Tag Archives: Obesity

Food Is Freedom: How Washington’s Food Subsidies Have Helped Make Americans Fat and Sick, by ammo.com

Posted on October 2, 2019 | Leave a comment

Examine most social ills and you’ll find the government’s fingerprints. Food woes like obesity are no exception. From ammo.com:

Farm subsidies are perhaps the ultimate, but secret, third rail of American politics. While entitlements are discussed out in the open, farm subsidies are rarely talked about – even though they are the most expensive subsidy Washington doles out.

All told, the U.S. government spends $20 billion annually on farm subsidies, with approximately 39 percent of all farms receiving some sort of subsidy. For comparison, the oil industry gets about $4.6 billion annually and annual housing subsidies total another $15 billion. A significant portion of this $20 billion goes not to your local family farm, but to Big Aggie.

(Note that this $20 billion annual farm subsidy figure doesn’t take into account the 30+ years of ethanol subsidies to the corn industry nor export subsidies to U.S. farmers issued by the USDA.)

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Socialized Medicine Won’t Solve America’s Obesity Problem, by Ryan McMaken

Posted on October 24, 2018 | 1 comment

Obesity is the public health problem nobody wants to talk about, perhaps because so many people are obese. From Ryan McMaken at mises.org:

Last week, researchers at the the University of Washington released a new study predicting that US life expectancy would fall further and further behind other countries over the next twenty years. Life expectancy will continue to increase, but at a slower rate than many other countries.

Whether or not these predictions ever come true, depend on many of the study’s assumptions also coming true.

Nevertheless, it’s not hard to see why the general health of Americans isn’t exactly headed toward a renaissance.

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Hunger hoaxes hinder food stamp reform, by James Bovard

Posted on May 20, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here’s a paradox: many of the people who receive food stamps, presumably because they are hungry and need food, are certifiably obese. From James Bovard at thehillcom:

Hunger hoaxes hinder food stamp reform

The Trump administration is pushing radical changes in the food stamp program as part of the farm bill. Reform efforts may be derailed by activists who vastly exaggerate hunger and portray food handouts as the epitome of social justice. But federal food handouts have already done far too much damage to Americans’ health.

Food stamps are now feeding 42 million people. Twitter activists created a #HandsOffSNAP hashtag to seek to block any efforts at reform. But, while politicians portray food stamps as a nutrition program (Congress changed the name to Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, in 2008), they are actually a blank check to buy more calories.

Food stamps have long been a dietary disaster. Walter Willett, chair of Harvard University’s Department of Nutrition, observed, “We’ve analyzed what (food stamp) participants are eating and it’s horrible food. It’s a diet designed to produce obesity and diabetes.” A 2017 public health study found that food stamp recipients were twice as likely to be obese as eligible non-recipients. Similarly, a 2015 USDA report revealed that food stamp recipients are more likely to be obese than eligible non-recipients (40 percent vs. 32 percent).

Food stamps are a perpetual bailout for the junk food industry. A 2016 USDA report revealed that soft drinks are the most common commodity purchased in food stamp households. Together, “sweetened beverages, desserts, salty snacks, candy and sugar” account for 20 percent of food stamp expenditures. Food stamp recipients consume twice as many of their daily calories from sugar-sweetened beverages as do higher incomes groups (12 percent vs. 6 percent), according to a 2015 study in Preventive Medicine.

A federal program designed simply to boost calorie consumption makes no sense at a time when obesity is rampant. Forty-four percent of low-income women are obese; the rate is even higher for black (56 percent) and Hispanic (49 percent).

Food stamps are justified to prevent hunger but the federal government does not even attempt to collect data on how many Americans actually go hungry.  The National Academy of Sciences urged USDA to create a hunger gauge in 2006 but the agency has done nothing on that score. Instead, USDA conducts annual surveys measuring a vaporous notion of “food security” — which can simply mean uncertainty about being able to afford groceries in the future or not being able to afford the organic food one prefers. Though USDA stresses that the survey is not a measure of hunger, its results (and those of similar surveys) are perennially twisted to maximize teeth-gnashing.

