But this is getting into people simply eating as much as they want for whatever reason vs. getting enough exercise for how many calories they eat. And yeah, of course there are differences in nutrients. In an extreme example, if you eat nothing but protein you won't be obese even though you invite a whole lot of other health issues. Still, is there seriously an argument to be made that adequate exercise will ward off dangerous obesity in a normal individual without glandual problems, etc.?

I'm generalizing a lot, obviously, but people who consume more calories than ever before in human history and have the favored past time of sitting on their asses and staring at screens becoming fatter is no medical mystery.

The thread should've ended after this post. Oh well, carry on.

Some races are predisposed to retaining fat.

However, the black population has almost nothing to do with their "immigration" to America, and everything to do with their history in America of having access to only very low quality cheap foods, combined with the current policies of food suppliers in general.

Basically, you look at it like this.
Farmer grow all kinds of different food. A big chain like McDonalds comes in. "We need X amount of corn and wheat, and beef, and we will pay you Y". But that price is much much below the going price! Doesn't matter because at the amount of X, price in Y will more than cover deferred costs of independent sales. The farm must make the decision to grow less of crop B, and more corn and beef.

Then raising the beef is too expensive for food supply issues. Well, we only make corn and wheat now, so we'll feed them that. Based on how much we already make, it is "cost effective". This is the MOST EFFICIENT way. Meanwhile, they take the beef and cut it into many different cuts. Each piece goes into a different market. The nice healthy bits will go to the richer purchaser because, hell, with all the corn they feed the cows, healthy meat is now much rarer, and the market has preference for healthy, thereby creating demand.

What others will get in the end, is the middle class cuts, and the poor and inner city city will get the pink slime....meat drenched in disinfectant because CORN IS FUCKING SO UNHEALTHY FOR COWS (grass fed to cows once a week or so completely destroys all dangerous bacteria in cow meat) and cut from as close to the skin as possible, and made from all the fattiest parts of the cow.

So, do you understand now? This is basically how slaves were fed, and this is now how the inner city and poor are fed. And it has nothing to do with the fact that healthy food isn't affordable. It has to do with the fact that because farms have to stop producing other foods like carrots, celery, etc in order to produce for the company that pays their bills most efficiently, the healthy foods are suddenly a rare commodity.

This is the basis of malnutrition in America.

Yet all of the grocery stores in my town still have no problem stocking carrots, celery, etc. And they're not prohibitively expensive. They're just not popular because who the fuck wants to eat a carrot when, mmmmm, cheeseburger?

There is a culture of eating unhealthy. That corporations might try to make a buck by feeding that desire is neither a mystery nor a scandal.

Well, there's a lot that can be said for agricultural policy. Farmers are heavily subsidized for producing corn. This has the effect of having farmers grow more corn, and fewer carrots/whatever, but it also has an effect as it makes HFCS much cheaper, relative to sugar. Sugar tends to produce more bang compared to HFCS, which means more HFCS is required to create the same level of sweetness.

Soda (and all other products which substitute HFCS for sugar) is far more calorific with HFCS than with sugar. Most sodas in Europe, for example, have more sugar than HFCS, compared to the USA (due to the EU CAP policy favouring sugar over corn), but have fewer calories.

Get rid of the corn subsidies, and you'll go a long way to improving the health of American citizens. First, as sugar will replace HFCS in many products, and second, because of the effect that you described - if the price of shitty food for cows isn't as economically beneficial, more farmers will switch to higher quality feed.

1st paragraph.

Who's arguing that that is wrong? I commend you for trying to make it seem like my stance is going against science, but I'm actually not doubting it at all. I'm am questioning your motivation to turn a complex problem into a simple one. It is not because we have more access to food that we are overweight but that because the food that we are "allowed access to" is very low quality food. This is a highly complex problem because it deals with many hidden costs. There are many many costs associated with food that are indirectly changing the pricing. Example: A burger at mcdonalds is a dollar and has about 600 calories and takes about 30 seconds to make.

Getting food involves going to the store (transportation costs), shopping (time costs), bringing it home (energy costs), cooking it (time and energy costs). And this is just one aspect of the problem. Other problems include education, cultural indoctrination by advertising, sugar dependance, stress levels, food industry, etc etc. Simply saying "oh you just eat less and work out more" is a good advice from a dad in the 1950s.

2. Please, I've been broke enough to shop at dollar stores, and a majority of their food is (1) Not a dollar (you would know if you actually shopped them that "dollar stores" is really just a tagline meaning very cheap) and (2) disgusting, or (3) very unhealthy. Where's the veggies dood!? Salmon, hmm sure thats a good third of a meal maybe once a week. Let's see some other examples.

Actually, just Poverty ----> Unhealthy Lifestyle.

When you have no money, you buy what's cheap. As someone who's recently been trying very hard to eat healthy, I see the cost of my food purchases skyrocketting. Fresh fruit and veggies are more expensive than canned, but canned have all kinds of sodium and preservatives. Organic is even better, but also even more expensive. Everything follows this pattern. Cheaper processed foods which minorities are more likely to rely on are less healthy, and food is one of the biggest factors in your health. Also, minorities are more likely to live in poorer housing conditions, and thus deal with things like mold which negatively effect health. Less likely to have insurance, so probably not going to regular checkups and getting healthy life advice from a doctor. Also, more likely to be working 2 jobs and not getting enough sleep, which comes with plenty of its own side effects.

Thanks for narrowing it down.

So people are consuming - specifically drinking - more calories, to the tune of roughly an extra day's worth of calories per week. (As of 1995. I'm sure it's worse now.) Is that the big revelation?

I am again having to correct your comprehension as I am not saying that carrots are a rarity and super expensive, but that compared to something ilke corn, which is both bad for your teeth and digestion, it is far more expensive, WHEN, had these farms not become "mcdonaldized", carrots apples oranges cukes, etc could be on price parity. And when you have someone like me, who is forced to skip out on costs as low as 1.75$ (uphill both ways harhar), you have your solution of why poor are unhealthy. And now we have come full circle again.

Whether you choose to look at it and say, "OK maybe there is a problem with the industry" or "It's because these peasant welfare recipients are living fat off my money", is entirely your decision.

They can stop drinking the shit. I did about a decade ago.

I know I'm coming off like some kind of a cock, but seriously, this sounds exactly like cigarettes. WE DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE BAD ALL THIS TIME HOLY SHIT. It never occurred to anyone that guzzling carbohydrates would make you fat, or that soda isn't a thirst quencher so you tend to just keep on drinking it? Because it's absolutely nothing new to me, even if the chemical reasons are just now being discovered.