US Corporations Evil Plot to Fatten the World for Profit.

[evildevil]

Make Them Eat Cake
How America is exporting its obesity epidemic.

With this summer's news from the United Nations that Mexico has surpassed the United States in adult obesity levels -- one-third of Mexican adults are now considered extremely overweight -- U.S. foreign policy has come into sharper, or perhaps softer, focus. Despite first lady

Comments

[gambitia]

1. I am really, really tired of people using my body type as a symbol of American greed and imperialism.

2. Yet again, we have no actual numbers as to the weight increase or how it's distributed. BMI is a useless measurement, and most people have no idea what "obesity" actually looks like. This lovely woman is obese. As is this one. This one is morbidly obese. I can't help but think that when everyone sees "obesity" they think "holy shit 2/3rds of Mexico is now 400 pounds!". In the US, people over 400 pounds are under 1% of the population, IIRC, and I have no reason to believe Mexico is vastly different. There is no shocking increase in weight; there is a very modest weight gain.

3. I've read some interesting theories on diabetes and the birth of agriculture--according to the author, diabetes exploded when populations first began farming, as diets became radically different from those of hunter-gatherers (most noticeably, the introduction of grains as a staple). Diabetes rates went down as humans evolved to cope with their new diet. However, humans did not begin farming at the same time, so while some populations can handle an agricultural diet very well, others have not had the requisite time to develop coping mechanisms. I wonder if we might be seeing some of that here--some of the Third World, including Mexico, includes populations that came to agriculture much later (4,000 years later than in the Middle East IIRC).

[lollycunt]

BMI is an accurate measurement across populations, so in this case they were actually using it properly. They weren't using it to try and diagnose an individual's obesity. You trying to refute it by posting individuals is actually you missing the point.

Also you creating an argument where you're saying people think obesity=400 lbs, then trying to say you think only 1% of the population is 400 lbs, and then using that completely unfounded argument to refute actual facts, is you missing the point.

[gambitia]

I don't think the study is wrong about BMI going up in developing worlds. I think people are going to have an exaggerated reaction to it because of a misconception of what obesity looks like.

I think people have a very set idea about what obesity looks like, thanks to the lovely headless fatty phenomenon. The people invariably portrayed in media as "the obese" represent a very small fraction of the population. I think that people freak out whenever "rising obesity rates" are mentioned, because they have a completely incorrect assumption on what obesity looks like and what it actually encompasses.

"Obese" covers a lot of ground that most people assume to be "normal"; that is what I wanted to point out. Sorry if that was unclear.

[romp]

It wasn't unclear to me. You make a valid point about the perception of what "obese" looks like.