Think America is the Only Country with an Obesity Epidemic?

Amused

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There are MANY articles posted in seperate posts in this this thread refuting the myth that the US is the only nation dealing with an obesity epidemic, or even the worst.

Read through all the posts...

http://www.worldpress.org/Europe/1961.cfm

Obesity: A Worldwide Issue
Comment and analysis from Toronto, London, Beijing, Chennai, Australia, Jerusalem and Glascow, October 24, 2004

Toronto C-Health (online publication): While news stories dwell on the alarming trend toward obesity in North American children, the rest of the world appears to be following suit. More than 1.2 billion people in the world are now officially classified as overweight, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since the publication in the British Medical Journal of new standards for evaluating children's weight, health officials around the world have begun estimating their childhood obesity rates. The Chinese government calculates that 1 in 10 city-dwelling children are now obese. In Japan, obesity in nine-year-old children has tripled. The WHO reports that approximately 20 per cent of Australian children and adolescents are overweight or obese.

London BBC (international broadcaster): Child obesity due to poor nutrition and lack of exercise is a ticking time bomb for life expectancy levels, the UKs food watchdog has warned. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) chairman, Sir John Krebs, said the trend meant young people today would not live as long as their parents Sir John, in an interview with the Observer newspaper, called for changes to food marketing and an end to celebrity endorsements of unhealthy meals and snacks. "What we are faced with is a situation where, if nothing is done to stop the trend, for the first time in a 100 years life expectancy will actually go down," he told the newspaper. "[That] is an extraordinary reversal of the general gains in health. "We're all looking forward to a longer and healthier old age, and that trend could be reversed." The FSA, whose own research shows advertising influences children's eating habits, wants some food packaging to carry health warnings. It is concerned that popular entertainers and cartoon characters are promoting foods that contain dangerously high levels of fat or salt.

Beijing Xinhua News Agency (government-owned): Experts have called for increased awareness of and concern about the rising numbers of obese children in China, a highlighted balanced diet, and rational nutrition and physical exercises to help control the weight of kids. Official statistics show that 10 percent of the children in China suffer from obesity and the number is increasing by eight percent per year. Some 14.8 percent of boys in primary schools in China are obese, and some 13.2 percent of them are overweight, with the proportions for girls standing at nine percent and 11 percent, respectively. Some 13.2 percent of children in northeast China are obese, the largest proportion in the country, followed by 12.2 percent in east China and 10 percent in central and south China. In big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, there is an average of one obese child in every five. Taking less outdoor exercises and indulging in watching TV and playing games at home are the main reasons behind the child obesity, said experts. Experts warned that obese children are vulnerable to weakened intellectuality, autistic personality, unhealthy sexual development, and high incidence of chronic diseases like arteriosclerosis, hepatocirrhosis, diabetes, and hypertension.

Chennai The Hindu (independent): The world is round and so are a growing number of its inhabitants. In fact, obesity is spreading at an alarming rate, not just in industrialised countries but also in developing countries, where obesity often sits next to malnutrition. Scientists are documenting the global "fat" problem from China, to Australia, to Egypt, to remote islands of the Pacific, and beyondIn developing countries, it is now estimated that more than 115 million people suffer from obesity-related problems, including Type II Diabetes, heart disease and obesity-related cancers. In the US alone, child obesity has increased by more than 1 per cent per year over the past decade with an estimated 99.2 billion dollars in future health care costs, according to the National Institutes of Health. Among poorer nations, adoption of industrialized foods and food preferences, together with drastically decreased physical activity levels are the basic ingredients for accelerating obesity, especially among children and adolescentsWithin developing countries, shifts to urbanization, non-manual labour, high calorie foods, and higher levels of sedentary living are all contributing to this growing problem, often in conjunction with undernourished segments of the population. We assume in developing countries that the problem is one of under-nutrition rather than over-nutrition, but many countries now have bothIn South Africa, overall environmental differences were more important in predicting child weight than family income, so that even children of comparatively poorer parents in Cape Town were fatter than the children of well-off parents in the poorer rural areas.

