Americans are not unhealthy due to lack of affordable healthcare. They are unhealthy due to the availability of cheap, heavily processed, high calorie foods.
It’s multiple factors. There is the cheap, ultra processed foods, but also when a doctor tells you to lose weight, they’re likely to tell you to go on a diet and exercise, but without giving advice on what types of diet and exercise are most helpful. Even if they do refer you to a nutritionist, insurance likely won’t cover it. Add misinformation and a culture of blaming people for their bad health to that mix and you end up with a recipe for disaster.
Its not that simple. Its a good starting point for weight loss, but there’s many contributing factors that can affect how one’s body retains calories. Some people are lucky and have all of those contributing factors even out to where all that’s left is a simple calories in/calories out equation, some are even luckier and just burn excess calories with no effort and never meaningfully gain weight, but some will fight hard reducing calories and increasing activity while seeing minimal improvement and end up extremely frustrated and burnt out because it isn’t that simple.
How about this: Almost every human in the waiting room is fat excepting me and the truly elderly. There are rare exceptions, but fatties are the rule. Blunt enough?
Wasn’t trying to be too blunt, but this as well: I have rarely seen a fit adult in a foot cast. The only exception to fat people in casts are kids who are obviously athletes. Gravity is real.
Old preacher man in South Chicago was bullshitting with me while I installed his satellite dish:
“Shalafi, let me ask you somethin’. You know the saying, ‘little old man’ or ‘little old lady’? Why you think that is? Put another way, you ever know a man or woman in their 80s that was exceptionally tall or fat? Why you think that is?”
This wasn’t a lead-up to “god made us this way” or some moralistic horseshit, but it was a great conversation and much food for thought. He made me coffee and served me cookies. Wish I could visit him again.
And a culture of gluttony around team sports. The ads are always in this order: pizza, fried chicken, burgers, pepcid AC, pepto bismol. The only diet in the world you have to drug yourself to eat.
Americans are not unhealthy due to lack of affordable healthcare. They are unhealthy due to the availability of cheap, heavily processed, high calorie foods.
It’s multiple factors. There is the cheap, ultra processed foods, but also when a doctor tells you to lose weight, they’re likely to tell you to go on a diet and exercise, but without giving advice on what types of diet and exercise are most helpful. Even if they do refer you to a nutritionist, insurance likely won’t cover it. Add misinformation and a culture of blaming people for their bad health to that mix and you end up with a recipe for disaster.
Spoiler alert, any exercise is helpful.
calories in minus calories out
Its not that simple. Its a good starting point for weight loss, but there’s many contributing factors that can affect how one’s body retains calories. Some people are lucky and have all of those contributing factors even out to where all that’s left is a simple calories in/calories out equation, some are even luckier and just burn excess calories with no effort and never meaningfully gain weight, but some will fight hard reducing calories and increasing activity while seeing minimal improvement and end up extremely frustrated and burnt out because it isn’t that simple.
metabolism
This isn’t true, fyi. Different people have different bodies.
Where are you folks finding cheap food? I’m grocery poor over here.
Time to order the diet BigMac, Diet Coke, and Diet Fried chicken! Who knew a diet could be so delicious!
You underestimate the amount of non-weight-related health problems there are.
I mean, not really, in the grand scheme of things it’s mainly being fat and unhealthy, as well as cancer. By a long shot.
And both heart and cancer illnesses are exacerbated by being obese.
All causes of death are exacerbated by obesity. Including flu and COVID.
Turns out, it’s pretty unhealthy to be fat. That message was lost in it’s entirely in the body positive movement. As well as any accountability.
Even ones not directly related to health, such as accidental injuries.
For example, seat belts are less effective on people who are obese.
I’m one of the only thin people I ever see in the doctor’s office. That’s not snark, that’s my observation.
The remaining thin people are elderly. I’ll let everyone ponder that last for a few.
What I’m getting from your comment is there are multiple thin people, including you who is not elderly, at the doctor’s office. Thus proving my point…
How about this: Almost every human in the waiting room is fat excepting me and the truly elderly. There are rare exceptions, but fatties are the rule. Blunt enough?
Wasn’t trying to be too blunt, but this as well: I have rarely seen a fit adult in a foot cast. The only exception to fat people in casts are kids who are obviously athletes. Gravity is real.
Old preacher man in South Chicago was bullshitting with me while I installed his satellite dish:
“Shalafi, let me ask you somethin’. You know the saying, ‘little old man’ or ‘little old lady’? Why you think that is? Put another way, you ever know a man or woman in their 80s that was exceptionally tall or fat? Why you think that is?”
This wasn’t a lead-up to “god made us this way” or some moralistic horseshit, but it was a great conversation and much food for thought. He made me coffee and served me cookies. Wish I could visit him again.
And a lack of affordable healthcare.
And a culture of gluttony around team sports. The ads are always in this order: pizza, fried chicken, burgers, pepcid AC, pepto bismol. The only diet in the world you have to drug yourself to eat.
How come there is a drug on the market that seemingly cures obesity but Healthcare plans do not cover it?
Coincidence?
How much is the obesity costing the employer or slowing their profitability?
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