SubscribeHow America Gets Fat
by J. Foster
This photo was taken in Kentucky, USA.
(cc) flickr / merfam
More like this in Weird · May 6, 2008
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I know it's meant to be clever, but I always wonder at stuff like this. I've lived in Europe and Central America, and there are plenty of shops selling nothing but fatty sweets in both places.
If you mean that America's obsession with stupid faddy "diets" is making it fat, then I'm right there with you.
ReplyI think it's a combination of the two that the picture is showing... availability and an obsession with food/dieting working to create a quick-fix mentality and an unhealthy attitude towards food so that when not "dieting" all the availability of junk is utilized fully!
ReplyNo wonder you are never teh bride. Lighten up! The picture is a light-hearted statement on American culture. The only thing missing is the drive-thru.
ReplyActually, Anne, I'm happily married. I didn't mean to be a downer, it's just that I've seen soooooo many of these pics. The health club with the escalator. The health club above an ice cream shop. Etc., etc.
ReplyI live in Wisconsin and places like this are sadly everywhere. You'll see a "Wrap Me Slender" place (a spa-type place where they wrap you up and make you sweat off extra "inches") next to a Culver's Ice Cream place. Or a Curves gym next door to a Cold Stone Creamery. It's kind of the whole American mindset of wanting to have one's cake and eat it too...get ice cream, then go to the gym to "work it off". Or something like that.
ReplyI just realized that the Curves gym I used to go to was in a strip mall with a HUGE buffet, a bar and grill, and directly on either side were a Chinese restaurant and a sandwich place. Now, I never stopped at any of these, so it was never a problem for me, but the El Pollo Loca (a yummy Mexican place) across the street was tempting.
ReplyJuxtaposition. It made me laugh. Walk out of LA Weight Loss... no doubt starving after your weigh-in. Who could resist home-made ice cream and pies?
Replyheheheheheh, this is exactly how i feel every time i walk up to the gym, as i pass a bbq place, a mcdonalds, and a sandwich place. upon exiting, i'm starving and staring my biggest enemies right in the face. sure does build strong will power!!
ReplyStaci: "this is exactly how i feel every time i walk up to the gym"
How about the folks that drive to the gym and then circle the parking lot a couple times to avoid having to walk to far to get to the door!!
ReplyI have a friend who will drive around and around the parking lot to get a really close place to the fitness center! Then she goes in and works out as HARD as anyone I know. Maybe she is planning on crawling out to the car when she is finished :-)
ReplyUm, some of my friends view getting a close parking place as being a winner. I just want to get out of the damn car as soon as I can ^_^
Crabby, see if you can find the same configuration, but with a liposuction clinic on the other side. (I just read that liposuction is the most popular elective cosmetic surgery here in Southern California, by far... woof).
ReplyClose Quito, but I think what we will see is the surgery being done IN the fitness center, kind of like at Walmart now :-)
ReplyNo kidding! You ever laugh when you park at the back, walk in and get to the store well before the person who is camping out waiting for that close spot?
ReplyI always hate that when I go to Walmart, people literally wait in the parking lot aisles next to a car in a close spot so they can get it when the person leaves. I just pull into whatever spot I can find and walk however far it is into the store. I actually park far away at Walmart on purpose most of the time because I'm afraid of overzealous "spot campers" hitting my car as I'm backing out or something.
ReplyI am very active... but I do look around for 'close' parking everywhere I go.
Not b/c I am lazy but for safety and precaution.
I left my car in the parking lot at the gym (24 hour fitness in San Diego) and when i came back someone had broken into my car and smashed my side window.
I am not paranoid just careful.
ReplyI have to face Taco Bell.
I LOVE TACO BELL. I know it's horrible. It tastes vaguely like cat food and hot sauce. I still love it. All the crap they make: the forty-three pound burrito, the made-up words to describe the same six ingredients in various wrappers...I don't care. I love it all.
I drive by it every single day and never stop. If I can do that, surely I can do things like heal the sick, or fly. At the very least I can lose this weight.
ReplyLOL...cat food and hot sauce...yep, that's about how I would describe it. I know so many people that have gotten food poisoning from Taco Hell that I never go there anymore. I do have to drive past Culver's on the way to the store though...it's so tempting to want to stop for a nice big cone, especially when the flavor of the day is something awesome like Double Chocolate Oreo or Turtle. But I just never keep any cash in my car and that always helps me say no to the ice cream. Of course, most fast food places take credit cards now. Anything to make it easier for folks to get even fatter.