Melbourne The Age (centrist): Tips on which foods children should eat and how much exercise they need will be sent to parents as part of a $100 million push to tackle childhood obesity. And 150,000 children - about 10 per cent of those with a weight problem - will get after-school exercise sessions up to three times a weekWith an estimated 1.5 million under-18s overweight or obese, Prime Minister John Howard recently announced the four-pronged strategy at a child obesity meeting in Launceston. Mr. Howard said Australia could overcome the "huge problem" of childhood obesity by encouraging more exercise and better eating at all ages. "In the end, it's a challenge to parents because it's parents who determine and set the eating habits of their children and... we'll be encouraging parents to set the example to their children," he said. "It's a paradox in this country. We love sport and pride ourselves on our sporting prowess and yet more and more of us are watching sport and not exercising ourselves." Australian Medical Association president Bill Glasson said the nation would pay "physically and financially" if it did not tackle the issue of obesity urgently. Educating parents on what their children should be eating and how much exercise they should have was vital, he said. "Mum and dad have to set an example. If they eat badly and watch hours and hours of television instead of doing exercise, kids follow their parents," he said. "Fat kids often have fat parents. We have to break that cycle." Australian Divisions of General Practice president Rob Walters said the problem could cost Australia dearly if left unchecked. "If we don't start teaching our children wise eating habits, we are going to end up with massive health problems in adulthood and with blowout numbers of people with diabetes and heart disease," he said.

London Middle East Online (English-language): Obesity ratio in Saudia Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the Sultanate of Oman and the Republic of Yemen (GCC countries) has reached 60 per cent and is more common among women, a Gulf study revealed. Director of the environmental and biological research program at Bahrain Center for Studies and Research Dr. Abdul Rahman Mosaiqer pointed out that his study, along with other studies, proved that obesity is more common in women than men in GCC countries compared to some European countries. He also stated that the obesity percentage among married women ranges from 50 to 70 per cent and among married men from 30 to 50 per cent, adding that the percentage ranges from 5 to 10 per cent among pre-school kids and increases to range from 10 to 15 per cent among primary school children. As for the reasons of obesity in GCC countries, Mosaiqer noted that these reasons lie in the lack of sport and physical activities, over quantities of fatty food as well as the repetition of pregnancy among women without having enough intervals between giving birth and pregnancy.

Jerusalem Jerusalem Post (conservative): Former World Health Organization secretary-general Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland said at an international conference a few weeks ago that until recently, blood pressure, cholesterol, tobacco, alcohol and obesity - and the diseases linked to them - were thought to be concerns only for industrialized countries. But she noted that they are becoming more prevalent in developing nations. In many Third World countries, obesity rates have risen dramatically - threefold or more in some parts of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Pacific Islands, Australia and China since 1980An interdisciplinary study carried out over the past decade at Kosra, a tiny Micronesian island where life expectancy is, at 55, among the lowest in the world, helps explain what goes wrong. The residents are not poor, and don't lack modern medical care. But almost all of them are obese and most suffer from Type II diabetes and heart disease. The 3,000 people of Kosra are descended from Polynesian Asiatics who arrived during the First Century CE. In 1824, when the first white men came from America and Europe to hunt whales, they introduced diseases to which the locals had never been exposed. Many died from those, as well as from typhoons and other natural disasters that left a meager diet and a population of only 300. The survivors - genetic mixtures of the original Polynesians and the white whalers - subsisted on fruit and fish until 1945. But an economic boom followed the end of World War II, and a US military base introduced the American way of life. The Kosra people began to drink beer and eat steaks instead of fruit and fish. Residents who had been "chosen" by evolution to survive famine because their bodies were able to make the best use of the meager food available were doomed in a time of plenty in an industrialized society. And this is what has helped make 21st century man obese.

