can't see any legend on the map so assuming its obesity rates?

@bookofmoron Sorry; here's the whole page;

[slate.com]

There is no legend with the map. Should I assume it is the percentages of obesity? What do they believe the true problem is (other than, yes, we eat too much). It seems there must be a chemical that has changed the human brain or a food that has been more detrimental than others. A drastic change in such a short time...

@EyesThatSmile

As a NYS permanently certified Health teacher I did a lot of research on this.

What I discovered is this;

We developed our eating habits...good and bad ones....before we could walk and talk.

Our need for something in our mouth, our need to avoid hunger pangs....all got well established in our 2's and 3's.

So of course changing our diets as adults is actually proven to be more difficult than getting a heroin addict off heroin.

It's the "fault' of our beloved - but unwise - parents.

We have to be careful not to blame them. They did the best they could. We just have to make today's parents more aware of the profound influence a parent has on a childs' eating habits.

@EyesThatSmile Americans eat to much processed food. High in salt and fat. That and junk food is killing us!

@EyesThatSmile I agree, and have been trying to find a pattern to help identify the cause.

@EyesThatSmile, @Redheadedgammy Eating fat doesn't make us fat. Humans can't store fat unless we have insulin in our system. Eating carbs creates the insulin. What's the next step? Why is obesity so widespread????

@MojoDave I addressed why the obesity is so widespread, and growing so fast, above.

It's the almost pre-toddler diet choices that our parents made for us that set a deep mental strategy for satisfaction of both emotions and hunger.

Some parents gave their kids carrots and celery. Some gave them raisins and fruits. Some gave them candies and cookies. Some let their children cry or they ignored their demands for food. Some "coddled" their children and fed them too often.

Again; this is not a blaming of parents for the nations' obesity problems....they did the best with what they knew.

A lot of blame goes to advertising, to family doctors, and to our health professionals who didn't stress well enough the need to establish wise and healthy eating habits in pre-todler children.

I concur with you, and @RedHeadedGammy, also, that it's not necessarily an issue of too much fats, or too much sugars; It might have been simply a matter of providing too much food too often...regardless of its' fat or sugar content, or whether it was processed, or "junk" food. The science is out on quality of food ( I tend to think fruits and veggies are better - but the research doesn't support nor refute me here).

It comes down to the frequency of food presentation to these 2 and 3 year olds.

It was the quantity of food, more than the quality, that started many pre-todlers on a path towards obesity.

Here's a long research that explains my POV...

[brown.edu]

and

[academic.oup.com]

@EyesThatSmile, @Redheadedgammy, @Robecology I don't think we really understand the cause yet. If we did we could help people lose weight. Calories in - calories out is BS. Exercise is good for toning muscles but nearly useless for weight control.

@MojoDave Please read what I've summarized above. If you have the time and interest, go to the links I provided.

Calories in vs calories out is NOT B.S.; Its science. It's just very, very hard for a person to change their eating patterns.

You ARE right about exercise. But we eat several times a day. We can't change our exercise habits that easily...so you're also right about the nearly useless value of exercise improving weight control.

Health specialists have said this - not just me - that changing one's diet and permanently losing weight and changing one's diet is considered harder to do than quitting heroin....and it has a lot to do with WHEN the eating habits developed. Heroin abuser/users start in their teens. Food abuser/users started age 2 or 3.

So the health issues are becoming clear; we need to treat obesity and poor diet with a much more serious attitude.

Simply offering the many public diet plans are not enough. Simply providing medications that make you hyper and temporarily remove hunger won't change the deep-seated diet urges created in our pre-toddler years.

Where science is weak is WHY folk who know they're shortening their lives and reducing their quality of life by eating the way they do - still do it. There's a lot of mental health work to do to fix this issue.

I agree with all of you...it’s a little bit of everything, and all together. It’s genetics, education, parenting, bad examples, bad choices, but mostly bad food. The FDA approves anything that causes cancers, obesity, illnesses and makes more money for the big industries behind, all together intoxicating the masses with their food and drugs, killing millions daily, but not before insuring that patients will leave all their money on hospital’s bills, and some to the families left behind, to keep paying even after death. A sick country is a rich country.

@EllieUnique; thanks for your input...but I don't think we're on the same page.

I'd put far more emphasis on the bad choices made by well-meaning parents.

There's good and bad food out there; it's up to us to do the research.

We don't have to eat FDA approved food....and it's unfair of you to say that the FDA approves anything that causes cancers....

I know the FDA....and they're very cautious. But assuming some foods do cause cancers - we don't have to buy them nor give them to children.