To continue reading: Hunger hoaxes hinder food stamp reform

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American Adults Have Never Been Fatter, by Tyler Durden

Posted on March 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

America’s obesity epidemic has to be some sort of marker of the nation’s character. All kinds of excuses can be made, but many Americans suffer from a complete lack of self-control. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

40% of American adults are obese, a sharp increase from a decade earlier and a record high. according to federal health officials.

A National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) sampling of 27,449 adults with a BMI between 30 and 40 found that among those aged 20 years and older, obesity went from 33.7% in 2007-2008 to 39.6% in 2015-2016. Severe obesity – those with a BMI above 40, jumped from 5.7% to 7.7% over the same period.

The increase in obesity among the 16,875 youth sampled was much lower, going from 16.8% a decade ago to 18.5% in 2015-2016. Still pretty bad.

For reference, this kid was considered fat in 1985… 

National trends

The CDC has prepared handy list of statistics as well as maps of average obesity by state, as well as by race. In a nutshell, the south is a hotbed of obesity.

Of note:

  • Obesity decreased by level of education. Adults without a high school degree or equivalent  had the highest self-reported obesity 
  • Young adults were half as likely to have obesity as middle-aged adults.

Obesity Prevalence in 2016 Varies Across States and Territories

  • All states had more than 20% of adults with obesity.
  • 35% or more adults had obesity in 5 states (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia).
  • The South had the highest prevalence of obesity (32.0%), followed by the Midwest (31.4%), the Northeast (26.9%), and the West (26.0%).

To continue reading: American Adults Have Never Been Fatter

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How Obamacare Fuels The Obesity Epidemic, by Duane Norman

Posted on October 16, 2017 | Leave a comment

Reward the obese with lower insurance rates that are subsidized by the healthy, and surprise, surprise you get more obesity and less good health. From Duane Norman at fmshooter.com:

Recently, the CDC announced that America has made a new high; not in the stock market, but in obesity rates:

A troubling new report released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that almost 40 percent of American adults and nearly 20 percent of adolescents are obese — the highest rates ever recorded for the U.S.

Many contributing factors have been blamed for causing and/or fueling the obesity epidemic, including, but not limited to: overeating, poor diet, physical inactivity, prescription medications, all the crap that is on grocery store shelves, toxic chemicals, diseases, and just plain old genetics.  But while Obamacare certainly can’t be blamed for America’s ever-increasing obesity, the law has added fuel to the fire, and in a manner that has gone unnoticed by most Americans.

First, it is important to understand exactly what part of Obamacare has changed the health insurance equation; the requirement that individuals cannot be screened for pre-existing conditions or denied coverage on that basis.  While it sounds like a “fair” and equitable idea to force insurers to cover the riskiest patients who need coverage the most, its method of implementation has certainly left “healthy” individuals with far higher premiums relative to their unhealthy counterparts.

I signed up for an individual health insurance plan in 2011, after Obamacare was enacted, but prior to its implementation.  The plan complied with all ACA requirements, but insurers could still “screen” me using their existing process.  I was asked a slew of questions; my age, gender, health history, and questions about my personal habits, including, but not limited to; gender, smoking status, alcohol consumption, exercise habits, risky hobbies (i.e. skydiving), and basically any other question you could imagine an insurer would use to quantify what my premiums should be.

After the ACA, the only questions an insurer can ask about a prospective patient are: age and smoking status.  I was previously under the impression that under the ACA, insurers could charge higher premiums to women, as they use health services far more frequently than men, but “gender rating” is actually illegal under the ACA. 

To continue reading: How Obamacare Fuels The Obesity Epidemic

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America’s Obesity Epidemic Reaches Record High, New Report Says, by Felix Gussone

Posted on October 14, 2017 | Leave a comment

Americans are getting fatter and fatter. From Felix Gussone at NBC News via theburningplatform.com:

America’s obesity crisis appears more unstoppable than ever.

