Mixed Messages

Russ brought up something interesting in class the other day.  If the media has enough power to influence kids sexually, such as influencing kids to lose their virginity earlier by showing sex scenes in the movies and stuff, why are people obese considering that the media shows so many skinny women. If media has such a strong affect on how people act, shouldnt people be trying to get skinny?  One of the opposing arguments that was brought up is that some people are just "big boned" and even if they were to diet or even starve themselves, they still would not be able to look like the girls on TV.  Now, I can buy that. It's true that some people have bigger bone structures. But I feel like that was in part caused by our culture. People started getting fat, and from an evolutionary standpoint, their bone structures got larger to support more weight. I dunno if there's any data or anything to back that up... But thats my theory.  The other opposing theory was that we it tends to be the poor people who cant afford to eat organic chips instead of regular lays, doritos, etc. This is what I find to be ridiculous. Organic vs regular chips? Chips are what got us into this trouble in the first place! The reason that americans are so much fatter than the rest of the world is (in part) because we snack all the time.  I read a statistic once from some yahoo article that said that the national past time of the US should be eating. The article said that the average american eats 3 meals a day... And also eat when theyre bored. The articles stated that americans tend to eat when theyre bored, even if theyre not hungry at all. And people wonder why were fat... Anyways so I went Italy this summer. It was amazing. There were babes everywhere. I have never seen so many sexy girls in one place. And part of the reason is that they dont eat between meals, they dont drink soda, they dont snack. They eat breakfast lunch and dinner, and nothing else. I went to Italy, ate more per meal than I do here, but came back 10 pounds lighter. It's the stuff in between that makes people fat. BUT the media makes that happen. The media influences us to buy the snacks, the mcdonalds, the unhealthy food. It's a mixed message. Eat unhealthy and all the time, but be skinny. If america wants to get healthier, they just need to cut out the chips altogether.