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| *Women health>>>Obesity |
What is the primary cause of the increase in obesity in the United States in the last 50 years? |
What is the primary cause of the increase in obesity in the United States in the last 50 years? The simple answer is that we eat more and move less. But why is that happening? As someone else suggested, Fast Food Nation gives a wonderful profile on the rise of fast food in American and what changes have taken place at the same time that the author attributes to the fast food industry. Basically, in America, we have lots of food available and it's not very expensive. Restaurants make it easy to super size--even non-fast food restaurants often offer a larger portion (like 16 oz steak rather than 10 or 12 oz steak) for only a small amount more. Portion sizes in restaurants are much larger than they were 30 years ago. Soda is the drink of choice--with 10 calories per sip, a couple of glasses have as much calories as a piece of cake (and the refills are FREE). And then we eat the cake too. Schools now offer soda and junk food in vending machines in order to get promotional money from the companies placing the machines. Physical education in schools has been scaled way back. Because of the fear-based society we live in, mothers don't want their children playing outside where they can be snatched by child molesters so they stay inside and watch TV and play video games and eat junk food and learn to be inactive. Kids don't walk to school anymore; they are driven both ways. Buses stop at each driveway because kids don't/can't/won't walk to a central pick-up location. When you are an inactive child, you grow up to be an inactive adult (spoken by one who knows). Everything has a drive-through--pharmacies, banks, restaurants (or they carry your food out to the car so you don't even have to walk to the door and back). No one walks anywhere except those few people who walk for pleasure and exercise. People don't even walk their dogs anymore. They fence in the yard and let the animals run around. I could keep going, but you get the gist. Source(s): My diet and exercise blog: http://itsafatlife.blogspot.com... Fast Food greed sugar and the lack of portion control in fast food and other food...increased motorized transportation and less walking Too many calories coupled with less activity. Our parents had fewer labor saving devices and so burned up huge amounts of energy. Solution is eat less or exercise more. -increased portion sizes at restaurants -increase soda consumption -increased food advertisement (oh how they target sugary foods to kids) -increase in processed foods available -increase in food availability -the amount of high fructose corn syrup in foods today -the decrease in active lifestyles (aka, desk jobs, video games etc) |
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| Premenstrual Syndrome Preparing for Surgery Progesterone Rheumatoid Arthritis Obesity Ocular Allergies Oral Health Osteoarthritis Osteopathic Medicine Osteoporosis |
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