Glascow The Scotsman (independent, moderate): The largest international study carried out into teenage behaviour has found that children in Scotland have among the highest consumption of sugary soft drinks in the world. The survey of 162,000 youngsters from 35 countries revealed that Israel was the only country whose children consume more sugary drinks. The new research, published by the World Health Organisation (WHO), will fuel already grave concerns about Scotlands growing obesity problem. Scotlands chief medical officer, Dr. Mac Armstrong, has described the report as "an international alarm bell." Public-health experts have pointed to the consumption of sugary drinks as a key factor in the rise of obesity, and last year Dr. Armstrong called for a ban on the sale of carbonated sugared drinks in schools. A study in the British Medical Journal also found that rates of obesity were much lower among children actively discouraged from such beverages. According to the WHO study, called Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children, more than half of Scottish 15-year-old boys - 53.9 per cent - consume a sugary soft drink each day, compared with an average of 34.5 per cent for youngsters from other countries. The relative figures for 15-year-old girls were 45.2 per cent and 25.8 per cent. Scottish 11 and 13-year-olds also ranked second in consumption of sugary drinks after Israel. And nearly half of all children aged 13 in Scotland eat sweets on a daily basis. Dr. Candace Currie, the international co-ordinator for the WHO study, said that such high consumption could be related to availability. "Consumption is very low in Scandinavian countries, and I think they have tougher laws about the promotion of snacks," she said. Other findings in the WHO report, which included European countries, America, Russia and Israel, showed that one in three young Scots watched television for at least four hours every day. The country ranked seventh in the league table for 15-year-olds who spent the most time in front of the television. In Scotland, nearly two-thirds of boys of 15 in the study failed to meet the guidelines for physical activity. This rose to 77.2 per cent for girls. However, all countries achieved a similar average. Meanwhile, fruit consumption in Scotland, still too low, was also similar to the international average. In all countries, girls reported eating more fruit, although for both genders this decreased with age. Dr. Armstrong said: "It is clear that if we are going to make any impact on Scotlands appalling health record, we have to start with our young people.

Sydney The Sydney Morning Herald (centrist): Slim meals, fat camps, diet pills and even surgery theres nothing American parents wont try to downsize their kids. There was a time when people would not have used the words diet and child in the same sentence. Now the two go together, in advertisements. Nobody really likes to think of putting children on diets, said Arthur Gunning, whose company, Zonekids, offers chubby New York children three home-delivered healthy meals a day. But parents were coming to us, saying: Can you help? Our kids are overweight. We dont know what to do. Its easy to say take them out and make them exercise, said Gunning. But parents these days are working all the time. Kids go home to empty houses, they play video games, watch TV. They just dont move enough. The result is that one in three kids in the US is now fat, one in five is obese and some have serious health problems.



 

Amused

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http://www.menshealth.co.uk/news/story.phtml?id=1545

UK Fatest Nation in Europe

The UK is now the fattest nation in Europe, and treating obesity costs the NHS £500 million every year, according to leading expert Dr Ian Campbell, chairman of the National Obesity Forum.

Speaking at a conference in London yesterday (13/10/03), Dr Campbell said that rates of morbid obesity ? calculated as a body mass index of 40 or above ? have increased by about 50 per cent in the last seven years, with seven in 1,000 people now morbidly obese.

Dr Campbell added that in 70 per cent of people with a tendency to obesity, their condition was determined genetically.

In the UK, one fifth of men and one-quarter of women are obese, having a body mass index of 30 or over.


 

Amused

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http://www1.greece.gr/LIFE/Lifestyle/weightyissue.stm

Greece begins its battle against the bulge by addressing the growing problem of childhood obesity

A nagging national problem could balloon into a nightmare unless measures are taken: Greek children are increasingly overweight. Though the country lacks a comprehensive study on the matter, isolated study results are alarming. The Hellenic Medical Association of Obesity recently found that 10% of youngsters are overweight and another 10% obese. Among children aged 1 to 6 years, obesity rates are as high as 15%. Other studies have come up with overweight rates of over 30%. Not only do these children face health problems like diabetes, but also many of them could grow into overweight or obese adults, risking even more serious health problems in the future.

Greece is actually following a European trend manifesting itself over the past two decades. The World Health Organisation reports that, 320,000 people die in Europe annually from obesity. Europeans may even have matched the hefty weights of Americans ? with one-third of the population falling into the obese category. The European Association for the Study of Obesity fears that by 2030, 60-70% of Europeans will be overweight and 40-50% obese.

