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  #1   ^
Old Thu, Sep-28-06, 02:05
Demi's Avatar
Demi Demi is offline
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Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160 Female 5'10"
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Location: UK
Default Town planning blamed for obesity

BBC News
London, UK
28 September, 2006


Poor town planning which limits opportunities for children to take exercise has been blamed for fuelling an increase in obesity.

Leading US paediatrician Professor Richard Jackson called for a rethink in the way towns and cities are developed.

He said living in a walkable neighbourhood helped people keep off an average of seven pounds (3.17kg).

Professor Jackson made his comments at a lecture at London's Institute of Child Health.

He said humans were so adaptable that they quickly adjusted to the environment in which they found themselves.

However, while this was an advantage in evolutionary terms, it spelled bad news when that environment provided little opportunity for exercise.

Humans were designed to keep active, he said, and they were not designed for the modern, sedentary lifestyle that had become the norm.

He said the environment should support people to make healthy choices, but increasingly children were not given the option of walking.

"Prescribing a minimum of physical activity is useless if there is nowhere to exercise," he said.

"How a neighbourhood is designed dictates how people get around, for example walking or bicycling versus automobile use."

Professor Jackson, who is professor in both public health and urban design at the University of California at Berkeley, said technology had brought both "good" and "bad" news.

Labour saving technology

He said: "Technology has eliminated a lot of the really backbreaking labour from our lives.

"But we have also "designed" a lot of incidental exercise out of our lives, such as walking.

"In 1969, 48% of American students (90% of those who lived within a mile) walked or bicycled to school.

"In 1999, only 19% of children walked to or from school and 6% rode bicycles to school."

Dr Ian Campbell, medical director of the charity Weight Concern, said Professor Jackson was "absolutely right".

He said: "The development of obesity in the past 30 years is a direct result of environmental change.

"The fact that environment sustainability and health are inextricably linked needs to be recognised by politicians and public health officials and definitive action taken.

"Then, and only then, will we see decreases in levels of childhood obesity in this country."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5386024.stm
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  #2   ^
Old Thu, Sep-28-06, 07:57
Dodger's Avatar
Dodger Dodger is online now
Posts: 8,758
 
Plan: Paleoish/Keto
Stats: 225/167/175 Male 71.5 inches
BF:18%
Progress: 116%
Location: Longmont, Colorado
Default

There are lots of kids walking to the schools in my neighborhood. Some of them are very overweight.
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  #3   ^
Old Thu, Sep-28-06, 10:02
tom sawyer tom sawyer is offline
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Plan: Atkins-like
Stats: 215/170/170 Male 70
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Location: Hannibal MO
Default

I don't see nearly the number of kids riding bikes, like we did when we were little. Increased traffic, distances to the necessities like Dairy Queens or roller rinks, and the general scare that the public has from being bombarded with sensational reports about perverts/murderers, keeps a lot of the kids off the roads.

I agree with this guy in some respects. But ultimately obesity is a "diet thing" more than an exercise thing. Spend some time on a treadmill and see how pitifully slow the calories click off the counter. Anyone can see that exercise is not the answer by itself. In my own experience, I'm within ten pounds of where I was when I was running almost daily. Out of a loss of about 50lb after swtiching to LC AND vigorous exercise. So I'd say that diet accounts for maybe 20% of weight loss, diet the other 80%.
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  #4   ^
Old Thu, Sep-28-06, 13:22
seyont seyont is offline
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Plan: parts of them all
Stats: 181/166/165 Male 5' 8"
BF:25%/9%/12%
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If a 'walkable' neighborhood is the key, then are all boarding school and on-campus college students in the same shape as ever? Campuses are the ultimate walkable neighborhoods.

Man, these low-fat Cheetohs hit the spot. Are/were all kids who are bussed in to regional schools always more obese?

Let's have another bowl of vitamin-enriched Lucky Charms and consider- there are more parks, pavement, skateboards, rollerblades, and portable basketball hoops than ever. There is more regimented year-round participation in sport than ever. There are cooler sneakers than ever. Did treadmills and stationary bikes and fitness centers even exist in 1969? I know that cities, rural areas, and suburbs did. They aren't a recent development.

Whew, running low, nothing like Red Bull with taurine in the morning, huh? I think there's more opportunity to exercise than ever. More time, more equipment, more space, more classes, more ads, and certainly far more admonishment to exercise.