A troubling new report released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that almost 40 percent of American adults and nearly 20 percent of adolescents are obese — the highest rates ever recorded for the U.S.

“It’s difficult to be optimistic at this point,” said Dr. Frank Hu, chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. “The trend of obesity has been steadily increasing in both children and adults despite many public health efforts to improve nutrition and physical activity.”

Nearly 40 percent of American adults are obese, new CDC report says
The continued weight increase in the youngest Americans is especially worrisome for long-term health. One in five adolescents, ages 12–19; one in five kids, ages 6–11, and and one in ten preschoolers, ages 2–5 are considered obese, not just overweight.

Obesity is medically defined as having a body-mass index of more than 30. The findings on obese kids in the U.S. comes on top of this week’s World Health Organization report that childhood obesity is soaring around the world, increasing more than tenfold over the past four decades.

Overweight and obese children have a higher risk to stay obese and childhood obesity is linked to a higher chance of early death in adulthood.

Overall, 70.7 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese, meaning that an unhealthy weight has become the norm, with normal weight Americans — a BMI of less than 25 — now in the minority.

What the CDC report doesn’t reveal is why the obesity crisis continues to worsen. A recent study by epidemiologists at Georgia Southern University discovered that fewer Americans, particularly women, are trying to lose weight. Public health experts say that an unhealthy diet and the lack of exercise are still the two biggest culprits.

“There’s still a huge amount of cheap, accessible, highly processed food available everywhere almost anytime,” says Hu. “And despite people doing more recreational activity these days, the overall activity level, household activity and occupational activity has decreased in recent years.”

To continue reading: America’s Obesity Epidemic Reaches Record High

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Winning: U.S. Crushes All Other Countries In Latest Obesity Study, by Tyler Durden

Posted on July 27, 2017 | Leave a comment

Don’t sell the US of A short, we’re still number one in one category (other than money spent on the military). From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

When President Trump promised last fall that under a Trump administration America would “would win so much you’ll get tired of winning,” we suspect this is not what he had in mind.  According to the latest international obesity study from the Organization For Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), America is by far the fattest nation in the world with just over 38% of the adult population considered ‘obese.’

 

Here are some stats from the OECD’s latest study courtesy of the Washington Examiner:
 –  In 2015, an estimated 603.7 million adults and 107.7 million children worldwide were obese. That represents about 12 percent of all adults and 5 percent of all children.

–  The prevalence of obesity doubled in 73 countries between 1980 and 2015and continuously increased in most of the other countries.

–  China and India had the highest number of obese children. China and the U.S. had the highest number of obese adults.

–  Excess body weight accounted for about 4 million deaths — or 7.1 percent of all deaths — in 2015.

–  Almost 70 percent of deaths related to a high BMI were due to cardiovascular disease.

–  The study finds evidence that having a high BMI causes leukemia and several types of cancer, including cancers of the esophagus, liver, breast, uterus, ovary, kidney and thyroid.

–  In rich and poor countries, obesity rates increased, indicating “the problem is not simply a function of income or wealth. Changes in the food environment and food systems are probably major drivers. Increased availability, accessibility, and affordability of energy-dense foods, along with intense marketing of such foods, could explain excess energy intake and weight gain among different populations. The reduced opportunities for physical activity that have followed urbanization and other changes in the built environment have also been considered as potential drivers; however, these changes generally preceded the global increase in obesity and are less likely to be major contributors.”

To continue reading: Winning: U.S. Crushes All Other Countries In Latest Obesity Study

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America You Need To Lose Weight: At Least 1 Out Of Every 5 People Are Obese In All 50 States, by Michael Snyder

Posted on September 6, 2016 | 1 comment

America is way too fat for its own good. From Michael Snyder at theeconomiccollapseblog.com

The United States officially has an obesity crisis. According to a brand new report that was just released by the Trust for America’s Health, at least one out of every five people meet the clinical definition for obesity in all 50 states. But of course in some states things are far worse than that. More than 35 percent of all adults are obese in four states, and the obesity rate is between 30 and 35 percent in 21 other states. And it is important to keep in mind that just needing to lose weight does not mean that you are obese. According to the CDC, you have got to have a body mass index of at least 30.0 to meet the clinical definition for obesity.

