I cant seem to quickly find USA specific data from say the 80s to now on physical activity that is not locked behind a published paper but, yes most certainly and I can find global statistics indicating a large drop off and increase in sedentary behaviour from both adolescences and adults.

Significantly less hard labour, significantly more activities that are sedentary (video games or tv over tossing a ball), lots of social changes, rather than meeting up you're connected online. Assuming lack of parenting time given there's so many low income people working multiple jobs, you're not around to limit TV time, it is the babysitter.

This post was edited by SBD on Jan 16 2025 12:10pm

outside play has taken a nosedive, largely due to a steep decline of "neighborhood play" where parents had a "dont go past _____ house" zone kids could play in freely with other kids from nearby. now its your yard or get inside, and the smaller the area the less interested kids are compared to playing minecraft in their room.

we've got a small exercise trampoline in the kitchen, i make my 4 year old get on there and jump about 10 times a day just to keep her occupied physically. we also have rare screen time and zero video games, its a tough path so i dont demonize the ipad parents its just not something im going to do.

I tend to agree with this. Even the lazy gamers of the 90s were vastly more active than today's ranks. We would organize and meetup to have lans, nerds would meetup at Mc Donald's to play card games. Now, can do all that and barely move an inch.

Then WOW hit, and only the rich kids could play. You could sample the set of WOW kids and see the physical diminishment attrition

Also, being cable TV bound you watched your show, then did something else. Now can binge watch all night

This post was edited by RedFromWinter on Jan 16 2025 12:16pm

Same, I lived pretty rural but to go play games with my buddy id hop on my bike or walk in the winter and go there 3 or 4 times a week. And if we were on the sofa too long we were run out of the house to go toss a football, kick a soccer ball and we set up some posts for a volleyball net and of course winter wonderland building forts all day with tunnels.

That was a combination of good quality parenting and a time when there was really no other option for connection. That's how you spent time with your buds.

4 way split screen on a 14 inch TV.

There's a lot you have to try to combat now as a parent. To say its not more difficult would be a lie. You're also having to compete against every other parent who lets their kid do whatever and your kid sees that at school. And you're the parent whos taking away the dopamine loot box gambling experience video games are now.

This post was edited by SBD on Jan 16 2025 12:22pm

The problem in the US is even if you want to eat healthy it is nigh impossible with what is affordable for the normal populace. You can't out-exercise an unhealthy diet. First thing is to create the choice for people to eat healthily. Then you can start changing the habits by enforcing healthcare campaigns throughout all of the channels. Almost every food in the US has got too much sugar, enriched with cross-bounded starch or glucose- fructose syrup (very bad for the liver). Ironically, USA is the country where you're punished the most by the healthcare system should you become sick.

I thing that sticks out: lots of people prefer some kind of "drinks" instead of the water. Tap water seems to be of lower quality as well. To become morbidly obese, you need to intake lots calories every single day. It's very hard to so without sugar drinks.

This post was edited by babun1024 on Jan 16 2025 02:04pm

this idea that healthy eating is unaffordable for people isn't true, its less about money and more about time. to make your own bread, pasta, etc takes a lot more time than most people are willing to put in. even if you didnt go full organic on fruits/veg getting regular stock non-organic produce would be far healthier than most people eat. and stopping drinking soda saves money, but most people drink so much of it. groceries generally have gotten unaffordable for many people, but healthy vs unhealthy isnt as much of a cost issue as people claim it is.

Pop, energy drinks, really sugar filled creamers for coffee or tea. There's certainly the rise in caloric intake via liquids.

There's a multitude of things. There's no way just plain raw ingredients should be more than all the processing inputs and times than just selling whole food. But we have let just a handful of companies control the majority of livestock and agriculture across the USA and Canada and you end up with companies like Tyson Foods swallowing up every little farmer or using predatory practices to run them into the ground.

You have to re-invent the entire system at this point. The government in both the USA and Canada have totally failed when it comes to moderating competition, a few companies control everything here in Canada now and looking at the top 10 agri companies market share in the USA its no different.

If you go back 50 years ago or so the federal governments would actually act on companies taking too much market share. Now lobby groups get nearly every ask pushed through.



This as well.


This post was edited by SBD on Jan 16 2025 02:39pm

It is absolutely about laziness/a disinclination to prepare food, combined with tastebuds that are so fried from excessive sugar consumption that more bland or unprocessed food tastes even worse.

A simple rice cooker and eating rice for carbs can save people hundreds of dollars per month and it's premium healthy carbohydrates. It can also be fried afterwards in the oil left behind from cooking meat. And even that is too much preparation for people who need it the most. Pork is also still very cheap, chicken is fairly cheap too. People don't need to be a Gordon Ramsey-calibre chef to fry up some chicken or pork, but too many still won't do this and will buy frozen stuff that is marked up considerably & is less healthy. Another issue is that people often don't know how to season their meat, so it tastes too bland, which makes them opt for McDonald's instead.

Location can matter for access to fresh meats but those are fringe cases.

This post was edited by El1te on Jan 16 2025 02:52pm

Do you want to know a joke? Middle easterners, Mexicans etc. hate the USA with their guts but all drink unreal amounts of Coca Cola instead of water The only countries where I saw people drink water only during, after the meal were Italians/Spaniards/Portuguese. Juice is regarded by them as sweets.
Enforcing food standards is a start. You have to start somewhere.

Don't know if it was mentioned already but the US should definitely do something about glyphosate (roundup) this should be topping the list IMO.

Glyphosate wrecks your microbiome with many problems / sickness as a result.