Barley Literate: Obesity

Showing posts with label Obesity. Show all posts

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Soda consumption is still dropping

Americans’ consumption of traditional carbonated soft drinks—soda—has dropped about 25 percent in the last 18 years.

That’s good news on the national obesity problem front.

Don’t pop the champagne—average per capita consumption of soda is down to about 41 gallons per person annually. Obviously, that number is a bit higher for all the folks who aren’t babies or toddlers. The average American is drinking 14 ounces of soda per day.

The slide in soda sales is an ongoing concern for the big beverage companies. They’re pushing bottled water and energy drinks to boost their sales revenue.

By the way, sales of energy drinks have risen more than 110 percent in the last 10 years, but consumption of the heavily-caffeinated stuff like Red Bull is less than one gallon per person per year. (An 8.4-ounce can of Red Bull has about 80 milligrams of caffeine, roughly the same as a cup of coffee).

Let's hear it for President Obama!

Trump didn't want to be president

Lap dogs, not watchdogs

Book review: Dead Wake

Alexander's Ragtime Band

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Fat city, the wrong kind....

Almost 30% of American kids, ages 2-19, are overweight or obese.

That means they’re a lot more likely to have big health problems.

If you have a loving or concerned role with children—as a parent, grandparent, aunt/uncle, brother/sister, you know who you are—you can do something about this.

If you’re not going to do something about it,

you’re not going to do anything about it.

The boob tube....

Up for the count

Papillon redux

Reading in the rubble

Your great-grandmother didn't have a teddy bear

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Dark side of Barbie

Did you know that every Barbie doll has a real name?

It’s Barbara Millicent Roberts.

That’s the good news about Barbie.

Statisticians say just about one woman in a 100,000 is “genetically capable” of achieving the “Barbie doll” body: 5’9”, about 110 pounds, measurements 36-16-33. Oh yeah, and a Body Mass Index of about 16.24, mostly anorexic, with a squashed liver only half normal size and mere inches of intestine, which of course makes weight management a snap. In fact, you don’t want to look like Barbie. A real person who looked like Barbie very possibly would be on life support.

The average American girl ages 3-10 owns eight Barbie dolls. Only about 1 out of a 100 of these young ladies in this age group doesn’t own a Barbie.

Too many folks think they wish they looked like Barbie, but it ain’t gonna happen.

Mannequins of "average" American bodies

The U.S. fashion industry still says size 8 is “standard,” translated to a 35-27-37.5 body.

Among women ages 36-45 in America, the average white woman is 41-34-43, the average black woman is 43-37-46 and the average Hispanic woman is 42.5-36-44.

Strictly speaking, Barbie looks weird.

Footnote: Barbie is a $billion-plus revenue machine for Mattel.

Don't supersize me!

The payoff to Big Oil

Nearly everybody didn't watch the debates

Listen

Book review: Joseph Brant and His World

First flight—unbelievable

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Poor folks buy unhealthy food

This isn’t surprising but it is shocking.

Fifty years ago less than 15% of Americans were obese. Today about one-third of Americans are obese. In the last fifty years the overall cost of food has fallen about 40%.

You might simply conclude that food is cheaper so we’re eating more, and there is dreadful truth in that.

Evan Horowitz at the Boston Sunday Globe points to a troubling additional truth: poor people are buying sugary snacks and other sweetened unhealthy foods because those are the calories they can afford.

The prices of sugar-laden foods have dropped about 7.5% in the last 25 years, while the prices of fresh fruits and vegetables have gone up about 16%. Sugar is a carbohydrate that packs a lot of calories—you can get more energy per dollar from sweets than you can from bananas and arugula. If you’re pinching pennies, it makes some sense to buy donuts instead of cucumbers.