Moreover, obesity rates in Western Europe among children are 5-15% vs. 20-25% in the US . The highest rates in Europe are in the south, as studies indicate that 36% of Italian children, for instance, aged 6-11 are overweight. The International Obesity Task Force places Spanish and Greek children in the same heavyweight range. The organisation draws its figures for Greece from a study in Crete in the late 1990s and another in Thessaloniki in 2001 . The latter research indicates that 31% of 6-10 year-olds are overweight.

The head of Greece?s National Nutrition Policy Committee, Dr Antonia Trichopoulou, questions the IOTF figures due to the limited size of the sample. She believes that Greece is following ? not leading ? a European trend. The committee (assembled in December 2002 by the ministry of health ) is currently planning ways of dealing with childhood obesity.

A plethora of studies
Despite the lack of comprehensive, nation-wide research results, every few months a new study on childhood obesity appears. The most recent finds include:
· 8.6% of children aged 7-12 are obese and 11.9% are overweight. For 13-19 year-olds, 6.1% are obese and 16.3% overweight. (Hellenic Medical Association of Obesity Study, 18,000 participants, ages 1-19).
· 23% of children are overweight and 10% obese. (Hellenic Organisation of Child and Adolescent Obesity, 4,700 Attica children, ages 6-12).
· Female 18-year-olds weigh 2 kilos more than their US counterparts; males weigh 3 kilos more. ( Pediatric Clinic of the University of Athens , Greece-wide study, 10,000 participants, ages 1-18).
· Child obesity rates reach 36%. (Pediatric Clinic of Nikaia Hospital, 6,700 children aged 6-12 years from South-western suburbs of Nikaia and Korydallos)
· Among boys, 25.9% are overweight and 5.1% obese, while 19.1% of girls are overweight and 3.2% obese (Panagia Hospital, Thessaloniki, 2,500 children, ages 7-17).

Olive oil, grannies
The statistics are surprising less shocking if one considers that Greek adults are the heaviest in Europe. According to Eurostat , nearly 27% of Greek males and 18% of Greek women are overweight (1996 figures, obese not included). Their children?s weights are not ?normal? either, says physician Efthymios Kapantais, president of the Hellenic Medical Association of Obesity. He thinks that Greek adolescents are still catching up with US kids? weights, posing an enormous problem for the near future. This is evidenced by a recent study by Denmark's National Institute of Public Health , in which Greek 13-15 year-old males were second only to their US counterparts in weight.

Like most experts, Kapantais gives two main reasons why Greek children are becoming increasingly overweight: a lack of exercise and an increase in caloric intake. Improper nutrition (fast food, unhealthy snacks) and a decrease in family sit-down meals are to blame. Though not yet scientifically proven, Kapantais has a theory on why Southern European kids are the heaviest in Europe. He points out that the olive oil-based Mediterranean diet is very healthy by itself; however, in combination with other fatty foods (like hamburgers) it becomes very dangerous. He thinks the Greek grandmother also plays a role: while taking care of the kids, unfortunately, she tends to overfeed.

The final clincher is that Greek youngsters are inactive. They spend more and more hours in tutoring sessions, watching TV, playing video games or in front of computers. Schools don?t help ? with unhealthy canteen options and, in some cases, only an hour of physical education a week. ?We need to give children the time to be active,? Kapantais reminds.

Trimming the fat
Experts agree that working with schools and parents is critical to promoting healthier eating habits. They also caution against commercial weight-loss programmes. The Hellenic Medical Association of Obesity will continue working on its massive obesity study and educating health professionals on dealing with patients. Because his organisation lacks the budget needed for a massive information campaign, Kapantais hopes the health and education ministries will take care of getting the word out, particularly to parents.

Fortunately, a major promotion of the issue will occur in 2005, when the 14th annual European Congress on Obesity will be held in Athens. Health care officials hope that raising the population?s awareness about the dangers of an obesity epidemic will help tip the scales in the right direction, towards lower weights

 

Amused

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Europe Rivals U.S. in Obesity
Thursday, March 17, 2005

At least seven European countries now challenge the United States in size ? at least around the waistline. In a group of nations from Greece to Germany, the proportion of overweight or obese men is higher than in the U.S., experts said Tuesday in a major analysis of expanding girth on the European continent.

"The time when obesity (search) was thought to be a problem on the other side of the Atlantic has gone by," said Mars Di Bartolomeo, Luxembourg's Minister of Health.

In Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Malta and Slovakia, a higher percentage of men are obese or overweight than the estimated 67 percent of men in the United States, according to a report from the International Obesity Task Force (search), a coalition of researchers and institutions.

The analysis was released as the 25-nation European Union announced an initiative to enlist the food and marketing industries in the fight against fat.

Obesity is especially acute in Mediterranean countries, underscoring concerns that people in the southern region are turning away from the traditional diet of fish, fruits and vegetables to fast food high in fat and refined carbohydrates.

In Greece, for example, 38 percent of women are obese, compared with 34 percent in the United States, the group said.

Even in countries with low rates of obesity, troubling trends are emerging. In France, obesity in women rose from 8 percent in 1997 to 11.3 percent in 2003, and from 8.4 percent to 11.4 percent in men.

The change in diets, which the obesity task force said has occurred over the past two decades, affects children most because it is reflected in school lunches.

The task force estimated that among the EU's 103 million youngsters the number of those overweight rises by 400,000 each year. More than 30 percent of children ages 7 to 11 are overweight in Italy, Portugal, Spain and Malta, it said.

That matches estimates for American children. Among American adults, about two-thirds are overweight or obese; nearly one-third qualify as obese.

The International Obesity Task Force, which is advising the European Union, had estimated in 2003 that about 200 million of the 350 million adults living in what is now the European Union may be overweight or obese.

However, a closer evaluation of the figures in the latest analysis indicated that may be an underestimate, according to the group.

To counter the worsening trend, the EU is pushing a united effort from the food and marketing industries, consumer groups and health experts.

"The industry is being challenged to demonstrate, transparently, that it is going to be part of the solution," Philip James, chairman of the IOTF said in a telephone interview after the launch of the program in Brussels.

"They have to say how much more money they will add to help solve the obesity problem. They have to put forward a plan on how exactly they are going to contribute year by year, and their contribution has to get bigger every year," he added.

The food industry says it will better inform consumers with detailed nutrition labels. The EU office also wants tastier healthy foods to compete with high-calorie, non-nutritious fare.

Studies have shown that being overweight can dramatically increase the risk of certain diseases, such as diabetes. Obesity is also linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, respiratory disease, arthritis and some types of cancer.

"We can have disastrous effects from (obesity) on health and the national economy," EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,150544,00.html
 

ggnl

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I'm glad that I'm too poor to be fat :)

But seriously, I doubt that the trend will ever reverse. There are just too many lazy parents raising lazy kids.
 

Amused

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Even the French are fighting obesity

By Elisabeth Rosenthal International Herald Tribune

WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2005


PARIS Doctors here are perplexed by the runaway success in the United States of the best-selling advice book "French Women Don't Get Fat."

"Oh, but they do!" said Dr. France Bellisle, a prominent obesity researcher here. "I work in a nutrition department where we see lots of people who are overweight. And I can tell you that French women are getting obese - and some massively obese - these days."

In fact, France is suffering something of an obesity crisis, with rates here rising "at an alarming rate," particularly among young people, Bellisle said. True, absolute rates are still lower here than in the United States and most other European countries: 11.3 percent of the French are obese and nearly 40 percent overweight, compared with more than 50 percent overweight in Britain and the United States.

But the sudden sharp rise - 5 percent annually since 1997 - is causing great alarm in a society renowned for thinness, a country that long seemed exempt from a worldwide epidemic of obesity.

In March, Jean-Marie Le Guen, a Socialist member of Parliament who is a doctor, proposed wide-ranging legislation to combat his country's expanding girth. "We are confronting a major public health problem," said Le Guen, author of "Obesity, the New French Disease," which was just published and is one of many new books on the topic.

Germany, Italy and England are also battling serious obesity problems, but the issue is particularly striking here because, until recently, the slenderness of the French has been so mythic that some scientists theorized that it must have genetic roots.

In fact, in France, as in much of the world, the culprit is changing eating habits, experts said, as France's powerful culture of traditional meals has given way to the pressures of modern life. The French now eat fewer formal meals than they did just a decade ago and they snack more. Another cause is the rising availability in France of fast food and prepared foods, which tend to be higher in fats and calories.

