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Old 27-01-2019, 12:00 AM
Gem Gem is offline
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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!




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.
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