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Post by RacerX on May 30, 2003 21:36:20 GMT -5
OK, this is kind of in line with DB's pole, but instead of people being the racist, it's something without a brain: Fat!
An article in the Austin American Statesman quoted a recent study that says fat is a racist!
In a breakdown of over weight Americans, it seems that:
53% of Blacks in America are over weight
51% of Hispanics in America are over weight
25% of Whites in America are over weight
WTF?
Any comment?
Tripping, RacerX
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Post by julio_montoya on May 30, 2003 23:04:04 GMT -5
I got a comment, i think Americans should get off the couch and start excercising!!! I kind of understand what adults go through cause its harder to lose weight when your older but when your 15 like me, theres no way you cant just run all the fat off, kids are just too lazy and would rather play video games, its going to become a very bad problem in the future, i bet 80% of Americans will be overweight by the time im 40.
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Post by Srrh on Jun 2, 2003 8:18:36 GMT -5
Could it have anything to do with economics?
1)As we all know, cheap fast food makes you fat... 2)Home cooking is only possible if someone has time to cook... 3)Fresh produces are more expensive... 4)Cooking requires a minimum of "know how"...
Just wondering....
S
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Post by Henrik on Jun 2, 2003 8:37:52 GMT -5
Srrh,
Yerah I have read articles that tend to claim that it has something to do with econimics. Poor people in the US tend to go more to cheap fast food places because it is the cheapest option for food available.
I really don't buy that argument. You can easily get fresh produce in a local supermarket and prepare a cooked meal in 15 minutes for less money than what you can buy a meal at Mcdonalds for. Saying you don't have time to cook is rediculous. How long does it really take?
That to me is just a cheap excuse to try and criticize the globalisation of fast food joints. I say, just don't eat there!
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Post by Wycco on Jun 2, 2003 9:39:34 GMT -5
Being overweight is also correlated to lack of education and lack of life satisfaction...
Both of which are higher for lower income families.
Personally, it makes sense to me that lack of education, may be the main cause... not that they don't know that fast food makes you fat- but that they're less aware of just how bad that can be for your health...
Eating healthy can be done on a budget- I did it back in college (I was working 32 hours a week at barely more than minimum wage paying for housing and partially towards my education- and I managed it OK)...
A loaf of bread, and some sandwich meat- costs less and provides more meals than the cheapest fast food combo... (although perhaps less exciting!)
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Post by daSilva on Jun 2, 2003 10:31:55 GMT -5
I agree with Wick.
Over-eating is usually related to self esteem issues.
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Post by glendo on Jun 2, 2003 15:00:15 GMT -5
my father and younger brother are obese... real obese. i fight it... at the moment i am exercising my butt off to pass the military tests anyway, but most of my life i have had to control it.
my dad is around 150kg and my younger brother around 170kg.
i delicately quizzed my brother once about it, and he gave me an insight on why he is so fat (because i am an example of how you can control it, he is an example of not controlling it):
he informed me of the vicious cycle he has generated. He eats because it is pretty much the only thing on this planet that give him pleasure, satisfaction, happiness. As humans we need these, but we have many means to "distribute" these coming from many facets of our lives. My brother has no friends, has never had a girlfriend, and is very shy and anti-social. So, where many of us gain Joy from sex, money, friends, getting high etc. my brother has one... the taste of food and the fulfillment it offers.
this is still no excuse IMO, just gave me someone else's perspective.
it is sad. My dad was always big, and when we were teens, my brother was slim and fit. he went off the rails at 16. sadly, i foresee him dying of a heart attack. i cant help him... he needs to help himself.
anyway, fat the new racist?... fuck political correctness.
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Post by Wycco on Jun 2, 2003 16:17:17 GMT -5
I come from a family of people that love food.
Boy, do I love food- and I have an insatiable appetite... When I treat myself by going to an "all you can eat buffet", I threaten such restaurants with bankruptcy... LOL
How we handle out love of food differs... My sister starves herself to keep thin... my brother ignores the problem- and as a result has become very large...
Myself, I refuse to become as large as my brother- I'm an inch taller than my brother, but I'm (guess) 75-100 lbs lighter... I'm definately heavier then I should be... but far from obese.
I lost 30 lbs last year- and gained it all back over the winter + some... I look about the same as I did when I was lighter- and I wear the same sized clothes (albeit slightly tighter)... so I'm not sure where the weight was lost/gained.
