The environmental causes are availability of options we crave but are still not forced into, so individual responsibility is absolutely a thing.
I was obese and it sucked but I got down to a healthy weight, and keeping it off kind of still sucks but it doesn’t take a lot of time or money, in fact it’s generally cheaper.
Fast food is constantly highlighted as an impossibly unhealthy reality, the nicer places cost more and take too much time. Except you can choose passable choices in fast food.
If you can freely pick, there are fast food places that offer salads with maybe some grilled chicken, which can be healthy unless you opt to drown it in ranch.
But let’s say you are in a group and they pick a restaurant without an option like salad. Just asking for water instead of a big sugary drink gets you so much closer to healthy. Skip the fries, skip the mayo, get a smaller burger. All these things are cheaper and friendlier to a reasonable caloric budget.
It sucks because it means eating to feeling “ok” while skipping the most awesome foods and rarely getting to feel just utterly full, but that was just life when people had healthier weight.
Similarly on activity. It does suck that work has people sedentary, but our idle pursuits are similar. When I was a kid, TV was stuck on a schedule and video games were only so engaging, so we would get bored and want to do something. Maybe it was walk amongst some trees to see if anytime interesting was around. Maybe do something with a ball. Nowadays we can get endless engagement from streaming, video games, and Internet. So tempting to just be on the couch. We can still choose those more active things, but we don’t want to.
Note all this awesome stuff is still great in moderation. I just went full on gorging at a restaurant a week ago on pretty much whatever I wanted. The thing is this is maybe like once every 2 or 3 weeks, not daily like we really want to.
Then why are Americans so much worse at it, on average, than people in e.g. France or Japan. You can’t just say “hurt durr Americans are just irresponsible;” that’s a bullshit cop-out and you know it.
I’m trying to have a conversation about what it would take to actually solving the problem here; if you just want to feel morally superior you can go ahead and fuck off.
Oh, and by the way: even if the problem really were that Americans were more irresponsible on average compared to people from other countries, there would have to be a systemic reason why and that’s the thing that would be relevant to talk about! Your thought-terminating cliche is completely fucking worthless.
You can’t just say “hurt durr Americans are just irresponsible;”
Actually, I can. That’s why americans are more obese and have more credit card debt - it all boils down to irresponsibility.
I’m trying to have a conversation about what it would take to actually solving the problem here
Solving the problem would be rather simple, subsidize healthy food so a cucumber doesn’t cost 6$. Make mandatory cooking classes in school so kids know how to cook, at least to some extent. The magical word is “education”.
even if the problem really were that Americans were more irresponsible on average compared to people from other countries
There is no “if”. They are.
there would have to be a systemic reason why
No. It boils down to people eating shitty food and not knowing/having no interest in knowing how to cook.
Like, we can argue all day about american processed food being full of additives and sugar and high fructose corn sirup etc, which is certainly the case, but at the end of the day, the people who eat it know that this is the case, so they are irresponsible, and if they don’t, it once again boils down to education.
For the moment, anyway, it’s possible to eat good-ish if you educate yourself andfamiliarize yourself with your local area’s businesses.
Of course it’s “possible;” anything is “possible.” What matters is, why is it apparently harder to do in the US than in other places?
Something is different on the societal level that changes the average outcomes. Disregarding that because you’re bent on blaming individuals for perceived moral failings is missing the point.
Exactly, which points squarely at an environmental cause, not at individual sloth/gluttony or some shit like that.
The conclusion you’re saying doctors arrive at—which I don’t doubt you’re correct about—is actually completely fucking backwards.
The environmental causes are availability of options we crave but are still not forced into, so individual responsibility is absolutely a thing.
I was obese and it sucked but I got down to a healthy weight, and keeping it off kind of still sucks but it doesn’t take a lot of time or money, in fact it’s generally cheaper.
Fast food is constantly highlighted as an impossibly unhealthy reality, the nicer places cost more and take too much time. Except you can choose passable choices in fast food.
If you can freely pick, there are fast food places that offer salads with maybe some grilled chicken, which can be healthy unless you opt to drown it in ranch.
But let’s say you are in a group and they pick a restaurant without an option like salad. Just asking for water instead of a big sugary drink gets you so much closer to healthy. Skip the fries, skip the mayo, get a smaller burger. All these things are cheaper and friendlier to a reasonable caloric budget.
It sucks because it means eating to feeling “ok” while skipping the most awesome foods and rarely getting to feel just utterly full, but that was just life when people had healthier weight.
Similarly on activity. It does suck that work has people sedentary, but our idle pursuits are similar. When I was a kid, TV was stuck on a schedule and video games were only so engaging, so we would get bored and want to do something. Maybe it was walk amongst some trees to see if anytime interesting was around. Maybe do something with a ball. Nowadays we can get endless engagement from streaming, video games, and Internet. So tempting to just be on the couch. We can still choose those more active things, but we don’t want to.
Note all this awesome stuff is still great in moderation. I just went full on gorging at a restaurant a week ago on pretty much whatever I wanted. The thing is this is maybe like once every 2 or 3 weeks, not daily like we really want to.
No, it points to people eating processed food and other shit. Guess what, you can still be healthy if you eat healthy.
So then the question becomes, why is processed food and other shit so pervasive in the average American diet? That’s what an environmental factor is.
Refusing to think about the problem in terms of systems because you’ve got a hard-on for blaming individuals is absolutely missing the point.
You are 100% correct that we as a society have a problem with this
That’s why the individual has to take extra care to eat right and excersise. Their doctor needs to emphasize this as much as possible.
VCan we fix out society? I don’t know, I sure hope so. But in the meantime people are responsible for their own health.
Eating health is a responsibility of an individual.
Trying to blame the omnious evil system instead of the responsibility of each individual is absolutely missing the point.
Then why are Americans so much worse at it, on average, than people in e.g. France or Japan. You can’t just say “hurt durr Americans are just irresponsible;” that’s a bullshit cop-out and you know it.
I’m trying to have a conversation about what it would take to actually solving the problem here; if you just want to feel morally superior you can go ahead and fuck off.
Oh, and by the way: even if the problem really were that Americans were more irresponsible on average compared to people from other countries, there would have to be a systemic reason why and that’s the thing that would be relevant to talk about! Your thought-terminating cliche is completely fucking worthless.
Actually, I can. That’s why americans are more obese and have more credit card debt - it all boils down to irresponsibility.
Solving the problem would be rather simple, subsidize healthy food so a cucumber doesn’t cost 6$. Make mandatory cooking classes in school so kids know how to cook, at least to some extent. The magical word is “education”.
There is no “if”. They are.
No. It boils down to people eating shitty food and not knowing/having no interest in knowing how to cook.
Like, we can argue all day about american processed food being full of additives and sugar and high fructose corn sirup etc, which is certainly the case, but at the end of the day, the people who eat it know that this is the case, so they are irresponsible, and if they don’t, it once again boils down to education.
That’s the cause I think they were referring to.
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Of course it’s “possible;” anything is “possible.” What matters is, why is it apparently harder to do in the US than in other places?
Something is different on the societal level that changes the average outcomes. Disregarding that because you’re bent on blaming individuals for perceived moral failings is missing the point.
Yeah but your doctor cant prescribe you burning down capitalism, they can prescribe you lower your caloric intake.
Unless…
“Actually officer I have a prescription”
That’s the trick!
They believe everyone is gluttonous and slothful because they’re misanthropic.