I think ignorant consumers bring this on themselves to some extent.

Thirty years ago the fat component of foods began to be vilified in popular nutrition literature.

Yes, it's the most calorie per gram food. So, you balance your eating as Wookie had been saying.

In the States, "fat-free" and "low fat" became packaged food mantras.

"OMG FAT-FREE! NOM NOM NOM WAIT A MINUTE, THIS TASTES LIKE ****! "

(food companies add sugar and salt to improve taste)

" OMG FAT-FREE! STAND ASIDE! NOM NOM NOM.... "

People get what they deserve in food and politics.

Ignorant consumers, and monied interests marketing food to them. There's no money to be made in telling people to eat less, nor do people particularly want to hear it.

Oh OK. I didn't realize that. What I meant was kids acquiring type 2 diabetes.

My wife has had hypothyroidism her whole life and has been taking Synthroid for about 4 years. The good news is she's not fat (5'9" 138) at age 34 and post-child but she always tells me she's supposed to be a house and everyone I hear from who has it says they struggle with weight. She was 111 when I met her at age 19 though so maybe this is fat for her. She wasn't a stick, though, she had a D-cup rack and wide hips. Sick barg.

A perfect storm of coronaries for the uninformed poors and the rich getting richer.

For the record, Type 2 is not caused by sugar-spiking. There are very strong genetic factors involved, though the triggering of that genetic predisposition is believed to be linked to environmental factors.

As I said upthread, I don't believe that these companies are paying 6-figs to chemists who are morons.

I think that, at the end of the day, they just want to sell more food, and if that means making certain components more addicting, then so be it.

One of my coworkers used to work at the Wonder Bread factory. He told me how they would dump handfuls of 30-odd pills of "I have no clue what it was" in a batch of dough. I think that when people talk about "eating clean," they are not only talking about eating more healthy, but eating food that isn't as addicting and is more satisfying. I've ate more than one Big Mac and felt like I didn't eat a lick. If I feel that way, I can't imagine how someone twice my size would feel.

haha, wth? like we really need to know this

You are divorcing? what the...?

for the love of God, why?


well there's a cheery thought!

This is one of the most annoying phrases if you ask me - eating clean. sorry, i had to say it.

I agree 100%, stupid buzz-phrase.

I put it in quotes.

It's a great phrase. It means whatever you want it to mean!

On the flip side nutritional information has never been as readily available. I really don't think ignorance is the problem. A Wendy's double cheeseburger and large fries is a typical fast food order for a lot of Americans. That's over 1300 calories. Add a non-diet soda and you're well over 1500 calories. Does anyone who orders this not realize it's not healthy? They know it, they just don't care.

Prob bigger than the overeating is the lack of exercise. We sit in an office chair all day and sit on a couch all night. A large percentage of people get exactly zero exercise.

Can't really place most of the blame food companies or govt policies IMO. Exercise isn't fun, and eating is.

They aren't making it less nutritious and worse for you on purpose. They're trying to make as big a profit as possible. That means making it cheaply as possible and making sure as many people buy it as possible. People love cheap, high calorie junk food, so that's what the market provides.

They'd sell healthy, low calorie food if that's what the consumer wanted.

I think we need to stop pretending that ignorance and misinformation is why people are fat. It's actually only a very small part of it.

The vast majority of it is WILLFUL ignorance and denial.

That's why the term "fat logic" exists.

Fat people KNOW deep down that hamburgers, french fries, and doughnuts are very high calorie, high sugar, high fat, high everything.

If you went up to 100 fat people and asked them "Is a Krispy Kreme doughnut a good food to eat if you're overweight and trying to lose weight?" and they'd almost all universally tell you no it isn't.

And then these same fat sacks go out and eat them.

Fat logic is just cognitive dissonance run amok. At the end of the day fatties just want to eat what they want to eat and they don't give a crap about the dietary or bad mass effects. For many it's a full blown addiction. Just like most alcoholics won't tell you alcoholism is healthy, fat people know what foods are super bad for them.

Unfortunately I can't offer up solutions. People have been trying everything and it hasn't been working.

For the record I don't think Ozark hillbilly kids have any monopoly on being mean little brats. Those are universal truths, that new kids and fat kids will get picked on.

Most Ozark kids are very nice and compliment new kids on having such a purdy mouth.

What about a couple of bagels with peanut butter and a banana or two?

Yeah, if anything it's probably a surprise to learn how little food you actually need and how quickly you can reach and exceed your cap just by eating "normally," meaning not a birthday cake or entire turkey drumstick for breakfast. As long as we share in the common idea that large people must be eating giant portions of terrible food, we'll keep pursuing metabolic or genetic explanations to explain our own situation -- other people might have a bag of Doritos for dinner, I just have pasta with some cheese and chicken -- there must be something wrong with my thyroid.

Until you weigh out a serving of pasta and learn that a normal-looking amount is actually two or three servings, up to six if you had seconds.

People generally know what is bad for them (or at least, not good for them) but until they see nutritional data I don't think it will hit home with them. That was the case with me. This information is so easy to find nowadays that it's basically inexcusable for anyone with an internet connection to not know what they are putting in their cakehole. In the 1980s you had no idea what you were eating or drinking.

We knew what to do to lose weight in the '80s. I was in 6th grade and wanted to play football. I had to cut from 147 to 135 in 4 weeks to make weight, then had to maintain all season. That was my first experience with low carb dieting. It was 1984.

People knew some food was "junk food" but being able to qualify & quantify what you were eating was basically impossible compared to today. You probably knew as a kid that a nutty bar wasn't health food but you had no idea what was in it other than doing a visual inspection.

I think you nailed it. I'm still overweight, but doing much better. I knew what was bad for me, but I just couldn't commit. I was a football player in high school, tore my ACL, got a job at Taco Bell and ballooned from 280 to 300+. I knew I was overweight and wanted to change it, but every time I tried, nothing happened, and I got discouraged and kept eating.

7 months ago, on Thanksgiving, I took a picture with my mother, and was absolutely ashamed. I saw that picture and hated what I'd become. That night I weighed myself at 348lbs. I looked into several diet options, looked for one that appealed to me, and started the next day and haven't turned back. I'm now 70lbs lighter at ~278, which is slightly less than my Varsity playing weight.

Great story.

Disagree. Not monopoly but a cut above.

Reasons:

Celebration of physical pursuits over intellectual.

Harsh condemnation of anything 'different' from the cultural norm. 'Clannishness'.

High rates of child abuse in the home, physical and mental.

Rampant alcoholism.

Inbreeding. The inbred mountain Southerner is meaner than any rattlesnake. Ever see 'Deliverance'? Those yokel parts weren't auditioned. Those are locals.

I'm not saying that Ozark/Appalachian kids have a monopoly on meanness. They just take it to another level.

Then later on they make great soldiers, e. g. Alvin York.