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Overweight and obesity 1980 - 2013
The IHME has systematically analysed data from 1800 obesity studies since 1980.
This is the most comprehensive study of the obesity epidemic to date.
Here are the results:
- The number of obese or overweight has topped 2.1 billion, up from 875 million in 1980
- 37% of all men and 38% of all women are now considered overweight (BMI > 25)
- Obesity has increased substantially in children and adolescents in developed countries
- Today 23% percent of all children are overweight.
- In 9 countries, the number of obese has exceeded 50%
- No country has succeeded in reducing the number of obese people.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27586365
Original Study
Prevalence of Obesity (BMI>30) - Men:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rhpptDh.png)
Prevalence of Obesity (BMI>30) - Women:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6XVgv8R.png)
+ Show Spoiler +
What do you think are the reasons for this explosion of obese people?
Is this a world wide problem or is it no big deal?
How will the future look like if the number of obese are continuously growing?
Can there anything be done to address this issue?
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Junk food earns too much money to food industry and pharmaceuticals, and both have very strong lobbies, so it's unlikely that governments are going to do more than pretend to fight obesity.
The amount of money used to treat diabetes and other diseases associated to obesity is just insane, I don't have the figures in mind, but I think it was almost a trillion USD? I don't wanna hear that healthy food costs too much.
We need additional education, further promotion of local/healthy foods, and more importantly tell lobbyists to fuck off.
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American style fast food and cheap, corn syrup soft drinks and other processed snack food. The shitty feed from corn and corn silage going into the beef industry also leads to a huge demand for antibiotics so the pharmaceuticals don't want to change because the entire cycle makes them money. Sick humans eating sick animals...
Until the US stops producing such a fuck-ton of inedible corn for processing/feed I don't see the trend changing much.
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Food is too tasty, desk work is too lucrative, and the various means for entertainment while lying on the couch are too interesting. That and people are getting old.
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Not to dismiss problem (because its really serious) but BMI is a joke. I have BMI of 24,8 and everyone says i am skinny. One can be 25<BMI<30 pretty easily and be super healthy and not overweight at all.
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While all that Endy wrote is certainly true, there is also the uncomfortable fact that taking a primate from its natural habitat on the African savannah and plopping it down in an environment where saturated fat, sugar, red meat etc, exist in abundance, is going to lead to problems.
We are hard-wired to desire these things, and whenever I get asked about this(I work part time at a gym as an instructor so it's relatively frequent), all I can say is that it's going to take discipline and it's going to be hard, for some more than others. The market is so huge and lucrative because the demand is there. We'd need some fairly draconic measures to seriously promote healthier lifestyles on a global level, and I don't think too many would be interested in that.
What we can do is just appeal to people's self-interest in staying healthy, and often to do so for the sake of others, offer affordable health food, probably through subsidies, and try to ensure everyone has access to information and opportunities for physical activities. Ultimately though, this will always fall on the shoulders of the individual.
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On May 29 2014 21:45 endy wrote:
Junk food earns too much money to food industry and pharmaceuticals, and both have very strong lobbies, so it's unlikely that governments are going to do more than pretend to fight obesity.
The amount of money used to treat diabetes and other diseases associated to obesity is just insane, I don't have the figures in mind, but I think it was almost a trillion USD? I don't wanna hear that healthy food costs too much.
We need additional education, further promotion of local/healthy foods, and more importantly tell lobbyists to fuck off.
this actually has very little to do with the US's 'obesity problems'. Our obesity problems would have to be titanic to substantially change the global statistics, considering that we represent only a minuscule proportion of the population. In addition, it's unlikely that any global initiative will be at all useful since it is more likely that each area in which obesity is increasing is due to various different issues and need to be approached individually.
If I had to make a guess, I'd say its most likely due to higher standards of living. It's certainly a unique problem to our era.
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On May 29 2014 21:58 Silvanel wrote:
Not to dismiss problem (because its really serious) but BMI is a joke. I have BMI of 24,8 and everyone says i am skinny. One can be 25<BMI<30 pretty easily and be super healthy and not overweight at all.