I'm not an exercise freak- in fact I'm fairly sedentary- so to keep at a reasonable weight: I don't snack, my wife and I (usually my wife) cook at home almost every night... we buy everything low fat...
And most importantly: I only drink drinks with no or low calories (exception: fruit juice no more than once a day)... - And I don't add sugar or salt to anything...
A simple fact: The average American who drinks 1-2 sodas a day could lose 20lbs by simply switching to diet sodas.
I usually drink hot tea or coffee- unsweetened and unmilked... With the occasional diet soda- although my latest kick is to remove even the diet soda from my diet and replace it with Fruit-2-O or Propel water instead... (has nutrients added so better for you than Soda).
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Post by Topcontender on Jun 2, 2003 17:37:24 GMT -5
2 things
1. If you are happy being over weight, so be it I don't hold it against you. It is your descision.
2. If you are overweight and bitch at how you diet and can't get it off. I say BS!!!!!!!
Americans are overweight becuase they dont take care of themselves. instead of having a hobby and working that weight off they try the quick fix with diet pills. NOw i dont mind that since i sell diet pills, but what pisses me off is dieters who complain they can't loose the weight. Sorry folks diet and exercise work the, the pills can only help so
example- someone in my warehouse complains that he can't loose weight and found out he is diabetic. So what does he do, he looses 80 pounds (he was at 350) and starts to look good. 6 months later he is a sack of $H!+ and back to 350. He cliams he tries, but upon further inspection he eats everything when nobody can keep track of him. Now his leggs are blue and will be probably amputated from his eating habit.
the sickest thing to see is this, an obese woman comes to an all-you-can-eat buffet. She walks up stacks about 3 plates of freid crap, carbs, and tops it off with ----- a Diet Coke. I say W T F, is that diet soda gonna help? if you are gonna eat 8000 calories you might as well splurge and get the chocolate shake to drink.
OK the minority question- the 2 top groups eat foods that are not very healthy. Blacks tend to eat alot of freid foods like chicken. Mexicans eat alot of other freid foods like chips, refreid beans, tacos etc. Whites eat thier fair share of crap too. Hot dogs, hamburgers, and the all you can eat buffet, help us eat all the bad foods. Look at the japanese immigrants, ever see an obese japanese guy? No very often, that is becuase they eat foods that are better for them. ethnic groups will eat outside thier norms, but they tend to eat the same things.
I am sorry if this sounds like a rant, this is a soft spot for me. I love food, but in no way will i ever let it make me fat. i am 5 foot 10 inches and 185 pounds. I like my weight, and have treid to get here for some time.
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Post by worthless on Jun 2, 2003 18:12:48 GMT -5
My mother is a dietitian and she gets asked this question a lot. The answer is....that well...there isn't a simple answer. To the point of the thread: I think that there are many factors, including genetics, economic levels, and culture (along the lines of TC point). 'Blacks tend to eat a lot of fried foods', etc. But there are several other things that have to be considered. One thing that my mother sees time and time again is that people don't know 'how' to eat healthy. It's amazing the extremes some people take. Some think that they are only allowed to have a small salad for every meal in order to eat healthy. That's simply not true. It's "balance" that is important. Remember the 'food pyramid' thing from elementry school? Yeah, that's something people tend to forget. The other thing she is always saying is that portion sizes are out of control. There are guidelines that people should follow in order to get the nutrients they need and still be satisfied (again kind of relates to that balance-thing). But she has also seen many patients who have emotional issues that manifest into poor eating habits (i.e glendo's point). She says that this is a very real serious problem that a lot of people have. So that is also a viable factor. Personally I think the key is moderation... Maybe I'm a bad example...
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Post by glendo on Jun 2, 2003 19:59:12 GMT -5
another factor is that you have to burn energy off. if you eaty big, burn energy. i run %km everyday, and i ride my bike 20km every 2 days, plus push ups, sit-ups, and soon gym training and/or martial arts. i eat heaps, but i burn it.
secondly, i eat 70% good diet, 30% crap. this goes with up top... i burn it off. nonetheless, dont you guys agree that vegetables taste better than fried crap? give me a steak and salad anyday..