And you're right about the profit motive; The money makers are the sugar rich foods....because there's still parents out there who think "spoiling" a child is a good thing.

Again...the parents can choose; to give the baby and toddler carrots or cookies. To give him/her raisins and pieces of fruit or sugar-loaded candy. To. let him/her cry it out - or to give in to their every whim.

I'm saying, clearly, and specifically, that it's the parent's choices as to what to feed their 1-2-and 3 year old that create the food-addicted, obese adult

That's where the root cause of the obesity epidemic is; parental choices to feed/not feed their kids, and what THEY choose to give them; not what the FDA says.

If you want the sugar product companies to go broke...simply stop buying food from them.

But that won't happen in the near future. They have figured out how gullible the American public is.

[healthline.com]

@Robecology “I know the FDA....and they're very cautious."
Really?
I’m laughing here...

@EllieUnique

Laugh all you want...I hear a lot of Trumpsters laughing at the FBI and oher government agencies as well....so I assume you don't trust any government agency much.

I've met and known members of the FDA. They're very devoted to good science. You've obviously not even looked at the links I've provided.

And again....my point is YOU and parents throughout this nation made, and make the choices for what you eat. No one is forcing you to eat alleged foods that cause cancer, and that the FDA "allegedly" approves

That's why that man in the image above is morbidly obese....he eats whatever he wants to. Look at his image again. You and I know he's eating himself to an early grave, and raising the cost of health care for all of us. And the FDA had nothing to do with his eating habits. His parents did.

Who's causing this obesity epidemic...?

The FDA or ignorant parents ?

Parents who train their children to have toxic food habits before they could walk and talk?

[slate.com]

@Robecology very easy to blame parenting...but if the FDA would stop approving a lot of crap that’s already proven to cause numerous illnesses, as if it was safe eatable food, maybe, just maybe people wouldn’t buy it and eat it, becoming ill. There’s round up in maternal milk already, maybe if the FDA would banish that crap for example, as so many other toxic poison that are FDA approved, everyone could be healthier. But that’s just me trying to make some sense of w t f is the FDA for. Nothing personal...

@Robecology and just for the record I didn’t vote for Trump, my girls and my dogs are not obese, and I do not trust governments agencies....and you are getting offended very easily, there’s no need for personal attacks and the “YOU” crap. You don’t know me, so why are you judging me? Are you the FDA??? Lmfao

@Robecology you don’t know the guy in the picture either....maybe he is eating himself to death because he was abandoned by his parents...or he was sexually abuse by his step father...is very easy to judge people without knowing their lives.

@EllieUnique You're getting far too defensive. All I know is

1. Our nation is suffering an obesity epidemic
2. All research leads to early childhood eating habits fostered by unwitting parents.
3. This has nothing to do with cancer-causing foods as you suggested.
4. You are probably not reading any of the research I'm posting....just attacking me.
5. All obese folk...whether it be the man in the image above or any person...I do not know them; so yes...they could have a variety of reasons for their obesity. But that person and others suffering that disability were just raised, before they could walk and talk, with poor eating habits. That's all I'm saying. Stop reading in to and making excuses for their obesity.

@Robecology who started being aggressive in here again?

@Robecology you write as if you knew me and generalize people and problems...
My question is...do you have kids?
Because if you do, you must known that they don’t always do what you want them to do and my second question is...
What would be easier to “fix” this problem? expert perfect parenting and obedient perfect kids, or the prohibition of the use of toxic ingredients in all foods and drugs that are causing theses epidemics, by a government agency known as FDA?
I just thought that if the FDA could list certain ingredients as dangerous, people wouldn’t use them, but when they approve those poisonous ingredients as safe, they are not just part of the problem, but the cause.
For your info, I don’t usually click on external links, since I don’t trust government agencies, internet and much less you. ROFLMAO

@EllieUnique

Why are you asking about my children? I asked nor suggested nothing about yours.

And the comment you've circled? That's nothing negative! That's a simple truth;

you, as a parent, have made diet choices for your toddlers that determined their diet habits for life.

Hard to believe you look at this as an attack or aggressive.

Maybe you're feeling a pang of guilt? I'm guessing you have Obese kids? Grandkids?

Like I said; it wasn't your fault; you did the best with what you knew.

I can only hope - my message is clear - I hope that parents are making wiser diet choices for their children.

That's not an aggressive nor negative desire....

and I wish you'd back off with the attacks?

BTW since you asked.... I made wise diet choices for my kids; they're both now healthy adults who are making wise choices for their children; so yes; I've had children; and they've grown to have kids of their own; none overweight nor obese.