I’ve never written a post about America’s weight issue because I think that too many people have written about it, and also it hasn’t ever particularly bothered me. Yes, I have seen more obese people (both in number and in size) here than anywhere else in the world, and I think we all know what the reasons are. But I’ve noticed that the biggest health freaks are also American. Anyways, this post is not about fat people but about fat people in wheelchairs.
It was nice to see that Disney World was very accessible to people in wheelchairs. But then I realized that these weren’t really wheelchairs but more like automatic chairs that wheeled healthy-looking people around. Eh, healthy is not the exact word. These were people who are not disabled but have trouble walking because they are obese… or as my American friend put it, because they are “lazy fat Americans”. Ouch!
Did you see that Pixar movie WALL-E where the post-apocalyptic humans move around their city in automated gravity-defying armchairs and watch life from their plasma screens while munching on burgers and milkshakes? Yep, that’s almost what I saw in real life!
Can someone explain to me why did those people use wheelchairs?
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March 21, 2012 at 3:20 am
Katley
lack of exercise + too much junk food = obesity. It’s really sad when people become so heavy they can’t walk any more.
Part it is the fast food industry’s use of additives and flavorings to make their food addicting. And people don’t like to exercise any more. When I was a kid we were encouraged to play outside and be active, and in my generation there weren’t as many fat kids as there are today. There is also a genetic component to obesity, fat parents usually have fat offspring; and they usually pick up the food preferences of the parents. I wrote a blog post back in 2010 about ethnic dance and exercise which addressed the problem of obesity in the United States:
http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/12/on-ethnic-dance-and-exericise.html