The Worldwide Problem

[earthfriendly]

Obesity

http://news.yahoo.com/30-percent-world- ... 40558.html

[rajagainstthemachine]

*goes to McDonalads and orders a double cheeseburger + fries and a diet coke to celebrate

[sundaymorningstaple]

Been 6 years since I've eaten in a fast food restaurant. I'm no longer obese either.

[mironet]

Anyone has seen "SuperSize me"?
It's a documentary movie where this guy only eats from fast food over one month...
Recommended!

[BedokAmerican]

i heard about that story a few days ago. In my opinion, it's not only fast food that's making people fat because fast food has been around for decades. Nobody puts a gun to anyone and orders them to eat Whoppers and Big Macs. It's easy to point a finger at fast food but it's more complicated than that. Obesity in society is something that has happened gradually.

Part of the problem might be modern conveniences and technology. The car became a household staple about 100 years ago, so people didn't have to walk. Then TV was invented years later. Video games followed. Then computers came along. All reasons to sit and get distracted and not be active.

http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2013/ ... ng-us-fat/

Schools in some areas have cut back on physical education classes because of budgets or because of pressure to improve student academic test scores, which is seen as more important than sports in some cases.

There's also conveniences such as drive-through restaurants, pharmacies, dry-cleaners, etc. Although not as many drive-thru options in Singapore as elsewhere. Therefore, people don't have to walk. There are also lifts/elevators/escalators that make it much easier for people to stand and wait instead of using the stairs, which is VERY noticeable at MRT stations. People send emails to their office mates (or call their extension) instead of walking over to ask them a question. Might not sound like much to take the stairs or walk 50 meters here and there, but every bit of movement can add up throughout a day.

[x9200]

Convenience definitely plays a part but IMHO it's more about money. The offset from poverty continues to increase. An average person can now eat until (s)he will burst and can do it every day without significant impact to his budget. It was surely not the case not so long ago (i.e. before WWII).

[Max Headroom]

Convenience definitely plays a part but IMHO it's more about money. The offset from poverty continues to increase. An average person can now eat until (s)he will burst and can do it every day without significant impact to his budget. It was surely not the case not so long ago (i.e. before WWII).

And the food that average person does eat is now more calorie-dense than ever before, as the food industry manages to pack more and more fat and sugar into their products.

The same applies to beverages, whether pop, fruit drinks, even yoghurt drinks, it's all so mind-numbingly sweet. Is 100+ isotonic? Surely not. I have to water it down to be able to drink it.

Pop-wise, I haven't had a can of coke, sprite, or some such, for ages, but I had a sip the other day - man, it felt like my enamel was getting jack-hammered on the spot. You may as well be drinking liquid sugar! How do people drink that? It's insane.

And while I'm on a roll, the thing that always blows me away is how true it is that you are what you eat. Next time you walk by a KFC or a Mac, have a look inside. So many of the people inhaling the comfort-food served there look pasty-faced, flabby and utterly zombified.

It's mass-hypnosis I tells ya.

[x9200]

^yep, this too.

[the lynx]

I have to agree with BedokAmerican on this one. It is more of the sedentary lifestyle than the food. People start moving less, that's all.

And it is not just about crap food like MacDonald's, centuries-old glorious recipes with questionable ingredients like pig lard etc have been around from generation to generation and you don't see obese people back then. Now people aren't even eating real food like that and each one of them is inflating like balloons.