parents who hand their children food that comes in boxes, cellophane and zip lock pouches.

I'm concerned about people who go on bullshit weight loss plans like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig who are given "permission" to eat snacks that come prepacked in little bars, crackers, snack cakes, chips, (that cost a ton) when the person would be nutritionally better off and more physically satified if they just went ahead and ate a (god forbid) banana and glass of whole milk. Or ate an avocado, nuts, peanut butter or (gasp) a couple of eggs.

Looking at this link below, you can see that the range of life expectancy in the U.S. by state extends from a low of 75 to 77.2 years, to a high of 80 to 81.3 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_life_expectancy

This means that the person in let's say in Alabama who lives to a little over 77 lives a little less than 2 years of someone who lives in let's say California.

Where I live, in Austin Tx, I MAY live anywhere from 6 months to 2.9 years less than someone who lives in CA.

You know what? I'm willing to forego living an extra 6 months to 3 years than live in CA, or someplace in New England or Minnesota.

It's not about the years, it's the quality. Yes, being overweight can definately contribute to a host of diseases. These diseases come from not the sole factor of the pounds themselves, but as I stated above, the type of foods eaten, and lack of activity.

Numbers can be so easily manipulated to say what you want to say.

For instance, you can read that there are about 600,000 deaths from heart disease in a year, and that is 1 out of 4 deaths. Scary, huh?

Wow, let's work on lowering the deaths by heart disease by 25%....so only 450,000 people die from it each year. Yay! We win!

Not really, when you consider that being overweight is far from being the worst cause of heart disease....that belongs to smoking.

The population of the U.S. is approx 315 million. There are appox 2.5 to 3 million deaths in a year. That's like 1% of the population expected to die in any given year.
Let's say we get everyone on the skinny bandwagon, and save 200,000 lives a year.
You know what that adds up to? Saving a whopping .06% of the population. Not 6%, not .6%, that's point zero 6%. That's if you had 10,000 people, that's 6 people.

Ok, enough of the number crunching, I know you think I'm crazy by this time.

More importantly to me....Do I want to live an additional 6 months to 3 years obsessing about the scale each morning. Worrying about each bite of food, comparing myself to some unrealistic picture of a 16 year old model in a magazine when I'm a 55 year old woman?

You know what? If a person lives a life that gives them joy, and enjoyment of the sensual pleasures of food, screw having to live another 6 months to 3 years eating diet foods from boxes and packets.

The quality of life is what matters. Eating pork rinds and kool-aide, and sitting around on your ass will bring you miserable health, no matter how long you live, or how thin you are.

Eating some ice cream after a meal of quality food, and going out for a walk or swim will bring you happiness, something to look forward to on a regular basis and so what if that comes with extra pounds.

Obsessing over your every bite of food, eating one thing when you really want another will bring you mental stress, longing, and at the most maybe 3 extra years of living in a prison of your own making.

Oh, and let's not forget, being able to fit into those skinny jeans, even though you're a bitch on a bicyle from being deprived of food while you're wearing them.

AND another thing....

I'm not sure why you say "interestingly" when noting the US's life expectancy is lower, since you clearly think a persons weight is an overwhelmingly important factor in this.

In fact, comparing our life expectancy to some other countries that we've been told are so superior to us, we're not doing so bad.

Here's a link to the statistics from the CIA on world life expectancy.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html

It shows, on the average, we live:

94.2% as long as Japanese (5 yrs)
96.3% as long as the Swiss (2.8 yrs)
97% as long as Australians (2.5 yrs)
97% as long as Italians (2.5 yrs)
97.5% as long as the French (2.1 yrs)
98.8% as long as the Germans and UK (not quite 11 months)

We live, on the average, have a life expectancy of less than 4 months from the European Union as a whole.

We, on the average, live longer than people in:
Denmark
Costa Rica
French Polynesia
Poland
Mexico
China
Brazil
Greenland


Yeah, the Japanese got it going on, I'll admit that.

But when people in the U.S. are constantly being compared with the paragons of virtue as far as food, the French and Italians, and see that overall it benefits them a couple of extra years. I'm not so impressed. In addition, is all this about food? No, they move around more. They maybe stress less. Maybe it's about the fact they have affairs and don't let it end their worlds. Who knows?
I feel the same, quite frankly about Germany. There's this picture in my mind of super hardy people, hiking 10 miles a day and quaffing beer and the right types of food to keep them strong and healthy....****, on the average they don't even live a year longer than people in the U.S.

Are we low side of the scale with the really industrialized nations. Sure. Is this some kind of competition?

I have to wonder in some of the other countries, the longer life expectancy comes from not worrying and having stress about what they eat every day.

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!
We're no. 1!
We're no. 1!
We're no. 1!

Thanks for the interesting stats, etc. I think when you become a senior, the additional years that you may live were you in good health may be quite priceless to you.

BTW, what is wrong with children being furnished food in zip-locked bags, etc.?

Do you find Cobert funny? I find him boring and sophomoric.

It is amazing that he has gotten away with his irony for nine years.

I'll be interested to see how he conducts himself as a late night host.

Well, I'm not exactly a spring chicken Advocate. You're not talking to a 20, 30, 40 or even 50 year old.
In any event, you can't really say what I'll feel like as time passes, can you? My whole life is priceless to me. Done right, an extra few months aren't going to make any difference.

You've ignored what I was saying. I was saying that overall, there are many other factors that will determine how healthy you are in later years, weight is far from the only one, or even the most dangerous one.

I do however, think the stress from worrying so much about weight, and how others preceive you because of it, shortens your life.
What's the sense of living a couple of extra months or years when it's just more of stressing over stuff?

Are people in general (or even you) worried more about the health consequences of weight, or are you disturbed by having to look at people that don't meet your ideal?
Rather than worry about (or pay lip service to worrying about) peoples health and appearance, it would be better to look and seek within what makes you the best you can be, and let others do the same for themselves.

In fact, I have read in "The Obesity Myth" that overall, the healthiest people are those who are on the border of being overweight and obese, and live the longest.

I didn't say zip lock bags, and I didn't say furnished.....I looked and and said zip lock pouches, as relating them to other food people by that are processed and shoved in boxes, packets, pouches etc.

I wasn't talking about carrot sticks and grapes from home in a zip lock bag. I was talking about the processed food that come in a variety of containers.

I guess we all look at things, such as life expectancy, from our own perspective. I, like almost everyone else, have some medical issues. However, I don't worry about things I cannot change. I can, should I need to, regulate my weight, and have little trouble doing this. I find that, after about two weeks without certain foods, I don't miss them. I merely fill up on other, nonfattening, things.

I agree that processed foods should be avoided.