Southerners have little access to healthy food and limited means with which to purchase it. It's hard for them to exercise outdoors, and even when they do have the opportunity, it's so hot, they don't want to.
As a conclusion, that seems pretty reasonable to me. Eating nothing but vegetables and lean meat doesn't guarantee you thinness, but for most people, a diet high in starchy carbs and sugar, which are plentiful in cheap staples like rice, potatoes, bread, and pasta, tends to make them pack on weight. Combined with a low activity level, that can certainly lead to further weight gain.
Is that the only possible reason anyone could be fat? Of course not, but it is one reason.
I agree with you there. I'm in Oklahoma. It was 102 degrees today. It is September. I never go outside if I can help it from April to October because it's so fucking oppressive and the humidity stifles you! I have an exercise bike and I do exercise indoors when I can, but it does get boring with nothing but the same old walls to stare at. I can see where even the more determined exercisers would say screw it and go for a slushee instead
( ... )
The headless fatty stock photo and the lead-in paragraph are obnoxiously fat-shaming. The rest of it makes some sense, although I'd really prefer they frame it in terms of getting people access to inexpensive options for exercise and nutritious food for the sake of their general health, rather than getting people access to those things because maybe they'd be thinner.
And the guy wasn't even that LARGE, it was just stupid camera angle manipulation to make him look grotesque.
Interestingly enough, my best friend just did her master's thesis on this topic, only her approach was getting grocery stores and healthy food options more available to less affluent areas as a way to improve general health; she didn't touch obesity. It was a fascinating read.
While the language used in the article was insulting, the points were accurate. I've lived here in the South my entire life. It's really hot, we don't have sidewalks, the summer goes on for 6 months, and macaroni can be a veggie. :)
We also have leaders that are short sided about health issues and attack our First Lady, but that's another rant...
Not enough people are thinking critically about Michelle Obama's pet issues. "Let's Move!" is an awful campaign that focuses on weight instead of health. It's as if she came up with an idea, then went to "researchers" and "experts" to support her idea (does anyone really think any of those individuals/institutions would say "no" to the president's wife?), rather than looking at the science behind weight and health and forming a non-stigmatizing campaign around it.
I think the campaign has issues, but encouraging people to move more isn't a bad thing, IMO. (I know some people aren't able to, and I have days due to chronic illness where I cannot.) On my good days, I'm out there with my kids playing, coloring, leading a GS troop, reading, and doing my best. The same as we all are.
However, many people on a certain side of the aisle liked to say "Well, screw her and her politics. I'll eat a brownie just because she said to eat a veggie." That's nutso.
Hmm - I should have refreshed the comments. It looks like several people agree. :)
Also, I've been on high levels of steroids this past year while we've been in Chicago. The last time I was on this dosage level, I gained 60-ish lbs in the first year (while in NC). Even though I don't walk as much as my husband in Chicago, I do walk some... and I've only gained 20-ish lbs this time.
Again, neither of us are dieting; our diet is the same.
I don't agree on the way its said but what it said is pretty much true. I am from Arkansas and I grew up eating white rice with butter and sugar. Its yummy but not the healthiest food to eat. On the case of the heat, its almost 8:30 pm right now and its still 91 outside, yea don't think so. I have been wanting to get out and at least go walking lately but as hot as its been, not happening.
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As a conclusion, that seems pretty reasonable to me. Eating nothing but vegetables and lean meat doesn't guarantee you thinness, but for most people, a diet high in starchy carbs and sugar, which are plentiful in cheap staples like rice, potatoes, bread, and pasta, tends to make them pack on weight. Combined with a low activity level, that can certainly lead to further weight gain.
Is that the only possible reason anyone could be fat? Of course not, but it is one reason.
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Interestingly enough, my best friend just did her master's thesis on this topic, only her approach was getting grocery stores and healthy food options more available to less affluent areas as a way to improve general health; she didn't touch obesity. It was a fascinating read.
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We also have leaders that are short sided about health issues and attack our First Lady, but that's another rant...
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However, many people on a certain side of the aisle liked to say "Well, screw her and her politics. I'll eat a brownie just because she said to eat a veggie." That's nutso.
Reply
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Also, I've been on high levels of steroids this past year while we've been in Chicago. The last time I was on this dosage level, I gained 60-ish lbs in the first year (while in NC). Even though I don't walk as much as my husband in Chicago, I do walk some... and I've only gained 20-ish lbs this time.
Again, neither of us are dieting; our diet is the same.
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