Health

[mack]

Just got back from Great Wolf Lodge weekend. Took my 2 yr old grandson there for his birthday.
I'd seen the news reports etc. on obesity but it never really registerd in my mind until I was at the water park.
There was probably 500 people of all ages there, and out of that number I would say 30 would have been considered fit. I couldn't believe that kids 5-10 years old could be heavier than a six foot man. But even in the adults there were only a few who could see their feet. No wonder the health professionals and insurance companies are freaking out about the rising cost of health care. A time when parents are out living their kids on a regular basis.
I was thinking about it while I was there and one thing struck me. I've taken my family to Disney, wonderland and several other similar places and at every inclusive resort/park, the food selection has been terrible. Nothing but fast garbage to eat. Conidering, food usually is half the expense of these outings, you'd think that more concern over nutrition would be shown for at least one meal a day.
On a brighter note, I just heard that "Twinkies" just went out of production.

[IanDMacDonald]

I did grow up in the 80's and early 90's when game consoles were becoming popular, along with computers, etc. (which we all had). However, I also grew up with parents that would literally lock us outside and tell us to go play during the summertime. We had a whole subdivision of kids we could play sports, etc. with.

I look at things today, and have 30+ year-old co-workers still smoking pot and bragging about their COD Black Ops stats, while staying up all night playing. I don't really care about older people being overweight (they've earned it), but, when I see these fat kids running around with a 2-litre of Coke in one hand, and half a pizza in the other while crying about wanting candy, it upsets me. And, the US leads the world in obesity.

[DGXSER]

As I find myself joining the group of folks who can say "remember back when I was young" instead of being young. As I look back I realize that we did not have all the devices that simplify every task, and make chores less necessary.

If we wanted a fire, we cut wood, chopped it, stacked it, caried it in the house and then cleaned up the fireplace. Now, with the zero clearance gas fire places, no one ever burns wood anymore. No work, just sit and get warmth.

Another aspect is the need to protect kids from the chester the molesters out there. I often debate if it is really that much worse or if we just know more about it. When I was young, it tok days to learn about something that happened three states away. Now we know what happened on Mars 5 minutes after it occurred. Point being, as kids we would wave goodby to Mom in the morning, hop on the bike, head for the woods or somewhere and be back by dinner time. Now days, if you let your kids out of your site that long they will call CPS on you, and you seriously do risk something horrible happening to your kids.

we also have the microwave. We had microwave pizzas, but they tasted like crap, but there was not alot of other ten second foods. Now you can eat a dang fine italian meal cooked in the zapper in ten minutes or less.

So yes, as we have improved out technologies, we have eliminated the physical activities. So we have to look harder and find ways to physically challenge ourselves.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Mack,

I work in the "health care" industry, but only with EYES, but I get to see new patients every day that have just been diagnosed with diabetes, and YEP, they are overweight. I've been doing this for 30+ years, and it still disgusts me when I have to work with these patients that are 300-400+ lbs!

The Obesity epidemic is multi-faceted in the causes, as mentioned from a culture of inactivity started at a young age, to indulgent eating behavior, snacks whenever the kids want them, and no limits on what or how much. Then also as mentioned, the quality of the foods, mostly high fat high carbo type foods. Also all of the sugar loaded drinks, plus caffiene.

I was one of those who got to play outside all day in a secure neighborhood riding my bike, running around the woods, lakes, orange groves. We had a TV, but aside from Sat. AM cartoons, and evening programs, I didn't really watch it that much...we only had 3 network channels..ABC, CBS, NBC!

Folks do not know how to just put the fork DOWN!!! They have extra large plates and serving sizes in restaurants as well as home....lots of fried foods, breading coatings, carbs, carbs, carbs, fats, sugar.

I weighed 185 when I was 21 and went into the Navy. ~30+ years later I only weigh 225, which is well within health and weight/height ratios being 6'6" tall! I'm not in perfect condition/fit....but I don't have to take any prescription medications......my bad cholesterol is just at the high end of normal, and my good cholesterol is good. I can thank my Mom for both my eating habits, and my genes! She had a couple of sisters with diabetese, but she's 85 and still going fairly strong, I hope to make it that far and beyond!

Behavior modification is the key, but will take a cultural change to turn things around....at least we won't have to worry about so many baby boomers putting the strain on the retirement system, many of them will be dying off of premature demise due to all of the conditions that come from their obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesteremia, sleep apnea....strokes, heart attacks, kidney and liver failure, etc.!

Getting off my soap box now.

T.C.

