Activist Post
It seems that while obesity rates have risen over the decades, so have portion sizes – not a particularly surprising connection. In fact, an incredibly alarming infographic helps to show that not only have meal sizes increased in size over the decades, but restaurant portion sizes have quadrupled since the 1950s.
Could this be the reason for the ballooning obesity epidemic? The infographic created by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that hamburgers and french fry meals have tripled in size over the decades, while a cup of fountain soda is a whopping 6 times larger today than it used to be. A 2.4oz portion of french fries has grown to 6.7oz; hamburgers from 3.9oz to 12oz; and soda from 7oz to 42oz.
What may be even worse is that accompanied by this massive increase in portion sizes is the heavy use of harmful and toxic ingredients.
While the ingredients used in food used to be minimal, you can find a plethora of toxic substances in the majority of food today, including MSG, aspartame, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial coloring, neotame, caramel coloring, and much more.
McDonald’s chicken McNuggets, which would be expected to have nearly 0 ingredients, contains autolyzed yeast extract, dimethylpolysiloxane, sodium phosphate, to name a few ingredients.
Even something as simple as ‘strawberry flavor‘ consists of nearly 50 different chemicals. These ingredients along with many more can be found throughout the mainstream food supply.
Honing in on the specific increase in portion sizes along with the average increase in weight, there has been a:
- 28 pound increase in average weight of a man since 1960s
- 24.5 pound increase in average weight of a woman since the 1960s
- 4.56 increase in size of restaurant portion compared to the 1950s
- 1,233 percent increase in chocolate bar size since early 1900s
- 223 percent increase in hamburger size since 1950s
- 500 percent increase in fountain soda size since 1950s
Unfortunately, Americans have some of the worst diets in the world, and everyone knows it! With portion sizes increasing, toxic ingredients making their way into the food supply, and Americans continuing to consume this food, it is estimated that 50% of the population will be obese by 2030, lurking around the 60% nation-wide obesity rates in 2010.
Are Americans consuming too many calories? Unfortunately, yes. What’s more, the massive increase isn’t only leading individuals to experience health problems, but work productivity suffers as well. Obese individuals take more sick days and are less productive than health-weight individuals, with the most obese people taking 5-9 more sick days a year.
Are Americans consuming too many calories? Unfortunately, yes. What’s more, the massive increase isn’t only leading individuals to experience health problems, but work productivity suffers as well. Obese individuals take more sick days and are less productive than health-weight individuals, with the most obese people taking 5-9 more sick days a year. Not only are hospitals, buses, and airplanes making adjustments to accommodate for large individuals, but employers are also paying the price as well. In many cases this loss is in the form of thousands of tens of thousands of dollars each year. Actually, the cost of obesity in this regard is thought to be nearly $73.1 billion annually.
The good news is that with a little calorie management, exercise, and organic living, obesity rates can easily begin to spiral downward.
Additional Sources:
DailyMail
DukeToday
Explore More:
Infographic: Obesity in America
New USDA Food Plate Pie far from Average American Diet
Top 8 Most Unhealthy Restaurant Dishes Revealed
Half of US Population Expected to be Obese by 2030
All Natural | What does it really mean?
Babies Given Anti-Obesity Drugs in the Womb
The good news is that with a little calorie management, exercise, and organic living, obesity rates can easily begin to spiral downward.
Additional Sources:
DailyMail
DukeToday
Explore More:
Infographic: Obesity in America
New USDA Food Plate Pie far from Average American Diet
Top 8 Most Unhealthy Restaurant Dishes Revealed
Half of US Population Expected to be Obese by 2030
All Natural | What does it really mean?
Babies Given Anti-Obesity Drugs in the Womb
This article first appeared at Natural Society, an excellent resource for health news and vaccine information.
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8 comments:
I'm sorry, but you have to blame the consumers for wanting such portions in the first place. If it didn't sell, they wouldn't make it such a large portion. The free market dictates the portion. America has had the mentality and coulture that bigger it better, unfortunately that also includes fatter.
