I think it must be something like stress and deteriorating mental health more than those frankly. They existed 30 years ago (and as I understand were more popular then) without as much negative effects.
All indications are that Americans are fatter than ever, but I wish this poll included height as well, for more context. Even though BMI (height + weight) is imperfect, I think it's still more descriptive than just weight alone. Also, the average height of populations changes over time, so naturally their weight will also increase, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's an unhealthy increase.
According to this Time article, American heights increased in previous decades but pretty much stalled out: https://time.com/4423803/how-tall-100-years-height/ So I guess the results are pretty much the same even without the height info.
I believe the BMI was created for exactly the purpose you described, to track changes across populations. It was not intended to be a diagnostic tool at the individual level.
That said, I suppose if a population generally becomes fitter and increases muscle weight, the overall BMI could become unreliable for the same reason it's not a great tool at the individual level.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 28.5 ms ] threadI’d say fast food isn’t the only culprit, normal restaurant portions are enormous too with the exception of a few health-focused salad chains.
Consumption of restaurant food has continued to increase over the last 30 years as the country gets more and more wealthy.
There are probably a lot of factors involved here of course.
According to this Time article, American heights increased in previous decades but pretty much stalled out: https://time.com/4423803/how-tall-100-years-height/ So I guess the results are pretty much the same even without the height info.
That said, I suppose if a population generally becomes fitter and increases muscle weight, the overall BMI could become unreliable for the same reason it's not a great tool at the individual level.