I Jah Rastafari wrote:
Land of the Free, Home of the Fat

America is home to nearly 23% of the planet's obese.

THE MOTLEY FOOL
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13593385/

I read a depressing headline recently at the website of American
Demographics magazine: "America Is Home to Nearly 23% of Planet's
Excessively Overweight Individuals." Worse still, it seems that about
one in three people all over the world is overweight (among those 15 or
older).

Is there any good news? Well, sort of. It seems that if you consider
those who are not extremely obese but are merely "overweight,"
Americans make up only 7% of that global population, not much more than
our 5% share of the overall world population.


According to government surveys, the average American adult man between
20 and 74 years old weighs in at 191 pounds, while his female
counterpart weighs an average of 164. These are both up about 24 pounds
over the past 40 years. This is a trend with implications that go
beyond health -- it affects companies, consumers, and investors. For
example:

The increase in the overweight population boosts businesses such as
Weight Watchers(NYSE: WTW) and NutriSystem(Nasdaq: NTRI). A recent
Washington Post article noted: "William L. Weis, a management professor
at Seattle University, says revenue from the 'obesity industries' will
likely top $315 billion this year, and perhaps far more. That includes
$133.7 billion for fast-food restaurants, $124.7 billion for medical
treatments related to obesity, and $1.8 billion just for diet books --
all told, nearly 3% of the overall U.S. economy."


The fattening of America also suggests that more and more people have
been eating out, very often at "quick-serve" restaurants such as
McDonald's(NYSE: MCD) and Burger King(NYSE: BKC). Beyond that, it's
worth noting that many such restaurant chains have been tweaking their
menu offerings in order to cater to nutrition-conscious and dieting
consumers. Witness, for example, all the salads now available in
fast-food places, the Veggie Burger you'll find at Burger King, and
Wendy's chili.


Our concern with calories spurs new marketing efforts as well. Consider
the new trend of food companies offering taste treats in 100-calorie
packages. Hershey(NYSE: HSY) and Nestle have recently introduced
100-calorie candy sticks. Meanwhile, Kraft Foods(NYSE: KFT) and others
offer Pringles chips, Nutter Butter cookies, and Oreo treats in
100-calorie servings. Even Coca-Cola(NYSE: KO) is selling 8-ounce "mini
Cokes." This trend will likely boost the bottom line for investors, as
an ABCNews.go.com article explained, "With a full bag of pretzels, the
cost is about 17 cents an ounce. Divided into 100-calorie packs, the
same pretzels cost nearly 40 cents an ounce, more than double."


Not so good for business is that fact that fatter Americans will
translate into rising health-care and insurance costs, as well as work
time lost to sickness.
Is this trend here to stay? That remains to be seen. There are
certainly factors that will keep fueling it, such as our increasingly
busy lives that welcome fast foods and processed, prepared meals that
tend to be high in calories. Maybe one day we'll be marveling at how
thin the average American is. But in the meantime, companies such as
"Goliath Casket" (you can guess what it makes) have reason to be
bullish about the future.

You see people walking about that we bumpkins would have taunted off
the streets not too many years ago. And if you visit Walmart it seems
that is sort of a Mecca for those seeking "big" values in junk food.
Many are teenagers, and when they hit 50 they are simply grotesque.

"Too fat to ****, too proud to suck, so they went shopping again".

Lord Byron

wrote:


Well, oldstevens, if you are obese, then it is your problem to solve.
If not, it is none of your business what anyone else eats.

In article .com,
wrote:

I Jah Rastafari wrote:
Land of the Free, Home of the Fat

Title says it all, people are free to get fat. Other countries are
catching up quickly BTW. Victims of our own success.

--
Will Brink @ www.BrinkZone.com

Will Brink wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

I Jah Rastafari wrote:
Land of the Free, Home of the Fat

Title says it all, people are free to get fat. Other countries are
catching up quickly BTW. Victims of our own success.


(throws the Pringles in the trashcan)

I'm determined to lose this weight.

"The latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics show
that 66 percent of U.S. adults 20 years of age and older-over 130
million people-are overweight or obese."

"Our concern with calories spurs new marketing efforts as well.
Consider the new trend of food companies offering taste treats in
100-calorie packages. This trend will likely boost the bottom line for
investors. With a full bag of pretzels, the cost is about 17 cents an
ounce. Divided into 100-calorie packs, the same pretzels cost nearly 40
cents an ounce, more than double."

Will Brink wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

I Jah Rastafari wrote:
Land of the Free, Home of the Fat

Title says it all, people are free to get fat. Other countries are
catching up quickly BTW. Victims of our own success.