Yes BMI is a terribly clumsy tool to measure health and obesity. My dad was a competitive powerlifter in his younger days, he was heavily obese according to the BMI scale, and he could run 7-8 kilometers easy and deadlift 300 kgs. Health and being overweight is a complex problem, it cannot be summed up by a rather arbitrary number.
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Since BMI was the same measurement used in the 80s and today, it doesn't really matter.
We are only interested in the difference between 1980 and today.
All the study shows is that the obesity has increased dramatically and it isn't going down.
I have started eating more healthy food since 2 months and even though I was skinny before, I'm feeling better than ever.
I'm following the paleo diet, which basically means no processed food whatsoever.
However, I'm also spending 30 Euros more per week.
Why is that?
Because healthy food is expensive to produce.
It's called "paleo" for a reason.
Our civilization is based on agriculture, livestock and the automatization of food production.
Could we support 7 billion people suddenly eating healthy food?
No.
So how can we solve this dilemma?
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On May 29 2014 22:02 Squat wrote:Show nested quote +On May 29 2014 21:58 Silvanel wrote:
Not to dismiss problem (because its really serious) but BMI is a joke. I have BMI of 24,8 and everyone says i am skinny. One can be 25<BMI<30 pretty easily and be super healthy and not overweight at all. Yes BMI is a terribly clumsy tool to measure health and obesity. My dad was a competitive powerlifter in his younger days, he was heavily obese according to the BMI scale, and he could run 7-8 kilometers easy and deadlift 300 kgs. Health and being overweight is a complex problem, it cannot be summed up by a rather arbitrary number.
BMI is useless for individuals, but it is a useful metric for large cohorts.
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I AM overweight atm ... my bmi now is lower than when i was 18 and ran half marathons.
I strongly suspect this whoel food is expensive thing to be bs
What is really likely is that food has been artificially segmented into cheap average and good. As a result 'food' is shit by default and so normal costs more.
Its turned into marketing when in reality it should be illegal to sell people sub standard bullshit that has been fed waste from antibiotic production to artificially induce huge amounts of weight gain.
All it has done is put legitimate producers of food tthat do not operate on gigantic scale out of business.
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On May 29 2014 22:10 urboss wrote:
Our civilization is based on agriculture, livestock and the automatization of food production.
Could we support 7 billion people suddenly eating healthy food?
No.
So how can we solve this dilemma?
???
How is replacing soda by water, which should be the first step in fighting obesity, an issue?
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obesity is on the rise because people are abandoning simple common sense health principles.
stop eating food from boxes and make your food from scratch. 6 feedings a day. humans are mostly herbivore and herbivores are constantly nibbling at food. humans should do the same. notice i said "mostly herbivore". i am not a vegetarian or vegan. humans are not primarily a carnivore. carnivores eat infrequently. herbivore constantly nibble.
a minimum of 2 hours a week of strenuous cardio and 5 hours of mild cardio every week.
3 hours per week of strength based exercise and an organized stretching program such as yoga
deep relaxed breathing will also cut cortisol levels and thereby allow your body the lattitude to not store every single extra calorie as stored up energy in a fat call
all health care practitioners know the above things form a solid foundation for a healthy body.
everyone knows it. less and less people do it every year.
the fast food industry is BOOMING.
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On May 29 2014 22:10 urboss wrote:
Since BMI was the same measurement used in the 80s and today, it doesn't really matter.
We are only interested in the difference between 1980 and today.
All the study shows is that the obesity has increased dramatically and it isn't going down.
I have started eating more healthy food since 2 months and even though I was skinny before, I'm feeling better than ever.
I'm following the paleo diet, which basically means no processed food whatsoever.
However, I'm also spending 30 Euros more per week.
Why is that?
Because healthy food is expensive to produce.
It's called "paleo" for a reason.
Our civilization is based on agriculture, livestock and the automatization of food production.
Could we support 7 billion people suddenly eating healthy food?
No.
So how can we solve this dilemma?
Even without paleo, just cooking by yourself traditionally while trying to avoid any products that are intended to make cooking easy like instant broth powder, you'll notice a difference. It seems there's a certain amount of for example sugar put into everything ready-made.
