Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Are Fat People Ridiculed In Anime?
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1748 |
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It also depends on what you choose to wear. I enjoy loose fitting clothing. I'm happiest wearing a shirt and cargo pants (because pockets!). When I've visited Japan, I have had women call me 'fat'. Thanks to being raised in America, I laugh when these same women are so judgmental as to just write me like that without at least having a solid conversation with me. But, whatever...I did see a lot of that in Japan, with a lot of women ignoring average guys in favor of the ones that could buy them designer purses and clothes. Nothing like seeing a woman carrying a purse that says 'I love rich' to convey that point.
Dunno, I've never cared for the judgmental aspect, and that's an issue that the cultures in many countries need to work on. I'm not saying that obesity should be celebrated with its own reality sitcom. And I'm ok with comedians joking about it as long as everything else is on the table, similar to episodes of South Park. But I think, overall, people need to stop being so critical of others. Skinny does not equal healthy; I know people who look outwardly healthy but are dealing with diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. in their early adulthood. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4584 |
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Sorry, but that's absolute nonsense. Chemically speaking, HFCS and normal refined table sugar are essentially the same as far as your body is concerned. The issue is excess sugar consumption in general, not its exact source. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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^That's true. And corn syrup isn't only in soda, it's in everything, from ketchup to whole wheat bread. Even more healthy options have excess sugar.
I also don't know how anyone can dismiss lack of movement as an insignificant factor in maintaining a healthy weight--American neighborhoods are car dependent by design, not because they're too big. Zoning laws ensure residences and commercial areas are miles apart and that commercial buildings have a minimum amount of parking space built around them, which leads to all those ugly strip malls. My "car culture shock" experience happened when I moved from Brooklyn, NY--where plenty of people have cars (it's not Midtown Manhattan) but people still walk or bike (bike lanes!) to do errands/as part of their commute, to Baltimore, MD, which is not rural in the least, but walking to the grocery store or dry cleaners or wherever is seen as inconvenient to life threatening. Businesses are within walking distance, but there aren't enough sidewalks. At night the lighting isn't good and since there aren't many people out it's considered dangerous, especially for women, to go out on foot alone. The result to neighborhood planning like this is that people use cars exclusively in *most urban areas in the United States,* regulating walking and biking to leisure or exercise activities. When you divorce movement from everyday life in work and at home, you make it hard for people to keep fit. If you personally don't find it hard because you only have to cook for yourself, good for you. Many adults are struggling under tough budget and time restraints to cook for their families. I've known working moms on a budget who schedule a whole month's menu in advance and devote a Sunday every month to preparing meals and storing them in an extra freezer. That requires planning, hard work, and an extra freezer. Most parents, especially single parents, can't afford that. When even the price difference between whole wheat pasta and white pasta and fresh or frozen vegetables and canned vegetables is hard for some families to scale, it's no wonder that even homemade food is more caloric and less nutritious for the average family than it used to be. So, no, overweight people are not purposefully lazy or addicted to fast food and soda, you don't have to look beyond "doesn't have leisure time for exercise and time/money for the most nutritious home cooked meals." It's a societal problem. As a society, we make it hard for most people to maintain a healthy weight. Let's stop shaming individuals and work together for solutions. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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Fructose may trick you into thinking you are hungrier than you should be, say the scientists, whose studies in animals have revealed its role in a biochemical chain reaction that triggers weight gain and other features of metabolic syndrome - the main precursor to type 2 diabetes. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-12/uof-usf120605.php As for drinking sugar-free soda: it turns out that one common substitute for sugar actually blocks the function of an enzyme that is essential for preventing obesity. http://www.dw.com/en/sugar-free-products-stop-us-getting-slimmer/a-36504096 A new study published Tuesday in Cell Metabolism suggests that artificial sweeteners mimic a starvation state in the brain, causing some organisms to seek energy by eating more food. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-artificial-sweeteners-may-cause-us-to-eat-more/ The Israeli study suggests that artificial sweeteners enhance the populations of gut bacteria that are more efficient at pulling energy from our food and turning that energy into fat. In other words, artificial sweeteners may favor the growth of bacteria that make more calories available to us, calories that can then find their way to our hips, thighs and midriffs https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/artificial-sweeteners-may-change-our-gut-bacteria-in-dangerous-ways/ |
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emk2203
Posts: 4 |
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One thing gets overlooked here: Being fat is not healthy, period. And stigmatising fat people, like it's done in Japan, actually helps by putting pressure on people. For me, the situation is similar to the smoking habits of old. There, everybody could agree that it is not healthy and has to stop.
