Fitness and Air Conditioning

One of the reasons I like this blog more that my last one is that I'm not totally committed to "just sports." I'm sure readers like Tom the Twins Fan who are sport-a-holics may get confused by these offbeat pieces once in a while, but that's part of the fun. With no Twins game last night and very little happening in the world of sports (The NBA Draft? pffft) I get to make these types of observations more often than when I was The Sports Observer.

What is the leading cause of obesity on our society? Do we eat too much? Yes. Do we eat too much of the wrong thing? Yes. Do we exercise too little and spend far to much time in front of glowing screens doing everything from work to games to e-mails, blogs and facebook? Yes. Do we sit in front of an even larger glowing screen watching too much sports, television shows and movies as well. YES!!

But none of those things has caused the extreme "fatness craze" that has hit America over the last 30 years. Some folks think that overall affluence has caused us to eat more fast food while having extra money in our pockets have given us the ability to buy more stuff that produces activities that are more sedentary.

I agree with all of those things. But the primary cause of people being fat HERE in America?

Air conditioning.

What surprises me is that no one other than myself has come up with this answer. I'm sure if someone wants to get their doctorate by writing a thesis about this idea they'll find out that I'm right because the facts have been staring them right in the face for more than thirty years.

For those of you who don't see the link yet, I'll explain. When America was less affluent, air conditioning was rare, and because of that most Americans ate differently and acted differently 5 to 7 months of the year. Down south, they had  an even longer  hot and humid season than us northerners.

But air conditioning, specifically central air, changed our eating habits and activity habits dramatically. Instead of eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables and light sandwiches in the summer while drinking an endless supply of water that filled us up (because it was too hot for mom to cook) we started eating fatty and high-carb cooked meals all year round at every meal. Where we once just ate hot dishes and pizzas in the winter months, we made them a regular part of our diet for 12 months, year after year. Where we once gained "a little winter weight" because of our richer winter diets, we suddenly were eating winter meals in the summer as well. Moms liked to cook. We liked to eat. There was plenty of prepared food. It was now cool (not stifling hot) and we felt like eating. So we did. So instead of losing our "winter weight" each summer season, we continued to gain even more "winter weight" in the summer, year after year.

And we ate far more than we used to in the summer months when fruit and small sandwiches were all our sweat-soaked little bodies could handle.  America got fat because America got more comfortable living conditions year round. But the effects of summer heat without air conditioning were two-fold. Not only did we eat less, we were also forced outside to cool off. Even with the windows open day and night it was hot in the house all the time. The only real solution back then was to go outside. Once we were outside, we played. For some reason playing in heat and humidity was way better then sitting drenched on a couch or chair that made you even warmer.

Summer activities, especially swimming, made sense when it was 100 degrees wherever you went in or out of the house. We ate less fast food back then, too. Nobody really feels like filling up on french fires and hamburgers every night when your really, really hot and sticky. And GOING to restaurant meant getting in a hot car that didn't have air conditioning. The car was hotter than the house OR outside. Just going out for anything became a chore. No one wanted to do it. You certainly didn't want to pick up a quick meal and EAT in the car. With the 120 degree temperatures in the car we all would have died.

Okay, you get the idea so I no longer have to belabor the point.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that there is one other invention that's a contributing factor in all of this. Cooking in the summer became easier when you didn't have to heat up the whole house by using the stove and oven. The microwave oven is an accomplice in our obesity. There's probably another doctoral thesis in that tidbit of information as well.