I'm not saying I have the answer- I'm always a wreck after breakfast- but I'm pretty sure there's no urban design that's going to get me to walk to 7-11 for a Slurpie unless they put it right outside my room. Yeah! A 7-11 in a vending machine!
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  #5   ^
Old Thu, Sep-28-06, 15:37
Angeline's Avatar
Angeline Angeline is offline
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Plan: Atkins (loosely)
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Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Default

Here is an interesting article that compares modern life to the Amish.

They include the usual blah blah about eat less and move more, but notwithstanding the politically correct stance, the study itself is interesting.

I wonder if the difference might not lie in how much energy exercise burns, but on the effect of exercise on insulin sensitivity.

Quote:
Pedometers Show High Step Count, Low Obesity
How many steps per day are enough to keep you trim and prevent obesity? A pedometer study of an Old Order Amish community showed that their average man logged 18,000 steps per day and their average woman logged 14,000 steps per day, and they had one of the lowest rates of overweight and obesity of any community in North America.

Old Ways = Active Ways
While typical North Americans find logging 10,000 steps a day to be a challenge, requiring dedicated walking time to accomplish, the Old Order Amish achieved it with ease with their typical daily activities. In fact, the only day their average dipped as low as 10,000 steps was on Sunday, their "day of rest." The farming community was studied in March at a moderate-activity time rather than high-activity time of year such as during harvest. The Old Order Amish shun any technology developed after the mid-1800's. This pre-electrical, pre-motorized lifestyle involves much physical activity.
Pedometer Study
The 96 Amish studied wore pedometers for a week and recorded their daily steps and other physical activity. They also calculated the Body Mass Index (BMI) for each participant. Use of the pedometers and scales did not violate Amish traditions because they were borrowed. The participants were men and women, ages 18-75, in an Old Order Amish community in Ontario, Canada. The study was published in the January, 2004 "Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise," and conducted by David R. Bassett, Jr. and associates of the University of Tennessee.
High Activity = Lower Body Fat
None of the men were obese, and only 2 of the women were obese, an overall rate of 4% obesity as measured as a BMI of 30 or more. This compares to 14.9% obesity rate in Canada and 30.9% in the USA.

Overweight rates were also far below average. Only 26% were overweight, which is half of the rate for Canadians and one third the rate of the USA.

Of note is that the obesity rates for this community do not compare to that of more sedentary Amish communities where they work in tourist shops and furniture factories. In those communities the obesity rate is similar to their non-Amish neighbors. It might be predicted that it is the high-activity farming lifestyle that keeps this Amish community lean.
Eating Like the Amish
Their diet is not low-carb or low-fat. The study says, "The Amish diet is typical of the pre-World War II rural diet. It includes meat, potatoes, gravy, eggs, vegetables, bread, pies, cakes, and is quite high in fat and refined sugar." But it is balanced with a high physical activity level. This is more typical of marathon training or other endurance sport training, where carbs are considered fuel rather than shunned. This Amish community rarely snacks between meals and has limited access to fast food.
Up Your Activity
The moral of this story: modern lifestyles have greatly reduced our everyday physical activity levels, yet we haven't reduced our food intake to match. To prevent packing on the pounds, we need to move more and eat a little less. We have free programs to get you going.
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  #6   ^
Old Thu, Sep-28-06, 16:10
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ProfGumby ProfGumby is offline
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Plan: Atkins
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Location: In Da U.P. eh? Menominee
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Forgive the bluntness, but Professor Jackson just might be an idjit!

Yes, more people getting more exercise is a good thing, and yes many people who are sedentary, but have good diets would reap some benefit. But a kid who eats all the wrong foods, junk food and drinks about 1/2 gallon of pop daily would, even if they lost 7 pounds, would still be unhealthy and overweight!

I smell a closet eco nut who wishes all the evil cars would go away............
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  #7   ^
Old Thu, Sep-28-06, 16:18
Dodger's Avatar
Dodger Dodger is online now
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Plan: Paleoish/Keto
Stats: 225/167/175 Male 71.5 inches
BF:18%
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Location: Longmont, Colorado
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ProfGumby
I smell a closet eco nut who wishes all the evil cars would go away............
Here I am, but I'm out of the closet. I have not put gasoline in my car this year.
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  #8   ^
Old Fri, Sep-29-06, 06:42
ProfGumby's Avatar
ProfGumby ProfGumby is offline
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Posts: 2,927
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 361/285.0/240.0 Male 5'11"
BF:Shake Hands w/Beef
Progress: 63%
Location: In Da U.P. eh? Menominee
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodger
Here I am, but I'm out of the closet. I have not put gasoline in my car this year.


