Research continues to indicate that obesity is not simply the result of “unhealthy choices of life style,” but a complex disease resulting from a combination of genetic, lifestyle, societal, emotional and cultural factors. Had the medical community recognized 20 years ago that telling obese people to “eat less and exercise more” would have about as much effect as telling an anorexic to “eat more and exercise less”, we wouldn’t be in the shape we’re in (literally and figuratively). The ignorance of the medical community, and society at large, in pointing to obesity as a “lifestyle” problem alone has resulted in health insurance programs which do little to solve the underlying obesity problem while wringing its hands over the costs of treating the resulting illnesses. We need to offer better solutions to deal with the underlying problem rather than continuing to blame those who suffer from it.
I don’t agree with the statement that “people should not have to pay for the unhealthy life styles of others”. There is enough evidence that suggest that some people have their weigh problems because of genetics etc – some people just put weight on even if they eat pretty much the same food as slim people and execise just as much. What about people that stuff their faces and never gain a pound? Can people that support the argument that only people that live “unhealty” life styles are obese explain that to me? Some people just have a higher rate of metabolism than others among other factors.
I do believe, however, that the vast majority of moderate overweight Americans only have our sedetary life styles to thank for that. I mean look at our lives today vs. 20-30 years ago….today we spend more time sitting in office chairs, in front of the TV, in our cars etc. A lot of people don’t eat as well as they could because they simply make a microwave dinner or order food because they don’t get home until 6-7pm from work and they don’t want to start cooking dinner then. Getting enough exercise is also hard for many, especially people with kids to take care of, they come home late from work, make dinner, take care of their kids etc, and then they just want to relax for 1hr before they have to go to bed and do it all over again. In America we live to work where in many other countries you work to live.
I have some overweight relatives one being my father so I must have some of the genetics that would make me obese, right? Well, I am a pretty fit person, I’m not over weight I eat healthy and exercise. I don’t believe that I will ever become obese due to the fact that I won’t allow myself to. Therefore I do not think its fair to have to pay more for life insurance Just because I have a gene and have the potential of becoming obese.
I’m one of those people that exercised sev ti 14 times a week(yes think about it), for years and could only get down from 192 to 188 at 5’8″. But i took drastic measures beyond that to finaly get down to 157 to 161 (and bounce between those). There is one FACT in all this. You Can’t gain what does not go in your mouth! Period! If you
had a matabolism as slow as mine then you should eat less. Sounds over simplified, and I hated to here those words but they are true. Besides the VAST majority eat WAY more than they should. We fail to educate ourselves and let the food industry kill us and blame health officials! Don’t believe me ? Go ask a person about Organic food, even more ask them if they have a apple that is organic and see what look you get.
You know what? Being poor is unhealthy. In America, there’s is, apparently established by medical health experts who investigate this stuff (I was once almost an epidemiologist myself), a correlation between poverty and obesitiy. I am poor and I am fat. Gee, maybe the way to solve the problem is to make poverty illegal. Just take poor, fat people and line us up against the wall and shoot us. That way we won’t cost the insurance industry or health industry or social services any more than the cost of the bullets to do us in and the cost of running the bulldozers to push our big fat bodies into mass graves.
I’m so poor, I can’t afford life insurance. I guess that’s a sure sign of a criminally anti-social attitude. Have any of you smug healthier than thou people ever read Samuel Butler’s “Erewhon”? Even though capitalism has supposedly triumphed over communism and socialism, it just might be the case that some of the observations a Mr. K. Marx made on the Condition of the Working Classes in Manchester and Birmingham in the mid 19th century were not untrue.
How many of you read the labels on so-called “food” in mass grocery markets. Try to find something (even supposed “health foods”–like youghurt, for instance) that does not have in it high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and high processed starches. What’s the longest aisle in the grocery store? Yes, the soda pop aisle, unless it’s the chips aisle. Try finding unadulterated whole wheat cream of wheat in the cereal aisle. The grocery store is prime pusher–at the behest no doubt of ADM and Cargill and all co-conspirators (and that’s no crazy paranoia; it’s come to legal cases), Y;know, if the ADM/Safeway types stopped trying to push down all our gullets high fructose corn syrup wrapped in hydrogenated oil-fried chips and turned that into gasoline, including the pig-slurry that’s destroying rural environments, we wouldn’t need Arab oil.