Each year, the American people spend 60 billion dollars on weight loss programs and products. That breaks down to about 188 dollars for every man, woman and child in the country. We are a nation that is absolutely obsessed with losing weight, and yet obesity levels are hovering near all-time record highs.

But some parts of the U.S. are definitely doing better than others. The following is an excerpt that comes directly from the new report…

In 2015, Louisiana has the highest adult obesity rate at 36.2 percent and Colorado has the lowest at 20.2 percent. While rates remained steady for most states, they are still high across the board. The 13th annual report found that rates of obesity now exceed 35 percent in four states, are at or above 30 percent in 25 states and are above 20 percent in all states. In 1991, no state had a rate above 20 percent.

Did you catch that last part?

I put it in bold for a reason. To me, it is absolutely incredible that no state in the entire country had an obesity rate of more than 20 percent just 25 years ago.

How is that possible?

How could obesity explode to such a dramatic level in just a couple of decades?

Well, a lot of it has to do with what we eat and drink, and I will have some comments about that below. But first, let’s take a look at some more statistics from this new report. It turns out that there seems to be a significant link between obesity and poverty…

• 9 of the 11 states with the highest obesity rates are in the South and 22 of the 25 states with the highest rates of obesity are in the South and Midwest.
• 10 of the 12 states with the highest rates of diabetes are in the South.
American Indian/Alaska Natives have an adult obesity rate of 42.3 percent.
• Adult obesity rates are at or above 40 percent for Blacks in 14 states.
•Adult obesity rates are at or above 30 percent in: 40 states and Washington, D.C. for Blacks; 29 states for Latinos; and 16 states for Whites.

The report also noted that it has been estimated that our obesity epidemic costs the United States somewhere between 147 billion dollars and 210 billion dollars every single year.

That is an enormous amount of money, and if we were all a bit healthier it would benefit our society tremendously.

To continue reading: America You Need To Lose Weight: At Least 1 Out Of Every 5 People Are Obese In All 50 States

 

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Patient Slowly Dying of Complications, by Hardscrabble Farmer

Posted on January 20, 2016 | Leave a comment

From Hardscrabble Farmer, on a guest post on theburningplatform.com:

I stumbled across a short video commercial the other day of a morbidly obese woman doing yoga. The thrust of the commercial was that fat people are that way through no fault of their own, they are just as flexible and healthy as normal people and the only real problem is that people simply don’t understand how being morbidly obese is really a good thing.

That’s our situation.

We live in a world that has been systematically created, one mouthful at a time, deliberately, intentionally, understanding the entire time where it would lead. When it finally reaches the breaking point where the sickness is no longer deniable the only option is to blame anyone for noticing and to continue to pursue the same course of action that led to the problem.

The man who comes along and tries to point out the reality- say the surgeon who is going to have to amputate the fattie’s feet because of the diabeetus- is going to be seen as some kind of radical extremist.

Drastic times call for drastic measures. Sometimes there will be people willing to take advantage of the situation, like the companies that sell scoot-abouts or insulin pumps or adult diapers. Sometimes it’s people who really care and want to help out while profiting, like the folks who run fat camps and sometimes it’s just the steely eyed surgeon who has to saw through the bone and flesh to keep the patient alive.

Our nation, our entire late western civilization really is that morbidly obese lady in yoga pants telling everyone she’s just as healthy and limber as an 18 year old athlete. 100% Delusional and completely unable to stop the compulsive behavior that led to this point.

I wish that it were different, I wish we lived in a healthy and sane society where traditional values and decency prevail, but we don’t and we haven’t for a very long time. The degeneracy on every level has so permeated the fabric of the body politic that it is terminal. All we can do now is watch as the patient slowly dies from complications.

http://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/01/20/slowly-dying-of-complications/

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