Half of U.S. Adults Obese By 2030

By on August 28, 2011 in News 21
Silhouettes and waist circumferences representing normal, overweight, and obese

Silhouettes and waist circumferences representing normal, overweight, and obese

When I mentioned this to my friend across the room she said, “I thought they already were…”

From the Washington Post:

Based on trends, half of the adults in the United States will be obese by 2030 unless the government makes changing the food environment a policy priority, according to a report released Thursday on the international obesity crisis in the British medical journal the Lancet.

Those changes include making healthful foods cheaper and less-healthful foods more expensive largely through tax strategies, the report said. Changes in the way foods are marketed would also be called for, among many other measures.

A team of international public health experts argued that the global obesity crisis will continue to grow worse and add substantial burdens to health-care systems and economies unless governments, international agencies and other major institutions take action to monitor, prevent and control the problem.

Changes over the past century in the way food is made and marketed have contributed to the creation of an “obesogenic” environment in which personal willpower and efforts to maintain a healthful weight are largely impossible, the report noted…

[continues in the Washington Post]

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  • Rex Vestri
  • Anonymous

    I tend to agree to a point. I believe most individuals consume far too much meat while at the same time I would consider veganism to be both unhealthy and counter to our evolution

  • DeepCough

    The real problem with obesity lies in the fact that people are NOT EATING substantial foods. Industrialism has made Americans very accustomed to the practice of eating packaged, reconstituted, processed foods inflated with fillers and hormones to make them ripe for purchase but not suitable for human consumption. Now I’m not against eating meat by any means, because carnivores are a part of the environment, too, but it goes without saying that the processed meat people are used to eating at their local fast food restaurant has no net nutritional value whatsoever.

  • DeepCough

    The real problem with obesity lies in the fact that people are NOT EATING substantial foods. Industrialism has made Americans very accustomed to the practice of eating packaged, reconstituted, processed foods inflated with fillers and hormones to make them ripe for purchase but not suitable for human consumption. Now I’m not against eating meat by any means, because carnivores are a part of the environment, too, but it goes without saying that the processed meat people are used to eating at their local fast food restaurant has no net nutritional value whatsoever.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t have time to exercise. This weeks lineup of reality TV is just too jam packed.

    Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t have time to exercise. This weeks lineup of reality TV is just too jam packed.

    Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.

  • http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

    They don’t exactly suggest plant based diets, they claim the importance of a grain based diets. There are plenty of nutrients in vegetables, but grains are just cheap food, and you get what you pay for. The mass produced grains have just about no nutritional value, they keep people alive, but they don’t keep people healthy.

    of course if you feed livestock these grains they are actually less healthy than their natural diet as well, but thats another story…

    Hooray for grains!
    http://www.amazon.com/Against-Grain-Agriculture-Hijacked-Civilization/dp/0865476225

  • Abby Rose

    Stop subsidizing corn. Problem solved. All of the processed foods we eat come from a surplus of corn, which led us to find ways to turn corn into unhealthy sugars and fillers. The explosion of high fructose corn syrup and other corn-based additives directly correlates with the explosion of obesity, and both directly followed the decade in which corn subsidies were enacted. The solution is simple. If we take away the cheap and readily available additives that drive the corporate food machine to make the processed foods, they will stop making them. If the profit margin falls, they won’t make it. More whole foods, less sugars, and more natural ingredients would once again be the norm and obesity levels would return to what they were before corn subsidies existed.

  • Dueyv9

    When you live a materialistic life, the only thing that can feed(or try to) your soul is material things.

  • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

    > Based on trends, half of the adults in the United States will be obese
    by 2030 unless the government makes changing the food environment a
    policy priority

    Why is personal self-control a Homeland government issue?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bobbie-Jean-Pentecost/100000391760333 Bobbie Jean Pentecost

    Spoken like a true ignoramus.

  • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

    Yes Bobbie Jean you are speaking like an ignoramus, but I’ll overlook it due to your fast food diet.

  • Phil E. Drifter

     Right from the start, I’m not even going to bother reading this because you begin with

    the United States will be obese by 2030 unless the government makes changing the food environment a policy priority

    It is not in the best interest of the government to require people to eat healthy and forcefully submit their own citizens to what they consider the peoples’ ‘best choice.’

    “If the government were to decide what humans can put into their own bodies then the people are a sorry lot indeed.” -Paraphrased from Thomas Jefferson because I don’t know the exact quote verbatim.

  • Phil E. Drifter

     You tell me what good use their is for saturated fats. I’ll wait.

    ‘Saturated’ means the molecules are ‘full’ and thusly are unlikely (and resistant, even) to ever be altered through chemical equations.

  • Phil E. Drifter

     You go ahead and fucking eat whatever the government tells you is safe, moron. Try some ‘partially hydrogenated soybean oil’ (because that’s just so naturally plentiful…) or something ‘to preserve color’ or ‘blue #5′ because I hear that’s healthy this time of year.

  • ICE

    problem is those in power have relations that go beyond money towards each other, they live in a different dimension of society , and the abuse of the masses is just a way to control so we dont intervene in their perfect little elite world. Things could be healthy but they are not for more complex reasons beside cheap corn. Not everyone is conspiring but self proclaimed key players are and good people dont like confrontation and wait until they are enraged to do something which is not effective and creates more destruction. Key to life is in the small day to day choices and figuring out a path that is beneficial to all if one has the luxury of having some control over their path. 

  • ICE

    being materialistic can also mean buy the rich things that enrich not only your life but the life of other around you, things you can share a good buyer, Philanthropy. Selfish ego driven thoughtless consumerism yes thats messed up 

  • Pukin Gnome

    In the future, ‘fat fuck’ will loose it’s hurtful meaning and just be known as ‘fuck’… Uh, whatever.

  • Anonymous

    Saturated fats are a necessary part of your diet. That is, if you want to be able to think, or to absorb calcium into your bones, create and regulate the body’s hormones and enzymes, carry certain “fat-soluble” vitamins through the body, have a healthy immune system, and if you ever want to feel full after a meal without having to overeat to get that feeling.

    The issue is the ratio and amount of fat you eat. The sawdust (yes, sawdust) they use as filler in processed food is a hell of a lot worse for you than a little saturated fat from a good pasture-fed organic beef. However, if you’re eating beef raised in the standard industrial way, it’s definitely a good idea to get rid of as much of that fat as possible because that’s where the excess hormones and antibiotics and toxins end up. But that’s not the fault of the fat, it’s the fault of the other chemicals. Saturated fat is only bad for you if you eat it in excess, and the real problem with fats is _trans_ fats.

  • Anonymous

    making healthful foods cheaper and less-healthful foods more expensive largely through tax strategies,

    In other words:

    Keeping healthy food expensive and making the less healthful food even more expensive than that instead of the less healthful food being the cheap alternative like it is now.

  • Anonymous

    making healthful foods cheaper and less-healthful foods more expensive largely through tax strategies,

    In other words:

    Keeping healthy food expensive and making the less healthful food even more expensive than that instead of the less healthful food being the cheap alternative like it is now.