Survey: Americans are fat…and delusional

By Larry Dignan | Jan 12, 2010 |

There’s a big disconnect between Americans’ opinion of their health and well being and reality, according to a survey by Philips Electronics.

The survey is the first report from the Philips Center for Health and Well-being, a knowledge-sharing forum. The survey finds a few core disconnects. To wit:

  • Only 39 percent of Americans consider themselves overweight;
  • But the National Center for Health Statistics finds that 67 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese.

Here’s the deep dive:

Eighty percent of Americans say they are in excellent or generally good health. However, when the survey dug deeper only 51 percent said they are as fit as they could be and 29 percent say they are in the best shape ever. And 66 percent wish they could exercise more.

Something isn’t adding up.

There are a bevy of other findings worth noting. Philips surveyed 1,503 Americans 18 to 65 and found:

  • 76 percent of Americans think medical technology will allow them to live longer;
  • 45 percent of Americans avoid going to the doctor as much as possible;
  • Americans generally consider 35 years old to be the new 40 in terms of middle age (stress is the main reason);
  • 60 percent of Americans say they are responsible for their health.

The statement and entire study can be found on the Philips site.

 
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  •  
    1

    dbarr@...

    01/12/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    Sweet...

    And we're going to face the world as it is instead of the way we'd _like_ it to be by not realizing important facts about ourselves. Yeah, there's a supreme irony here.

    I blame this whole phenomenon, and many like it, on a steady diet of wish-fulfillment statements over the past decades by our leaders, political, religious, and secular, on a steady drone of advertisements in all our media, and on the insidious notion that we don't have to pay the cost for what we want, but can instead put it on credit. I hope that we wake up before we're like the fat drones portrayed in the movie "Wall-E."

  •  
    2

    fnoy@...

    01/12/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    The rest of the world has known for years that you Americans are completely delusional.

    If you lot could see yourselves from our perspective, you would be utterly appalled.

  •  
    3

    jackbp73

    01/12/10 | Report as spam

    BMI is part of the problem.

    That 67% number is based on the BMI scale. BMI is a poor metric
    for measuring obesity.

  •  
    4

    p0figster

    01/12/10 | Report as spam

    @fnoy

    Is that why American movies are the most popular in the world and that
    the whole world adores OUR celebrities? Is it because you revile us
    and view us all as fat slobs who know/do nothing? And yet we still
    turn out some of the worlds best athletes...

    Sure, the average person is delusional - but is Europe or Asia any
    different as far as self-delusion is concerned? The obesity rates may
    be different, but PEOPLE are self delusional, not just Americans.

  •  
    5

    jackbp73

    01/12/10 | Report as spam

    Follow up...

    That's not to say that we Americans aren't fat. I know we are, but
    if you're going to go to the trouble to calculate statistics, you
    might as well get the science right first.

  •  
    6

    cburkitt

    01/12/10 | Report as spam

    What exactly was measured?

    It sounds like the report equated health with fitness and NOT being overweight. Is it possible to be fit and overweight? How about fit and unhealthy? For example, I consider myself a little overweight and not especially fit but still healthy. I don't think that makes me delusional. I know people who are ill but physically fit and others whose weight is fine but who are neither healthy nor fit. Perhaps the big disconnect here is between the researchers and their subjects.

  •  
    7

    Solution1

    01/12/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    Delusional? Have you seen the people on the Riviera. The Obesity is a human condition. Human characteristics say> eat what you like. Exercise if you want. Just like Cats, and elepahnts, and any other animal that can get what it wants when it wants. Your studies and statistics are HOGWASH!
    The only way to make HUMANS healthier is engage them in WORK!i.e. Something that wants to exercise their minds as well as their energies. When we concentrate we use calories by the BUNCH! Find something you are interested in and you won't want to 'eat' your way out of BOREDOM. Use the TV Box to educate and inspire yourself not just let the brain sit idly watching irrelavance. You want to loose weight? You want to use that energy inside you? GET OFF YOUR A-- and do something you like or interests you. It's not that hard! DUH! Regards, George L.

  •  
    8

    Jeff_Toronto

    01/12/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    Americans are fat and dellusional. And lazy, and self serving, and greedy. For a Super Power, you wonder why they do not want 35 million of their country men to have health care. The are a hald a dozen western countries with excellent health care, but the greed engine in AMerica subverts the very system the President is trying to overhaul. For any American to criticize France, Canada, Sweden is perverse. Every tax paying American contributes to the 60 billion in health care fraud every year in America. Rather than go it together and fix the health care system, the American view is, as long as I have coverage, to heck with everyone else. Not one Canadian, Swede, Frenchman, Dutch even Cuban citizen goes without health care. Only in America do big fat stupid lazy greedy and delusional people thwart health care for children Shame on you!

  •  
    9

    Solution1

    01/12/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    By the way, I LOVE FRIED CHICKEN!!

  •  
    10

    Solution1

    01/12/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    First of all, Jeff. There is HEALTH CARE in America for anyone that needs it. What you are talking about is HEALTH PAY! IF you provide HEALTH CARE,in the way you express it, the reasoning is that you have to be in a program. The new stuff being thrown at us here is, YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE A PROGRAM WE WILL PROVIDE(whether or not it meets your needs), OR you will be fined, thrown in jail,which may not be so bad. Three meals a day provided by the Government, health care provided by the Governmnet, entertainment provided by the Government. If you go the FINES route, you will be fined 8 percent of your Gross wages. That, my fried, is cheaper for me than paying out the $750 per month that our silly LIBERAL(read ELITE) Congress is trying to make me pay!By the way, as long as you are criticizing, have you noticed that CONGRESS has taken themselves OUT of the program? Not good enough for them. Also, NOT everyone is going to be covered.(something like 21 million OF US). In other words Business as usual You will be subjected to people who count money rather than health points.ie.If you are too old or too sick or your condition is not working within todays acceptable (medical) monetary limits. Get over yourself. We Americans are a unique people because we have had access to what we feel we needed.Spoiled, in some oppinions, yes. We are trying to do the best we can with what we have. Sure the price goes up but we get what we can afford. All your other country programs fit their style and citizenry. Unless you live the life,I suggest, look deeper.

