Korean Job Discussion Forums

[madoka]

USA! USA! USA!

Citizens of the world's richest countries are getting fatter and fatter and the United States is leading the charge, an organization of leading economies said Thursday in its first ever obesity forecast.

Three out of four Americans will be overweight or obese by 2020, and disease rates and health care spending will balloon, unless governments, individuals and industry cooperate on a comprehensive strategy to combat the epidemic, the study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

The Paris-based organization, which brings together 33 of the world's leading economies, is better known for forecasting deficit and employment levels than for measuring waistlines. But the economic cost of excess weight � in health care, and in lives cut short and resources wasted � is a growing concern for many governments.

Franco Sassi, the OECD senior health economist who authored the report, blamed the usual suspects for the increase.

"Food is much cheaper than in the past, in particular food that is not particularly healthy, and people are changing their lifestyles, they have less time to prepare meals and are eating out more in restaurants," said Sassi, a former London School of Economics lecturer who worked on the report for three years.

That plus the fact that people are much less physically active than in the past means that the ranks of the overweight have swelled to nearly 70 percent in the U.S. this year from well under 50 percent in 1980, according to the OECD.

In 10 years, a full 75 percent of Americans will be overweight, making it "the fattest country in the OECD," the report said.

The same factors driving the epidemic in the U.S. are also at work in other wealthy and developing countries, Sassi said. "There is a frightening increase in the epidemic," Sassi said, "We've not reached the plateau yet."

The lifespan of an obese person is up to 8-10 years shorter than that of a normal-weight person, the OECD said, the same loss of lifespan incurred by smoking.

In the U.S. the cost in dollars of obesity, including higher health care spending and lost production, is already equivalent to 1 percent of the country's total gross domestic product, the report said. That compares to half a percent in other OECD countries, Sassi said.

These costs could rise two- or threefold over the coming years, the OECD said, citing another study that forecast obesity and overweight-related health care costs would rise 70 percent by 2015 and could be 2.4 times higher than the current level in 2025.

The OECD found that rates of obesity, defined as a body mass index above 30, show a wide variation across its member countries, ranging from as little as 3-4 percent of the population in Japan and Korea to around one-third in the U.S. and Mexico.

"However, rates are also increasing in these countries," the OECD said. Outside the OECD, obesity rates are rising at similarly fast rates in countries such as Brazil, China, India and Russia.

The OECD advises governments on economic growth, social development and financial stability.

[RMNC]

I can honestly say that the disgusting fat Americans I had to see every day are one of the reasons that I wanted to leave America in the first place. Call me vain but I just feel disgusted looking at the majority of people I live around.

[tottenhamtaipeinick]

This is what I don't understand why Governments Don't put tax on unhealthy food! It pisses me off to see that a meal at Mcdonalds is more cheaper than a salad roll. If governments put tax and I mean extreme tax on cigs in Australia which are now around $15-$20 (lucky i dont smoke) why cant they do it on the second biggest killer! Mcdonalds and places similar should be $15-$20 a meal just so people cant consume it on a daily basis. This would also have a good opportunity for healthier restaurants to make a come back. Another thing in Australia a shopping centre will constantly shove high sugar and fatty foods in your face with 'SAVINGS SAVINGS' 4 bottles of coke for $9. I find it ironic in Australia there is more awareness for anorexia than obesity. That one poor kid out of 1000 who has some sad mental disease where they cant eat yet there is 2 out of 3 Australians overweight!..

[tottenhamtaipeinick]

I must admit the hardest thing about coming back to Australia was feeling like I stepped into a zoo....... You can only truely understand the problems Countries like this have with obesity is if you leave to Asia and come back! disgusting!

[NYC_Gal]

I had forgotten just how fat people back home were. My first day in the states while visiting family was surreal.

To be fair, I notice more and more fat Koreans. I like to count them on my bike ride to work. The most Korean fatties I've seen so far on one ride (about 10 minutes if I brick it) is 7.

The last I heard, they were looking into starting a soft drink tax. I'm all for it. If it isn't water or tea, pay a fee.

[conrad2]

[young_clinton]

I think everybody knew that already

[michi gnome]

U.S. is probably the most doped-up country as well.
dope of the legal & illegal varieties.

at a recent health check-up, "my" "doctor," tried to put me on
Seroquel, a psychotropic drug, for a mild case of insomnia.

turn me into an addict, likely cause depression & suicidal fantasy, probably altering my brain chemistry forever.

this is what is referred to as "practicing medicine"

gee, thanks doc!

hope you enjoy spending that nice kickback from BigPharma

[michi gnome]

in a lot of cases, the psychotropics people are hooked on,

are causing massive & uncontrollable weight gain

[Bloopity Bloop]

Lol. Let's not blow things out of proportion. Americans are fat because of overeating and sedentary lifestyles. I think the number of people that blow up for other reasons isn't even statistically significant.

I think a huge problem now is that generations of Americans are growing up in this fat, inactive culture. Odds are things won't get better without some kind of drastic change.

If everyone around you is fat, it's unlikely that you'd realize, �Hey, I'm fat!�

[Fox]

I don't much like the idea of food taxes (though I might make an exception for soda pop in the form of ending the subsidies that make it so cheap; not really a tax so much as a market correction). City planning with a strong focus on pedestrian travel instead of automotive travel would help more, I think. I've hovered between a healthy weight and mildly overweight throughout my life, and the times I was overweight were all marked by times when my primary means of transportation was driving.

[Bloopity Bloop]

My mom has been overweight since she had my brother and I. She was a really tiny women before that. I think what happened is she had us right after she finished med school in the States and really fell into the American lifestyle. She grew up in Indonesia. And by American lifestyle I mean driving everywhere, not moving much (she works in med labs), overeating (you cannot get between her and a bucket of KFC), and worst of all, buying into the lie that being overweight is out of your control. Americans are severely lacking in any semblance of discipline with regards to their health. That's killer.

[mises]

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/adam/images/en/diabetes-food-pyramid-picture.jpg

^ That's how you fatten mammals up.

Obesity is a big problem in much of the US but I'll not play the whole game where Americans are apparently stupid or lazy or whatever and that's why they are fat. They're fat because they've been told their whole lives that Special K = thin. It doesn't. Nor does exercise.

[tottenhamtaipeinick]

[interestedinhanguk]

Taxing unhealthy food? Where do you draw the line? Should we tax the sugar we buy in the grocery store? You're going to have to, or else people are just gonna start making their own soda. Maybe that's a business I'll get into; selling unsweetened soda. Add your own homemade syrup.
What about juice? Chug a gallon of OJ a day, and you're gonna be a chubby fellow. Have a small glass of coke with an otherwise healthy diet, you'll probably be fine.

What about meat? Tax the chicken legs, but not the breast? Tax the ribeye, but not the sirloin. Tax the belly but not the tenderloin. That's not very economical.

How about oil? Use a bit the saute some vegetables, perfectly healthy. But what about frying?

Tobacco is easy to tax. It has little proven benefit, and tobacco is pretty well-defined.

Food?