Good on ya son! I too have used about 1/3 the gas that Im used last year. My car sits in the driveway more often than ever now. I ride my bike or walk much more.

But the point I was making was a lot of these "health" studies are done by the same people that hate Atkins and hate hunters etc.... more simply put a lot of our detractors are also detractors in other issues as well.

I still think and agree with you, city planning is hardly the root of obesity in anyone....
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  #9   ^
Old Fri, Sep-29-06, 07:16
fluffybear fluffybear is offline
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Posts: 3,221
 
Plan: low carb/low fat
Stats: 255/236/155 Female 5 ft. 9 in.
BF:32%/?/20%
Progress: 19%
Location: USA
Default

I agree that we need to get more exercise. I was a very skinny kid. I lived on a farm and would roam the fields after school and on weekends. I also had farm chores such as slopping the hogs and I had to get up every morning about 4-5 AM and feed the calves before I went to school. I rode the school bus to school, but I had to walk almost a mile to catch the bus. I also had to saw wood for the wood burning cast iron stove that heated our house. My closest friend lived almost 2 miles away and I had to walk to her house to see her. When I went to college I walked everywhere on campus and back and forth to my job which was on the other side of town. I guess it helped that I didn't get my driver's license until I was 24 years old! After I got married we began a family right away and I stayed home in our little apt. taking care of my child. I had 4 kids and became a a SAHM for many years. I was very sedentary and packed on 75 lbs. over the years. I am not saying I ate right either, but it was the combination of not eating right PLUS lack of exercise that made me gain weight.
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  #10   ^
Old Fri, Sep-29-06, 17:15
GeorgeMead's Avatar
GeorgeMead GeorgeMead is offline
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Posts: 193
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 320/275/190 Male 70in
BF:
Progress: 35%
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Default

Quote:
it was the combination of not eating right PLUS lack of exercise that made me gain weight.
In 1999 I switched from a job that kept me on my feet much of the time to a job testing software and gained about 60# in 6 months. The up side was I had plenty of time to surf the web and eventually discovered LC which allowed me to reverse that pattern, now if I ever decide to give up beer I might even get to goal.

Quote:
I don't see nearly the number of kids riding bikes, like we did when we were little. Increased traffic, distances to the necessities like Dairy Queens or roller rinks, and the general scare that the public has from being bombarded with sensational reports about perverts/murderers, keeps a lot of the kids off the roads.
At the beginning of the school year last year I worked with a team that went around to a bunch of elementary schools in Las Vegas and installed new computers. I was struck by the long lines of cars delivering kids to and picking them up from school, and the totally empty bike racks, some schools had only one or two or even zero, (school populations averaged about 700 students). I was also saddened by the obvious obesity epidemic.

I don’t believe better urban planning would hurt, but as a solution it is not viable. At the rate obesity is spreading in the population the average fourth grader will weigh 150# before a significant number of areas could be rebuilt, even if the political will could be found.
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  #11   ^
Old Tue, Oct-03-06, 20:23
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LadyBelle LadyBelle is offline
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Posts: 8,495
 
Plan: Retrying
Stats: 239.2/150.6/120 Female 5'2"
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Progress: 74%
Location: Wyoming
Default

Quote:
At the beginning of the school year last year I worked with a team that went around to a bunch of elementary schools in Las Vegas and installed new computers. I was struck by the long lines of cars delivering kids to and picking them up from school, and the totally empty bike racks, some schools had only one or two or even zero, (school populations averaged about 700 students). I was also saddened by the obvious obesity epidemic.



I agree with an above poster who said there are other ways times are different now. My son's school is on a busy street that is actually a highway. The speed limits in that area are 45 miles per hour and there is not a good sidewalk system. The students are forbidden from ridding bikes to school because it is flat out to dangerous.

There is also the issue of general safety. When I was a kid I remember being outside apartment complexes playing with friends. Yes I was the chubby kid btw. Now however I don't even let the kids leave the yard. There is no walking to friends houses or taking a bike ride around the neighborhood. The kicker is I live in rural wyoming that has an extreamly low crime rate. I can't imagine living in a city or urban area and having the kids walk to school on thier own.

Someone brought up the point once if there isn't really more crime these days, it's just more sensionalized and reported. In either case that's like saying if we admit there is a problem it's bad, lets just go back to hiding our heads. After all we survived. What about the kids who didn't and what thier families had to go through?
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