  •  
    11

    fnoy@...

    01/12/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    p0figster
    You really ARE delusional if you believe your movies and actors are the best. I would worry about anyone who thinks that such activities and people are adequate measures of a society.
    By a similar argument, I suppose you think that your wars ( where you cannot keep your noses out of others peoples' countries and lives ) are the best as well.

    There is nothing you have said which helps me to change my mind.
    I stand by my previous statements.

  •  
    12

    JTF243@...

    01/12/10 | Report as spam

    @fnoy

    So speaks a jihadist.

  •  
    13

    fibreoptik

    01/13/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    @JTF243

    So speaks a redneck.

  •  
    14

    jahcriado

    01/13/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    Well, depending on what measuring stick they're using I can side with many Americans over Philips. While I am overweight (obese by the BMI) there was a time 10 years ago when I was skinny. Overly so. I weighed 160-165 lbs. & people always said I looked 130 lbs. I had about 5-6 % body fat. I was considered borderline overweight. If i had gone on a body building bent I could've easily put on 15-20 lbs of muscle & been overweight but perfectly healthy.

    * 76 percent of Americans think medical technology will allow them to live longer - Well, it has helped us to prolong our lives in the last 100yrs of Med tech, whats delusional about thinking the progress made in the next decades will do the same?

    * 45 percent of Americans avoid going to the doctor as much as possible - This is a sad but true statement, mostly because either 1) its way to expensive (& no, uni healthcare would not fix this) & 2) most of us don't want to go to the Dr for every little cough & sniffle. Getting sick & dealing is part of life.

    * Americans generally consider 35 years old to be the new 40 in terms of middle age (stress is the main reason) - Really? I thought 30 was the new 20? I am 31 & I do not feel overly stressed, of course I am not part of the rat race either. Again, its choice, much like its my choice if I eat crap or rabbit food.

    * 60 percent of Americans say they are responsible for their health - This is sad, it should be higher. Who do they think should be responsible for their health? I hope its not the Gov, they're already responsible for a lot of poorly run things, why add my health to it?

  •  
    15

    jahcriado

    01/13/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    You know what I find funny? When America does not get involved in a conflict/genocide we get lambasted. Why weren't you in Rwanda? Why aren't you helping Burma? On & on? But we go into Iraq, a country run by a delusional dictator where he was waging a genocide, wasting his peoples money & funding terrorists - & we're seen as evil, as doing it for the oil. You're right, these lower fuel prices we've been paying are AMAZING (sarcasm if you didn't get it). Then the Taliban in Afghanistan which should've been stopped years ago. We did, unfortunately, help them out in our conflict with the USSR when we supported them & then left them hanging with no direction after the Reds were no longer a threat to us.

    If a Islamic dictator decided to run your country, please don't ask us to help, then. Forget that we were one of, if not THE, deciding factors in the worlds major conflicts in the last 100years. What would've been the out come of WWII with out American involvement, what would've happened to S. Korea if we hadn't been there helping them against the Soviets? We had Vietnam won militarily, it was the politicians in DC who twiddled their thumbs trying to appease other people that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It was our ability & commitment that saw the fall of the Berlin wall & Soviet Russia.

    Have we had miss steps & blunders? Yes, we have. But, unfortunately, thats life. I'm looking fw to our elections in the next 2 years to oust these liberals & all the damage they're doing to our country. Getting leadership in place that actually has the well being of the American people in mind, & not creating a welfare state. Heres to you, America.

  •  
    16

    endlr@...

    01/13/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    And stupid...don't forget stupid. I should know, I are one.

    Bad Bob

  •  
    17

    softwareFlunky

    01/13/10 | Report as spam

    Americans are fat...and delusional .. and the rest of the world

    is becoming Americanized. Sorry.

  •  
    18

    JTF243@...

    01/13/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    fibreoptik - at least rednecks don't chop off peoples hands or heads or murder their own children.

  •  
    19

    Spiritusindomit@...

    01/14/10 | Report as spam

    Pardon me, but, what qualification do you have to write on this?

    I don't see Larry Dignan, M.D., Nutritionist, etc anywhere near your name. Judging from the picture, I would also estimate both you and your boyfriend are overweight, by a good 5% bodyfat in his case, and about 10% in yours.

    You're also not a scientist, because this is a SURVEY, by an ELECTRONICS COMPANY. This is not a study, in any way, shape or form and it presents no valid scientific metric for the findings it provides.

    This does nothing but fuel the troll fires of eurocentrists and idiots, as the previous replies indicate. Your wonderfully suspect piece's readership apparently ranges from delusional people who know nothing about tax law and international business, to violent racists.

    Your mother must be proud.

  •  
    20

    cbrsp

    01/14/10 | Report as spam

    Jeff_Toronto

    Maybe, but we can still kick ur a$$

  •  
    21

    Elemental LED staff

    01/21/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Survey: Americans are fat...and delusional

    That last statistic, which few have commented on, seems to explain it all: that 60% believe they are the ones responsible for their health. This idea of someone else being in charge of making change and being responsible is a particularly American! Though that's strange, since we think of ourselves as such can-do/take-charge/pioneering people.

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Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn't hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.

He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in New York with his fiancée and his cat, Spats.

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Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca does not hold any investments in the technology companies he covers.
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