Obesity
Top Ten Reasons I've Heard People Say Americans Are Fat:
1. McDonald's
2. ice cream
3. pizza
4. soda
5. lack of exercise
6. cars
7. People don't know how to boil water, or even work a stove. "I don't understand, what's this mysterious appliance near the sink? It's not a microwave, I know that for sure."
8. Most jobs in America require you to sit on your ass.
9. inability to resist culinary temptation
10. The Man
I contemplated the stastic of 64% of Americans being overweight, and about of third being obese. I'm sorry, but McDonald's has been around a lot longer than the mid-90s, when I first noticed this trend. Now, I know that there have been a lot of well-researched theories about why America is fatter now, among them the accelerating pace of American life, the evolution of the car from car to second house, and increased laziness. It is much more simple, actually. The theories people continue to expound upon look far too deeply into the issue.
I think what should actually constitute most of this list is displayed in the following scenario: You order a gigantic portion of food, realize that your stomach isn't as hungry as your eyes, but eat it all anyway because you won't admit that you were wrong.
The reason, however, is much more simple, and demonstrated in the scenario: Americans have always been unwilling to admit that they are wrong. It's what makes progress so hard. Learning how to live from the Indians and then killing them en masse, putting people in camps because of their nationality, many of our territorial skirmishes (Texas, anyone?), resistance to the Civil Rights Movement. "Okay, perhaps it was a mistake to bomb/attack those people. Almost had you there! Oh man, you thought I was serious? Hey, look! 'Gullible' is written on the ceiling! It was totally the right decision." Now, what has been true for much of American history has been taken to a lower level, that of the chilidog. Or hamburger, or whatever food you want to replace 'chilidog' with. "No, I definitely had enough room for five cheeseburgers, stop looking at me like that." Meanwhile, they will themselves not to barf. From there, it simply becomes habit to order too much and be unwilling to stop oneself from eating it, anyway. It's not just that we become gluttons; we are defensive gluttons.
While eating eighteen pieces of lettuce will not cause one to inflate like a balloon, eighteen cookies certainly will. We can afford more food for less, said food is less healthy. Combined with the longstanding tradition of America, mule-like stubbornness, this leads to a 33% obesity rate. We're doing what we've always done, only now it's taking a toll on our arteries and BMIs.
1. McDonald's
2. ice cream
3. pizza
4. soda
5. lack of exercise
6. cars
7. People don't know how to boil water, or even work a stove. "I don't understand, what's this mysterious appliance near the sink? It's not a microwave, I know that for sure."
8. Most jobs in America require you to sit on your ass.
9. inability to resist culinary temptation
10. The Man
I contemplated the stastic of 64% of Americans being overweight, and about of third being obese. I'm sorry, but McDonald's has been around a lot longer than the mid-90s, when I first noticed this trend. Now, I know that there have been a lot of well-researched theories about why America is fatter now, among them the accelerating pace of American life, the evolution of the car from car to second house, and increased laziness. It is much more simple, actually. The theories people continue to expound upon look far too deeply into the issue.
I think what should actually constitute most of this list is displayed in the following scenario: You order a gigantic portion of food, realize that your stomach isn't as hungry as your eyes, but eat it all anyway because you won't admit that you were wrong.
The reason, however, is much more simple, and demonstrated in the scenario: Americans have always been unwilling to admit that they are wrong. It's what makes progress so hard. Learning how to live from the Indians and then killing them en masse, putting people in camps because of their nationality, many of our territorial skirmishes (Texas, anyone?), resistance to the Civil Rights Movement. "Okay, perhaps it was a mistake to bomb/attack those people. Almost had you there! Oh man, you thought I was serious? Hey, look! 'Gullible' is written on the ceiling! It was totally the right decision." Now, what has been true for much of American history has been taken to a lower level, that of the chilidog. Or hamburger, or whatever food you want to replace 'chilidog' with. "No, I definitely had enough room for five cheeseburgers, stop looking at me like that." Meanwhile, they will themselves not to barf. From there, it simply becomes habit to order too much and be unwilling to stop oneself from eating it, anyway. It's not just that we become gluttons; we are defensive gluttons.
While eating eighteen pieces of lettuce will not cause one to inflate like a balloon, eighteen cookies certainly will. We can afford more food for less, said food is less healthy. Combined with the longstanding tradition of America, mule-like stubbornness, this leads to a 33% obesity rate. We're doing what we've always done, only now it's taking a toll on our arteries and BMIs.
posted by Meredith at 6:57 AM
3 Comments:
No kidding. When flying into Detroit Metropolitan (for TASP) the number of people who looked like they could eat me as an appetizer was very disorienting, what with it being my first time in the US and all.
I also remember seeing this whooooole line of ugly little drive-in fast food restaurants and banks (I'm pretty sure they were drive-in cash machines or banks, correct me if these don't exist) on the drive through Cleveland and wondering whether walking really did suck as much as the urban landscape seemed to suggest.
Incidentally, have you watched Supersize Me? I really want to at some point.
Yeah. Supersize Me draws all the conclusions you would expect: if you eat a lot of McDonald's for a long time, you become unhealthy, unhappy and fat. But it was poignant to watch it all happening, in it's sickening glory.
I agree that part of the reason is that Americans hate to admit they are wrong, but I also think McDonalds and such have something to do with it too.
Japan used to rarely have obese people, but if you look around here, the numbers are growing.
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