The U.S. really has a lot of people who are overweight. According to the Institute for Health Metrics, 160 million Americans are overweight: more than 75% of all men and over 60% of women (with a body mass index greater than 25, meaning that a woman of 163 cm in height will have a superfluous weight of over 64 kg). Among young people under 20 years of age and children 30% (in 1980 - only 19%).
This scientific work, published in The Lancet, investigated the growth of body weight over 33 years (1980-2013) around the world. During this time, the number of people with body weight on the planet increased from 20% to 30%.
Currently, the fitness industry in the U.S. is a huge and profitable business. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of books on nutrition. The number of sports clubs is growing. In 2016 there were 36.5 thousand, 5.5 thousand more than in 2012. Also in 2016, 64 million Americans regularly exercised. And one-half of all U.S. citizens have run the marathon at least once. According to one study, approximately 3% of the population is physically disabled.
And these things are interconnected. On the one hand, the desire for a healthy lifestyle generates a proposition. On the other hand, there are so many factors in the United States that contribute to an unhealthy lifestyle that it takes a lot of knowledge, willpower, support, and infrastructure to resist them. And if there are enough internal and external resources for this, then they should be enough for the marathon. But it can be important to maintain a balance in an environment saturated with advertising, especially in social media.
Available in large quantities of food
In a depression-stricken country, the U.S. government is creating an environment in which high-calorie food is available to all, at all times. Large agricultural enterprises, having received strong state support and using new technologies of the time (Ford's tractor, pesticides, rotational crops and so on), created a powerful industrial and agricultural system. Productivity is constantly increasing. Only from 1948 to 2000 it grew by 170%. Today, 3,800 calories of food are produced per U.S. resident (with a consumption rate of 2,000-2,500).
Їy more and more food is produced, it becomes cheaper, and portions increase. In the U.S., restaurants serve such large portions (which at times contain over a thousand calories) that they even provide cardboard boxes in order to take away what is not eaten. And apart from lunch, dinner, and evening in the U.S. it is common to chew snacks - chippies, biscuits, salt pots, and tzukierki. (Although the problem of under-eating also exists here. Approximately 40 million Americans at least sometimes miss food).
There is a high proportion of grain, malted, fatty, salty foods in the diet of Americans.
This is not only a matter of quantity, but also of quality of food. Americans eat a lot of bread. Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, sandwiches, pizza - practically in every restaurant. Even the usual sandwich with cowbread and cheese will not be with one slice of bread, but with two.
Also here drink a lot of malt beverages, which can contain up to 10 spoons of zinc per serving. Even the desserts are salty for our taste. If you decided to remove the corn from your diet, I recommend immediately going to the department of groats and vegetables. It is very important to find food products of secondary processing, which do not contain corn.
Moreover, the diet of an American remained stable until the 1980s and contained a lot of vegetables and fruits, but 40 years ago it dramatically increased the proportion of boron, corn and fats. Burnt in a bright finish food, "designed" on the basis of fat and protein from soybeans, zukruzka from corn, with the addition of farbnikov and other chemicals - cheap and easily accessible. But vegetables and fish in the U.S. are very expensive and not widely available. In some deprived areas children may not know what broccoli or pomidor look like at all.
Unhealthy food advertising
High-quality ads for hamburgers, craps, malt liquids and other such things are very plentiful on U.S. channels. At the same time, the American food industry spends $10 billion only on direct advertising, and another $20 billion on indirect advertising, such as toys in children's sets at McDonald's. And it works.
Psychologists explain that the evolution of modern man was taking place in conditions of severe food shortages. When people see a piece of meat, the installation works in them, that it is necessary to feast - it is not known, because when another mammoth will turn up. Moreover, gassed drinks advertise such strings of girls that one wonders about their negative impact on the figure.
Lack of Physical Activity
In the United States, with the exception of a few cities - Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco, etc. - public transportation is poorly developed. Not even walking paths - not even through. Most Americans go by car every day - to work, to the crèche, to kindergarten. Even fewer employees leave the office for lunch - here it is customary to eat right at the desk.
The U.S. seems to have a perception that children can only eat malt liquids
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 80% of Americans do not meet the minimum standard of physical activity (2.5 minutes of intensive and one year and 15 minutes of intensive exercise) per day. But if you work for 8 or more years, spend 1.5-2 years in the car, and in the evening - the chores, it is very important to find time for the gym or a jog. And even one year does not shake even the most important activities, when for 23 years people practically do not move around.
A wonderful approach to child nutrition
In the U.S., there seems to be a widespread perception that children by nature are only allowed to eat malt liquids, pizza with cheese, hot dogs, and pasta with cheese, so-called chiken nuggets (pieces of chicken meat shredded with pieces of bone, veins and remaining tissues), French fries and a sandwich with peanut butter and jam. And all washed down with malt beverages, juice or chocolate milk.
This is a dish you can see on children's menus in restaurants, at children's parties, in school cafeterias and at home of many Americans. Many Americans believe that when children grow up, their taste buds will change in favor of healthier eating.
It cannot be said that Americans do not know about the benefits of vegetables and fruits for children. There is a whole campaign under the slogan "Eat your veggies! I believe we know that vegetables are not greasy and children will not eat them, but we have to either coerce them or bribe them, or somehow cunningly put them in pasta with syrup. And not only vegetables, but sometimes even dried fruit is served as if it were fish oil. In the U.S., dried plums, tanned like tsukurki, are sold. Bo, I thought, how else can you get a child to eat fruit?
The idea that as soon as the child grows a sufficient number of teeth, you can teach them to eat normal - mature - food, and vegetables and fruit - not only good, but also delicious - from my experience with the Americans is perceived as revolutionary. This very approach to eating in France was the greatest discovery of American journalist Pamela Druckerman, the author of a book about French education. She even called the book "French Children Don't Spit Food.
But what did they do to feed the children before they got the chiken nuggets? Why teach children to eat pizza and hot dogs at night, so that they could fight this disease all their lives? And, by the way, immigrants in the U.S. have an easier time resisting advertising and unhealthy food suggestions - we are not used to it as children.
Bie Wilson, in his book The First Piece, says that after World War II, the United States completely changed the approach to children's food - from cinnamon and very simple, with a minimum of relish, to non-coric, with a large amount of sugar and salt, under the influence of the manufacturers and advertising.
In the United States, however, the perception that something is wrong with child nutrition is growing. An active campaign to improve the diet of school meals was launched by former First Lady Michelle Obama. One of the relatively new initiatives, which I like very much, are school towns where children grow and then eat their own vegetables.
And these are only reasons that affect everyone in one way or another, perhaps with the exception of closed communities and unique cases. And there are others, which also extend to millions: sleep deprivation, often through working in the night shift, partial commute or overtime work; cultural norms, when taking weight in certain places is welcomed, but not always conducive to health; lack of knowledge about the basics of nutrition; side effects of medications, the habit of looking for "comfort" in food for emotional problems, etc.
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