My best idea to explain that would be that raw ingredients, vegetables, meat etc., have random differences in their taste. To work around that issue and make products that have a fixed taste, ingredients like sugar, citric acid, flavoring, extra salt and extra fat gets added. That will make normal food taste bland and a craving for increased amounts of for example sugar happens. So over the decades, the amount of sugar in all supermarket products increased.
Basically, I'd propose that the traditional diet works fine, paleo isn't needed. The problem currently is perhaps whatever is put into processed food, drinking soda and juice instead of water and tea, eating sweets every day instead of just on the weekend.
It might be possible to change processed food so that it's not sneakily adding sugar and fitting into a normal diet. I know I basically can't buy anything like frozen pizza any more. I liked it a lot in the past, but the taste is plain bad to me today after home cooking for the last few years.
In any case... all of my post is probably only about obesity. I bet people being overweight can't be fixed. 
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On May 29 2014 22:44 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
obesity is on the rise because people are abandoning simple common sense health principles.
stop eating food from boxes and make your food from scratch. 6 feedings a day. humans are mostly herbivore and herbivores are constantly nibbling at food. humans should do the same. notice i said "mostly herbivore". i am not a vegetarian or vegan. humans are not primarily a carnivore. carnivores eat infrequently. herbivore constantly nibble.
a minimum of 2 hours a week of strenuous cardio and 5 hours of mild cardio every week.
3 hours per week of strength based exercise and an organized stretching program such as yoga
deep relaxed breathing will also cut cortisol levels and thereby allow your body the lattitude to not store every single extra calorie as stored up energy in a fat call
all health care practitioners know the above things form a solid foundation for a healthy body.
everyone knows it. less and less people do it every year.
the fast food industry is BOOMING.
are you sure about that? I had read/heard that frequent grazing will actually cause significant weight gain if it's not offset by the requisite amount of exercise.
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Libya must be full of fat women lol
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On May 29 2014 22:52 Ropid wrote:Show nested quote +On May 29 2014 22:10 urboss wrote:
Since BMI was the same measurement used in the 80s and today, it doesn't really matter.
We are only interested in the difference between 1980 and today.
All the study shows is that the obesity has increased dramatically and it isn't going down.
I have started eating more healthy food since 2 months and even though I was skinny before, I'm feeling better than ever.
I'm following the paleo diet, which basically means no processed food whatsoever.
However, I'm also spending 30 Euros more per week.
Why is that?
Because healthy food is expensive to produce.
It's called "paleo" for a reason.
Our civilization is based on agriculture, livestock and the automatization of food production.
Could we support 7 billion people suddenly eating healthy food?
No.
So how can we solve this dilemma?
Even without paleo, just cooking by yourself traditionally while trying to avoid any products that are intended to make cooking easy like instant broth powder, you'll notice a difference. It seems there's a certain amount of for example sugar put into everything ready-made. My best idea to explain that would be that raw ingredients, vegetables, meat etc., have random differences in their taste. To work around that issue and make products that have a fixed taste, ingredients like sugar, citric acid, flavoring, extra salt and extra fat gets added. That will make normal food taste bland and a craving for increased amounts of for example sugar happens. So over the decades, the amount of sugar in all supermarket products increased. Basically, I'd propose that the traditional diet works fine, paleo isn't needed. The problem currently is perhaps whatever is put into processed food, drinking soda and juice instead of water and tea, eating sweets every day instead of just on the weekend. It might be possible to change processed food so that it's not sneakily adding sugar and fitting into a normal diet. I know I basically can't buy anything like frozen pizza any more. I liked it a lot in the past, but the taste is plain bad to me today after home cooking for the last few years. In any case... all of my post is probably only about obesity. I bet people being overweight can't be fixed.
sugar is actually pretty good for you tbh (assuming you're not guzzling it). It's high-fructose syrup that you're thinking of.
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My personal bet would be a combination of these factors:
1 Domestic lights. Years ago, when the sun was down you had nothing else to do but go sleep, according to my grandparents. Plus, the day after you had to wake up early since work was necessary during daylights.
