Obesity-linked cancers rising faster in young adults than over-45s, study shows
- Thread starter sglowrider
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We can fix this . . . . ."Medicare for all!"
In other "news", water is wet, per the same researchers.
Sounds like we need Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig for all....
In reality we probably need to take a look at how we process our foods. The Europeans seem to be a little less hip to the necessity to add high fructose corn syrup into everything they eat and they do not have the same type of obesity problems (that is just one example). We over process our foods.
Bingo. It is insane how many different things contain corn syrup. There is no way that is helping anyone.
There's an abundance of reasons why we are obese and overweight, on top of processed food consumption:
- Portion sizes are too large
- Carb consumption is high, in particular, sugar!
- Societal norms
- Availability of good, fresh fruits and vegetables
The corn industry in the US is powerful and is a political darling. Nobody crosses it. Thus we get boondoggle products like ethanol and high fructose corn syrup foisted on us.
But the larger point is about publicly funded heath care and unhealthy life styles. It's no secret that many of our health problems, and much of our expense is directly a result of poor life-style choices. Obesity and type II diabetes are sponges soaking up huge amounts of health care dollars. Our policy direction seems always to be to subsidize poor lifestyles with more and more public funding.
Instead of tackling tough problems that require significant amounts of political courage to solve, we become outraged over 35 year-old photos. What a country!
A couple of summers ago I was in Tuscany for 9 days. Ate way more food than I usually do (especially pasta, and at least one dessert per day) and drank way more than I usually do. I gained 1/2 lb the entire vacation. Craziest thing. Now yes, I walked a lot while there...but I exercise just about every day here anyway. A coworker of mine (nutritionist) told me she doubt I would gain any weight, but I didn't believe her.
We are a fast food society, problem being that our fast food is not just at McDonald's, it is also in the inside aisles of every supermarket in America. The healthy foods are usually around the perimeter of a grocery store if you have noticed the layout. Fresh vegetables, meat, and dairy are along the perimeter and all of the processed food is in the aisles.
I am not overly obese but my New Year's resolution was to get back to a healthier weight (my BMI is 26.7...and my weight is carried all around the waist). I have been much more cognizant of what I have been eating for the past month and it has been eye opening as to the amount of garbage we eat on a regular basis in this country.
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anon_mlxxvlbug9dpa
Guest
True although fruits aren’t really good for you either. They fit in your second bullet above.
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anon_mlxxvlbug9dpa
Guest
All the French and Italians I know and work with are all slender and they eat just as you described.
Notwithstanding my post above about healthy lifestyles genetics plays a role in obesity. Experts squabble about how much and whether genetics can be overcome. But there is no question that obesity is a heritable condition.
Well, according to the Super Bowl commercials last night, Bud Light is healthy.
I'm not a large fruit consumer any longer, but I have to imagine there is a difference in the way the body breaks down natural sugar occurring in fruit vs. sugar that is found in processed food or baked goods. But, I haven't looked at studies so perhaps I am wrong.
Definitely exercise and diet related, but there's also a hereditary component. Had a gastroenterologist tell me 40 would soon become the new 50 for colonoscopy screening. She blamed too much red meat and too many processed meats. She suggested a Mediterranean diet.
Anecdotally, a family friend lost her husband two years ago to colorectal cancer. I believe he was 41. Also, last fall, the little brother of a best friend was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer. He's still battling at the age of 36. Neither one was obese.
There are a lot of factors in our obesity problem, the problem is we tend to only look for a solution. So yes, we eat too much, we eat the wrong foods, we exercise too little. The driving forces behind those are numerous.
It starts in childhood. No doubt.
And for some inexplicable reason, early in their tenure the Trump administration relaxed the guidelines for healthier meals in schools.
Another one of those “if Obama did it (was actually an iniatige if Michelle), we’re going to undo it”. And yet another action that runs counter to what research actually says. Sonny Purdue actually claimed that kids were eating less of the healthier food, and weren’t eating as much. The data tells a different story.
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-administration-relax-school-lunch-rules-2018-1
Again, some things aren’t partisan issues. Helping kids make better food choices shouldn’t ever be something that is discouraged.
Looking at the big picture, how do we make healthier eating more affordable, which should trickle down to kids eating better? Junk food is and has always been cheaper than healthy food. Is there a solution out there?
Let's be honest, it also is more convenient and frequently "tastes" better to children. The problem isn't simply cost.
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anon_mlxxvlbug9dpa
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It’s nearly all the former in my opinion. In our rat race lifestyles - it’s all about convenience.
It may be more one or the other, particularly depending on who you ask, but you can certainly triangulate between the three in any case and they aren't mutually exclusive and are quite interconnected.
If the freshest, best-tasting produce costs more, it may impact who can afford to buy it. If those that cannot afford to buy the freshest, best-tasting produce from Whole Foods (for example) end up buying mediocre produce from Target/Walmart (cheaper and potentially more convenient - one trip vs. multiple), then their kids may decide that they don't really like said produce that much.
Perhaps there’s room in the market for someone to find a way to deliver healthier options at a lower cost- and target the marketing to poor folks/poor communities. I’d like to think there’s a way for a private company to do it, but I don’t know if any efforts like this to date.
Perhaps they could link up with the soybean farmers that were devastated by the Trump admin’s trade war with China? Soybeans seem superior to meat in terms of their health benefits.
