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Why are Americans so fat?
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Thomas the Rhymer Date: 20 Sep 00 - 02:29 PM Well, now that it's posted again,...
... Because Americans are the most unhappy.
The wor'dly race may riches chase |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: flattop Date: 20 Sep 00 - 12:29 PM Sorry Jed. Simple mistake. Made one myself once. You can't leave opportunites for people like me to jump in with both feet. We do. I'm a bad one to have around the scene of an accident. Again, I'm sorry. |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: JedMarum Date: 20 Sep 00 - 11:32 AM Ooops! Sorry folks. The last thing I wanted to do was bring up this thread again. I looked it it up to quote for another thread. I didn't want to re-open this old wound. Sorry about that! |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: GUEST,Katchoo Date: 20 Sep 00 - 11:07 AM Stop fucking talking and click through at http://www.thehungersite.com/ and salve your first world middle class conciousnesses. Thank Yew Katchoo xx |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: flattop Date: 20 Sep 00 - 10:56 AM Why would you resurrect this thread, Jed? Do you want us to wade through the same old cesspools in our barefeet? Can't you think of a fresh and controversial topic that would allow us to be malicious and cruel while we pretend that we are the most kind and sensitive folk singers with only the best political correct intentions? Couldn't you at least have rephrased the question in a sly and interesting manner so that we could have sent 100 debauched messages before someone pointed out in a blue clicky that we'd dealt with the same crap elsewhere? Cordially, fla You originally wrote: >>Does American the marketplace 'consume' significantly more than that of the developing counties? Almost ceratinly so - does that mean that Americans eat five times the food of those in the rest of the world? Bullshit! Is this discussion not one more example of some asshole trying to prove that the American's are better off then those in (some) other countries because we "stole' their piece of the pie. Most assuredly! |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: kendall Date: 20 Sep 00 - 10:10 AM Plenty of food, but, poor nutrition |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: JedMarum Date: 20 Sep 00 - 09:36 AM |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: GUEST Date: 05 Jun 00 - 09:48 PM |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Peter K (Fionn) Date: 05 Jun 00 - 05:46 PM I just have to come back once more, if only to apologise to McGrath of Harlow. but I'm bound to get in a muddle Kevin, when a name gets to more than two words long. And thanks for bringing farts back into it Spaw - I tried to turn the thread in that direction right up near the top. Truly we are two nations divided by a common language, or whatever GBS said. See y'all in another thread. |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: GUEST,Starfish Date: 05 Jun 00 - 07:10 AM Well, that puts a whole different slant on it, doesn't it? 'Spaw will be pleased |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 05 Jun 00 - 06:55 AM a coda to the thread |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: GUEST,Starfish Date: 04 Jun 00 - 10:54 PM Agreed! |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: catspaw49 Date: 04 Jun 00 - 10:52 PM Well Starfish, hopefully its becoming so silly (believe me Jon and I are trying) and so long that the load time will preclude anything else being posted of any real import. Unless some idiot starts a part two, an action which should result in a public caning, I figure its about crapped out. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: GUEST,John Date: 04 Jun 00 - 10:46 PM Ahhh! Fooled ye!! |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: catspaw49 Date: 04 Jun 00 - 10:44 PM ....Had a feelin'something like that was coming. But Jon, first they were getting shoved off their land and HAD to move on so it don't seem like much fun to me. And additionally, if they'd been driving an English car, they'couldn't have had any fun since it would have required stopping for repairs every half mile or so and not going out after dark at all!!! Its a little known fact, but during the "Blitz," Londoners did not voluntarily observe blackouts.......It was simply that all the lighting in the city had been supplied by Joe Lucas. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: GUEST,Starfish Date: 04 Jun 00 - 10:39 PM Hello! I was just wondering how much longer this thread will get? |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Jon Freeman Date: 04 Jun 00 - 10:23 PM Sorry spaw,
I swapped my farm for a car to have some fun Jon |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: catspaw49 Date: 04 Jun 00 - 10:10 PM We call it gas because in its leaded variation it smells like a pork roast fart. Also it worked out better for Woody when he wrote,
So I swapped my farm for a Ford machine Now that'd sound plumb stupid with "petrol" now wouldn't it? Come to think of it, its pretty stupid anyway. Now "crackers" are thin crispy little jobbies like saltines......and also the name of rednecks in the Georgia/Florida country. Though you can eat the first, I wouldn't advise it with the second, even if his name IS Cookie, unless you have a copy of "Dueling Banjos" handy....and a big club. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Jon Freeman Date: 04 Jun 00 - 09:45 PM No spaw, we call cookies, a type of biscuit, cookies but scones aren't any form of biscuit. Come to that, assuming that I'm right in thinking a Graham cracker is like a digestive biscuit, why do you call it a cracker when it is quite obviously a biscuit, and what do you call crackers? Why do you fill your cars with a liquid and call it gas?... ;-) Jon (Who in case anybody misses the ;-) is only joking)
