Captain Euro is on it!
National policies should encourage and provide opportunities for greater physical activity, and improve the availability and accessibility of healthy foods."Healthy" foods are available in great quantities, so this is nonsense. My theory has always been the link to cigarettes. Americans quit the death sticks before Europeans and picked up fast food to fill their vice. Europeans were about 10 years behind us in quitting cigarettes, and now it is catching up to them.
5 comments:
Don't forget the thirty years ago change in diet ordered by our Nanny State. We went from eggs and bacon, steak, chicken, pork( pre the other white meat ) to carbo rich diet of bread, pasta.
Also, sugar. I remember buying with my own money Coke in 8-10 ounce bottles. 12 ounces was the big bottle. Now people suck down huge Big Gulps.
Oh, and another thing, when I was a kid, I got jobs mowing lawns for a guy with a truck. I also worked mornings in a restaurant kitchen making bacon and helping the third cook get the place started. I must of been around 14. Totally illegal today, so kids, boys, don't work work until way later, if at all.
the cigarette correlation could work, lots of people in italy still smoke even thought they can't do it even in bars and everyone is thin.
it's freaking cold and there's a constant group outside the office smoking.
Another factor is peer pressure. the adverts for the healthy special k cereal here don't say eat healthy, they show thin women and say "keep your line" while outlining the curve of a fit girls hip.
In germany people I saw were pretty chunky, in Italy and france if you see a fat person 90% of the time it's an american tourist (or me).
I've known many fat people who lived long happy lives. I'm not talking about the morbidly obese, just folks who are mildly overweight.
I've also seen people who were skinny die at a young age, folks who were non-smokers, and were picky about what they ate.
Try as we might we all will have to face the inevitable some day and I don't plan on dying of a heart attack from worrying about what I eat.
This post makes me hungry. I think I will go grill a steak.
We went from eggs and bacon, steak, chicken, pork( pre the other white meat ) to carbo rich diet of bread, pasta.
From the wisdom of "Family Guy":
Stewie: Hey, at least my food is better than what people ate in the 50's.
[~~Flashback~~]
Customer: Give me a steak and donut sandwich!
Waiter: Would you like cigarettes on that, sir?
Customer: Of course I want cigarettes!
;-)
Adding to what Paul said, I'm a member of the fattest generation. Us kids were spoiled with sugary cereals for breakfast, fast food for lunch & soda with dinner.
Fortunately my parents were too poor to afford that stuff. So we ate generic oatmeal, packed PB&J lunches & drank water. It amazes me when people correlate obesity with poverty.
In defense of my generation, we weren't allowed to play most fun games. Running during recess was forbidden. That's not hyperbole, they claimed we might fall on the concrete & hurt ourselves.
Neurotic adults assumed hockey, baseball & football were also too risky. We played those sports, anyway. But doing so was an act of open rebellion. It was morally easier to play video games.
We did get to play basketball in Jr. High PE. Janitors chased us away when they saw us trying to use the hoops on weekends: "It's a liability issue. We can't be held responsible if you kids get hurt".
Ugh. No wonder kids got fat.
People praise the EU countries for their longer life expectancy. Watch that advantage disappear as they become more developed & more litigious.
The less-developed eastern EU is already fatter. But it's a huge mistake to blame obesity on poverty. I had never seen a fat Chinese-born person until KFC started opening franchises over there. KFC isn't opening branches over there because they're getting poorer.
Cigarettes & resentment of the "crass American" fast-food lifestyle helped western Europe. The nanny state is outlawing smoking. But as fast-food becomes associated with God-bama instead of Bush-Hitler, they'll fatten up.
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