Seems like it would be hard to start a company without some type of outside assistance. Not saying that should be the federal government, but it could be.
And that’s just one example. I’m sure there are other food commodity industries that would benefit. And the bonus is that it could all be done by Americans, for Americans.
Seems like a win win all the way around. Then again, I don’t even know if the free market would support such an intiative.
Whole Foods gave it a shot opening in Chicago's South Side.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/busi...hole-foods-one-year-later-20170920-story.html
It's a tough proposition for businesses. If you are trying to charge less but deliver the same value and quality, those tend to be conflicting business models.
Some innovation is on the way that may help with this in regards to Vertical Farming and other indoor growing.
Really, you want to put childhood obesity at Trump's feet? I have no idea how many calories a kid consumes at school lunch vs total calories consumed, but my suspicion is that it isn't very much. So I don't think the lunch menu has a hell of a lot to do with the obesity problem.
Schools have health curricula, they have food service people, they have administrators, they have parent groups, and some may even have professional nutritionists. They are perfectly capable of providing food to the students. I don't think we need another layer of a federal once-size-fits-all for the lunch room.
Did some reading and here is what I found:
https://www.consumerreports.org/diet-nutrition/sugar-in-fruit/
Chemically, the sugars in fruit and the sugars in a candy bar are the same, but the effects on your health couldn’t be more different. In fact, “most of us should be getting more whole fruit, not less,” says Maxine Siegel, R.D., who heads Consumer Reports’ food lab. Adults should be eating at least 1½ cups of fruit each day, but according to a 2015 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 76 percent of Americans don’t consume that much.
“The natural sugars in fruit are processed a bit differently by your body, because the fiber in the fruit minimizes the sugars’ impact on blood sugar levels,” says Nancy Z. Farrell, R.D.N., an adjunct professor of nutrition at Germanna Community College in Fredericksburg, Va. “In addition, you also get vitamins, minerals, and other healthy nutrients.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5388466/
In this large epidemiological study in Chinese adults, higher fresh fruit consumption was associated with significantly lower risk of diabetes and, among diabetic individuals, lower risks of death and development of major vascular complications.
I won't blame Trump, but I find the hatred of Michelle Obama's efforts interesting. We all realize there is a problem, but let's all hate on one initiative that seemed to be working. I'm not sure why that is (and it goes beyond you, a lot of conservatives hated it).
Schools have a lot of stakeholders, you named some. Like any organization with many stakeholders, some hold more power than others. You mention parents, a great stakeholder. Of course we do not know if parents think about or care about nutrition. School administrators have a stake, and they may want nutrition. But they have to prioritize a budget. A huge box of macaroni and artificial cheese is pretty cheap. It may not carry nutrition, but we need to find money somewhere to give the basketball coach a raise.
I don't get the reaction of "the government is involved so by default this must be bad". It is at the core of many disagreements here. My guess are, some percentage of parents are deeply concerned about their children's meals. And my guess is those kids are still doing OK. But I am guessing there is a significant percentage that don't give a care. At that point we either let the problem happen, or do something.
It's not just about caring. Fresh ingredients are more expensive than processed, and typically take more time, effort, and access to cooking facilities to prepare. That's a bunch of things working against a low-income family being able to consistently eat a healthy diet even if the desire is there.
I do agree with that. I was thinking more in context of a school setting.
Our rush and overscheduling is a part of the problem. I know the busier I am, the worst my diet is.
If you think I'm saying if government does it, it must be bad, you would be mistaken. I strongly believe that government serves a purpose. Every state has a legislative system for public education, and as far as I know, all public schools are accountable to a publicly elected board of education. Boards of education are specialized units of local government whose purpose is to run the education system. Allow them to o it.
On the other hand, the federal government also has a purpose which is to deal with issues not amenable to local decision making or with issues granted exclusively to the feds. As a general matter, concentration of political power in Washington D.C. is not desirable. It leads to more improper influence, more abuse, and more corruption. Part of this discussion started with a discussion about how bad high fructose corn syrup is for us. I have no problem with federal legislative restrictions on that substance, but it won't happen because no POTUS candidate will risk losing the Iowa caucus--or the farm vote. That's a corruption of the political process.
Schools provide much more than lunch. The large majority of schools provide both lunch and breakfast. Most of the at risk, high poverty students are also in after school care, where they receive snacks. These same kids often are in programs where they get bags of food to take home on the weekend.
http://www.berkeleywellness.com/hea.../high-fructose-corn-syrup-worse-regular-sugar
Everyone needs a well balanced diet and exercise. I think most Americans, including myself, would benefit by having less servings of sugar, no matter what form it takes.
After living outside the States for a couple of decades now, there are a few things I noticed whenever I go back:
1) Portions in the States are HUGE! What you get for appetisers, is probably the volume for the entire meal for most folks outside the States. People loved the feeling of being 'stuffed'. Reminds me of eating in India -- they have dinner late at like 9pm or 10om and then lots of carbs or greasy food. I hate going to sleep feeling heavy or 'stuffed'.
2) Way too much fast foods, processed foods. They are very cheap but you are paying the price later.
3) Lack of a balanced diet. Too little fibre and fruits, way too much meats. Too many sodas. (And their sizes... wow!)
4) Not sure ever one adhere to the minimum 3hrs of exercises a week.