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: catspaw49 Date: 04 Jun 00 - 09:21 PM Great.....I'm now enlightened which should make me less fat................. Sorry Fionn.......This thread caused a boatload of xenophobic and other crappola and I should have known better than to suggest we kill it. It went about 14 hours and I was hopeful, but it didn't happen. Next I tried completely stupid BS that was so worthless that I figured it would send the thing into the shitter....But I forgot that this was Mudcat and we have a great need to answer everything. Did you ever read the "Condom Thread?" Started simply because Art was fed up with all the boilerplate threads like "Where do Mudcatters Live" and about 15 others like it......Art starts the condom thing to point up how silly we were becoming and sure enough it went rocketing past the rest. Oh well............... So why do y'all call cookies biscuits and biscuits scones? Don't you think it would be good ta git yerseffs all fixed up rite with the language seeuns as ta how yer English an all? Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: GUEST Date: 04 Jun 00 - 08:04 PM mo mowlam is a woman catspaw |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 04 Jun 00 - 08:02 PM Naw Fionn - there's Frank McGrath of Nenagh, and Kevin McGrath of Harlow. I was the one with the link to The Modest Proposal(the point being that when it comes to offending the well-fed bourgeousie, John Evans was being pretty gentle about it compared to the righteous Dean Swift).
And spaw, Mo is short for Maureen, and she's the one who made the right moves in getting the peace process in Northern Ireland on track at a crucial time.
Whiskey and potatoes are a fine balanced diet. You mix them up, but inside you. Or if you've the skill the potatoes make good poitin too. A versatile fruit indeed. |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Peter K (Fionn) Date: 04 Jun 00 - 04:21 PM In case anyone who followed Frank of Harlow's link to Jonathan Swift's proposal didn't realise this, the Irish-born Swift was neither a monster nor given to jokes in bad taste. His game was satire. I guess Spaw really takes the biscuit (which will not help him lose weight) for sneaking back into this thread after unilaterally declaring it dead with posting number 92. Obviously he's angling for the last word whatever number posting it takes. In which case we should be able to spin this thread out till it makes the record books.... Margo's right to blame the USA's lead in the obesity stakes on a rotten diet, but wrong to make excuses for that rotten diet. A banana is just as convenient as a bar of candy, and it comes in a biodegradable wrapper. As for all that ernest debate about soda, some way up the thread, what's wrong with unsweetened fruit juice, and even plain old nil-calory water? So diet's part of it, but so is sedentary lifestyle, which hasn'thad much of a mention yet. At least I pedal 10-15 miles regularly to the nearest towns round here, but I'm still overweight. We're designed to do much more physical work than we actually do. Finally (not that I'm trying to do a Spaw) the reason we Brits are so panicked by what's going on over there is because we see ourselves heading in the same direction, just like lemmings. |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: GUEST,Lee Date: 04 Jun 00 - 03:09 PM John Evans, If you're serious I've found World Vision to be an excellent organisation with which to be associated. They do sensational work. Lee |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: catspaw49 Date: 04 Jun 00 - 02:32 PM What the hell kind of casserole is whisky and potatoes? Just doesn't sound too good together although both are fine individually. And what does this have to do with swimming? Is he afraid of getting a cramp or what? Spaw (trying to deteriorate this simpleass thread into oblivion) |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 04 Jun 00 - 02:11 PM To put the "fat" thing in proportion, here is a quote in this week's Sunday paper from Mo Mowlem, the most popular minister in the British Cabinet with the public (but not, it is said with Tony Blair):
"I don't believe in dieting. If I want to get thinner and wear a swimming costume, I'll have to cut out whisky and potatoes but you only have one life, so why not enjoy it? |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Bert Date: 04 Jun 00 - 01:03 PM LMAO Moonbaby, that was a good one. Bert. |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 03 Jun 00 - 03:11 PM Food rationing for the English as a whole actually meant an improvement in nutrition, reflected in improved health. Might not have tasted too good, but nor did what most people had before. That's probably why, having been born then, I see food as fuel rather than a major thing in my life - I like it to taste good, but so long as it's edible and does the trick of keeping me going, that's the main thing
I'm still puzzled at how angry people seem to be feeling about all this. It seems that any suggestion that people eat too much is like accusing them of some depraved activity, and to use the word "fat" is the ulktimate insult. Obviously it'd be better if we were all a lot nmore equal round the world, and God willing somehow in time that'll come to be.