Here is a great example. In America they have MLE (Major league eating) for example and other profesional competetive eating organizations. You have events like WingBowl, GluttonBowl, Nathans Hot Dog Contest, and etc. People take pride in their gluttony. You have restaurants like the Heart Attack Grill- where the spokes person under 30 died of a heartattack and was well over 350 pounds.
I'm sorry, but people are choosing to live in Pinnochios' Neverland where in the end only to prove themselves to be Jackasses, Jackasses taken away to the workcamps - or atleast that is whathappend in the Disney version of the Alleghorical story. The Coachman is ready to end the party soon and coming to collect up all the Jackasses.
Well, I'm sorry too, but research has shown that the food industry has worked very hard to make product that bypasses the normal physiological feedback loop that tells a person to stop eating because they are full.
Additionally, I'm sorry but most people in the US are no longer physically active in their professions and so they aren't burning the calories that they ingest unless they make a special effort to exercise after or before work or school. See, we haven't got manufacturing jobs anymore. We don't have any mining industry, steel industry, automotive manufacturing industry, textile industry, etc., which were physically demanding jobs, anymore. The construction trades are about all that is left, and you know where that industry has gone in the last few years (hint: wet swirly place that sucks you down into the septic tank).
And I'm even more sorry that most people don't realize that the portions they are eating have gradually increased to the size that one meal has enough calories to feed four people. The size increase didn't happen overnight, but rather gradually. I'm someone that remembers the hoopla when the Big Mac was rolled out, which is now one of the smaller burgers offered but then was the biggest burger in town. The food industry has been boiling frogs, and we are all suffering for it.
I know it's hard to understand how the folk that run the food industry can justify making deadly product - what in the world do they think they are doing??
Well, it's obvious. They are doing as they are told, and they are told to maximize profits even if it kills us.
I'm sorry, but they are successful in their jobs. So we succumb to the deadly sin of gluttony, WITHOUT EVEN REALIZING IT.
Bigger portions = higher prices. Follow the money. It's like ordering a piece of pie for desert and getting 1/4 pie for $12.
The big issue not really mentioned is there is less minerals & nutrients in food today than let's say in the '70's. It isn't just food additives. People eat more, because they crave those nutrients they need, but alas the food doesn't have it. Organic food is expensive, even eating salad is expensive. In a country where 1/2 the population is near or below the poverty line, what's the cheapest food you can feed yourself & your family? Cheap burgers & fries. & soda. Even if you knew better which most Americans don't, it wouldnt matter because you can't afford most times to eat healthier. Trust me its no coincidence, the US government & wealthy elite heavily subsidize burgers & corn syrup, but not organic fruit & veggies. 20% of the US population doesn't make it to 50! Hmm, could it be the poisonous foods we eat?
THANK YOU LadyRavenshaire! You said presicely what I was thinking. We wouldn't eat as much if those chemicals were not in our food and the food we did eat wasn't so lacking in nutrients.
Really healthy spinach salads with every veggie known to man + peanuts or some type of meat thrown in it just isn't filling any longer. So what do we eat besides the salad? An entire entree. Plus desert. Because we're just freaking starving!
To lose weight nowadays it's not just about exercise, it's about getting away from the chemicals. But it's just about impossible because they're in everything, even in our vegetables and meats.
The CDC has also called obesity a "chronic disease" and has recently released a journal article with its "framework" calling for more governmental regulations to fight said disease. Bloomberg banning 16 oz. sodas was just the beginning.
If they want to start banning certain sizes or certain foods then they better bring back all the nutrients we've been missing. We tend to guzzle these drinks because we're so fucking hungry and starved for nutrients with our other foods. But, they already know this.
It's pretty weird, being starved but being fat. It's what's in the food we are eating that's the issue.
Pure bullshit. First of all I'm old enough to know what the portions were in the 50's and I know this is pure bullshit. Secondly if it were the food or thew portion size then we would all be obese but there are far more skinny and normal weight people then there are obese people. Go figure! They eat the same food the same portion size and don't become obese.
Obesity is genetic you get it from your parents not your food or portion size.
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