I must admit that I found this site by mistake but this is a great site!!! I wish more people will invest their time to build sites like this one. Thank you.
A couple of days ago in my local thrift store, I found a copy of US Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2002. Ib chart no. 195: Per capita consumption of major food commodities: 1980 to 2000, it is noted that the consumption of high fructose corn syrup (as a subset of corn sweeteners and all other caloric sweeteners) went from 19.0 lbs per capita in 1980 to 63.8 lbs p.c. in 2000. [Red meat consumption p.c. declined by about some 13 lbs in same period.] Individuals are not making decision to eat that much more corn syrup in an informed sense–“oh, here’s some corn syrup! Goodie! I want that!” Corn agribusiness is making decision to produce more corn syrup and sell to agrifood processors who use. Frankly, in my humble opinion, all that excess corn production and the pig swill that stinks up large portions of America’s rural areas could be turned into combustion engine propellant, and we would have no further need of Middle Eastern oil nor Alaska Natl. Wildlife Refuge oil. The modern American supermarket is essentially a pusher of high fructose corn syrup, fats and non-nutritive carbohydrates all swirled together into “chips” and soda drinks. Look at which aisles have the broadest choices, and then go try to find a package of whole wheat cream of wheat. Yes, partly it’s the public for being lured to the non-nutritive goodies, but they haven’t been taught how to read–and expletive deleted, having had to read, owing to allergies, food labels for past quarter century, just try with tired aging eyes, just try reading tiny, blurred, disguised ingredient lists.
Catholic sainthood has been somewhat devalued of late, as John Paul II has canonized almost 500 during his tenure (all other twentieth century popes total just 98). One of the ways canonization has been made easier is by abolishing the office commonly known as the Devil\’s Advocate.Given Opus Dei\’s well-documented ties to the fascist regime of General Franco, the word \”order\” acquires somewhat sinister connotations, specially given Opus Dei\’s emphasis on obedience
That\’s an incredible — and unfounded — leap of logic. Perosnal income gains are soft, and therefore inflation exists? How about weak hiring in a post-bubble environment? Global labor arbitrage pressuring wages lower? Increased productivity creating slack in the labor market?
Somehow, im guessing that the only conversation that happens is between the audience and the poster, and only in that direction in the comments. For example, i would have never known about your entry had it not been trackbacked to mine. And you only know about this comment because you will get an email about it. But if you respond in the comments, theres a low probability that i will read it due to the fact that my RSS feed doesnt tell me about updated comments.
What ARE all these comments from April on about? They certainly don’t seem to have anything to do w/obesity article. Is there a moderator? Who’s steering this conversation? Anyone?
One of the key themes that repeats itself in the posts is consumer responsibility. We, at large, shift blame to everyone else when things go wrong. We have not been taught to read? Go to a free public school and learn to read for yourself. We need to take responsibility for our own CHOICES. Every generation that is obese leaves a legacy for the next…genetics are not fully to blame, nor fully exempt in obesity. As generations progress, genes are mutating with each obese generation. The third generation of obesity will have a more resistant metabolism than the first or second generations, and on down the line it goes. Is it impossible to overcome being obese if you are the third, fourth, or fifth generation? No, but it will be more difficult, and if we don’t try, we are making it harder for our kids and grandkids.
In studying Eastern medicine (such as Ayurveda), many, many ailments come down to nutritional deficiencies or overindulgences.
However, we cannot continue to blame others. This country was not founded on the blame game, but by people who wanted responsibility for their own success or failure.
Let’s get back to the natural foods that God (yes, I said it) put on this earth for us to eat. Generations ago had to work for their food, spend hours growing/hunting and preparing it, and that is why they were not obese. Now, all of the work is already done for us in convenient packaging (full of harmful petrochemicals…PETROchemicals, such as plastics, made from PETROLIUM). Anything worth having in life takes work, but we have to be willing and make the choice to invest the time and energy in ourselves.
Responsible people should not pay for the unhealthy choices of life style of others.
