The snide remarks included below reference posters who generally feel a need to lord their superiority over those of us who are fatter. Others of you may disregard.
After taking on the idea that obesity is the primary driver of cost, let me speak to the issue itself. I know some of you are vastly superior humans who never overeat, I get that from the way you lord your superiority over us. But while America may lead the way, obesity is a world problem. Google obesity and Africa, or obesity and China, or obesity and India and you will note it is a growing problem in almost the entire world. Yes, America may have the problem more, but the others are gaining. Obesity in China is 5%, in many major cities it is 20%. Cities in China are where the wealth lay. Simply put there seems some evidence that modern lifestyle and modern wealth lead to obesity. Lifestyle is huge, we no longer are foraging for food 12 hours a day. Food is more plentiful than ever, which leads to the ability to overeat.
So while America may lead the way, we are not totally unique. Now, some of it is unique to us. You can look at the website
http://mindlesseating.org/ and in one of the videos he has an interesting observation. When asked how they know they are done eating, French answer "when I feel full". Americans answer "when my plate is empty". Now that makes sense, the words "clean your plate" are as American as "batter up". So we have some cultural items that push us (those of us not of superior stock anyway) to overeating as a norm.
That same author wrote a book on mindless eating that I read years ago. His experiments are interesting. They used a theater to conduct an experiment. Movie goers were told that they were being given a free sample of a new style of popcorn. All they had to do was return the large container with any popcorn leftover in it, and answer some questions. The author pointed out the popcorn was made to be terrible, it was squeaky stale. At the end of the movie, people returned their containers. The people receiving them would note, as the subject answered a form on what they thought of the new popcorn, if the person was generally at weight, overweight, or obese. They also measured the amount of popcorn left. What they discovered is that everyone pretty much ate all the popcorn. Even the genetically superior thin people at all the popcorn. If it was in front of them, they ate it.
Which goes to the idea of the book, people generally do not think about eating. It isn't a conscious decision to eat too much, it is somewhere in the subconscious (probably relating to a thread I started a few weeks ago that we may make many fewer conscious decisions than we think we do, but I didn't think of this example then). I would theorize there is some evolutionary trait. Think about it, human tribes of long ago would need thin, fast people to hunt prey. But they would need larger, slower muscled people to survive famines.
Now, to get to the personal level, sure, I am one of the obese (maybe I should put a yellow O on my arm, that shaming may help me straighten up). Up until about 2005, I was overweight but very active. I ran 5Ks, 10Ks, half-marathons, and trained at marathon distance but never ran one. I would run at HPER at 6AM, be back from noon to 1:30 to play full court basketball, and run around the neighborhood at night or I'd play basketball, throw football, or go to a park and hit flies and grounders with neighbors.
Then I tore my miniscus. The specialist told me I had about the worst arthritis showing in that knee he had ever seen. It wasn't bothering me much, so once the miniscus healed, I went back to the routine and broke my kneecap. Once that healed, I tore my miniscus again (I didn't mention it above, but this also goes to my belief we need to ban basketball to save healthcare costs as I know 3 people from my group who tore ACLS in addition to my injuries). By the time all that was done, I had pretty much been inactive for 9 months and was now deep into obese range. Suddenly doing all the exercise wasn't close to possible. And the reality that I needed to quit basketball was painful, why the hell would anyone run if the point wasn't to make one better at basketball? And of course the arthritis became more real.
As to food, sure, I do eat too much. It is mindless, I'll find myself snacking and not even know why. And I like bad foods (I mention my southern upbringing above, God are biscuits and gravy good). I do believe what we like and are exposed to as children becomes a norm for us. But not just as children, but as infants. I was a premie (2 pounds at birth and was not expected to live). The solution back then was an exceedingly high fat diet to put weight on as fast as possible. Guess what they have found? Premies put on high fat diets are more likely to be obese, by a fair amount, than the public at large. See
one report, Google for others. So what we are fed as infants seems to play a role in what we eat as adults (well, those of us who are inferior).
Now, I am great at losing weight. I can lose 75 pounds between now and Thanksgiving, and put 85 back on between Thanksgiving and next 4th. The way that works best to lose weight is to make weight loss my sole focus. I think of nothing else, I do nothing else. I plan every meal, every calorie. I calculate every movement. The moment I stop doing that, it all goes away. Because, once again, mindless eating returns. Food has to always be my thought, or the subconscious sneaks in and wants something. Eventually I stop obsessing over whether my broccoli in garlic sauce (no rice) had 13 or 14 pieces of broccoli. I guess it is either because of boredom (I can show you some amazing spreadsheets on food intake, but eventually playing with them stops being exciting) or because of
extinction burst. Or probably both. But once I am not spending every waking moment thinking about dieting, the mindless eating habit appears.
So there it is. I am sure admitting to being obese invalidates anything I've ever posted here since we are clearly not worthy. It clearly is a character defect, it can be nothing else. Or at least that seems to be what a lot of people think. But if it is, it is a defect spreading even into countries with severe starvation.
And to repeat the idea of a couple posts above, obesity clearly has an impact on cost. But if it is the driving force, why is Chattanooga so cheap?
