Stupidity is the strongest culprit in my opinion, and people/companies take advantage of that stupidity, and those that are "the stupid", suffer. Not to mention the rest that have to suffer because of rising health costs, etc,.

For the record.. I live in Canada.. Have you seen the size of products these days? (in Canada) Or the size of a breakfast at "Demmy's" (in the US) for example? (changed the name slightly to avoid any snipers)

When I was young, my mom or dad would (every once in a while) buy a 750ml bottle of pop and stick it in the fridge for a treat. Come dinner time, we'd all pour a glass to have with our dinner (for example). Now? I see kids walking around with 710ml bottles of pop in their hands! To finish in "one sitting". I'd see a guy at work, buy one of those for first break, lunch break, and then afternoon break! And he's sitting in the lunch-room, eating his ham on white bread with their side of (a bag of) chips, trying to figure out with the group, why his belly is so big and his teeth are all turning grey/blue.

The line, "Too much of a good thing, can be a bad thing" comes to mind... (my mind at least, when I see the products getting bigger as years go by)

Oh look!! 33% more for the same price?!?!
Let's be stupid and eat it all up because... Hey, it's still just "one" unit :)

Just my two cents.

The only part about that that is unrealistic is the food prep time.
In an earlier time yes, when one person could support a middle class family and the wife could stay home sure, but now you've got two people working all day-no time to make bread...
Or if your a bachelor. Christ I could do whatever I wanted then!

So you've been swinging hammers all day and pick up your kids from daycare/family on your way home. You have to feed them, its late, and you have very little money/time. Wife has just left for her 8 hour night shift. Makes McD's seem like a good alternative.

Course I agree that its no one responsibility but your own, but next time you go to the grocery store try finding a loaf of bread that doesn't have enriched flower or corn products in it. We've only found one brand in our area that has none of this garbage and its about $5 a loaf. Compare that to $.98 for Wonderbread.

Then look at the food that can be bought with food stamps/Wic. Its loaded with fat, sugar, and all the other crap that you should be watching. But if its that or don't eat...

But I'm with you on the exercise thing. I'm very lucky in that I get a good deal of it at work (Walk 10 or more miles a day) and lift in my spare time.
You know whats really scary is that we have a generation that has NEVER been in shape now raising their own children. They don't even know that they are disgusting fat bodies, its just the norm to them. And now they pass that on to their children.

Here's a question though, perhaps we have some medical professionals here?
Do our weight standards reflect reality?
As an example Ill use myself. Currently I am 5'9 (10 on a good day) and weigh 230lbs. This puts me squarely in the Obese range I believe.
BUT-I only have about ~12 percent body fat (been a while since last measurement so may have changed), I work out regularly and get plenty of cardio.
But every time I go to the Doc they give me the standard fat guy lecture.
So should we really go by this standard, or is a revision in order?

Muscle weighs more that fat. If your walking 10 miles a day, your probably fine. Everything the government says or does you should question the agenda imo. There's always an agenda.

A bread machine might be a good solution. You can do a quick cycle and have bread in 30 minutes. It is very simple to do. One of my favorite easy and cheap meals is make split pea soup and fresh bread with a slap of margarine or butter. A 16 oz bag of split peas is 88 cents here and the bread is super cheap to make. 3 cups flour, a little salt, oil, yeast, sugar. You need the sugar because the yeast eats the sugar to get it to rise. That's about 5-6 meals for about $2 and it's pretty healthy, stores well in plastic containers. if you want to go hardcore, you can use wheat flour.

I can't remember the last time I bought store bread. it's probably been 10 years since I did that. The only processed food I buy is dry pasta?. But I also drink coffee and put sugar in that. So, not a complete angel. I don't eat fast food at all. the exception is the holidays with family. then all bets are off and I eat everything in sight.:)

teach your kids to cook!;)

Oh I know I'm fine, I laugh every time the Doc gives me the fat guy talk, and so do they usually.
And as I said before, prepping your own food is great, but not an option for many.

S!

There are 2 extremes, the obese and the superskinny. For example at work the physical test tables favor you if your weight is low. Let's take an example. 2 persons 180cm tall(roughly 6ft), one weighs 90kg and other 75kg. They both get same results in the physical tests but which one gets better score? ;) Is the heavier guy in worse condition even he with 15kg more did the same?

But as EZ pointed out, the size of products have gone up over the last years. When I was a kid we were happy to get a small 100g candybag to share with my sisters. Now one kid eats these Mega bags of 400g! There are burger and pizza joints everywhere and their advertising strikes the young most and they also target small kids with their happy meals and whatever. I VERY rarely take my son to a burger joint, he eats normal home made food. And it is not that time consuming to make something, just plan a bit ahead ;)

I had a period where I noted my weight went up, no excuses. Now I have been working hard to get it back down and more than happy with this decision. Feeling much better and I can do more. Key word self discipline :) I do not want to be a walking heap of fat..

I know several people that are not sporty at all and who have no weight problem.
I do little sport myself (I go to the fitness 2 times a week, but I walk a lot) and I probably lean a bit towards the skinny side, but last time I did a check-up all my body parameters were right where they should be, even if I could probably weight some kg more and stil be fine.

I think that having a balanced nutrition is the key, one should avoid excesses. I eat meat, fish, quite a lot of vegetables. I don't eat too much sweet stuff nor I drink to much sodas. I only eat "plain" food, no low-fat/carb/anything food. Plain milk, plain sugar and so on.

At home we mostly cook all our dishes ourselves, we go sometimes at McDo or other with the kids, and I see no problem in that if it's not too often and if they eat well the rest of the time.

Of course people are different and some have to be more careful about what they eat.

It's simple:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12481427
How to measure your waist.
http://www.webmd.com/diet/calculatin...ircumference__