Earlier this week, I saw the Economist's chart column posted a map of obesity in the United States. I'm not sure what inspired them, the data comes from a CDC report that is not, as far as I can tell, particularly new. (For a real treat, scroll to the very bottom and watch the animated map of the U.S. getting fatter since 1986.)
Then, over the course of the week,....
the two viral videos I ended up playing repeatedly were the after-school-project-turned-awesomesause, Hot Cheetos & Takis,
and the new offering from friends-of-TRMS, The Gregory Brothers, of a man extolling the virtues of a Five Guys bacon cheeseburger.
But just now I ran into yet another map; this one from Pew's new report finding a majority of Americans overweight or obese in all 50 states:
So OK interwebs... whaddayatryinasay?
*I should point out that both of the maps are based on BMI, with >24 being overweight and >30 being obese. As a >24 BMIer (27.6, if you must), I don't agree with this method of measurement.
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The healthier you are the more "good" you can do.. Health is a moral issue.
We want our kids to be smarter, I argue there is a positive loop between healthier and smarter...
Herschel Walker makes for some interesting viewing on youtube,,, multiple personality guy who eats a small soup and salad for dinner and that's it...
Plenty of fat people do "good" too. They usually aren't as judgy either.
Tell me the truth: do these maps make my ass look fat?
;-)
Uhm... errr... Sorry, but... It's the fat in your ass that makes it look fat.
*ducks thrown object*
I just finished a job for a client who was lamenting about how her grandson was overweight and I said get him addicted to bicycling. We both then talked about how dangerous the streets can be. I then went on working for the next three hours trying to think of some alternative aerobic activities,,, and bicycling is it,, there really isn't any other choices for doing something day in and day out for a couple hours and really having fun. Basketball, tennis, maybe.. Bicycle shops around here are downsizing or shuttering up...
There's a great band that plays at the pool hall during my Tues billiards league. They play rhambas, sambas, tangos, night club style musics. The ten or so couple that come out to dance really work off some calories and I'd hate to see these dance steps become forgotten. Ten couples patronize a great dance band for a city of one hundred thousand,, sad... I asked the band if they'd play "Ghost riders in the sky" and they said sure,, we'll turn it into a polka...
The night life could represent 25% of the economy. Encourage beer over the harder stuff.
Soccer (spit spit) is the ideal human sport (read "Born to Run") but for our grade schools and junior highs anyway they should change the rules to where the entire end of the field is the gooooal, that way each kid will finish the game with two or three goals making for a whole lot more fun and continued participation....
I fail to see what this has to do with anything; and as far as I can tell, they just had fun with US maps and colors.
Luz CanN- healthier does not equal smarter
Just look at the GOP VP nominee.
Will, if you want a perfect demonstration of how useful (or not) BMI is for individuals, run the calculation for Shaquille O'Neill.
Yeah, and highway safety tests are pointless because you'll still die if your Honda gets t-boned by an H1 doing 60mph.
Come on. Shaq is a professional athlete. He has trainers, dietitians, and the best doctors money can buy. He's not the average person who doesn't exercise and eats way too much.
Quick test as to whether not your high BMI is accurate: if your BMI is 30 and you're getting paid millions of dollars and training eight hours a day, then it's not. If you're from Buttknucke, Tennessee and you have cankles, then you're obese. It's not like it's hard to figure out.
People just really, really hate to admit that they have a problem. And, hey, I don't give a damn how fat other people are or aren't, personally. But, it's silly to basically protest too much on the internet, because it just makes people think "that person is in fat-denial."
The problem with BMI is that it doesn't scale properly for height. If you'd rather do it the other way 'round, figure the weight for a 4'11 woman with a BMI of 22.
The reason Shaq has a BMI in the "obese, verging on severely obese" range is that he's very, very tall. Now as it happens, being very tall has its own health risks, so as a population measure BMI works pretty well for its original purpose: calculating population health risk.
It's just that there's not really much that the very tall can do about their heights, so as an individual measure it pushes people who aren't in the 5'7" range towards silly decisions. Like the plump 4'11" woman who thinks she should gain weight, or the 6'4" dude who keeps trying to get down to an "ideal" BMI of 165 pounds.
Yes, there all kinds of "exceptions" regarding BMI. It's not all that accurate for the very tall, the very short, children and young adults, Seniors, or professional athletes or bodybuilders. A friend of mine is my height but weighs about 20 lbs more, with body fat of probably 10%. His BMI is "worse" than mine.
It would be interesting to compare this map with one of, say, incidence of heart disease or diabetes.
BMI is a diagnostic scale, intended to inform, not...repeat NOT...a tool to apply every human being everywhere and unilaterally declare them "healthy" or "unhealthy."
But it's become so ingrained in our culture that thin = healthy, reinforced by hollywood stereotypes, and endless ad campaigns, and BMI, and maps like those above, that I fear that no common sense will ever be applied to the topic of health and weight in our culture.
How is our country like obesity? It's thick around the middle. My only issue with charts like this is that they fail to convey any level of seriousness about the nature of obesity in this country. Like our favorite snacks, they're colorful with no "nutrition". It's time for the issue to kick into the cigarette level of campaigning against the rotten foundation of most people's diets: wheat, corn, sugar and salt.
That's interesting. When you find some interesting and intelligent graph, it always had to fall on The Economist. Take that, American weeklies!
Obesity is a major public health issue and contributes to the rising costs of Medicare and Affordable Health Care. The average cost of a hospital admit for heart attacks and strokes is on the average, within 6 digits; however I was told health providers are restricted from talking about these health conditions in terms of these costs.
Easily available, cheap snack and fast food compounds the problem especially for those who find these options the most affordable. It also means these cheap, available food choices are more pervasive in the pop culture. However if you are obese, without health insurance, you face much greater economic risks than you may know. One story on RAM (Remote Access Medical) said that people were more likely to seek immediate care for dental/vision problems than for diabetes, which could have more serious long term consequences.
Part of the issue with the overall weight gain across the country is that people tend to view their weights in comparison to those around them. If the person next to you is a supermodel, then you're more likely to feel overweight. If the person next to you has a similar body mass, then more than likely you feel average, even if it farther from the ideal than you would like. So across the country, the new normal is a higher local BMI, however it also means higher unseen, but associated health risks.
And the truth is, people with a higher than expected BMI may look fine, however now they supposedly have a better indicator of potential risks and the real question is what do they want to do about it?
Would be funny to overlay this with a political map to see if conservatives are lazier than liberals.
This map looks suspiciously similar to maps showing states that vote republican.
Hilarious, if you're into fat-shaming. Yes, obesity is a serious public-health issue, but you won't solve it by labeling fat people stupid or lazy, even if you find that more tempting than a hot-fudge sundae.
When Romney gets in folks won't be able to buy food anymore. Problem solved.