to be fair, they are probably the 5 thinnist managers, plenty of ex professional players get their chunk on once they stop playing.
Actually that explains a lot of things. ilisdurr just needs to get laid. This will probably fix the whole issue.
I doubt that the high tail fully compensates for the low tail. It is true that many Americans are given opportunities to participate in sports. However, I would guess that consumer and work culture is the dominating factor in US health.
US people are good at selling things to consumers. These things include cars and houses, but also Big Macs and giant soda. Lower government intervention (compared to say, some Euro countries) means consumers here are more free to buy and eat whatever they want.
Furthermore, US culture of long office hours + commute means less devotion to extra curricular activities.
Of course, we cannot generalize across all US people and locations. The US is big and diverse, and different regions have very different culture. I was in the airport the other day, and you can basically guess the flight destinations by the appearance of the passengers.
The US population is fat and getting fatter, there’s no denying that. The rest of the world seems to be following our lead though, as I’m not aware of any developed nations that are getting thinner, although I do believe some the Nordic countries are holding steady.
I never dated an american but have been with them for a long time and I would say I like them. They are warm hearted, open and easy going. Though I have in group of only well-educated people so my views might be biased.
^^In America, the cheapest and quickest sources of food are fast-food restaurants–cheeseburgers, burritos, and fries. I wonder if that’s true in the rest of the world. If not, it may help explain why the US has so many fat people, especially poor fat people.
There is plenty of fast food in Europe too. In Belgium I had a burger topped with potato chips. The temptations exist. KFC and McDs are everywhere in China as well.
Doesn’t issadur live with his mom?
And even if the person is trying to stay healthy and cook at home, 90% of what suppermarkets offer is processed/prepackaged/frozen crap.
I find it quite expensive to eat healthy in the U.S. Maybe it is because fast food is so cheap and abundant, but I find fruits and vegetables to be relatively expensive here. In additon, it seems that fast food is healthier overseas than in america. I don’t know why or the food science behind it, but I always feel terrible after eating fast food in the U.S.
But even if most supermarket food is processed and packaged, there are still generally abundant options for cooking yourself. If 50 kinds of veggies are still not enough, then maybe the person it too picky. Fact of the matter is that supermarkets stock the frozen stuff because people are lazy and place a high value on convenience. We should not blame supermarkets, that do offer many kinds of healthy food, for our choice to buy and eat unhealthy food.
Chicken or egg?
In my student days, the cheapest foods were the least healthy. You could get a big mac (by itself for around 5$, and the full meal for 8.50. During coupon season it was close to 4.50 if you had a friend to share with.
You can’t buy a half healthy meal on the streets for less than 10$ these days. Processed food is cheaper and abundant and disposable income isn’t growing across the board. And damnit if McD’s wasn’t the tastiest option at that price range.
I also agree with Thommo77. Eating healthy is expensive! And I don’t even mean organic, just simple fruits and vegetables are expensive.
I suppose it is partly a combination of consumer demand and companies being good at marketing new products.
However, that shouldn’t matter. My point is that US supermarkets tend to stock a wide variety of unprocessed food. We cannot blame stores for our choice to ignore these options in favor of processed food.
I do not think cost is prohibitive either. If you eat chicken, broccoli and rice, I don’t see how food cost can go above $4 to $5 a meal. Perhaps the limiting factors are preparation time and lack of skills to cook palatable food at low cost.
Sure you can. Go to Costco and get a big bag of chicken breasts. Then get a ton of rice. Sure, your initial outlay will be closer to $20 but that will give you about a dozen very healthy meals. Throw in a couple extra bucks for various spicies and whatnot and you got yourself a recipe for success.
Eating right, losing weight, and doing so inexpensively is very, very easy. The tough part is staying with it.
I agree - thats the route I go. The other half of the battle is actually working out.
I did say however, that it’s hard to find a healthy $10 meal on the streets (meaning to go)
Yes, I believe he does. Issadur could you please confirm or deny for us?
STL is right. It is cheaper to eat healthy if you plan. But North Americans don’t plan. They’d rather plug a Hungry Man frozen slop into their feeding hole than take 15 minutes to make dinner. Last night I made beef stir fry. Took 20 minutes. Cost $15 for two people (big servings and its also my lunch today). If you fail to plan, then you plan to get fat and die of heart disease or diabetes.
Oh