What are the historical reasons Americans are so fat? Is it genetic...

What are the historical reasons Americans are so fat? Is it genetic? I know some people like to shift the blame to blacks and Latinos, but even White Americans have higher obesity rates than they did a few decades ago. What happened?

>White Americans have higher obesity rates than they did a few decades ago. What happened?

25 year rule.

Overall, I'd probably argue it's evidence of a society which has grown so secure, that a measure of "corruption occurs in the system" wherein, for technological, economic or emotional reason, participants become sedentary, consuming more (or less quality) fuel for the amount they consume.

It's not just people being less active and eating more or less well, though. Even body building is inherently a misuse of nutrition to necessity ratio, albeit for the purpose of aesthetic. America is a wasteful country because we have so much. It's the bad that comes with the success of having such a society to make it possible.

I'm clearly asking about the initial causes of the current epidemic, which stretch back to the 70's.

> participants become sedentary, consuming more (or less quality) fuel for the amount they consume.

maybe I should have typed , "for the amount they burn".

That can't be the whole story, though. Many nations with higher per capita GDPs have lower rates of obesity.

This is probably true, and the fact that food that isn't really good for you is generally cheapest. Therefore, the 50% percent of the country on a limited budget aren't eating less of stuff that's good for them, but more cheap crapola from corporations with poor ethics.

I don't think you can compare the pure issue of higher per capita GDP, because I'm pretty sure if you were to check some ratio in wildly wealthy USA people, most of them are pretty fit for their ages. It's not the wealth of individuals, but the waste in the entire system.

I have a feeling it is both systematic and purely ideological. Systematic in the sense that the system in place in the States favours unhealthy (fast) food. And ideological in the sense that Americans feel it is their "God given right" to eat "what they Goddamn please to do so".

The latter is a subjective experience I have from discussions with most likely Americans on eating healthy. And maybe the lack of a culture of eating such as with French and Medditerean people is another factor.

Yea no.


>25 year rule
Or maybe even

In the early seventies, the price of food was dramatically increasing.

Nixon was really worried about it. There were race riots. People were really upset over Vietnam. He had this whole Watergate thing to worry about. He had the Cold War to fight. The last thing he wanted was his beloved "silent majority" to be unable to afford pork chops for their dinner. Country would downright collapse.

So he consulted some economist, and one in particular knew exactly how to solve the problem- subsidize corn. Corn is the key to cheap food. You can, of course, just eat corn itself. Or creamed corn. Etc. But that's not the point. You can feed it to cows and pigs and chickens. So the price of those meats plummets. Same with the price of dairy products. Futhermore, they had a new way to convert corn into sugar. Sugar used to be expensive. You had to import it from tropical countries, and they had corned the market. Sugars in everything, from baked bread to soda. So basically all food all across the country becomes much cheaper, especially the sugary stuff.

So why do people become fat? Because they have easy access to cheap food. Put a pie and a carton of ice cream on a table in front of a bunch of people, guess what? They're going to eat it. Do it a lot and they get fat.

There's nothing in particular about American society or culture that makes them fat. They were simply the first nation with access to really cheap, sugary food. The rest of the world is catching up- Mexico, Great Britain, doesn't matter.

I think you also have to take into account the aging of the population. "Baby Boomers" who make up such a large percentage of the US population are now in their late 50s to early 70s -- prime time for waistline expansion.

The government heavily subsidized the production of corn, which led to the rise of high fructose corn syrup. HFCS is less sweet than sugar, but just as fattening. Companies started pumping huge amounts of HFCS into everything instead of cane sugar because it is much cheaper.

Combine this with stupid people eating a dozen $1 cardboard hamburgers at McDonald's every day with a side of extra large fries and half a gallon of coca cola, and you get a lot of fatasses.
America isn't unique when it comes to being fat. Mexico, Australia, and many other nations are trying their damnedest to become the fattest nation around. Australia was #1 for some time.

Fast food is not cheaper than healthy food. A shitty meal will cost you just as much as a decently healthy one that you made yourself.
You can make some chicken with a side of rice and a vegetable of your choice for $3.50 a person or so. It'll be far more filling than drinking a giant soda and eating a crappy burger made from ground up waste meat and grease.

>Some chicken breast, rice, and some vegetables are more filling than starch, carb, and fat heavy burgers and fries.

Nope.

Time has value too.

American food culture is consumerism's bitch, like everything else in America.

...

Cost of a big burger and huge serving of fries and drink: $6. Very filling, extremely convenient--no cooking time involved, can pick it up on your way home from work, don't need to worry about keeping the food fresh.

I believe the peculiar American branches of Protestantism are to blame. Unlike Catholics and many European branches of Catholocism, which value a certain sobriety in varying degrees, the Americans went in the direct opposite direction. The supposed Protestant Work Ethic arose from the idea that we were all predestined to go to Heaven or Hell, and a good working spirit was a sign of nobility and going to heaven, as was wealth. As such, everyone tried becoming rich. This is further emphasized by the prosperity gospel that's massively popular in America and propagated in its infamous megachurches and by its even more infamous televangelists: the idea that God blesses the righteous with loadsa money. What does all this materialism lead to, other than the decline in temperance and an entirely sinful society? America is a world leader in obesity, violence and pornography among other things.

For some reason, the Americans have turned the Gospel into something directly opposite to its true message: go out and become rich, tell others you don't owe them shit, eat until you can eat no more, fuck 'till your dick falls off, shop till you drop and pop a cap in a nigga's ass if he steps on your white vans.

As much as /pol/ uses it as a buzzword, "degenerate" is the perfect term to describe both American protestantism and American society as a whole.

>many European branches of Catholocism
*many European branches of Protestantism

Wow, want of money truly is the root of all evil. Absolutely disgusting! Why can't Americans just act like sane human beings, instead of braindead pigs.

Money and convenience leads to overindulgence and laziness.

None are righteous, fuckface. It says the same thing in every Christian bible which holds Paul's epistles as inspired.

So the question should be why are Americans so god damned lazy? But they are not lazy when it comes to work. They slave away hoping to make some extra shekels. All energy spent on their careers and no effort left to give fighting obesity.

Is capitalism the reason America is fat?

Probably, plus our medical science keeps people who abuse their bodies alive, generally if they can pay or not. A hospital can never refuse a sick or injured person. Plus we have a more service based economy that most, so Americans are, as an average, not so physically rigorous, although there are notable examples who elect to be healthy.

I dunno, is this somehow "what success looks like"? The ability to have and carry people who don't give a fuck? I guess, maybe, yes.

Traditional Anglo diet contains a lot of butter and is high in cholesterol

Anglo countries all have >25% obesity rate, which this the point where it's starting to pose a serious health risk.

Or did you want the meme answer that Americans are stupid?

>the idea that God blesses the righteous with loadsa money.
That shit hasn't been popular since the 1800's. You don't know jack about American Protestantism

>Every regime is a plutocracy
Sure thing m8. You're still free to offer a refutation or alternative explanations to my thesis.

>None are righteous
Yeah, and you will know them by their fruits as well.

>That shit hasn't been popular since the 1800's
You mean that period that lies at the very foundation of American culture? I rest my case.

Also
>Implying televangelists and megachurches don't propagate this to this very day
It's an entirely unique concept that's nearly unheard of in the Old World branches of Protestantism.

>That shit hasn't been popular since the 1800's.
No. Televangelism has been alive and well in the 20th and 21st century.