Now if John Evans' bit of mild breast-beating annoyed people, try this for size (and maybe change the identity countries round a bit to fit the turn of the Millennium) - A Modest Proposal
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: GUEST,Penny S. (elsewhere) Date: 03 Jun 00 - 12:21 PM British cooking, pre Industrial Revolution, was good - where do you think all those cooks over there learned those dishes that are suspiciously like our traditional dishes - they aren't all Indian recipes? British cooking, post Depression and with WWII rationing went through a bad patch. In the gap in between, there was good and bad, depending on where you fitted in society, or how close you were to the sources of food in the country. This is a calumny that should die, along with references to grits and chitterlings. Penny |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Margo Date: 03 Jun 00 - 12:04 PM To address the original post: I don't give a fig for your guilt(haha). It won't feed anyone or make anyone skinnier. As to why American's are fat: It is a matter of how things have evolved (as I see it) SUGAR: refined sugar being used in everything, in common everyday canned foods has a damaging effect (if you don't know why sugar makes you fat, go look it up)Pastries and sweets used to be only affordable by the very rich, but with technology, things have become cheaper and more affordable to produce I think that Hersheys was the first chocolate bar to be afforded by the masses. FAST FOOD LIFESTYLE: Our lifestyle has become a squeeze for time. We are expected to get more accomplished in less time. This phenomena is a result of the advances in technology. Foods that are "ready to go" are not only sold in fast food joints but also at the grocery store. It's so much easier to buy something that is ready made. Unfortunately, the lion's share of these products are indeed high in fat and sugars. It's a terrible price to pay for convenience. I'm sure that there are other factors playing upon the public in general that I am not aware of, but I think the ones I mentioned play a major part. John Evans, your accusation that the Americans simply are gluttonous and eat too much is inflamitory and self rightous. Get off your high horse. If you're really concerned about what makes people fat gather all the facts and then do something about it rather than pointing a finger. Margo |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: bbelle Date: 03 Jun 00 - 10:35 AM Perhaps the reason Americans are so "fat" is because when we got out from under British rule in 1776 the cooking got better? moonchild |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Brendy Date: 03 Jun 00 - 04:12 AM There was this 'assistant' to Gerry Ryan (Irish disc-jockey) every morning, an effiminate Cork lad called Terence. One of his more endearing phrases ws that he "Could never eat anything with a face" B. |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: GUEST,Baba Date: 03 Jun 00 - 03:24 AM Thank you Bill D. For years, since I was about 11 years old, I have attempted to explain to others why I abstain from eating meat. I think I do have the BBES ("Big Brown Eyes Syndrome"), apart from not acquiring a "taste" for meat when I was growing up. I suppose I am a visual person - can't help seeing the dear little animals in their former frolicking glory as their naked bodies grill and sizzle. *Sorry to those of you who might be eating dinner* Vegetarian eating for me is a habit, and it is something my body thanks me for each day with its good health and natural energy. I hope one day that all the pressure to be thin, the fad diets, the damaging guilt and the feelings of inadequacy will disappear from this strange social construct we call "the Western World". Many people are walking around feeling disgusted by themselves due to the materialism of this culture. |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 02 Jun 00 - 11:37 AM You're right there 'spaw. Until someone can come up with some bright ideas otherwise we'll be going round in circles. But it's funny the way talk about "fat" gets people as aerated as talk about reasons for killing people does. |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: catspaw49 Date: 01 Jun 00 - 09:43 PM Well this oughta' be about post 92 and with any luck we can let this sucker die. No, there are no easy answers if indeed an answer exists. Revolution perhaps.... All we can do is to individually be as conseving as possible in what we do. Trying to get others to follow suit? People, we can't even get past the divisiveness this thread seemed to create here among friends............ Let's let this one go off to the archives to join the likes of "Armalite" and others. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 01 Jun 00 - 09:19 PM When Europeans are critical of America it's a bit different from ordinary xenophobia. Americans are Europeans, freed from some of the restrictions that apply back here. Having bigger appetites, in all kinds of ways, is symbolic.
