> to suggest that people have a natural weight and that's the cause of this seems absurd to me
People do have a natural weight, and a fraction of people are genetically predisposed to be overweight regardless of lifestyle. But what I find impossible to accept is that somehow that number has mushroomed in the past half-century and particularly in the U.S.
I've lived and/or worked on every continent over the past 40 years, and nowhere have I seen the degree of obesity that is commonplace in the U.S. (I have not been to the Pacific Islands--I know they have the highest obesity rates there for reasons I haven't researched, but they're also a very small population). Anecdotes aside, the obesite rate in the US is nearly twice as high as some European countries (and not because people in those countries are malnourished).
It's pretty clearly the food. Living in other countries I never had to worry about weight, but as soon as I moved to the U.S. I started gaining weight right away even though I eat quite healthy. It's just very very hard to escape processed foods in the U.S. unless you 1) have money to buy more expensive food, and 2) are very conscious about it and make considerably effort to stick to fresh fruits, veggies, rice, fish, etc., no fast food, sodas, packaged foods, etc. etc.
It's also well documented that obesity is correlated with income, and it's not hard to see why, when the grocery options in low-income areas have very little healthy, minimally-processed food. Nutritional inequality is a huge issue and there's very little action taken about it. Just think about how cheap and easy it is to get unlimited refills of soda -- with a soda fountain nearly everywhere you go, compared to eating fresh food. Many people have neither the time nor money to eat healthy, and despite "be healthy" slogans, etc., nearly everything around us conspires against eating healthy (unless you have lots of $).
I'm happy that obesity-reduction pills are coming on the market because some people are naturally predisposed to gaining weight and will be helped greatly by the pills. But what I hope doesn't happen (but already see happening) is that being used to paper-over this huge problem of nutritional inequality that is the root cause of much (though not all) of the obesity in the U.S. at least.
I have also noticed myself and my partner gain weight when we live in the US. I'll make it a little more concerning: I mostly don't eat processed foods. I buy the raw ingredients and cook myself.
Do you often cook with ingredients like canned beans or canned diced tomatoes or premade stock? Do you buy any kind of grocery store bread, including the "fresh" stuff from the bakery section? All of these things usually contain added sugar in the US, sometimes in shockingly huge amounts. I think people from other countries don't know to look out for sugar in these kinds of processed but not ultra-processed food items because such things don't usually contain sugar (because it's totally unnecessary). So even if you're mostly cooking with raw ingredients you could be getting way more sugar in your diet than you did wherever you lived before.
Nope. I never buy anything without reading ingredients and yes the US is really bad about adding sugar to stuff. Even some meat which is absurd.
But when I say I cook from scratch I mean it. If I want beans I buy a bag of dried beans. I will sometimes buy canned Marzano tomatoes from Italy, ingredients: tomatoes.
Hmm...must be something else in the environment then. I lost weight effortlessly while living in Europe but I always assumed that was due to being cut off from processed foods and food items with unnecessary additives. It's nearly impossible for me to maintain an equally healthy diet here in the US because it's simply too annoying and it's also much easier to give into the temptation to eat junk food. I'm too lazy for things like dried beans though, I always prefer canned (as long as I can get the ones that are just beans, water and salt).
I don't usually plan what I'm cooking that far in advance so it's not practical for me personally and there's really not much difference between dried beans and canned unless you're buying the ones with sugar or you have a medical reason to avoid sodium
The other big difference between the USA (and Canada) and other places in the world is the built environment. NA does have a scattered few walkable cities, but there's a great many places where it's effectively impossible by design to go about the tasks of ones day fueled only by person power and not by getting in a car. This has implications on the amount of calories people are burning every day.
Excellent point. I didn't even own a car before moving to the US 5 years ago (even after having kids). I commuted to work by a combination of bike / subway, walked kids to school, and walked or biked to local errands. Denser layouts meant most things we needed were within walking distance or a few subway or bus stops away. And if we wanted to get out of the city on the weekend we'd rent a car.
People do have a natural weight, and a fraction of people are genetically predisposed to be overweight regardless of lifestyle. But what I find impossible to accept is that somehow that number has mushroomed in the past half-century and particularly in the U.S.
I've lived and/or worked on every continent over the past 40 years, and nowhere have I seen the degree of obesity that is commonplace in the U.S. (I have not been to the Pacific Islands--I know they have the highest obesity rates there for reasons I haven't researched, but they're also a very small population). Anecdotes aside, the obesite rate in the US is nearly twice as high as some European countries (and not because people in those countries are malnourished).
It's pretty clearly the food. Living in other countries I never had to worry about weight, but as soon as I moved to the U.S. I started gaining weight right away even though I eat quite healthy. It's just very very hard to escape processed foods in the U.S. unless you 1) have money to buy more expensive food, and 2) are very conscious about it and make considerably effort to stick to fresh fruits, veggies, rice, fish, etc., no fast food, sodas, packaged foods, etc. etc.
It's also well documented that obesity is correlated with income, and it's not hard to see why, when the grocery options in low-income areas have very little healthy, minimally-processed food. Nutritional inequality is a huge issue and there's very little action taken about it. Just think about how cheap and easy it is to get unlimited refills of soda -- with a soda fountain nearly everywhere you go, compared to eating fresh food. Many people have neither the time nor money to eat healthy, and despite "be healthy" slogans, etc., nearly everything around us conspires against eating healthy (unless you have lots of $).
I'm happy that obesity-reduction pills are coming on the market because some people are naturally predisposed to gaining weight and will be helped greatly by the pills. But what I hope doesn't happen (but already see happening) is that being used to paper-over this huge problem of nutritional inequality that is the root cause of much (though not all) of the obesity in the U.S. at least.