Research continues to indicate that obesity is not simply the result of “unhealthy choices of life style,” but a complex disease resulting from a combination of genetic, lifestyle, societal, emotional and cultural factors. Had the medical community recognized 20 years ago that telling obese people to “eat less and exercise more” would have about as much effect as telling an anorexic to “eat more and exercise less”, we wouldn’t be in the shape we’re in (literally and figuratively). The ignorance of the medical community, and society at large, in pointing to obesity as a “lifestyle” problem alone has resulted in health insurance programs which do little to solve the underlying obesity problem while wringing its hands over the costs of treating the resulting illnesses. We need to offer better solutions to deal with the underlying problem rather than continuing to blame those who suffer from it.
I don’t agree with the statement that “people should not have to pay for the unhealthy life styles of others”. There is enough evidence that suggest that some people have their weigh problems because of genetics etc – some people just put weight on even if they eat pretty much the same food as slim people and execise just as much. What about people that stuff their faces and never gain a pound? Can people that support the argument that only people that live “unhealty” life styles are obese explain that to me? Some people just have a higher rate of metabolism than others among other factors.
I do believe, however, that the vast majority of moderate overweight Americans only have our sedetary life styles to thank for that. I mean look at our lives today vs. 20-30 years ago….today we spend more time sitting in office chairs, in front of the TV, in our cars etc. A lot of people don’t eat as well as they could because they simply make a microwave dinner or order food because they don’t get home until 6-7pm from work and they don’t want to start cooking dinner then. Getting enough exercise is also hard for many, especially people with kids to take care of, they come home late from work, make dinner, take care of their kids etc, and then they just want to relax for 1hr before they have to go to bed and do it all over again. In America we live to work where in many other countries you work to live.
I have some overweight relatives one being my father so I must have some of the genetics that would make me obese, right? Well, I am a pretty fit person, I’m not over weight I eat healthy and exercise. I don’t believe that I will ever become obese due to the fact that I won’t allow myself to. Therefore I do not think its fair to have to pay more for life insurance Just because I have a gene and have the potential of becoming obese.
If peolpe have to pay a higher life insurance for smoking then, obesity should fall under the same category.
I’m one of those people that exercised sev ti 14 times a week(yes think about it), for years and could only get down from 192 to 188 at 5’8″. But i took drastic measures beyond that to finaly get down to 157 to 161 (and bounce between those). There is one FACT in all this. You Can’t gain what does not go in your mouth! Period! If you
had a matabolism as slow as mine then you should eat less. Sounds over simplified, and I hated to here those words but they are true. Besides the VAST majority eat WAY more than they should. We fail to educate ourselves and let the food industry kill us and blame health officials! Don’t believe me ? Go ask a person about Organic food, even more ask them if they have a apple that is organic and see what look you get.
You know what? Being poor is unhealthy. In America, there’s is, apparently established by medical health experts who investigate this stuff (I was once almost an epidemiologist myself), a correlation between poverty and obesitiy. I am poor and I am fat. Gee, maybe the way to solve the problem is to make poverty illegal. Just take poor, fat people and line us up against the wall and shoot us. That way we won’t cost the insurance industry or health industry or social services any more than the cost of the bullets to do us in and the cost of running the bulldozers to push our big fat bodies into mass graves.
I’m so poor, I can’t afford life insurance. I guess that’s a sure sign of a criminally anti-social attitude. Have any of you smug healthier than thou people ever read Samuel Butler’s “Erewhon”? Even though capitalism has supposedly triumphed over communism and socialism, it just might be the case that some of the observations a Mr. K. Marx made on the Condition of the Working Classes in Manchester and Birmingham in the mid 19th century were not untrue.
How many of you read the labels on so-called “food” in mass grocery markets. Try to find something (even supposed “health foods”–like youghurt, for instance) that does not have in it high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and high processed starches. What’s the longest aisle in the grocery store? Yes, the soda pop aisle, unless it’s the chips aisle. Try finding unadulterated whole wheat cream of wheat in the cereal aisle. The grocery store is prime pusher–at the behest no doubt of ADM and Cargill and all co-conspirators (and that’s no crazy paranoia; it’s come to legal cases), Y;know, if the ADM/Safeway types stopped trying to push down all our gullets high fructose corn syrup wrapped in hydrogenated oil-fried chips and turned that into gasoline, including the pig-slurry that’s destroying rural environments, we wouldn’t need Arab oil.
Lisbeth Jardine
Great site
Just want to tell you how much I love this site! I have been here for two weeks. I can’t thank you enough
Good site. I\’m glad you have an open minded club and not the \”our type only\” attitude.
