What's so bad about this? Isn’t it a good thing that people here aren’t starving, have plenty of access to an unbelievable variety of food, live long enough to reach the age where spare tires happen, and where we have plenty of free time to just sit on our collective asses and get fat?

That's been the dream of the masses for ages.

Heh. There's a wendy's in our hospital. Five floors down from my office. It's also the most reliable food choice since the cafeterias suck and they both close at 2pm. Wendy's is open until midnight.

You should see the CRAP that doctors eat. Doctors as a group eat worse, smoke more, and excercise less than any other group I observe daily. Nurses, on the other hand, seem to be pretty healthy.

I bet this is especially true for Ethiopians

I wrote a post here about the way in which this study is absolute bollocks. I order you to read it. Mush! Mush!

America, F*** YEAH!!! We're # 1.

What iMaster and OneDrummer said. Why can't people take it upon themselves to "Eat Less, Move More"?

I agree with what you are saying Remy on one level, but I take it one step further. Why can’t people choose to “Eat more, Move less” if they so desire? This is America, dammit!

Umm, why don't they do a study of people going to Cabo? Seems like when Americans go to Cabo, they just drink an don't eat. Doesn't that negate this study?

Define "Obese". Is it by pre-BMI standards, (ie measured % of bodyfat)? or is it by early or revised BMI standards? What proportion of those moving here come from an environment of UNDERnourishment?

Yes, This is a hot button for me. When I first enlisted in the Air Force, I was 1 pound from being too underweight to join, and for all I know they fudged because there was a war on. Because of unlimited chow and access to a weight room, Within 3 years, and for most of the next 17 years, I was automatically included in the "fat-boy" program because I was 5'9", and at my peak weighed 195 lbs. Of course, my participation usually involved just walking into the flight doc's office, and getting rapidly thrown out because I had a 28" waist. The waist is a "little" bigger now, and I concede I'm about 25 pounds overweight, but according to the BMI I'm automatically labelled "obese".

The BMI is a farce that disregards leanness as well as morphology, and is a characterization of some non-existent "average" person. It has no proviso for mutants like me, with a torso of some "average" person well over 6' and the legs of some "average" person 5'4".

The medicos are a sorry lot for pushing this crap, and it is all due to the sorry state of Epidemiology, which is only getting worse. Combined with a MD (Medical Diety) complex, the bad science makes this pontificating hard to take.

If my FAA flight examiner wasn't such a good guy, I might've already used one hand to snap his neck like a twig. Word to Dr Ramadamadingdong: don't get too preachy to people who can easily crush you. There. I feel better. Check Six!

Move to the US.
Find food.