Quote:
Originally Posted by Altair
When I was in the U.S. I could totally understand why people live unhealthy..
If you compare U.S. with Europe.. (this is my general observation)...
Europe
- Smaller cities with old city centres where much is doable on foot
- Cycling is more common and this is reflected by infrastructure favouring cycling (some countries)
- Okay food is relatively cheap and readily available
- Europeans take pride in regional and national foods, less Fordist produced foods
- More leisure time and time to exercise
U.S.
- Larger spread cities and shopping centres that need to be visited with car
- Car culture is necessary because of how U.S. cities were built (open, spread areas, in contrast to old medieval style in Europe)
- Unhealthy food is cheap and readily available
- Healthy food can be very expensive
- Longer work days that reduce time to exercise
Of course you have varieties in Europe and the U.S. but these observations are more or less a norm. While people have a degree of responsibility it’s also true that the very way in which U.S. cities were made will lead to drastically different outcomes!
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Yea, what you posted is mainly about the structural built environment and cultural practice/national lifestyle (which affects both diet and activity); and some about the affordability of food - which together has a significant impact on obesity rates. It's pretty cool how what you said packed all those impacts into 5 short points.
The basic point is, no man is an island and choices are not made in a vacuum. The 'obesity equation' is far bigger than any individual. The individual level of the 'equation' is only a small part a big picture, but if individuals understand that there is a big picture rather than believing it's 'all on them', that would empower them to better navigate their food
environment.