Political correctness is like food. I like taste, spicy foods, not bland neutral crap.
from now on, i am not australian, or white. in fact, you can now call me an anglo-europrean australian. call me white and your'e racist.
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Post by Topcontender on Jun 2, 2003 22:33:23 GMT -5
worthless you got a point, some people were never told what to eat and what not to eat. The US public school lunch program is notorious for serving crap to eat for the kids. Yes they try to fix it but they don't ever succeed.
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Post by Henrik on Jun 3, 2003 1:21:40 GMT -5
Wycco, You touched on one thing that bothers me in the States, and that is the soda drinking habit. First of all, why always drink sodas? Second, why do they have to be so big? You order a soda in the US, you get these bucket sized cups!! If you are thirsty, drink water. Throughout the day, it is good to drink plain water on a regular basis. Now, by all means, have the occasional soda if you enjoy the taste, but it seems like many people are drinking sodas non stop throughout the day. Switching to diet sodas is not going to help all that much. The stuff is simply bad for you! If not water, then maybe beer.......
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Post by smokingun on Jun 3, 2003 1:50:36 GMT -5
hmmm, i've been over weight for as long as i can remember. i used to weigh around 120+ kgs. i love food esp indian food which is simply packed with spices. i also love drinking coke and pepsi. i also had high blood pressure.
i started playing table-tennis at work around a year back. i enjoy the game alot, and as a consequence, i'm now below 100 kgs and what was even better was that my blood pressure dropped to normal so fast that even my doctor couldn't beleive it. that part about burning calories is so true. i've also cut out a lot of sugar from my diet. i drink tea with milk but no sugar. the only problem is at work where i drink coffee and the only coffee that the coffee machine serves has got sugar in it. i drink around 3 1/2 litres of water a day. and eat a lot less than i used to.
exercise can be really boring for some people, that is why it is very important to find something that you enjoy doing. games like badminton and table tennis can be a lot of fun, and because you enjoy it, you don't feel so tired.
eat in moderation, drink water instead of soda, play a game that you enjoy and is good exercise.
smokingun
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Post by JWK on Jun 3, 2003 1:53:48 GMT -5
I'm not an exercise freak- in fact I'm fairly sedentary- so to keep at a reasonable weight: I don't snack, my wife and I (usually my wife) cook at home almost every night... we buy everything low fat... And most importantly: I only drink drinks with no or low calories (exception: fruit juice no more than once a day)... - And I don't add sugar or salt to anything... A simple fact: The average American who drinks 1-2 sodas a day could lose 20lbs by simply switching to diet sodas. I usually drink hot tea or coffee- unsweetened and unmilked... With the occasional diet soda- although my latest kick is to remove even the diet soda from my diet and replace it with Fruit-2-O or Propel water instead... (has nutrients added so better for you than Soda). LOL- personaly: I snack constantly, perhaps grazing is a more accurate description though. Low fat?? whats that? I drink as many thickshakes as i can get my hands on i add sugar and salt to everything coffee- sweetened and with milk LOL! Seriously i eat a bucketload, and dont put on a pound. I haven't weighed myself in a couple of years but at a rough guess i'd say im about 75kg(what that translates to in pounds i don't know) Generally if it says 'serves 3-4' on the packet im in! My eating habits couldn't be worse... i eat one piece of toast in the morning with a hot chocolate(about 8am). Off to Uni- lunch brings about sandwedges, fruit muffins etc before a trip to either a cafe, subway(footlong, allways) or any turkish food place for a solid meal. If im home from uni by dinner time i have whatever is being cooked. Come 10pm im hungry again so i either cook myself a big meal or just throw on a couple of tins of baked beans and have them with eggs and bacon and salami. Sometimes i bake bread afterwards to take to uni the next day. the average time i get to bed is about 2am. It's a pretty rough cycle but i get by(granted i do a lot of exersize, soccer, running and riding being the major contributors{not to mention walking 4 or so km home most days}) My habits haven't caught up with me yet, although im sure they will some day... But for now im enjoying perfect health(aside from near constant injuries) and a metabolism that works like a charm.(im a little bit too skinny for my likings though ) LOL- in terms of eating habits me an Wycc couldn't be more opposed! Oh yeah, and i drink a decent amount of beer- as every student should (read: wayyy too much!) All the crap that goes through my system does not however stop me from enjoying the finer things in life... Such as Murpheys... and a nice roast.
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