Nowadays lifestyles are way more flexible, and since when you are awake the probabilities of eating are way higher than when you sleep (I mean...>_>), you are more prone to eat little snacks.
2 Fruit juice, coca cola and beverages like that are a disaster for your body. Once there weren't that much, and were generally for 'special occasions'. Now, they are a common rule. Alcoholics as well, but alcohol has always been an issue so it doesn't really count (not for the sake of your thread, at least).
3 Many families own more than a car, so every family member uses a car more than how much he actually walks.
Physical excersise nowadays its a distraction or a 'hobby', once it was more a natural consequence of working.
4 Money etc. The more money you have, the more you spend. Once, you couldn't not only afford, but even have icecream in your house.
5 The most important one: self indulgence.
We are in a society where the current trend is "accepting ourselves since everything is beautiful and worth of respect and so on". Without reasoning on the validity of that statement nor judging an individual's believes, I'd just say that we are becoming more and more self indulgent and less proactive to change things.
Once, the solution offered was to man up, now the solution offered is to pay someone to vent off your problems, being told that you can do something to relief your stress and then feel better. The first one tries to face the problem (not necessarly solving it, of course), the other one to ignore it or to redirect your attention somewhere else. An oversimplification? It's up to you.
Edit: plus we all eat crap, and I'm not talking about snacks but actual vegetables raised in a completely industrial way.
Celieac diseases always existed in few induviduals, but in the last years they are jumping left and right.
I personally own some chickens, so I produce and eat my own eggs.
Trust me when I say that I can spot supermarket eggs by texture, taste or whatever.
If you ever get the chance try to fry two different ones in the same pan!
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It starts with ultra super high sugar levels in basic foods for babies/childs.
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On May 29 2014 22:54 barbsq wrote:Show nested quote +On May 29 2014 22:52 Ropid wrote:On May 29 2014 22:10 urboss wrote:
Since BMI was the same measurement used in the 80s and today, it doesn't really matter.
We are only interested in the difference between 1980 and today.
All the study shows is that the obesity has increased dramatically and it isn't going down.
I have started eating more healthy food since 2 months and even though I was skinny before, I'm feeling better than ever.
I'm following the paleo diet, which basically means no processed food whatsoever.
However, I'm also spending 30 Euros more per week.
Why is that?
Because healthy food is expensive to produce.
It's called "paleo" for a reason.
Our civilization is based on agriculture, livestock and the automatization of food production.
Could we support 7 billion people suddenly eating healthy food?
No.
So how can we solve this dilemma?
Even without paleo, just cooking by yourself traditionally while trying to avoid any products that are intended to make cooking easy like instant broth powder, you'll notice a difference. It seems there's a certain amount of for example sugar put into everything ready-made. My best idea to explain that would be that raw ingredients, vegetables, meat etc., have random differences in their taste. To work around that issue and make products that have a fixed taste, ingredients like sugar, citric acid, flavoring, extra salt and extra fat gets added. That will make normal food taste bland and a craving for increased amounts of for example sugar happens. So over the decades, the amount of sugar in all supermarket products increased. Basically, I'd propose that the traditional diet works fine, paleo isn't needed. The problem currently is perhaps whatever is put into processed food, drinking soda and juice instead of water and tea, eating sweets every day instead of just on the weekend. It might be possible to change processed food so that it's not sneakily adding sugar and fitting into a normal diet. I know I basically can't buy anything like frozen pizza any more. I liked it a lot in the past, but the taste is plain bad to me today after home cooking for the last few years. In any case... all of my post is probably only about obesity. I bet people being overweight can't be fixed. sugar is actually pretty good for you tbh (assuming you're not guzzling it). It's high-fructose syrup that you're thinking of.
I don't know. People over here are also getting increasingly obese, while there's no HFCS used in the food as far as I know. Agriculture over here grows sugar beets at competitive prices. Sugar is used in the food for sweetness as HFCS isn't cheaper.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/bNH0Q0U.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rzRlLfk.jpg)