[mack]

Better days

I hear ya Doug. I grew up in the fifties and I believe it was a better time then. Sure we had the threat of nuc's raining down all the time but you could play out side until dark every night and still kneel by a stream and drink the water with no worries. Walked when we were tired (or trying to be quiet) but ran the rest of the time. The only TV I watched was hockey (big six), ED Sullivan show, Gunsmoke and Bonanza. To this day I find TV a waste of time. I watch the NFL games, hockey play off's, and there was a show some time back on the history channel called "dogfights" I liked. West Wing was the only show I actually waited all week for it to come on.
Maybe because of my career I've always tried to stay in reasonable shape, even in retirement. Old habits are hard to break. Still wear my hair in a crew cut and weigh the same as I did when I was 30. Wasn't always the case. When I had back issues I was bed ridden for months at a time and could only get to the washroom and short walks to the kitchen with a walker and that was only sparingly. I put on about 35 pounds during that five year period. It has really only been in the last couple years that I have been able to get back into walking. Now I do 3.5 miles a day and doing weight training to lose that extra bagage. It took a long time to build up to this point again, but when you can't do something is when you miss it the most. For the longest time I never thought I would be able to walk again or lift something.
Took my wife to see the new James Bond movie. TC your right, the portion sizes are ridiculous. A medium pop had to be a half gallon.
Terrorists won't be the downfall of our culture, it will be the fast food industry. They should be sued just like tobacco companies to help pay for the increase in health care costs. They both target youth and get them hooked at an early age. Look at MacDonalds if you don't believe me. And poor nutrition will kill you just as fast as tobacco if not faster.

[TheFrugalTech]

I've actually stayed fairly fit my entire life, even worked out 4-5 days a week and sometimes more from 15 to about 25. Now at 45 I credit those 10 years for still being in decent shape. I can still see my abs in the summer when I'm more active.
But I still ended up with BP and cholesterol problems. My cholesterol 4 years ago, and this is not a typo, was 987. Doctor said it was the highest she had ever seen in her career. So that lead to a ton of testing for arterial blockage, no more than 10% which is really good. Tons of blood testing etc etc, everything else is fine but my BP was slightly high and my heart skips a beat now and then.
Went over my health history, nothing bad other than stone issues with one kidney. Got to going over my exercise history and there were several times in that 15-25 yo period when I would really bulk up working out 7 days a week and eating a very high calorie diet with very little sugar under the guidance of a nutritionist.
I cannot remember the term the doctor used but basically during those 10 years of off and on high calorie high exercise periods, my body learned to just hold high levels of protein and fat in my blood since it would be used up fairly quickly during the next workout. Now that I don't work out all the time, the fats build up in my blood faster than they get stored.
The key to getting my cholesterol down has been eating based on upcoming activities in the next 24 to 48 hours. It is down to 215 and still dropping.

Not quite the poster child for hyperlipidemia:

[crazy steve]

FrugalTech's reply is proof that sometimes it's just the genetic hand you're dealt and life's 'bumps' that dictate where you end up health-wise. In his case, overdoing a 'healthy' exercise regimen came back to haunt him. Moderation in all things....

I'm in the same boat to a degree. I worked at a physical job for years and rarely had health issues that weren't related to either my 'bad' knees (surgery on them when I was 12 (1962), and that was the days of no physical therapy; I lost about 30% of range-of-motion and strength and it never came back) or the back problems the knees created. I was a very skinny 145 lbs on a 6' frame at 21, slowly gained weight over the years from work and ended up at about 210 when my back finally went out for good. I ended up behind a desk for the next four years and that was a disaster. I put on about 40 lbs in short order, and have only managed to shed about half of it in the 4 years of my retirement. My back/knees really limits my exercise options, so there you go...

Not to say I haven't had other health issues; I have. Uncontrollable heartburn that finally resulted in more surgery, food allergies that took a long time to figure out just what was 'safe' to eat and what wasn't (and helped contribute to the heartburn) and also makes it difficult to 'eat healthy', and finally having cataracts in both eyes at the age of 58. None of these things were due to 'lifestyle' choices, just the luck of the draw in the genetic sweepstakes.

Not whining, it is what it is, but you 'youngsters' need to remember that good health now doesn't mean good health always...

[jetmechmarty]

Steve, I just came from a week in Seattle. I was there two weeks last month. If I had to live there I think I would just sit and cry. Rain every day, like Groundhog Day. All that depressing weather can't be good for your health.

Then again, sunshine killed my younger brother.

