73% of Americans are now overweight or obese

[hamstersarse]

www.medpagetoday.com/primarycare/obesity/90142

This is a tragedy for health and it’s heading our way too, we aren’t far behind.
Most depressing in those stats are the numbers of obese and severely obese children.

Something has to change, I personally think we are at the point where government intervention is the only way. IMO this is more of a health disaster than Covid, if we want to talk about overwhelming the health service, this health issue wins on that one hands down.

We can’t continue like letting this happen.

I’m not fat shaming, bashing, individually calling people out, there is CLEARLY something wrong in the food environment. 73% of people in America didn’t just have a sudden failure of willpower after years of evolution - we have let toxic foods run rife in our lives, foods designed to be addictive - unregulated.
I’d liken it to secretly putting addictive drugs in peoples drinks then blaming them for being addicted.

Did you ever worry like this about undernourishment in the world? Or starvation or famine? It has taken far more lives historically.

It often feels like people who worry about obesity do some from some notion of superiority in their own ability to control intake.

@Emeeno1 not that I want to speak on behalf of the OP, but this feels a bit of a disingenuous point to make. Malnutrition (in the sense of being undernourished/starving) hasn't - thankfully - been a feature of our society for a very long time. Of course people care about lack of access to food in developing countries, but the crisis of overweight and obesity is happening on our doorstep so it's inevitable that it will attract more interest and concern.

OP - I agree. It is a failure of our food system. And also, I would argue, failure of our education systems and of the fact that we are all increasingly completely unconnected to the way food is produced. Add in stressful, isolated and economically precarious lives and it's not really surprising that these sorts of public health crises result. This is an enormously emotive topic though, so I hope you're ready!

Yes it’s awful.

I’m not sure if just the food though.

Outside New York and Boston and similar cities (where incidentally, people seem to be slimmer) I have been struck in the US by how little people walk and how they take the car everywhere. For instance - (and I’m taking a wide range of very different States here) it seems to be a thing for shops to be spaced out by maybe 200m each rather than in a line like most places here .. you drive from your home to (say) the coffee shop and then from the coffee shop to the clothes shop and then back home. No walking between places once you’re already out. This needs to change too.

But yes the food is also something else.

It’s not just food but our changing landscape. In the US particularly there’s a heavy reliance on cars to get anywhere. Some cities just aren’t designed for pedestrian travel nor cycling. Yes some people do it but culturally it’s not there. Ditto the change from physical jobs to more sedentary jobs. We can’t just look at food and blame that, though it is the biggest issue, it needs to be tackled in multiple directions.

@Emeeno1

I know this is a subject which is hurtful for people and that’s why I was keen to point out that this is not an attack on individuals, more of a collective lifestyle we’ve allowed to take hold with no regulations then proceeded to blame individuals who are within the climate only. IMO governments and health bodies need to start taking responsibility and stop putting this all on individuals who generally don’t have the means to counteract this toxic food environment unassisted

@Emeeno1 Interestingly, most of the world's population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight. www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight

I was in hospital recently to diagnose if I had a condition which was usually related to poor diet and being overweight. There were posters on the walls advising diet etc. All the nurses were overweight. Only the surgeon was healthy weight. I did wonder if they themselves would be the next patients.