Obesity Map of North America

~ Clarissa

Northern Gaijin kindly sent in the following map:

I think the map is pretty self-explanatory.

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Published by Clarissa

21 thoughts on “Obesity Map of North America”

  2. It’s coming to Russia, too. I watched a recent TV program from Russia last week and was shocked at how many obese people there were. The food is now, of course, mostly imported in big cities. In Moscow, nobody sees a normal apple from one year to the next. This is very tragic.

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  3. GM may be a huge culprit is obesity, but there are also cultural factors, too. When I went to Zimbabwe to teach self defence over there, I was told that “ladies” didn’t like to do any physical exercise in winter as it was “too cold” then. Zimbabwean winters are particularly mild, but nonetheless it is culturally accepted that women like to stay indoors and eat comfort food during the winter months. Also, there are specifically “ladies gyms”, which provide aerobics training for upwardly mobile women, using 1-2 kg free weights. The more upper class you are, the less you are considered to be able to engage in robust, physical activity. So instead you do on diets and practice asceticism, which is (ideologically) next to godliness.

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    1. Going to gyms is another weird custom I don’t get. What’s the point of jumping around machines in a heated / air-conditioned room and paying through the nose for it? Our local YMCA gym is overfilled with people. Yet the only folks on my block who go for walks in the evening are an Indian couple, a Chinese couple, and a Russian-speaking couple. And the only kids who actually play outside are the children of the Indian couple. What the rest of the kids do all day long in summer and on weekends is a mystery to me. Mind you, we live in an extremely safe area where people leave their doors unlocked when they go to the store.

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  5. Very handy, but in the case of the Northern territories, I’d say obesity measures are a less accurate measure of health, because most of the population is Inuit, and they are genetically predisposed towards putting on weight; you would be too if you lived in the far North of Canada, and their traditional diet is very high protein and high fat, but that’s actually good for them.

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  9. ADDENDUM: November 17, 2011

    In spite of Obama Administration’s efforts in general and Michelle Obama efforts in particular to provide more health school lunches to poor children by updating and raising nutritional guidelines for federally funded programs, today Congress passed a bill bowing to the fast food lobby which acknowledged that pizza would be considered a vegetable for nutritional guidelines with respect to school lunch food as well as no reduction in salt levels. We can look forward to another generation of unhealthy Americans with widespread diabetes and heart disease. The particulars as outlined in an article in the Daily Mail were:

    Block the Agriculture Department from limiting starchy vegetables, including corn and peas, to two servings a week. The rule was intended to cut down on French fries, which some schools serve daily.

    Allow USDA to count two tablespoons of tomato paste as a vegetable, as it does now. The department had attempted to require that only a half-cup of tomato paste could be considered a vegetable — too much to put on a pizza. Federally subsidized lunches must have a certain number of vegetables to be served.

    Require further study on long-term sodium reduction requirements set forth by the USDA guidelines.

    Require USDA to define ‘whole grains’ before they regulate them. The rules would require schools to use more whole grains. Food companies who have fought the USDA standards say they were too strict and neglected the nutrients that potatoes, other starchy vegetables and tomato paste do offer.

    ‘This agreement ensures that nutrient-rich vegetables such as potatoes, corn and peas will remain part of a balanced, healthy diet in federally funded school meals and recognizes the significant amounts of potassium, fiber and vitamins A and C provided by tomato paste, ensuring that students may continue to enjoy healthy meals such as pizza and pasta,’ said Kraig Naasz, president of the American Frozen Food Institute.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2062056/Pizza-vegetable-Congress-set-slices-school-lunch-menus.html#ixzz1e0ZEwnwL

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  11. bloggerclarissa :
    Of course! And the sodium content is ridiculously high.

    Probably. There is a strange stream in contemporary education about going soft on people’s bad habits and trying to make everything that anybody reflexively doesn’t want to do into a “fun” experience. Thing is, if people gave up on the processed stuff and actually ate a real tomato, they may not like it at first (if their taste buds are conditioned to commercial wares), but eventually they might like it a whole lot better than they’d like the commercial goo.

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    1. “Thing is, if people gave up on the processed stuff and actually ate a real tomato, they may not like it at first (if their taste buds are conditioned to commercial wares), but eventually they might like it a whole lot better than they’d like the commercial goo.”

      -Of course! But how can anybody hope to get people to eat tomatoes in a country where tomato paste has been declared a vegetable? And nobody even seems to care! I’ve only been able to check my blogroll sporadically this week, but I’m yet to see a single post denouncing this is a crime it is.

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  12. bloggerclarissa :
    “Thing is, if people gave up on the processed stuff and actually ate a real tomato, they may not like it at first (if their taste buds are conditioned to commercial wares), but eventually they might like it a whole lot better than they’d like the commercial goo.”
    -Of course! But how can anybody hope to get people to eat tomatoes in a country where tomato paste has been declared a vegetable? And nobody even seems to care! I’ve only been able to check my blogroll sporadically this week, but I’m yet to see a single post denouncing this is a crime it is.

    People wont eat tomatoes and they won’t fight their oppressors and they will take the easy way out. We can give a name to this kind of behaviour: liberalism.

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  13. I think that people have to understand exactly the composition of commercial tomato paste which is served to children. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) the breakdown of half a cup or 130 gm of tomato paste is 98 gm of water, 6 gm of protein, 1 gm of fat, and 25 gm of carbohydrates (sugar) so if you eliminate water the overwhelming constituent is sugar. There are also 10 minerals present in the paste of which the majority is Potassium (1380 mg) and Sodium (1080 mg). This represents a daily requirement for these elements for children in just this cup. Of course, a large variety of preservatives, artificial food coloring and flavor enhancers are added which vary according to the manufacturer.

    http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/cgi-bin/list_nut_edit.pl

    Not as bad as McRib but a standard item in cafeteria food. I would also like to point out that Michael Moore who is in his forties ate his first real tomato last year according to his comment in a debate on the Occupy movement this week.

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