[xs11jack]

Basically what has happened is that technology is killing us before our time. One can build a life style that uses todays technology and we never have to get out of the house let alone stand up. When I was a kid in the fifties, I lived in a farm community in Wisconsin and when I wasn't in school, I was working my butt off. When I went in the Army in the sixties, I weighed 148 lbs on a 6 ft frame. When I came out, I ended up in a high tech job that had me sitting down all the time. When I retired in 2007 I weighted 240 lbs. I got busy after that and now am down to 170 lbs. My colestoral is 150, but it was near 300 at retirement. My blood pressure is just high enough to warrent meds. My knees and back don't like me but I still walk every day for and hour and rarely sit around watching tv. I have two workshops, one in the garage and one in the basement and work there a lot. I know that if I slack off I will die. And at 70, I don't plan on giving in soon. All of this is my war against technology killing my health.
Enough said.
Ole Jack

[TomB]

Living in the UK we have slowly watched with dismay the Americanisation of our eating out habits and culture and high street eating places. Now please don't take this as an insult lads, only the UK now has increasing obesity problems in our young attributed directly to it. I have German friends that complain of the same problem so a European problem.

I have two grown up daughters and an 11 year old son, whilst bringing them up we have tried to educate them about diet and exercise and seem to have been successful. My eldest daughter has the same food problems as me, Dairy intolerance, which means we have both very low fat diets, no butter cheese cream yoghurt icecream and all the associated cakes and crap that goes with that. As you can imagine when I was kid I wasn't happy with this diet, now I'm glad of it.

I have been into Macdonalds twice in my life, the first time I went it was awful, I thought that must have been a bad one time thing, the second visit confirmed that its all crap, never again!!!

When 20 I wore 32" waist jeans, they're 34" now at 48 years, I'm 6'3" and 195lbs and as FrugalTech says I can occasionally see my abs in summer

I find that there is very few Bikers that are seriously obese, just riding a bike is good exercise, or maybe being obese impares the ability to ride so we unconsciously keep fitter.

You're right about it being in the genes too, my father is similar to me and had a big heart attack at 65 but made a good recovery and still rides his BMW at 78, he complained that he'd had a good lifestyle, not smoking or drinking heavily and eat well so why had he had a heart attack, his surgeon replied with...... "its in your genes and if you'd smoked, drank heavily, and been obese you'd have had a heart attack at 40 and died"

For an english bloke its interesting to hear you lads complaining about this problem when we attribute the problem to you lot

Its also interesting watching the US shows my kids watched on TV, as all the youngsters on the shows are body beautiful, the opposite of your real world.





.

[jetmechmarty]

Living in the UK we have slowly watched with dismay the Americanisation of our eating out habits and culture and high street eating places. Now please don't take this as an insult lads, only the UK now has increasing obesity problems in our young attributed directly to it. I have German friends that complain of the same problem so a European problem.

I am a full time traveler. I go everywhere. I am quite certain that the American diet is the worst in the world. Usually, the poorer you are, the more obese you are. I have been to the grocery store in Germany. What I see is a lot of fresh produce and meat. Over here, we prefer processed food. It's killing us!

[TheFrugalTech]

Genetics is key to how your body responds to diet and exercise. I have a brother who is 5 years younger than I am. I got him into working out during my last 5 years of doing it hardcore. While I have below average arterial blockage, he had a heart attack about a year ago and now has 2 stints. The difference? His diet was crap during that time and stayed that way until he had the heart attack.
During the bulking up stages, I would eat 6-8 meals a day that were fish, chicken, lean beef, and tons of fruit and vegetables. And I almost always started the day with 6 eggs cracked into a tall glass and chugged before I ate breakfast. You actually acquire a taste for it but trust me, you DO NOT want to try that after a hard night of drinking. The money I spent on groceries for just me would have fed a family of 3 or 4.
My brother was probably doing more calories in 3 fast food meals a day.

[crazy steve]

...And I almost always started the day with 6 eggs cracked into a tall glass and chugged before I ate breakfast..

Six eggs a day!!! I had a co-worker who had his cholesteral checked at age 40 and it was well over 500. He joked that his wife only got to show him an egg....

He is just another guy who got a bad hand from genetics; good shape, not overweight at all. But no male on his father's side had made it past the age of fifty at the time....

[TheFrugalTech]

Yeah, eggs are pretty much off my diet now, I'm allowed 2 a week. Along with bacon and most of what used to be my favorites foods.

If you put it in terms of a bike .... run hard WOT and it will take about all the fuel you can give it to some extent. Feed it the same amount of fuel at idle and it floods out and dies.

[TomB]

I have been to the grocery store in Germany. What I see is a lot of fresh produce and meat.

Yes! Sure! We have decent grocery stores in the UK too, the problem is getting the younger generation to buy food in those stores. Its the fast (crap) food culture set-up by the big corperations that draw in the youngsters that I blame. (certainly not you guys personally )

Happy Meal!??? there's fekk all happy about dying from obesity related deseases but when they put a toy in the meal box its hard for parents to tell the little'ns "no"