Food companies say that France is one of the most promising international markets for prepared items like frozen pizza, as well as for outlets like McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken, both of which are planning to open dozens of new stores in the country this year. Perhaps predictably, sales of Weight Watchers products, introduced to France in 1992, are also booming; it now sells 3,000 tons of frozen food annually.

Doctors here say that the French are unusually susceptible to the invasion of convenience foods since their culinary traditions insulated them for so long.

"The rise in obesity is probably a result of the fact that the French don't understand how to eat properly with commercial food, since they have never had to do it before," said Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen, a nutritionist and author of "Understanding Eating."

"We need to teach them how to use supermarket food to put a balanced diet together," he said.

In the past, the French shopped mainly at markets, green grocers and butchers, and they prepared two leisurely, formal meals a day, Cohen said.

Now kids eat at school. Workers lunch at their desks. Vending machines selling candy and chips are plentiful. There are far more supermarkets and frozen food emporiums in Paris than in Rome, for example.

The average French meal has decreased in length from an hour and 22 minutes in 1978 to just 38 minutes today.

"My mother would never eat this, but for me why not? It's good and simple," said Sophie Merol, a 26-year-old in jeans eating a breakfast of pastries and coffee at a McDonald's on Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle in Paris, an avenue where bistros alternate with pizza and burger joints.

Although such fare is not exactly light, neither are staples of the traditional French diet like bread and chocolate, pt and cheese. How could the French eat all that and never tip a scale?

Some anthropologists theorized that the French were thin because France had never experienced prolonged famine, and so there was little genetic pressure for having a bit of extra fat.

In her book "French Women Don't Get Fat," Mireille Guiliano, a French-born executive who now lives in New York, attributes her own slimness to traditional French meal culture, which she suggests infuses in women an appreciation of healthy diet, exercise and the discipline to consume smaller portions.

In theory, researchers heartily agree. But, they say, that way of eating is no longer the French norm, and no longer practical, either.

As for Guiliano, still svelte at nearly 60, they suggest there may be more going on.

"Educated women have less of a tendency to get fat in any culture," Dr. Bellisle said. "They have the financial means to buy the right food and the right clothes, which is a big incentive to stay thin."

Cohen said France was losing its "common food culture." When he and his colleagues filmed French families at dinner, they were appalled. The family meal was punctuated by television and time on the phone, often with only one shared course. After that, each person would rush off for "self-service desserts" like yogurt or ice cream, rather than remaining together for fruit or cheese.

Where wine or water used to be the only drinks served, soft drinks and fruit juice were now common. Ketchup was often the first thing set on the table.

As tastes and rituals changed, demand was created for fast food, snack foods and frozen food. The Swann Company of Marshall, Minnesota, one of the world's leading producers of frozen pizza, said that France and Germany were now their best overseas markets.

"It used to be impossible to find food outside of meal times," Bellisle said. "Now home refrigerators are full of it, and you can find pizza and burgers all night."

Fast-food companies say that French still use fast-food restaurants differently than Americans, going out for a whole meal as a family; they have tailored their offerings accordingly. But the success has been phenomenal.

"We are now opening our KFC restaurants in the provinces and consistently beat our own European records in terms of customer visits every time we open a new one," said Christophe Lecureuil, head of public affairs for Yum! International, its parent company. "We plan to have 100 restaurants by the end of 2008, as the concept is proving very successful."

In his book, Cohen pointed out that the baguette, the traditional long French loaf, was low in fat compared to supermarket bread, which was really bread and butter. But he noted that a Big Mac was actually healthier than some traditional French items like quiche lorraine.

The government is now trying to reverse the weight problem. Le Guen's proposals include better food labeling as well as nutrition education and exercise programs at schools.

But treating obesity and related diseases is already a 10 billion, or $12.8 billion, industry, according to Inserm, the French Institute of Health and Medical Research. Noting that obesity levels in France have doubled in the past 10 years, Michael Mullen, European product manager For Weight Watchers, said: "The market in France is growing and we believe it has an excellent future."

 

mwtgg

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Dec 6, 2001
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Originally posted by: azazyel
so we're supposed to feel better about it or something?