Of course in a way this makes the criticism harsher at times - in a sense it is selfcriticism, criticism of an aspect of ourself that has been realised in a foreign country. But it can disguise the fact that collectively we are doing our best to follow in the footsteps of the United States in consumption.
Clearly a world in which a few regions of the woprld consume so much that it is totally impossible for the rest of the world to match it, because the resources just are not there - that is not something which can go on permanently. Something will happen that restores the balance.
But how that can be achieved without some kind of world catastrophe, and whether it can in fact be achieved - those are hard questions, and we haven't come up with the answers here, not surprisingly. "Cousins, please eat less" wrote the much (and in my few, unfairly) maligned John Evans, at the start of this thread. Clearly, taken literally, that won't in itself solve things - though it will help you live longer (and use up more resources - no simple answers, indeed...). |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: GUEST,fadac Date: 01 Jun 00 - 08:00 PM Hmmm, airplane taxes. Vent mode on: As an airplane owner I pay. Sales tax, property tax, excise tax, then where I pay the city to tie it down, I pay property tax on the space under the wheels. On the fuel I burn, there is Fed. tax, state tax, county tax, city tax, and don't forget airport tax. God help you if you need a light bulb or a new tire. At this time the Avaition reserve has like 34 Billion dollars just sitting there. The FAA dosn't want to reliese the money to fix up airports, pay for new updated navagation systems, give the tower controlers a pay raise. In fact they want to tax us even more to get more money that they don't want to spend. There has been several attempts to raid the airport money, however there are some level heads that prevent it. So far. Anybody that thinks that small aircraft get a free ride, are welcome to my tax bills. Vent mode off: -fadac :) |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Jed at Work Date: 01 Jun 00 - 05:14 PM You must be kidding, Fionn. Your airline tickets are taxed beyond belief already!! Airlines themselves generate BILLIONS of dollars each year in income taxes for Uncle Sam - and a large percentage of every ticket you buy is eaten up with additional Fed, state and local taxes.
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Peter K (Fionn) Date: 01 Jun 00 - 04:16 PM I take your point Spaw, but it surely the US tax on gasoline could be a bit nearer EU levels and the revenue put to something useful? That said, it's crazy that aviation tax is not taxed anywhere, as far as I know. Aircraft emissions are far the biggest cause of the greenhouse effect. |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Jed at Work Date: 01 Jun 00 - 02:59 PM ... and the myths keep rolling! |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Peg Date: 01 Jun 00 - 11:55 AM Fionn, excellent comment on those Stupid Useless Vehicles!!! I could not agree more. They are an excellent metaphor for what is wrong with America: have fun today, don't worry about tomorrow, and pay no attention to the horrid wastefulness you are contributing to...and be sure not to worry about the safety of the people in your immediate vicinity... I have yet to meet an SUV owner who used the vehicle for its designated purpose: most of them are used to schlep around kids, groceries and dry cleaning...and they cause more accidents, quite apart from their gas guzzling...how easily we forget the fuel crisis of the 1970s and 1980s! Now people grumble about high gasoline prices and are trading in those stupid monsters... |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: catspaw49 Date: 01 Jun 00 - 09:23 AM Fionn, I'm not suggesting that we don't overconsume. But I would say that the sheer force of economics precludes this joint from addressing the problem in a more beneficial way. Show me a "workable" plan and I'll be all for it. We have lots of homeless and malnourished people here that we haven't provided much of a solution for either. The idea that those who can afford to consume generally do, is not uniquely American. This kind of discussion always leaves some of us sounding as though we are xenophobic and others sounding like sour grapes....neither of which is true. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: katlaughing Date: 01 Jun 00 - 08:56 AM Peg, thanks for pointing out the horribleness of Nutrasweet, you are absolutely right. Also, while I have no hard evidence, my friend has noticed that her joints quit painfully aching after she quit drinking diet soda.
