What happened over the past 50 years to people despite all the medical advances, nutrition studies, and diets?
If you have to neck it down to a single independent variable, then I’m going with home video game systems.
Male life expectancy in 1973 was 67.6 and increased steadily until 2015, wherein a slight downtick was attributed to deaths of despair. Takeaway, the fatter we got the longer we lived.
Yes, Americans are significantly heavier today than fifty years ago, but BMI is useless as a proxy for health. Possible reasons for weight gain: cessation of smoking, psych meds and other meds and perhaps the biggest would be chronic dieting.
If anything, healthcare is killing people. And this has never been more evident than recently … Why Modern Medicine Deserves Little of the Credit for Today's Longer Lifespans
Oddly specific, but the general idea has merit. Entertainment as technology though a screen, be it the proliferation of television, video games, mobile devices - they have all led us to being less active. As have changes in the work place. But as anyone that has ever tried to lose weight knows: you can't out exercise a bad diet. We eat crap. Way too many calories that are mostly carbs (sugar) and fat. Life's priorities and pace have driven us here and our grocery stores and restaurants cater to this. Add in a nice dopamine reaction when one eats fast food and here we are. It takes self control and discipline to break away.
Easiest thing in the world is losing weight. The trick is to keep it off when the body defends its weight.
When I was a kid many moons ago we played outside all day or went to school where we had PE. Exercise was accomplished while playing. Different today. Fast food progressed to where there was a burger joint, later taco, etc. on every corner. Happy meals became a household name. AYCE buffets. More people stopped or curtailed their cooking especially moms who decided they wanted a career which they deserve to have if they choose. As video games and other electronic games/devices became popular kids stopped playing outside as much if at all. Vehicles were fitted with tvs to keep the kids involved, and quiet. Hand held devices keep kids attention along with some adults. Today you can’t go into the public without seeing a kid glued to a video. Such an easy way to avoid having to parent or even converse with your kid. Hollywood, commercials, fashion, embrace obesity. It’s become accepted for many to wear skin tight clothes showing the layers of fat. Cottage cheese skin, etc. I lived on the beach for over 8 years and watched extremely obese people with skimpy, skin tight, bathing suits, t backs, bounce around like they think everyone wants to see their rolls of fat. People just aren’t self conscious about their weight anymore. These extremely obese people are in for a tough time as they get older. There are a bunch of diseases out there waiting their turn to ruin the lives of those who don’t care,,,, until they do,,, then it may be too late.
Unless someone discovered that correlation is causation and I missed it, nobody’s dying from being fat.
While the photos are obviously an exaggeration to make a point there are far more obese people today than there were 50 years ago. Although the graph ends with 2010 it proves the point.
I do not dispute that Americans have gotten larger over the years. I merely argue that BMI is useless, as a proxy for health, while pointing out that life expectancy has risen in concert over the decades.
