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Discussion - Health > Obesity

These are comments that our moderators found as non-authoritative though possibly interesting for further discussion on Health > Obesity

COMMENTARY

William 5th April 2005	I can't believe the US is not on the list; it is the country that has the largest number of overweight people.
Trevor 12th April 2005	I agree that omiting the US is a pity. With regard to Eddie's point, what is the value of obesity in relation to land mass? That seems to me to be meaningless, or maybe I've missed the point....
James 29th April 2005	If you look at the OECD chart cited as the source for this list, the US is at 30.6% of total population. Why is it not at no. 1 on this list? Somebody just referred me to this site with enthusiasm, but this seems like such a glaring error.
tracy 19th June 2005	No way this is wrong, the fat f*ucks from america should have topped this list.
Caprielle 17th July 2005	Has anyone actually clicked on the link "BMI" in the definition? Is it supposed to link to the definition for Broadcast Music Incorporated?
Bill 26th July 2005	Practising physicians Correct spelling Practicing c not s
Geoff 11th September 2005	Poor Trevor. He obviously knows perfectly well that land mass has no relation to obesity! He was just politely pointing out Eddie's nonsense.
Ben 8th November 2005	New Zealand is up there too. Apparently I, like many top athletes in this country (I'm not say I am one) am considered overweight. I am physically active, BMI is quite inaccurate :)
Heidi (California) 26th June 2006	I'm having trouble with the statistics in general, quite a few of the scholary journals I read while researching this topic stated that 64% of adult Americans are obese.
Janonymous (nowhere) 17th September 2006	BMI stands for "Body Mass Index" and is the porportion of your body weight that is made of fat
Veronia Bearden (US) 29th March 2007	People don't neccesarily eat to much, we eat to often and don't exercise enough, and what we do eat isn't that great for us.
Jason (California) 11th June 2007	Heidi, 64% of Americans are overweight, 33% or so are obese. The terms are not interchangeable - obese is a BMI greater than 30, overweight higher than 25. I have a BMI close to 30 but have very little body fat (I'm not even overweight) - I train at the gym and am very muscular. Some of these figures are really misleading.
Andrew (Australia) 19th July 2007	Eddie is just a little confused. Land mass is irrelevant, but the US isn't actually the fattest nation in the world, just the OECD. The OECD only includes 35(ish) nations. In actual fact, Nauru is the fattest, USA is 9th and Australia is 21st. Check this ranking from the "International Association for the Study of Obesity"- Last Updated 25/06/07: http://www.iotf.org/database/GlobalAdultTableJune07.htm
Anon5500 27th July 2007	F_ck off and die Patrick, brett, and Jaff.
Thomas R (US) 29th August 2007	I thought I read a recent study that said the fattest US state is Mississippi with "30.6% obesity." http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6880611,00.html (As this is not a pro-US source) If that's correct how can the average for the US be 30.6%? I thought it was more like 25%-26%, which would still put the US above any nation listed.
Sarah (United States) 18th September 2007	Um, there are fat and stupid people in every country. Please don't jump to the conclusion that because someone is an American they must have those qualities. The USA has the highest obesity rate mostly because of all the processed food that we are exposed to each day. It's hard to avoid.
becky .d. (massachusetts) 15th November 2007	The United States of America should do something about the unhealthy fast food resterants. milk is about 5$ for a gallen. Many people think why should i get expensive healthy food when i can just go to McDonalds and look at the dollar menue. You can get a whole meal vs. a gallen of milk. For my understanding i will subjest that they should lover the prices for milk and other healthy snacks.
sofat (Singapore) 12th April 2008	To an american such as Eddie, being fat on the national level means weighing more in total than the land they're standing on. Glad I got the opportunity to clear that up.
Ronald McDonald (usa) 31st May 2008	I believe that mcdonalds is responsible, all outlets should be burnt.
Armanda (mexico) 2nd June 2008	Yeah culture has alot to do with what you weigh i know were i'm from in Mexico its not unusual to see a dinner table filled with the most unhealthy food you have ever seen i am not overweight myself but a lot of people in my family are.
Bakame (Bujumbura) 12th June 2008	Other people, other customs. In case I starve you suffer from excess of foods.
Jae Estrada (California, USA) 22nd August 2008	BMI, although not a perfect gauge for obesity, is still a good indicator, and here's why: we are speaking in averages. Sure, there is a body builder out there that has a massive BMI, but no fat, and they will be part of the smaller population outliers. But, when viewing a whole nation's population as one, BMI works well. Although, I must agree, percent of body fat is the best indicator.
Beth 19th September 2008	The BMI is not an accurate way to test for obesity. It doesn't even take into consideration the gender of the person. They should test on how much fat a person has around their waist.

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