Ugh, I was annoyed when Putin said Obesity is mostly genetic, but after a bit of digging it appears he is right.

Why are Americans generally such fat fucks then? I'm willing to bet we are as a rule significantly heavier then the descendants of our various cultural ancestors across the oceans. Genetics takes more than a couple hundred years to make that kind of a difference, right?

Can anybody explain?

Are we actually as bad as the stereotype goes?

Generally, yes.

America is too large for there to be one generic stereotype though.

I dunno PE maybe thats just my prejudice. I think we are statistically fat fucks though. Lemme check.

A statistic saying Americans were fat would be false.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity

a cursory glance. Nothing reliable but it appears we are.

What do you mean sarg?

Even if there was a statistic saying "Yes, 42% of Americans are fat", that would only be a certain type of American dependent on wealth, location, ethnicity.

There's probably a huge difference between the amount of fat people in Honolulu compared to the amount of fat people in Las Vegas, for example.

I probably haven't made that point very well but do you see what I mean?

Part of being overweight actually has to do with pre-birth conditions. If a pregnant mother is overfed, the child will become anorexic later in life. Likewise, a lack of food will cause the child to be mentally fixated upon feeding his face.

Of course, that is nowhere near the true cause. But all you need to do to see the answer is to go and watch Borat. In most countries, you don't have the kind of consumerism that we have developed to enable people to feed themselves as much as they so please. Obesity is not a problem or a disease, its a lifestyle that is literally being fed by corporations who want to sell the best quality products for the lowest price possible.
That's why corn syrup is in everything, that's why pizza is now considered a vegetable.

Sarg's point, from what I can tell, is that any given statistic taken about Americans is probably not going to cover a sufficient breadth of demographic regions within America to give us an accurate view of the whole country, due to the size and cultural diversity within the country.

haha no, not at all. I'm totally unable to follow you tbh. :P

@anything KA says

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3060/2590282166_2ccf7360c4.jpg

@PE I don't see why that would be any more difficult to track than any other statistic. I'm not saying what I posted is in any way reliable, but I don't think you can argue we are unable to come up with reliable stats.

@KA I guess that is kinda my point, but I was surprised to see that the studies show that that type of stuff effects all BMI's equally. It is upward pressure on all groups, but the obese are obese still due to primarily genetic reasons. That's what the research I looked at concluded anyway.

"Sarg's point, from what I can tell, is that any given statistic taken about Americans is probably not going to cover a sufficient breadth of demographic regions within America to give us an accurate view of the whole country, due to the size and cultural diversity within the country."

Yes, that's mostly what I was getting at. Although, I would qualify the above by saying that it would be hard to quantify any kind of singular stereotype about what Americans are, at least in terms of being fat or thin.

Contrary to that though, I think everyone would agree a typical trait of Americans as being nationalistic.

haha no KA is not trolling this one. At least the 2nd paragraph (after the borat BS) is painfully true.

herp nvm I got it. I see, Sarg.

Yeah what Sarg is really referencing (more than what I said) is that all those cultural groups and whatnot have different stereotypes. There's some things that are stereotypically American - nationalism, Big Macs, inferiority complexes - but a complete model of THE stereotypical American doesn't really exist due to the ridiculous amount of subcultures within America (replete with their own stereotypes).

I like this. Sarg likes me now. I like you too :)

@YJ: I'm nost saying that reliable statistics on Americans are impossible. Simply a question like "Are Americans fat?" is too simplistic. Even if you got a statistic that said "52% of Americans are fat" - that simply wouldn't be good enough because it doesn't convey the differences within the country. There is no one American.

no fuck him the moment he mentioned Borat as a serious source of anything the moment the little shred of credibility I was trying to offer him goes out the drain

@trip YAWN....you really don't know how to read, do you. Those rap artists are *reflecting their environment* --- per their own words --- not promoting violence. Unless you are calling all rap stars liars, which in the eyes of many would make you a racist. So I'm playing it safe and granting them their noble purpose of reflecting the environment, not promoting an action. You consistently fail to acknowledge this point because it goes against you per-determined belief.

Sure, PE, sarg, I agree with that. But I think that the statistics do reliably show that (for whatever reason) obesity is a problem in the USA to a degree not found in other countries.

Somebody tell Krellin to shut up. We're on to fat chicks now. He should know all about that.

"Sure, PE, sarg, I agree with that. But I think that the statistics do reliably show that (for whatever reason) obesity is a problem in the USA to a degree not found in other countries."

Sure. But I was speaking to the point that was raised about a stereotypical American.

I think Borat is culturally relevant. It's not the highest form of cultural criticism but it it is still important. It says a lot about identities and stereotypes.

oh, I must have missed that. I agree we are quite diverse. I wonder what ppl in other countries picture when they think, "American."

Ask Sarg, he qualifies as a "ppl in other countries"

oh yeah your british or sumtin right?