Why the difference here with overeating? Unless people get stigmatized, there won't be change. It's hard for fat people, but necessary. |
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3453 Location: Finland |
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Speaking about facts and explaining is one thing. Telling jokes about fat people to their faces is a completely another. The war on tobacco was won with the first approach... |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11380 |
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But HFCS generally has no more fructose than ordinary table sugar. It's only called "high fructose" because corn syrup natively is almost entirely glucose. By changing some of the glucose to fructose, it can yield a comparable composition (42-55% fructose in foods and sodas) and sweetness to table sugar (sucrose = glucose+fructose), but is more easily handled and more cost effective on industrial scales (which has allowed them to put it in everything, even foods you don't think of as sweet, and that's part of the problem). Apples and pears have twice as much fructose as glucose in them, but nobody says those make you fat or cause diabetes. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1775 Location: South America |
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Thing is that not smoking is much easier than eating healthy food. One thing I notice in after living several years in the US is that it's food culture is unhealthy: America's national foods are the burger, the fries, the coke, the donut and the pizza. All unhealthy. Comparing it to Japan's curry rice, soba, udon and sushi is quite enlightening. So average per capita daily calorie consumption in the US is about 1000 calories higher than in Japan: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_food_energy_intake So to fight obesity requires massive cultural change and that's not something that can be done easily. And Japan's healthier eating habits are not due to stigmatizing fat people but due to the country's food culture of eating healthy food in moderate quantities. In the US even the portion sizes are often larger than in other countries besides consisting of less healthy food and even dinner plates are bigger. Hence, there is more fat people due to these cultural differences. As a result the large fat population means that shaming then in media becomes stigmatized since often half of the audience of a TV show is fat. While in Japan only 2-3% of the population is obese then critizing people for being obese is socially acceptable. Japan's cookie cutter culture also means that their culture is more often harsh on people outside of the norm (in any sense including body mass index). |
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Violynne
Posts: 128 |
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There's just one small problem with this statement: corn isn't supposed to have sugar in it. Corn has always been the most subsidized crop in America because we can produce much more of it than it can be sold for, basically making it free to consumers. This makes it impossible for farmers to grow and sell corn, so enter subsidization. In the 70s, multiple companies worked with corn to find alternatives for it other than feed and a side dish. One of these alternatives was cross breeding corn with fruits, to increase its sugar base. This has continue to this day (in fact, finding non-sweet corn is getting harder by the day). Because of this, it's now much cheaper to derive sugar from corn than it is from sugarcane. Corn's value has changed from being a vegetable to being a supplier of sugar, where the price can remain competitive, even with subsidization. This is why "corn sugar" is in everything. It costs little to use it and it has the practically the same benefits as sugar, which also comes with the pitfalls of having just as many calories. This sugar, along with the fats used in processed foods, is why the world is getting heavier. Yes, this includes Japan, as multiple studies have shown its population is getting heavier at an alarming rate. Much of this has to do with how the world has changed. We've become less active, but work longer hours. This changes behaviors in people, which means we're no longer wanting to spend more than an hour in preparation for a meal. What's truly disheartening is the current mindset believing "we're eating too much", when in reality, we're actually eating much less. It's what's in our food that's making us fatter, not our excessive eating habits. Even the USDA's "recommended" guide of 2000 calories is outdated. We simply can no longer afford to judge our intake based on calories alone. Any nutritionist will tell you there's a vastly huge difference between the way a body burns 100 grams of sugar vs 100 grams of fiber. Yet, money speaks volume, and the food industry most assuredly does lobby for changes which may not be beneficial to the general public in the long run. Worldwide, we're seeing a growing number of diabetes and obesity. It's much too easy to point the finger at the consumer for being lazy, but one thing is absolute fact: if all the food is the same and people are getting heavier, the issue can't be the people. Common sense would instantly point the food being the cause of the problems, but the food industry lobbies extensively to ensure the public continues to point and laugh at the fat people. Never underestimate what these lobbies can do, so no, it's not ridiculous to believe governments don't have a part in this. They most assuredly do by turning a blind eye to common sense. |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5839 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Coca Cola manufactured and bottled in Mexico, is being imported back into the United States, because many people want the sugar taste that Coca Cola use to have before the change to corn syrup. Coca Cola from Mexico can be found in many grocery stores and convenience stores now. Coca Cola in Japan also uses sugar vice corn syrup. |
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Now is a good time to point out that all Kosher-for-Passover versions of regular Coca Cola, commonly sold in the US & Canada, are produced with sugar rather than corn syrup. So if you prefer sugar cane sweetened soft drinks, now's a good time to stock up (Passover 2018 ends this weekend).
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emk2203
Posts: 4 |
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Typical Japanese snacks average around 70 - 100 kcal / 100g. Look at the pickled stuff, dried fish etc as snacks to accompany drinking sessions or while watching TV. Also, this shows that the attitude is not only in Anime, but publicly accepted in Japan and Korea: 
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