I must admit that I found this site by mistake but this is a great site!!! I wish more people will invest their time to build sites like this one. Thank you.
Hi, i want to say – great site You have here! Lots of interesting and useful information! bookmarked!
A couple of days ago in my local thrift store, I found a copy of US Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2002. Ib chart no. 195: Per capita consumption of major food commodities: 1980 to 2000, it is noted that the consumption of high fructose corn syrup (as a subset of corn sweeteners and all other caloric sweeteners) went from 19.0 lbs per capita in 1980 to 63.8 lbs p.c. in 2000. [Red meat consumption p.c. declined by about some 13 lbs in same period.] Individuals are not making decision to eat that much more corn syrup in an informed sense–“oh, here’s some corn syrup! Goodie! I want that!” Corn agribusiness is making decision to produce more corn syrup and sell to agrifood processors who use. Frankly, in my humble opinion, all that excess corn production and the pig swill that stinks up large portions of America’s rural areas could be turned into combustion engine propellant, and we would have no further need of Middle Eastern oil nor Alaska Natl. Wildlife Refuge oil. The modern American supermarket is essentially a pusher of high fructose corn syrup, fats and non-nutritive carbohydrates all swirled together into “chips” and soda drinks. Look at which aisles have the broadest choices, and then go try to find a package of whole wheat cream of wheat. Yes, partly it’s the public for being lured to the non-nutritive goodies, but they haven’t been taught how to read–and expletive deleted, having had to read, owing to allergies, food labels for past quarter century, just try with tired aging eyes, just try reading tiny, blurred, disguised ingredient lists.
Lisbeth Jardine
Catholic sainthood has been somewhat devalued of late, as John Paul II has canonized almost 500 during his tenure (all other twentieth century popes total just 98). One of the ways canonization has been made easier is by abolishing the office commonly known as the Devil\’s Advocate.Given Opus Dei\’s well-documented ties to the fascist regime of General Franco, the word \”order\” acquires somewhat sinister connotations, specially given Opus Dei\’s emphasis on obedience
That\’s an incredible — and unfounded — leap of logic. Perosnal income gains are soft, and therefore inflation exists? How about weak hiring in a post-bubble environment? Global labor arbitrage pressuring wages lower? Increased productivity creating slack in the labor market?
Somehow, im guessing that the only conversation that happens is between the audience and the poster, and only in that direction in the comments. For example, i would have never known about your entry had it not been trackbacked to mine. And you only know about this comment because you will get an email about it. But if you respond in the comments, theres a low probability that i will read it due to the fact that my RSS feed doesnt tell me about updated comments.
What ARE all these comments from April on about? They certainly don’t seem to have anything to do w/obesity article. Is there a moderator? Who’s steering this conversation? Anyone?
Hello Guys!
I wonder what is it all about?
Oleg Skurskiy
http://www.AskOleg.com
Maybe incentives should be implemented into Life Insurance plans…
ERIN FISH
EMF Insurance Agency, Inc.
One of the key themes that repeats itself in the posts is consumer responsibility. We, at large, shift blame to everyone else when things go wrong. We have not been taught to read? Go to a free public school and learn to read for yourself. We need to take responsibility for our own CHOICES. Every generation that is obese leaves a legacy for the next…genetics are not fully to blame, nor fully exempt in obesity. As generations progress, genes are mutating with each obese generation. The third generation of obesity will have a more resistant metabolism than the first or second generations, and on down the line it goes. Is it impossible to overcome being obese if you are the third, fourth, or fifth generation? No, but it will be more difficult, and if we don’t try, we are making it harder for our kids and grandkids.
In studying Eastern medicine (such as Ayurveda), many, many ailments come down to nutritional deficiencies or overindulgences.
However, we cannot continue to blame others. This country was not founded on the blame game, but by people who wanted responsibility for their own success or failure.
Let’s get back to the natural foods that God (yes, I said it) put on this earth for us to eat. Generations ago had to work for their food, spend hours growing/hunting and preparing it, and that is why they were not obese. Now, all of the work is already done for us in convenient packaging (full of harmful petrochemicals…PETROchemicals, such as plastics, made from PETROLIUM). Anything worth having in life takes work, but we have to be willing and make the choice to invest the time and energy in ourselves.