Why is America so obese?
146486
because we're being lied to. Because it's easy and cheap. because we're used to it. Because it's really too much effort to learn about nutrition and our dietary needs.
1158554
This is a good question and I recommend that you see the movie "Supersize Me", written, directed, and staring Morgan Spurlock.  The facts are very very disturbing.  While smoking USED to be the number one cause of preventable death in the US, it is now obesity!  This movie goes over and beyond in explaining the paradox behind the McDonald's company.  I repeat watch "SUPERSIZE ME"!\n\nBy the way that guy is totally WRONG...Morgan goes to actual doctors and health clinics...its not just a movie its a documentary you idiot!!!!!!
174153
I believe that Texas ranks in as having the highest ratio of obesity. Apparently their school lunches are all managed by soft drink and fast food companies too.
1111766
Well I personally wouldn't know! As I have grown up all my life in Australia. But seeing the media in the US has really shown how the obesse is treated, unfairly and horrible. Its something which we should all accept each person in this world for. I would have thought the UK would have also been treated this way, due to having a almost same average of obessity in this world. So I believe the US is treated without respect, even though I have never seen in first hand. Just through so many issues, movies and etc.
25515
I think it's based off of society valuing what influential and rich people that they iconize look like.  The "elite" have the time and resources to devote to looking their "best" and usually that best is the opposite of what the average person in society looks like.\n\nIn the US it's hard to stay fit because most of us don't have jobs that keep us physically fit (or in the case of kids, they don't "get out and play" as much as they used to).  Also the cheapest food that is available is the worst for you but is the highest quantity that most people in the US consume which leads to so many people being overweight.  So the opposite (being skinny) is what's idolized.  Mostly it's wealthy people who have time to excersize and "personal trainers" and such to help them stay fit... the rest of us are on our own.\n\nBack a few hundred years ago, if you were overweight it was a major status symbol because adequate nutrition was hard to come by, and if you had enough food to be fat, you must have been really well off.  Again, what was attractive was the opposite of the average person who had to work hard at manual labor and probably didn't get enough to eat and so was skinny.\n\nTanning is another example... a while ago it was considered unattractive because if you were tanned it meant you were some serf working outside all day instead of being able to stay inside away from the sun.  Now it's the wealthy that have the most leisure time to spend outdoors so tanning is what's considered attractive.
1061099
Haha I am not fat or tall so thank you for saying the word "majority."  We live in fast food nation.  There are a lot of lazy people out there who eat horrible meals and too large of portions.  They don't exercise and drink 6 Cokes per day.  They drive everywhere and they don't go see the doctor.  It's cheaper to go to the Dollar Menu at McDonald's than buy fruits, veggies and fish to have for dinner... and it is quicker!
1150962
The USA is founded on of-the-people, for-the-people, by-the-people.\n\nIf you have some method to audit for these "almost-starved" types of people, - then let the rest of us know.\n\nMy grandparents did not come to America to have big brother peeking in windows to make sure I ate my broccoli!!
1116069
I think that aspects of the political and media elite have worked hard at dumbing down the media outlets to where most people don't even realize that there is a problem. Most are more concerned with who won American Idol or Survivor than what has been done to the Constituition. I also think that Americans are daily exhorted to act in our own interests rather than the interests of the whole of society and sometimes we succumb to the temptation. Buy the latest  greatest, must have thing, lose weight, but don't stop to think about the people that made a lot of the things we are able to buy that are on subsitence or less wages, and never question how is it that obesity is a problem here and there are people starving in every ghetto, and in other places around the world.. Sorry for the long answer..
1006664
Only if a medical condition is causing it.  I have heard of people wh are obese because oh something going wrong in their body.  It seems no matter what they eat or how they exercise, it don't help.  Others just eat to much fast food and snacks and are couch potatoes.  And no there is no excuse for them.
877019
Today, 64.5 percent of adult Americans (about 127 million) are categorized as being overweight or obese. Each year, obesity causes at least 300,000 excess deaths in the U.S., and healthcare costs of American adults with obesity amount to approximately $100 billion.\n\nRecent studies on the epidemiology of anorexia have suggested an incidence of between 8 and 13 cases per 100,000 persons per year and an average prevalence of 0.3% using strict criteria for diagnosis. These studies also confirm the view that the condition largely affects young adolescent females, with females aged between 15 and 19 making up 40% of all cases. Furthermore, the majority of cases are unlikely to be in contact with mental health services.\n\nWhile it was once thought that obesity was largely due to genes, it is not the case so much today.  Many people are eating for more reasons than sustaining hunger; psychological or mental disorders play a part, lack of activity, inadequate nutrients replace the nutritional value the body needs (i.e., fat burgers, fried foods, etc.).\n\nWith so few reporting their anorexic condition to the medical field, it is difficult to gauge numbers that would be in comparison to obesity to measure hospital costs, etc.\n\nPersonally, I think both conditions are problematic but would say that obesity is a bigger problem due to the NUMBER of individuals it has plagued.  WIth insufficient data to compare, it seems though, unlikely, that there are that many suffering from anorexia (by viewing physical appearance) than that of obese people (there seem to be more and more waddling around these days - and they are younger than before).
313069
America is a consumerist nation. We are raised to buy buy buy, and food is something that needs to bought and therefor eaten so we can buy more.
17925
Most Europeans I know are apalled at the serving size of food in American restaurants. And so many people here finish their plates. \n\nWE EAT TOO MUCH and drive everywhere.
572739
Americans love themselves the most. We are a most selfish group of people.  So it could be any of the things you have mentioned.  We are the fattest, laziest, most entertained group of people in history.
588675
Because, the media is portraying them only as camel riding tent living people. It's like the world seeing America as only McDonalds eating fat ignorant people. It's all just a slight misunderstanding.
425650
America is fat because of the fact that we are so used to have convinience at our door step.  Seriously, drive down the street and you have what?  Sonic, Mcdonald's, Pizza Hut?  The list can go on and on, but that's one of the reasons.  Also, families now a days are so busy.  Not just the parents, but the children as well.  From soccer practice to school, they get home, and one of the parent's will be home, but they'll be too tired to cook.  So, instead of cooking a healthy meal and sitting together as a family, what do they do but drive to the nearest restauran/fast food place, and eat there.  As far as the youth of America being lazy..convinience again.  They have taken advantage of technoligies at their fingertips...to television from computers.  Instead of going outside riding a bike, they decide to sit on their butts and do one or the other--television or computer, or handheld games.
1023758
An american trait....bigger, louder, faster, fatter. They have to overdo everything,
847595
Americans choose quantity over quality when it comes to food.. everything is super sized. A lot of us do not sit and enjoy a meal, we eat while doing other things, like driving, watching TV, etc., which makes us eat more without thinking. Also, it is not a coincidence, I'm sure, that we have more cars here in  USA than most places, which makes us get less exercise. The worship of thinness here in USA is contradictory to what we as a nation look like. The standard of thinness that is worshiped here is so unnatural and extreme that some people give up s thinking it unattainable and let themselves go even more than if it were a normal  weight standard set.