They say that by 2020 France will be as fat as the U.S.

In article .com,
" wrote:

Will Brink wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

I Jah Rastafari wrote:
Land of the Free, Home of the Fat

Title says it all, people are free to get fat. Other countries are
catching up quickly BTW. Victims of our own success.


(throws the Pringles in the trashcan)

I'm determined to lose this weight.

Pringles give you anal leakage. Eathing them SHOULD help you lose the
weight.

In article .com,
"Justin Pate" wrote:

Will Brink wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

I Jah Rastafari wrote:
Land of the Free, Home of the Fat

Title says it all, people are free to get fat. Other countries are
catching up quickly BTW. Victims of our own success.


They say that by 2020 France will be as fat as the U.S.

probably smell worse too.

"misanthropic_curmudgeon"
writes:

Golden State Poppy wrote:

Well, oldstevens, if you are obese, then it is your problem to
solve. If not, it is none of your business what anyone else eats.

It is my business when it is my tax dollars are being used to
medicate fat *******s who stuff crap down their throats at every
given opportunity, all whilst bludging off welfare and sucking
resources from those who actually need it.

If it makes you feel any better at least these folks won't collect too
much social security . I bet that if you crunched the numbers
overweight people put more into the system than they get out.

Jason

"misanthropic_curmudgeon"
wrote in message
ups.com...

Golden State Poppy wrote:

Well, oldstevens, if you are obese, then it is your problem to solve.
If not, it is none of your business what anyone else eats.

It is my business when it is my tax dollars are being used to medicate
fat *******s who stuff crap down their throats at every given
opportunity, all whilst bludging off welfare and sucking resources from
those who actually need it.


What tax dollars of yours?

"Jason Earl" wrote in message
...
"misanthropic_curmudgeon"
writes:

Golden State Poppy wrote:

Well, oldstevens, if you are obese, then it is your problem to
solve. If not, it is none of your business what anyone else eats.

It is my business when it is my tax dollars are being used to
medicate fat *******s who stuff crap down their throats at every
given opportunity, all whilst bludging off welfare and sucking
resources from those who actually need it.

If it makes you feel any better at least these folks won't collect too
much social security . I bet that if you crunched the numbers
overweight people put more into the system than they get out.

Jason

And since they will most likely die at a younger age, that means they will
not cost us as much in medical cost as well?

Anim8rFSK wrote:
In article .com,
" wrote:

Will Brink wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

I Jah Rastafari wrote:
Land of the Free, Home of the Fat

Title says it all, people are free to get fat. Other countries are
catching up quickly BTW. Victims of our own success.


(throws the Pringles in the trashcan)

I'm determined to lose this weight.

Pringles give you anal leakage.

Good grief, no they don't. Just the chips with the fake fat do that.
Pringles come in all varieties.

N.

misanthropic_curmudgeon wrote:

Golden State Poppy wrote:

Well, oldstevens, if you are obese, then it is your problem to solve.
If not, it is none of your business what anyone else eats.

It is my business when it is my tax dollars are being used to medicate
fat *******s who stuff crap down their throats at every given
opportunity, all whilst bludging off welfare and sucking resources from
those who actually need it.

What is it with you self righteous *******s? Not everyone who is
overweight eats a lot. Not all thin people exercise.

"misanthropic_curmudgeon"

It is my business when it is my tax dollars are being used to medicate
fat *******s who stuff crap down their throats at every given
opportunity, all whilst bludging off welfare and sucking resources from
those who actually need it.


You aren't going to regulate what anybody in this country eats. Ain't
happenin'.

Your tax dollars being used to medicate "fat *******s" is part of the
shared overhead of living in a free society. You don't have the priv-
ilege of itemizing where those dollars go. So just suck it up and deal
with it. Capite, paisano?



Geoff

--
"Oh, come on. Geoff doesn't deserve allusions to the Third Reich.
Think 'Vlad the Impaler' instead." -- lid

Dave Smith writes:

[to misanthropic_curmudgeon]

What is it with you self righteous *******s? Not everyone who is
overweight eats a lot. Not all thin people exercise.


But since being overweight is fundamentally a matter of calories
taken in versus calories burned, it's a reasonable generalization.
Fat people who don't overeat relative to their energy expenditure
are, after all, a special case.

Not that I agree with his position, as I explained in my previous
post...

"I'm not fat! I'm big-boned!" -- Cartman



Geoff

--
"Oh, come on. Geoff doesn't deserve allusions to the Third Reich.
Think 'Vlad the Impaler' instead." -- lid