Who said anything about feeling better? This is just to prove wrong those morons who think America is the only nation with lardasses.
 

ggnl

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Originally posted by: azazyel
so we're supposed to feel better about it or something?

The next time a snobby European cracks a joke about "fat lazy Americans" you can tell them where to shove it.
 

Amused

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Originally posted by: azazyel
so we're supposed to feel better about it or something?

No, it's to dispel the myth that Americans are alone in their obesity epidemic because they are somehow inferior.
 

azazyel

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Originally posted by: mwtgg
Originally posted by: azazyel
so we're supposed to feel better about it or something?

Who said anything about feeling better? This is just to prove wrong those morons who think America is the only nation with lardasses.

Who cares? Let them think that the US is the only fat country. Maybe it will help with their motivation.
 

mwtgg

Lifer
Dec 6, 2001
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Originally posted by: azazyel
Originally posted by: mwtgg
Originally posted by: azazyel
so we're supposed to feel better about it or something?

Who said anything about feeling better? This is just to prove wrong those morons who think America is the only nation with lardasses.

Who cares? Let them think that the US is the only fat country. Maybe it will help with their motivation.

Obviously not helping...
 

Valkerie

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May 28, 2005
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being fat isn't as healthy as it used to be

you were considered healthy if you were heavier back then because then people could distinguish if you had a parasite in your or not.

however, now a days, food standards for consumption have gotten much higher at the rate in which they are cleaned, processed, and inspected.
 

chcarnage

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May 11, 2005
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Yes, obesity is or becomes a problem in many nations. The Americans just were there first. This civilisation diseases always seem to come out of nowhere. Same goes for caries... Oral hygiene of children is declining for a few years in Switzerland. So if one of you becomes health minister of whichever nation, keep an eye on this issues ;)
 

kotss

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Oct 29, 2004
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Well 65 Million Years Ago, the dinosaurs were killed off indirectly by an asteroid strike.
Present day: Human Race killing itself by eating. I would say just launch all the fatties into
spae and be done with them, but they would destabilize the gravity in the solar system
and probably wind up creating a black hole.
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
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Originally posted by: kotss
Well 65 Million Years Ago, the dinosaurs were killed off indirectly by an asteroid strike.
Present day: Human Race killing itself by eating. I would say just launch all the fatties into
spae and be done with them, but they would destabilize the gravity in the solar system
and probably wind up creating a black hole.

The ignorance is astounding.

For the "Human Race killing itself by eating" they would all have to be dying before reproducing. They obviously are not. In fact, I see that the vast majority of obese people have children. Probably at the same, or higher rate than thin people since non-genetic obesity is a sign of a lack of control.
 

klah

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Aug 13, 2002
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Originally posted by: ggnl

I'm glad that I'm too poor to be fat :)

In the US the rate of obesity is inversely related to wealth.

According to researchers, it can. In the U.S., obesity is more common in households of limited financial means, with those living below the poverty level to make up the highest percentages of the obese.

In 2001, in a study by Marilyn Townsend, at the University if California (Davis) found that poorer women were fatter. More specifically, she found that the prevalence of overweight in women increased as food insecurity (not enough food on a regular, predictable basis) increased, the percentages of obese were 34% for those who were food secure, which jumped to 41% for those who were mildly food insecure, to 52% for those who were moderately food insecure.

 

Amused

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Apr 14, 2001
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Originally posted by: klah
Originally posted by: ggnl

I'm glad that I'm too poor to be fat :)

In the US the rate of obesity is inversely related to wealth.

According to researchers, it can. In the U.S., obesity is more common in households of limited financial means, with those living below the poverty level to make up the highest percentages of the obese.

In 2001, in a study by Marilyn Townsend, at the University if California (Davis) found that poorer women were fatter. More specifically, she found that the prevalence of overweight in women increased as food insecurity (not enough food on a regular, predictable basis) increased, the percentages of obese were 34% for those who were food secure, which jumped to 41% for those who were mildly food insecure, to 52% for those who were moderately food insecure.

Yep, which all goes back to the self control issue.

I posit that less responsible people with less elf control are more likely to be poor because of those factors, among many.