I am not saying that there aren't fat Americans, christ I see them waddling
around everyday, but broad sweeping statements that don't mean shit are usually
left to our president
Obesity tends to run in families. This is caused both by genes and by shared
diet and lifestyle habits. Having obese relatives does not guarantee that you
will be obese.
Obesity is considered a chronic (long-term) disease, like high blood pressure or
diabetes. It has many serious long-term consequences for your health, and it is
the second leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States (tobacco is
the first).
Aside from very rare cases, it is wrong to consider obesity a disease. It is
largly (no pun intended) due to people that do not eat or exercise properally
and it is fully preventable by doing so. To call it a disease is to only provide
those people with another excuse not to pony up and take responsibility for
themselves and their own damn health. Their unwillingness to do so, just makes
health care and all the rest that much more expensive for the rest of us that
take care of our bodies.
Yeah, some people get obese for medical reasons beyond their control - but 95%
or more, they could prevent it and do something about it. They just chose to
stick another Krispy Kreme Donut or Big Mac in their mouth instead while riding
the couch all night and surfing channels.
Obesity in America is largely attributable to (a) terrible diets (primarily
sugar), and (b) infrastructure that values roads and driving over walking and
normal levels of exercise.
Europeans, generally, aren't fat. Except for the British, they tend to eat
rather well. Among Americans it tends to be those in the center of the country,
not the coasts, who live in walkable cities (SF, NYC, Seattle, Boston).
A@17290:
I am not saying obesity is a disease, doctors consider obesity a disease. Just
as depression is also a disease. Obesity is as rooted in the mind as it is in
the body.
I live in the Midwest and I am not a 5% body fat kind of guy, but I can see my
cock and my feet when standing.
So all of you Europeans that think that every American is fat, suck a
"fat" one.
I could make generalizations all day (every Frenchy is a coward, Italians are
sweaty and greasy, every Irishmen is a drunken buffoon, all Germans are
Sado-Masochists with poop fetishes, all British men are cross dressers with
terrible teeth) but I don't, because I am not a small minded twit.
Americans are no longer the majority in America, America is the melting pot of
the world, the irony here is that, to call an American fat is to call every
nationality in the world fat.