ReplyI agree with the first commenter--in France there's a chocolatier and/or patisserie on just about every corner. The real "how America gets fat" evidence in this photo is the fact that these businesses are in a strip mall. We walk 10 feet to the car, drive, walk 10 feet to the door of our gym, etc. If we had to walk more, we could shut down half the gyms and enjoy more pie. Suburban sprawl is just as much to blame for our collective weight problem as bad eating habits.
ReplyI think that's a huge (no pun intended) part of it. When I was in Germany over the summer, I walked everywhere. I took the bus exactly twice because why take the bus when everything was compact enough that you could walk. When I came home (the US), it was a complete shock, not only remembering how little you could walk but then also the size of people. I saw people who were overweight or chubby while I was in Germany--which in my thinking you will see everywhere just because a certain portion of the population will be larger, thanks to genetics that are helped along by crappy food that is now easily available--I did not see anyone who would be classed as morbidly obese.
ReplyI don't know about morbid obesity rates... but according to a Feb 2007 article in the Daily Mail, for European countries, Germany has the second highest rate of obesity for women (21.7%), and fourth highest for men (18.8%). The UK is first in obesity rate for women (23.0%) and Malta for men (25.1%). In the US, the rates are 36.1% for women, 28.3% for men (NANTES 2004).
Physical activity has something to do with it, but there's a lot of evidence (including presented in this blog) that argues it's the amount of food one eats.
ReplyReminds me of the picture of the "24 Hour Fitness" Gym with stairs going up to it...and people are taking the built in escalators....
ReplyEvery time I go to the US I am always shocked at the number of fast food and buffet restaurants. I imagine it would be hard as well to eat healthy when you absolutely can't look anywhere without seeing an unhealthy eating establishment.
ReplyMy husband is a big fan of this all you can eat buffet called "Golden Corral", but we jokingly call it "Golden Trough" because about 75% of the people eating there are huge. I actually like it because the salad bar is really good and they always have at least one or two healthier options, but for the most part the fat people are loading up on the fried chicken, the ribs, the desserts, and the mashed potatoes and gravy...not the salad bar.
ReplyWhen we go out to eat, we usually go to Golden Corral, too. We have 2 small boys - ages 2 and 4 - and at a "family style" buffet, we know everyone is going to be able to find something to enjoy.
My favorite part is also the salad bar. I can pile a plate full of greens, veggies, peppers, salsa, and blue cheese and not have to do any of the work or worry about buying it and no one else eating it.
Buffets aren't the ideal, and it's not where I would pick as my first choice when going out to eat, but for families with little kids, they can be *great*.
You are right, though, that if you look around, it's really scary to see how many obese people are making their third trip to the dessert bar. (Although I have been known on occasion to get multiple SMALL dessets there - I can't resist the banana pudding.)
ReplyWell, that's ironic...*laughs*
Hey, at least it saves money on gas...if after a huge serving of pie and ice cream, you feel like burning it off @ the gym...lol Oh and it's more environmentally friendly too! ^_______________________^ Yippee!
Mouse &hearts
ReplyWhen I was a teenager I worked at an Ice Cream & sandwich shop. There was a weight loss/exercise center on the same block and nearly every evening a group of women would come in and order some ice cream concoction and also, a diet (emphasizing the word)coke. They actually seemed to think that the diet coke balanced out the ice cream.
ReplyThis reminds me of the Healthy Choice/Dreyer's ice cream offer at my local supermarket. If you bought five Healthy Choice meals, then you got a half gallon of ice cream for free. Talk about sabotage!
ReplyMy weight watchers meeting (in Ireland) is above a bakery. Just like in that episode of Sex and the City! Thanks to that episode, I NEVER want a doughnut. In fact, I take inspiration from walking straight pass that door every time.
ReplyDoes anyone know if there is a website with lots of ironic pics like that pertaining to diet/weightloss/obesity? Im kinda working on a project and I could use the inspiration.
ReplyThis is the architectural equivalent of the covers on women's magazines that juxtapose headlines like "Blast that [insert body part] fat!" and "The most delicious cookie recipes ever!"
ReplyIt's like the women's magazines with the diets splashed all over the cover... right over a photo of some layer cake.
Reply