Governments want people to be dependent on external things (drugs, food, financially).

FTFY

Doesn't mean your point in OP isn't any less valid though. A fat, depressed, impotent citizen is significantly less likely to question things, less likely to protest, and obviously less likely to fight for their rights. Good post. Keep it up.

TIL everyone on foodstamps is fat.

Your argument is crystalline, OP.

The problem isn't government money making people fat. The problem is that the majority of people don't have tons of disposable income and bad food is cheaper. If I'm running low on money, its cheaper to live off Ramen noodle, microwaveable pizza's, and macaroni and cheese. Nothing but pasta and prepackaged crap. Its cheaper to drink generic soda and candy bars than it is to eat fresh vegetables. You can make a fresh veggie and cook up some whole means and whole grain pasta for one meal, or you can get canned veggies, hamburger helper, and bags of cheap pasta for three meals.

Eating bad is cheap. Eating healthy is expensive.

TL:DR - Eating to much isn't the problem, its WHAT you eat that is the problem .

Eating bad is cheap. Eating healthy is expensive.

Eating lots costs more than eating little. Obesity is the result of laziness and a lack of self control, not poverty.

As someone who was very overweight, I can say with a high amount of confidence that you are very uninformed about obesity.

Obesity is about WHAT you eat. You can't exercise your way out of a bad diet. Period. If I'm eating bad food and exercising hard, I will not lose weight. Any good doctor or dietician will tell you that what you are eating is the problem.

Point in case. A lack of "self control" is largely due, not to actual will power, but due to artificial "cravings" that near addiction level that are fed by poor food choices. Our food is loaded with sugar and sugar substitutes like High Fructose Corn Syrup. These sugars have been shown to behave like a drug in our system and creates a measurable addiction to it.

Obesity is caused by the influx of bad food that creates food addiction and metabolic syndrome that can only be corrected by changing your diet. It cannot be corrected by simply eating less of bad shit. period. You have to stop eating it, which requires money.

Obesity is about WHAT you eat

It's also about HOW MUCH you eat.

you can't exercise your way out of a bad diet.

That's true. But you can exercise your way out of a can of coke. Taking that can out of your day with exercise helps chisel away at the consequences of bad habits.

Any good doctor or dietician will tell you that what you are eating is the problem.

They'll also tell you that portion control is key. Eating too much 'healthy food' will make you fat.

Obesity is caused by the influx of bad food that creates food addiction and metabolic syndrome that can only be corrected by changing your diet. It cannot be corrected by simply eating less of bad shit

Eating less of the bad shit IS changing your diet.

You have to stop eating it, which requires money.

How does not eating something require money?

If you have an addiction to coke - High Fructose Corn Syrup, as you put it. How will it cost me more money by just not drinking coke?

The withdrawals are going to suck for a while, sure. But it can be done and at no monetary cost.

If obesity were a money thing, the rich wouldn't be fat.

You are blaming a part of the problem for the majority of the problem. People who eat right rarely feel the need to over eat. When I changed my diet to eating things better for me, it increased my food cost by 1/3rd. When my wife changed, it cost nearly double now.

But I don't count calories. Because i don't need too. Because those "hunger" cravings were not because I was really hungry. In other words changing to eat the better, more expensive whole foods changed the way I eat naturally without the need for mental will power. The withdrawal was awful but its not a change I could have made without having the funds to do so.

We aren't talking about all people. Rich people can eat bad by choice and over eat by choice, as can poor people choose to eat and drink bad things. But portion control is easier when you don't have to do it with foods that by their nature store as fat easier and give you less nutrition, causing the bodies incessant feeling of needing to eat.

People who eat right rarely feel the need to over eat.

Isn't that the nature of eating right? . . . To not over eat?

It's all about becoming accustomed to eating less.

When I changed my diet to eating things better for me, it increased my food cost by 1/3rd

Depends what you changed your diet to (Duh!).

But the diet i'm currently on is quite simple, eat the same types of food, just less of it. Price of food goes down, weight goes down.

In other words changing to eat the better, more expensive whole foods changed the way I eat naturally without the need for mental will power.

Then how do some poor people stay thin whilst other, equally poor get fat?

Rich people can eat bad by choice and over eat by choice, as can poor people choose to eat and drink bad things.

Precisely. Rich and poor, it doesn't matter if you make bad choices.

But portion control is easier when you don't have to do it with foods that by their nature store as fat easier and give you less nutrition, causing the bodies incessant feeling of needing to eat.

If that were the case, why isn't obesity equal worldwide?

Why is it only the Americans who are at the top of world obesity whilst the rest of the poor people in the world are further down the list?

If obesity were as simple as you claim, most of the poor in first world countries should be overweight. But they're not.

There is also a predisposition towards obesity.

Obesity is easy. Eat the right foods and you naturally eat less. :)

However, our country is unique. We allow more foods into the population that other countries don't. Advertising drives sales of things that we eat and drink that are bad. Consider how a child grows up in the US. They are constantly inundated with advertisements for bad food and drink.

Its all choices, but my claim to simplicity isn't about economics but about what you eat. Poor people generally have less choices due too income. That doesn't get people out of responsibility, I'm not claiming that.

