Why are Americans, especially women and young women at that, often so horribly overweight? I've been looking at the videos of protesters against the overturn of Roe vs Wade and it's the first what catches the eye.
Also, yesterday we were at the zoo. Now we have our own share of plump people, what you normally would call fat. But there was a young woman sitting in a restaurant next to us, with a toddler and a group of people and she wasn't just ordinarily fat, she was well, like a mountain. I was intrigued, but then I heard them all speak English with an American accent and thought, "Oh, OK, now I understand."
Folks like to talk about "standard American diet" and stuff like that, but here she was living in a Euro country where most people don't look like this and still managing to reach such a size. So it must be some cultural thing, I guess...
I'm a 64 yo American woman. Yes, it's partly the S.A.D, partly emotional eating. Women in the US have been lied to for years about how fulfillment is to be found outside the home; sex with strangers is fun; God is dead; etc. I believe it all leads to an unconscious toxic mental and emotional state that women try to overcome with eating. Stress eating and emotional eating are so prevalent here! Broken homes, fatherless children, and so on and so on add to the burden. Plus, junk food is so much cheaper than the good stuff and no one knows how to cook anymore. It's a complex problem without a single answer as to how to fix it. And it's so sad because it's also generational and leads to all sorts of chronic ailments, which is a huge burden on society.
ReplyDeleteBut this lady was young, with a husband and a kid, I can understand older people putting on weight but how do you manage at the age of not yet 30? Don't say pregnancy as I know zero Dutch women who became so fat after having 1 child. May be the absence of home meals? Never cooking? Drinking too much soda?
ReplyDeleteEverything that Lass said, and I would add sleep deprivation is standard living for most Americans (I'm no exception!). And yes, morbidly obese people here almost always practically hydrate exclusively with soda. Total sedentary lifestyle too with people being massively online and never bothering to go for a walk or anything. It's definitely a cumulative effect of an entire lifestyle that is antithetical to normal human existence.
ReplyDeleteBut here in the Netherlands we walk more and bicycle more, at least usually:) I guess fast food and soda are the culprits...Sleep deprivation is not a joke. Is it because you have to commute so much?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so. I think it's driven more by people having too much busyness during the day and then feeling a compulsion to consume entertainment all evening as a means of "rest". Add the endless options on the internet and screens in bed and people just don't go to sleep on time.
DeleteNuke responding, by the way.
DeleteBecause of climate change and food shortages, we have to eat more ice cream than usual over here;)
ReplyDelete(But seriously, I don't eat junk food or drink soda and go on a hike several times a week but still need to lose some pounds. I think the weight gain in USA is something to do with stress, but also a lot to do with once you are that heavy you have no desire to move from the couch.)
DeleteNuke, yes, it's a familiar problem:) Once you get a smartphone, all creative hobbies go out of the window! It's such mindless, low effort entertainment, which kinda helps you relax after a busy day, and then you have the dangers of WhatsApp friends:) I try to switch mine off at a certain time in the evening, or at least, to use it only to talk to people and to listen to videos, as blue light is known to disrupt sleeping patterns.
ReplyDeleteLillibeth, lol:) I've lost weight after I became a (semi) vegetarian, and I hope it stays so, but I try to be active every day, too. My BMI was always in the normal range but I was several kilos heavier. Stress actually can lead to extreme weight loss, too.
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