catherine

Try going from Wisconsin to Manhattan. I was there last week and observed that most of the women walking down the street were thin and had no rear end to speak of.

ed

Yes, New York City has less of what annoys me about the rest of America, beginning with the car. I have no use for one here, except for leaving the city. Like any European City, NYC is a great place to walk around in. I leave my apartment (in Brooklyn, one stop from Manhattan) and can walk to all sorts of businesses. Other places are a short subway ride away. It's harder to be completely sedentary here. You have to walk to the subway and go up and down the stairs and tunnels. <BR> <BR>It's all a matter of mathematics. If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. If you burn more than you eat, you lose. The problem is everyone has a different personal algebra, and it gets worse as one gets older. NYC and Europe give people more opportunities to burn calories doing everyday activities. In suburbia USA taking a car everywhere burns very little. But the number one thing for your weight, your appearance, and, more importantly, your health is exercise. Walk, run, play tennis, join a gym, do something. It's the number one most vital thing you can do for your health. Find time for it. And weight training, even a little bit, can benefit everyone. OK, I'll get off my soapbox now. <BR>

Topper

Top!

Steve Mueller

Seems like there is a fair amount of anti-American sentiment in this thread. Trying to explain obesity with generalizations that Americans are lazy, gluttonous, and insecure, and prefer to solve any problem by popping pills seems overly simplistic. <BR> <BR>At the risk of offending anyone convinced that Americans epitomize everything that is base and vulgar in the world, I'll make the following suggestion - one reason that obesity is common in the US is that Americans are more tolerant of imperfection. <BR> <BR>During a year spent in Tokyo, I noticed that obese Japanese women are virtually non-existent. In Japanese society, obesity in men is marginally tolerated, but the social consequences for women are much more severe. Other factors certainly play a role in minimizing Japanese obesity: constant walking to and from the train/subway stations, low-fat diet with small portions, high rates of cigarette smoking, etc. But it seems unlikely that these factors could account for a complete lack of obesity in Japanese women. Moreover, Japanese men walk just as much, eat a similar diet, and smoke more than the women, but it is not that uncommon to see an overweight Japanese man. <BR> <BR>While European society is not as rigid as Japanese society, my impression is that Europeans are more obsessed with physical appearance than Americans. It seems plausible that this preoccupation might result in stronger social mores against obesity. In the US, obesity is certainly not condoned, but the social consequences are not that severe: moderatly obese Americans are not denied spouses, friends or jobs. <BR> <BR>Clearly, poor dietary habits play a major role in obesity, but the manner in which someone becomes obese is a separate issue from how willing they are to allow themselves to become obese. I believe it is this last point that accounts for the greater number of overweight Americans. <BR> <BR>Incidentally, Japanese society contradicts one of the more popular ideas cited in this thread - the workaholic theory of obesity. Almost all Japanese "salary men" lead extremely stressful existences (suicide rates are one measure of this) with long workdays, and yet very few are overweight. <BR> <BR>Finally, as Paige mentioned above, thin is not equivalent to healthy. Average life expectancy in Europe is similar to that for the US, and a surprising number of European nations (e.g., UK, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Finland) surpass the US in deaths attributable to heart disease.

skinnyeuwoman

Topping for Richard.