But it is much easier to eat right when you have the income to do so. I'm not sure how to solve the crisis. If "just eat less" was really so easy, more people would have success doing it. There is a reason it doesn't work for drugs and cigarettes with the success rate that would make this an easy choice. Some can. Some can't.

Obesity is easy.

You mean laziness is easy

Eat the right foods and you naturally eat less. :)

Have some self control for a moment and you'll get used to eating less.

We allow more foods into the population that other countries don't.

More nonsense. If you visit McDonalds in any country other than the US you'll find smaller portion sizes.

It's not the food, it's the portion size.

Poor people generally have less choices due too income.

Absolutely. But poverty doesn't cause people to shovel their faces with filth.

But it is much easier to eat right when you have the income to do so

Yet so many rich people are fat.

Obesity in the US is a cultural phenomenon.

Well this is a pointless discussion. You believe all people who are obese are just lazy fucks. Most of my family has been obese and neither I nor most of my family were ever lazy. I was overweight while playing sports for goodness sake. Your generalization is that most obese people are just lazy is wrong. I've been around a lot of obese people in different programs, almost none of them are lazy. But I doubt I'll change your mind so we'll just part ways disagreeing.

You believe all people who are obese are just lazy fucks.

I was overweight while play sports.

It's a combination of laziness, lack of self-control and also ignorance (Not realising how much is too much)

You cannot become obese by eating a caloric deficit.

If you're overweight whilst playing sports, you're eating too much. Simple.

If you're overweight whilst playing sports, you're eating too much. Simple.

I was on a very strict diet during the regular season. If I was eating to much then the sports nutritionists we worked with didn't know wtf they were doing. All three of them must have been dumbasses.

Do you just not know about genetics and how they relate to obesity or have you just discarded it as a possible cause for some reason?

Do you just not know about genetics and how they relate to obesity or have you just discarded it as a possible cause for some reason?

Unless you've miracle genetics or some abnormality to give reason for an outlier, obesity is just thermodynamics.

You're storing more energy than you're using, that's all there is to it.

We've known this for a long ass time. No, its not that simple at all. If you are eating the right foods, you can dramatically increase your food intake and still not gain weight.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1400613

It's not just fat people who get these benefits.

Yes. Governments want people to be fat because the underlying conditions that cause obesity funnel immense funding to big pharma and the shady weight loss industry.

The proof is in the 'food pyramid', which favours the consumption of foods that make you fat (grains, starches, sugary plant products) heavily over fats and proteins, which are actually not as bad as we've been told. It's no coincidence that obesity skyrocketed with the reduction of fat and increase in carbohydrates that occurred with the creation of LBJ's 'food pyramid'. He was motivated to punish the dairy and meat industry for voting against him, but the side effect was huge revenues for pharma.

The resulting demonization of fats and meats have continued with a headlong rush to obesity in every nation following the American food guidelines. No, it's not a matter of self control or people lying about their food intake. Our diet is structured wrong. It might have been accidental at first, but they've realized too many financial benefits for themselves by making everyone obese and then blaming the fatties for a population health crisis they created.

The food pyramid practically encapsulates the sandwich.

Bread > veggies > meats and dairy

What's unhealthy about that sandwich?

The ratios. We eat way more carbohydrates (sugar and starches) than we should be. We probably shouldn't be eating grains at all, let alone making them the basis of our diets. If you're continually on the verge of starvation it wouldn't matter so much, but we aren't. Our metabolisms simply aren't able to cope with the sugar and starch loads and react by converting it to fat and storing it. Meanwhile the insulin cycle gets disrupted which leads to blood sugar spikes and crashes which leads to hunger and fatigue, which leads to eating more and feeling too tired to move. Which makes us fat.

A good portion of the people that are obese are very poor and just don't have the money to eat right... You try to get food on penny's a day.You cant and you never will be able to;Good food costs more than bad food.

Name a bad food, be it pizza or burgers and you can lose weight just by eating less of it and exercising more.

so when you work 60 plus hours a week stressed to max with no extra money you will not be able to find the time or energy to go work out.. its not a simple fix of having people eat right.....money is god on this planet and if you dont have enough you Will suffer for no reason.

It doesn't cost anything to go for a walk. Exercise will help with your stress.

money is god on this planet and if you dont have enough you Will suffer for no reason.

Then how do the rich get fat?

Yep.

You actually CAN eat fairly healthy on food stamps if you look for deals, but it takes some effort.

fat AND unhealthy - for too many ppl being overweight is not good, but then, ppl at normal weight that only consume junk food aren't healthy either,

imo, GMO foods, fluoridated water/drinks will cause health problems.

After all, if they aren't given enough money to buy tons of junk food they are bound to lose some weight.

That's not how obesity works. If money was the issue, the rich wouldn't be fat and the poor would all be thin.

On the long term the money they spent on these people is far less than what they would spend on them if they got old and started having diseases because of their age

An obese person is going to have more health issues throughout their life than a healthy person who gets old.

Most old people need some kind of medication be it for their hearth, arthritis, or some other kind of genetic disposition.

Most old people have also paid a great deal of taxes throughout their life. The medication they purchase would also go towards the governments pocket, so why is spending money on meds a bad thing for the government?

It's also a form of population control.

Why would the government want to shrink the population?

One would wonder why the government would rather pay for all that instead of cutting them down and letting those people slim down

Do you really think cutting food stamps will result in people "slimming down"?