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Peter K (Fionn) Date: 01 Jun 00 - 08:01 AM Thanks Gary T. I think we're on the same wavelength. I know you can't send doggy bags to Ethiopia, but don't forget that some of the neediest are right there in the states. Spaw, to justify consuming more on the basis that you produce more is a bit ingenuous. Do you all work that much harder than the rest of us? And in what about finite resources like fossil fuels and the global atmosphere - stuff you didn't produce and can't replace? Worse still, most of this consumption is down to only a small element in your population. If the rest caught up, then again the world would go bust. As for whether obesity can be caused by illness, the jury is still out on that. But I remember a consultant (oncologist I think) causing a furore by pointing out that there were no fat people at Auchwitz. Maybe obesity is too personal/emotive. Maybe someone could explain instead why well-off Americans have to swan around in ridiculously huge leisure utility trucks that do about six miles to a gallon? To the rest of us (including other Americans I assume) this looks like just another way of screwing up the planet for the sheer hell of it. |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 01 Jun 00 - 06:18 AM "But we also give more in charity, relief and aide to struggling nations than any other nation on earth."
Well, proportionately, you don't actually. Ireland for one gives far more per head, and there are many others. If Americans gave the same proportion as the top ten countries or so, we'd be in sight of cracking a lot of the things wrong with the world. And that isn't meant to be knocking America. Big countries tend to be more inward looking than small countries, and they don't come a lot bigger than the United States. It's certainly not a matter of lack of generosity on an individual basis. It's a structural problem. |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler Date: 01 Jun 00 - 04:30 AM Following on from Grab's posting, for a birthday some years back someone gave me a bottle of Fat Bastard Chardonnay and someone else gave me Owd Roger beer! People can insult me like that any time they like! Why couldn't I post to this thread yesterday? It's OK today! RtS |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Bill D Date: 01 Jun 00 - 12:32 AM *big grin*...a favotite |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: catspaw49 Date: 01 Jun 00 - 12:31 AM I figure there's a big Larson contingent around here......I always liked the lobster about to go into the pot screaming, "Auntie Em! Auntie Em!" Spaw (Sorry to bring up another joke in this thread which everyone's bitching about.......yeah, right) |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: katlaughing Date: 01 Jun 00 - 12:23 AM Thanks, Bert, but I did too have that much to lose! Frightening, isn't it and thanks, too, for pointing out the hidden reasons that can cause obesity. I got spayed at 27 and had been 110 lbs. all of my life, even after three kids, until that; then I grew just like my spayed cats! Exercise is a bit difficult if I don't pace myself because of the dickie ticker, but I am getting there, which will help that problem, too. BillD, I eat fish on occasion, prefer not to and I was raised by a man who grew up on a homestead cattle ranch in Colorado! Didn't go veggie until I was in my 30's, about hmmmmm...oh well, a few years ago, so you're never too old, ya hear?**BG** And that Farside was one of my very favourite cartoons! I have one up right now of Mother Goose & Grimm, the cat and dog cartoon. It shows the dog sitting in a chair reading "To Kill A Mockingbird" and then he thinks in a balloon, "I thought it was an instruction manual!" |
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Subject: RE: Why are Americans so fat? From: Kelida Date: 01 Jun 00 - 12:13 AM Americans ARE "fat" in more than one way. But we also give more in charity, relief and aide to struggling nations than any other nation on earth. Of, course, this may be because (don't quote me on this, please) we are the richest and most populated of industrialized countries. However, I would advise Americans to look within before looking for troubles abroad. America has her own problems. Feel guilty about those first, if you really MUST feel guilty. Go buy a street person a burger--real fattening (joking, but you get the idea). The problems at home need attention before we should worry about everyone else's problems. If America produces enough to support most of the world, why can't she support herself? Peace--Keli |
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