Want to save oil? Stop being fat.

Long ago, I concluded millions not only bought larger clothes, but also bought SUVs to feel comfortable.

 

Since the SUV explosion of the 1990s, the growing obesity of the vehicles themselves has cost far more fuel than has the obesity of the occupants.

The article also contains this gem, known long ago but generally politically incorrect to mention in the U.S.:

In the push to abolish smoking to save medical costs, we non-smokers should at least acknowledge that any success there will worsen the Social Security and pension funding problems. There is no free lunch.

 

There's nothing we (it was a UK article) like better than poke fun at American fatties BUT;

British women are the fattest in Europe as quarter are classed as obese | Mail Online

What's the saying - something about throwing stones in glass houses?

So what's the score? Is it junk food? The UK was the first in Europe to adopt American junk food restaurants and now we're ahead of the rest of Europe for fatties. I remember back in the late 1980's when Rosanne first hit our screens and we were all amazed that people could be that big, yet now if you watch that show they don't look big at all! And then if you watch a show from the 1970's you see just how skinny people were back then.

Being a cabbie I've struggled with the 'bulge' and have found just eating ANYTHING that doesn't come out of a packet helps you lose weight. Cut out the c**p and the pounds fall off.

 

This, this this.

I actually love the dailymail. It's my guilty pleasure and I've noticed it has a huge amount of articles making fun of America. Of course, I click them. Like I said, guilty pleasure

 

I don't know what the US version of the Daily Mail is, if indeed there is one. The Daily Mail is aimed at an older clientele, the sort who are still wary of the Germans, who don't like change, who still think the UK has an Empire etc etc. The older, more right wing, old fashioned type - hence all the alarmist stories - some, such as about Europe are with good reason but most are just nonsense. You won't want to see their reviews of the Prius or Leaf!?!

I wouldn't say they're a bad paper, just the odd story is a little, erm, predictable.

There again, in the UK we make fun of the ones we like, so making fun of the Americans is in fact a kind of flattery.

 

They weren't skinny back then, they were healthy. I often wonder how many of the "safe" food additives are also contributing to the ever expanding waistline (for which, in the last 3 months I've bucked the trend and shrunk mine). Everyone likes to point to fast food, but that also started to expand around the time prepared food purchases took off, too. When I look at a box of prepared food, there's usually 3-5 ingredients in there that I can't even attempt to pronounce.

Anyway, it's funny how "thin" body type now was "average" 20 years ago. "Average" now is what was "a few extra pounds" 20 years ago. Take a look at any dating site, and you'll see "average" is probably 10-15 lbs heavier than is really healthy. Either people are openly lying (wouldn't be shocked) or society really thinks that those sizes represent those descriptions.

 

Yeah, yeah, of course, its the articles, not the hundred titillating "Femail Today" items on the right hand side. Just like men of a generation or two ago read Playboy for the articles, not the pictures.

 

That's my sister. She drives an SUV because she cannot comfortably get into a regular car.

One of my real hot-button issues is when people tell me I should not be dieting. I am now 4 pounds over my goal. Sure, I'd be healthy if I stopped here. But my goal is healthier and that's where I want to be. America has gotten so fat that obese is considered "normal" and healthy is considered too skinny. You have to be grossly obese before people will consider you to be fat.

I would have to lose about 20 pounds before I would be considered medically underweight, yet a grossly obese man was ragging on me the other day, telling me that if I lost another 4 pounds I'd "disappear." I finally shut him up by telling him if he didn't, I'd start ragging on him about his weight.

Another is people telling me I should eat something I don't want because "it tastes good."

Americans are not willing to take responsibility for their finances, their weight, or their health. They want the government to provide services without taxing them, they want banks to loan them money to buy things they cannot afford and don't need, they want to eat every sort of crap food and they want a pill so they won't gain weight from it, and they want doctors to cure them of illnesses they brought on themselves by overeating and drug use.

 

One of the daffier arguments against burning alky-haul in cars is that it drives up food (corn) prices. One of my favorite retorts is that it's probably much better for our nation to burn corn in cars that it is to use it for HFCS or as silage to make our hamburgers taste better.
I've been in the military for 31 years, and in the last 20 of those we've instituted a culture of fitness where there is an intense focus on fitness and BMI. Three semi-annual physical readiness test (PRT) failures in four years, and you're done! Seaman or Admiral. These days...they mostly use real tape measures, and real scales!
I'm 5'9" and currently tip the scales around a buck eighty---so there's no doubt that if it weren't for these influences (since...I like to eat!) I'd look more like the average American Fat A$$.
Europeans like to walk.
With gas at 10 bucks a gallon, I'm not surprised, but their population densities make it a no brainer, since in most cases they literally can walk down to the corner pub or cafe.
In America? We give special license plates to morbidly obese "disabled" people so that they don't have to walk into a grocery store from the back of the parking lot...and then(!) once they waddle inside, we give them a scooter!!!
If I were king for a day....I'd make them park 2 blocks away and give them a treadmill once they huffed and puffed their way into the store....

 

I remember this argument from the tobacco wars, that early death of smokers saved the taxpayer more than the health costs, but at least this well researched monograph (pdf) makes me wonder. The net health care costs after taxation are pretty staggering. More so if you include lost productivity.

 

But why can we?

Because our towns were built at a time when the only transport was to walk, unless you were rich and had a horse. This is no bad thing, in many cases it's easier to just walk down to the shops rather than get in your car and drive - though bigger stores are now built on the edge of towns.

American towns appear to have mostly been built in the age of the car and thus they seem just sprawls of buildings. I find it extremely strange that many American towns don't really have a town center in the way I'm familiar with in Europe - just row after row of similar looking commercial buildings, where you have to drive from one to the other to the other.

Maybe it's more than that? I remember some friends who had returned from a trip to America saying they had been stopped by the Police. Why were they stopped? Because they decided to go for a walk for a look around after breakfast, an excuse that the Police officer found astounding and didn't believe! "You want to go for a walk?" as if it was some sort of sadistical pursuit.

I mean, why would you want to walk when you can drive?

 

Remember talking to a rural mailman - said his Ford Explorer was the only thing big enough for him.

 

I disagree with you about a lot of stuff, but on this one I agree 100%. :rockon:

I'll add another example: On an airplane a morbidly obese person pays the same fare I do, and slops over into my space, pushing me over, and if I were to complain I'd be considered rude and insensitive. If I ran an airline, and if the laws did not forbid it, I would charge by weight of passenger plus all luggage, checked and carry-on, and then I'd provide some wide seats for fat people, who by this rule would have paid for their extra weight and would deserve a wide enough seat.

 

Now there's an idea! How about a total allowance of 150 kg all in - passenger AND luggage? If you're fit and healthy you have plenty of luggage allowance and if you're a lardy then you don't get as much, if any and may have to pay extra.

This isn't about discrimination it's about airline fuel costs. If all passengers cut their weight the airlines could cut their costs a little.

 

Drink water instead of soda pops!

 

^ on reducing medical costs, there has to be an emphasis on wellness, and wellness must include weight management. When I reduced from 213 to 180 pounds, my research led me to conclude regular exercise and a heathy diet avoids 3 out of 4 ailments - probably Alzheimers as well.