Summary
A new Lancet study reveals nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, a sharp rise from just over half in 1990.
Obesity among adults doubled to over 40%, while rates among girls and women aged 15–24 nearly tripled to 29%.
The study highlights significant health risks, including diabetes, heart disease, and shortened life expectancy, alongside projected medical costs of up to $9.1 trillion over the next decade.
Experts stress obesity’s complex causes—genetic, environmental, and social—and call for structural reforms like food subsidies, taxes on sugary drinks, and expanded treatment access.
Every time I visit Germany, I eat and drink a ton. I’ll lose about 5 lbs that week just from the higher quality food and walking convenience.
5 lbs is literally just a hydration and glycogen difference. You tend to have about 5 lbs of glycogen of which each pound is holding 2 lbs of water so 5 lbs is within normal fluctuations. Carb and fat profile of diet and a lack of gluconeogenesis can have you eat the same amount of calories while “losing” weight. Additionally, the amount of salt that you retain from your food can have a significant difference. If you’re going from a high salt diet to a low one, you could expect to lose water weight.
That’s interesting. Germans certainly aren’t known for their healthy food when you look at the prevalence of cured meats and things like currywurst.
contrary to conventional wisdom, quality of food isn’t really considered a primary instigator of the obesity epidemic. rather, environmental factors such as poverty, failures in education/access to diet information, and car-centric urbanization are proven to be much bigger factors in the ongoing health crisis.
in other words, america could be totally healthy eating the exact same food if we built society around people living healthy lives, but that is far from the primary goal for a country living under capital.
At least the Germans have time to take care of themselves, but quite a bit of the food is processed too.
Where do you normally eat?