Fast Food Is Why You’re Fat

Is part of this effect just coincidence? Some countries with cultural traditions of long meals (France, Italy) also happen to have pretty healthy diets.

I’m not sure I believe this.  I believe it’s the content of the food (saturated fat, carbs, etc) that cause us to be obese.  I can spend all day eating vegetables and someone else can spend all day eating cheeseburgers and who do you think is going to be obese at the end of that day?

@jlevy turkey welcomes you with open arms

I would not be surprised if the correlation factor is only 20%… there are other factors driving the BMI.Could it be the quality of the food?  In the US, food contains a lot preservatives and corn byproducts, even the meat we eat.  Other countries eat a more natural diet.  Could that also drive another 30% correlation? hmmThe portion size?  In the US, food is served in HUGE portions.  Super size the food, the soda, the fries.  DAMN.  You go to other countries and they eat 1/3 of what we eat.  Could that also drive another 30% correlation? hmmEducation in food?  In the US, many are nutritionally illiterate.  We feed our babies formula.  Feed our children Chef boyardee and coke.  Feed ourselves Big Mac, fries & soda… then wonder why many are diabetic and overweight.  Could that also drive another 20% correlation? hmm

Gotta love the USA/Canada divide.

That correlation is practically non-existant.  To check, I re-plotted their data and did a logarithmic fit, producing a graph that looks almost identical.  When you measure how well the line fits, using the coefficient of determination (r-squared) value, the value is 0.18 (on a scale of 0 to 1).  That’s a horrible fit, and drawing any conclusions from this scattered graph is a terrible idea.  More details and my graph can be found here:http://www.chrisamiller.com/blog/2009/05/06/bad-graphs-and-bad-reporting/

Very poor correlation. NZers aren’t getting much benefit from spending a lot more time eating than us Aussies.

This is pretty questionable.  As some above have already stated, the line is not a great fit.  Further, if you were to drop US and Mexico from the data, the line would approach a flat line.

R^2 of 18%… I was close with my eye balling it at 20% on my May 6, 2009 at 6:56 pm post Here is another reason why the R^2 is low.Time spent eating = f(quality of food, portion size, rate of food eaten)To get a better correlation, nix the Time spent eating and use:Obesity rate = (food quality, portion size, time spent exercising)Food quality – include amount of corn fructose.  That crap is nasty.  Fats, sugar, etc..Portion size – self explanatoryTime spent exercising – include exercise, walking versus driving and jobs that require you to move around a lot)You will get a MUCH better R^2 factor.Sincerely, no 1 important.

“Fast Food is Why You’re Fat.”  There is so much misinformation on this subject and it has been poorly studied.  Fast food is one of the factors in weight gain.  Overweight people should stay away from fast food like the plague.  The reason some people in other countries could be eating more if that is the case as this article states, is because what they are eating may not be too life sustaining.  If they are eating a diet of rice or noodles only, they are starving.  This is one way that you can over eat and not gain weight because there is nothing in rice, noodles or tofu.  So it is not the amount you are eating but what you put in your mouth that can make you fat.  But I don’t really mean to use the word, “you” because we are not all fat.  And I know that doesn’t mean that the skinny people have stayed away from McDonald’s hamburgers is how they’ve managed to stay slim.  When I was young, I could eat whatever I wanted and how much I wanted and stay 98 lbs.  Now that I’m middle aged, I can only maintain the weight I have by staying away from fast foods and other high cholesterol meats or control their portion sizes.  I am now twice the weight I was then.  A thing happens to us fat people only.  When we diet, we lose the weight.  But when we go off, we not only gain back the weight but more of it.  It’s like the condition is being aggravated by depriving our bodies.  Studies have shown that in primitive man, it may have been a survival mechanism built in our bodies to ward off starvation.  We have been reduced to a controversial guessing game among us what causes this problem because the problem has not really been studied very well by real scientific research.

Fast foods is a automatic weight gain…. It’s a fact… Been there done that. Stop eating fast foods many moons ago.

http://www.8asians.com/2009/03/17/asian-bmi-how-i-became-obese-in-10-seconds/–not to mention that bmi makes bodybuilders seem obese– why not go by body fat percentage, or fat-free mass?  bmi is too controversial to be taken to heart.

Hey anonymous with all the fancy numbers, correlations, formulas, ect. . .. You are an idiot! If you were half as intelligent as you claim, you would jump off a bridge and safe the planet

“SAFE” THE PLANET? PERHAPS YOU WERE LOOKING FOR SAVE, IDIOT.

Who cares! If someone chooses to be a fat pig let them. Its not like they are going to eat you:)

The reason why Americans are fatter than other nations has to do more than with fast food.  Americans move the least of all nations.  They drive from their air-conditioned homes to their air-conditioned garages, where they take the elevator to their offices.  They sit in their chair most of the day, only standing up to go to the washroom.  Then they reverse to process to go home.  It is the utter lack of action that, combined with fast food has made American fatter than most others.