Fatties Don't Want Healthy Food, Don't Want To Be Called Fat

McDonald's, unlike its rival Burger King, is not participating in the "Kids LiveWell" program as its young customers are all clearly in peak physical condition.

Americans may say they want to eat healthy but the truth of the matter is we really like to eat disgusting fatty foods. Despite efforts to bring healthier fare to fast food restaurants—thanks, Michelle!—when it comes time to order we turn to the fried stuff nearly every time, according to the AP. In totally unrelated news, Pediatrics magazine now recommends doctors not call kids fat since their parents would prefer to be told their kids are at an "unhealthy weight."

Many healthy-eating specialists were hoping that the advent of calorie counts on fast food menus would make a difference in what people order, but it doesn't seem to have done much at all. One study shows that only 15 percent of diners order the lower-calorie foods on fast food menus and as a result chains have slowed down their efforts to feed folks healthy food. According to a Technomic study of 1,200 restaurant chains between 2008 and 2010, the number of "health-related claims made on menus, like reduced fat or reduced carbs" fell five percent.

Of course, most diners could have told what it took teams of researchers to work out. “If I wanted something healthy, I would not even stop in at McDonald’s,” a 24-year-old New York trapeze instructor who "watches his diet at home but orders comfort foods like chicken nuggets and fries when he hits a fast-food joint" told an AP reporter at a Manhattan Mickey D's. Budgets also seem to be a big part of the problem as a $2 burger is a whole lot cheaper than a $6 salad. Not to mention the fact that you don't win friends with salad.

And so it goes. Which brings us back to fat kids! Though being overweight can be totally healthy it is always a touchy subject. While a public-health minister in England last year was widely quoted when she said people needed to call a fat spade a fat spade, a study in Pediatrics says docs should actually do no such thing. "Many people find the term 'fat' to be pejorative and judgmental," one of the study's authors says. "A lot of the time, providers have positive intentions, but the language they use can be seen as blaming, accusatory and not helpful." Instead they recommend doctors broach the topic carefully ("let's talk about your weight") and use terms like "high BMI" and "unhealthy weight."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in Food on October 3, 2011 2:52 PM

Comments [rss]

Roark

I wish I can gain weight

I am very envious of these people

I am not kidding

Everything in this country is geared towards losing weight

The information and difficulty of implementing gaining weight is paltry.

Seriously it sucks.

Ron Larson

Fatty, fatty, boom-ba-latty

Daniel

Yeah you get to do what you want to your body, but sorry you don't get to change language about the results of doing what you want and expect that to make the underlying condition of being fat go away. Polite, politically correct language does not create real sameness, nor does it change the underlying real conditions that don't make us all the same.

Ephraim Miller

According to infoplease.com:

Fattest Countries in the World

More than 1.6 billion people in the world are either overweight or
obese, according to a recent study by the World Health Organization.
Here’s a look at the countries with the highest percent of overweight
adults (people age 15 and over). People are considered overweight if their
body mass index
(BMI) is 25 or higher and obese with a BMI or 30 or higher.
Read more: Fattest Countries in the World — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/worl...

Rank     Country     % Overweight or obese
1.     Nauru     94.5
2.     Federated States of Micronesia     91.1
3.     Cook Islands     90.9
4.     Tonga     90.8
5.     Niue     81.7
6.     Samoa     80.4
7.    Palau    78.4
8.    Kuwait    74.2
9.    United States    74.1
10.    Kiribati    73.6
11.    Dominica    71.0
12.    Barbados    69.7
13.    Argentina    69.4
14.    Egypt    69.4
15.    Malta    68.7
16.    Greece    68.5
17.    New Zealand    68.4
18.    United Arab Emirates    68.3
19.    Mexico    68.1
20.    Trinidad and Tobago    67.9

Read more: Fattest Countries in the World — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/worl...

Ephraim Miller

Charts like these don't speak to the fact that some ethnicities are genetically predisposed to a higher BMI.

Militant Conformist

Let's see, the site is using a photo of a fat kid from China to illustrate a story about bad eating habits with quotes from a British doctor. Hmmm, seems like a lot of the globe is obese not just here.

brooklynRick

Lazy!

Roger_the_Shrubber

Eat what you want and let others do the same.

I'm sick of all this busybody do-gooders who are obsessed with what everyone else is eating.

Fuck off.

CurmudgeonNYC

I dont care what people eat, but when their decisions negatively encroach onto my well-being then the fatties are the ones who can fuck off. Ever been stuck next to a human marshmallow on a train or (worse) an airplane? Ever been forced to look at gross stretch marks as some heifer shoehorns themselves into clothing that doesnt fit? Lose some goddamn weight and dont let your blubber touch me.

unretrofiedforu

I'm sorry, who the fuck are you and why should I care about your comfort again?

CurmudgeonNYC

Because my presence does not infringe on your space. My comfort is, on the other hand, reduced by some lard bag's intrusive skin and fat. That is the difference- my comfort does not come at the expense of someone else's.

Fern Cohen

Before we vilify obese people who compromise your comfort, I find other groups to be much more un-comfortable -- people screaming into their cell phones with intimate details nobody wants to hear, people who didn't brush their teeth that morning or have rotting gums and stinky breath, people who have offensive body odor, smokers who stink of cigarettes, the men who stand behind me on the subway and get off from rubbing against me, and the people who didn't have time to clip their nails and think the subway is their bathroom. And how about people who stink of the food they eat and cook because they don't wash their clothes. I know, come down on me because maybe people don't have homes, proper places to shower, can't afford deodorant, etc. Anyone has his tolerance threshold -- obese people, unattractive people, etc, but there's always a taxi, or the first class airplane cabin -- lots of room between you and those obnoxious "fat people".

uponfifth

Why do people have to be so mean! It's with anger when you call someone fat. Just don't say anything.

CurmudgeonNYC

Everything in this country has to be renamed or revised so as not to offend anyone. Look, fat people cost our health care system disproportionately more than fit folks. If you are a fat fuck, then someone needs to tell you to lay off the extra calories in whatever term is most efficient: that term is "FAT."

ANGRYGOD11

Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World,
by Greg Critser, claims accommodation of the obese has contributed to the obesity problem. He tells the true story of a fat man in an Olive Garden whose chair collapsed. When the company found out about it, they ordered every Olive Garden to have some extra strong chairs. They wrote back to the customer. He said thanks, but the incident was a wake-up call for him to lost some weight.

redo_undo

I completely stopped going to Starbucks when they started posting calories on their menu.

Guest

Look at those future lard asses. Take those children away from their parents NOW. I'm not kidding. Those kids got that fucking fat because they were allowed to. Do they have jobs to afford food? What you have is a real problem in America. Really fucking stupid pathetic people, having children, too many and often far more than they can afford. That's a sad picture.

Who do you think is going to pay for all the health issues they have because they are lard asses? It should be the parents. But it won't be. They are already on my dime on public assistance.