<p>I don’t know how many Americans know this or not, but, it is not a constitutional right that your feelings remain protected.</p>
<p>It makes me wonder what people actually think of this when someone says “mean spiritedness is not to be condoned”. Sure I am a dick for doing it, and I choose not too, but I believe I have the right to make fun of whoever I want. Fat people, gay people, black people, rich people, anyone.</p>
<p>cpt isn’t talking about legal rights, s/he is talking about whether it is right in the larger sense to be mean-spirited. </p>
<p>If you think that it is “right” to be mean-spirited, I pity you.</p>
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<p>180 IQ/120 lb. sounds healthy to me!</p>
<p>How tall are you?</p>
<p>What a great society we would have if all kinds of mean spiritedness is condoned? I’m not talking about constitutional rights or legalities. It’s just not the right thing to do. </p>
<p>There is a difference between some statement of fact and mean spiritedness. In today’s politically correct climate, one often cannot make statements of fact with no nastiness implied. In many ways, we’ve gone too far that way. If you are fat, that is a fact. You know it. If someone says something about it that is not a nasty statement, that is a whole different story from being mean. I don’t consider just saying someone is fat or heavy or overweight an insult, but the context and way it is said is the culprit.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse, I think you’re right, and I don’t suppose many would disagree. We have become overly sensitive to simple statements of fact, imbuing them with all sorts of imagined slights and implications that just aren’t there. I am often angered by the suggestion that simply calling someone “fat/skinny” or “black/white” or “■■■■■■■■/[whatever]” proves that one is prejudiced. That’s unfair. Why has plain language become verboten? When did treating people respectfully become synonymous with obscuring the truth?</p>
<p>I think the word “■■■■■■■■” is an exception to that. It has become a very hurtful word to a group of people who need some extra protecting. To be hurtful to those that need extra help is a mean thing. The idea that I am hurting someone’s feelings that cannot understand that a certain word had no original meanness intended after it has become an insulting word, is something I don’t want to do,nor do I want to see other do. It is a matter of common sense many times as well as compassion.</p>
<p>It’s amazing how easily I turned this into a political correctness thread :D</p>
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<p>Um, don’t be too proud. It takes zero effort to do that here. ;)</p>
<p>■■■■■■■■ is a tricky one, I agree. Although I wouldn’t say to a mentally disabled person, “You’re ■■■■■■■■,” I would say to someone else privately, “He is ■■■■■■■■,” and I wouldn’t mean it in a derogatory way, and I wouldn’t feel guilty about saying it.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4–I think that you are right to say we should talk about health fitness, rather than strictly weight. (Not that the two aren’t often overlapping.) I’ve spent the majorityi of my adult life in the overweight category, though not severely so (and I"m on a path out if it right now.) Despite that, I have low/normal sugar, average bp (used to be ridiculously low, but middle age has raised it to normal) ,great cholestoral. Some of that is luck, some the fact that, despite being overweight, I eat very healthfully and get a ton of exercise. I know plenty of people who are not overweight but are dealing with cholesteral, diabetes, and/or blood pressure issues. I think I am pretty lucky in that respect.</p>
<p>I have been fat several times in my life for various reasons two times after having a child. So, I feel that I have all rights to say that: “Overweight people just need to eat less and move more; it’s not that complicated,” . Hunger is very temporary feeling, you are humgry for few minutes, then it goes away. In addition, there is no need to be hungry, just grab a fruit or drink water, it will take care of it temporarily. I had no problem loosing 50 pounds and keeping it off until next child or another big event in life that needed diet/exercise adjustment. The last time I have kept it off for about 18 years, I am normal weight.</p>
<p>I agree that it is unproductive to make fun of overweight people. </p>
<p>I would like to see, however, those who are overweight take more responsibility for their conditions. If you are 300 lbs and happy with that, then great, I don’t have any issues with your choices. But I find the “victim” mentality to be just as annoying as those who are rude to others about their weight. People blame depression, magazine ads, junk food in the office vending machine, TV and the internet for their weight gain. The bottom line is that you make the choice to eat or not, what and how much.</p>
<p>People who are unhappy with their weight and blame everything around them but themselves are doomed to fail in their weightloss attempts, because they allow themselves to believe they have no control over their bodies. </p>
<p>Nrdsb4 has some incredibly helpful advice about choosing fresh and unprocessed foods.</p>
<p>Btw, my H was obese and lost 60 lbs, once he finally quit making excuses and admitted that he was making poor food choices, (like eating entire boxes of wheat thins before dinner, which for some reason he would never “count” as having eaten).</p>
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Did you know that, apparently, Coke has no calories when you drink it a little bit at a time right from the bottle? Yeah. My husband says so, and it certainly seems to work for him even though he drinks an entire two-liter bottle every day. Oh wait . . .</p>
<p>“Hunger is very temporary feeling, you are hungry for few minutes, then it goes away.” </p>
<p>Is there anyone else for whom this is NOT true?</p>
<p>I am hungry 24/7, no matter what I eat or how much I eat. I have had my thyroid checked and it is supposedly fine.</p>
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<p>There are several hormones which play a part in hunger/satiety. All of the hormones in our body play off each other, and a disruption with one affects all of the different hormones as they work in concert to achieve “homeostasis.”</p>
<p>I recently read a book called Master Your Metabolism, by Jillian Michaels. She is the trainer on The Biggest Loser. The book explains all of the hormones which affect our weight, hunger, and satiety, how the various chemicals in our diet can affect those hormones, and how to minimize the damaging effects of our diet and environment on our health, our weight, and our quality of life. It is an interesting read. Jillian herself suffered from hypothyroidism and other hormone imbalances, and claims that she suffered low grade misery for much of her life as she starved herself and worked out like a fiend in order to combat her weight problems. In addition to thyroid medication, she credits eliminating processed foods for improving the quality of her life and health.</p>
<p>I am the opposite. I’m never really hungry but I have to force myself to eat to you know… stay a live. If there is a problem it’s in the hypothalamus in the brain that controls hunger.</p>
<p>The only problem I have with overweight people is when they impinge on me. How many of us have been on a train or a plane, or at the theater, for which we’ve paid for a seat but only get a 1/2 seat because of the size of the person next to us? And yet it is “discrimination” to suggest that a person who takes up 2 seats actually pay for them. But those of us who are normal sized (no, I’m not by any stretch of the imagination “thin”) are expected to be squished and like it so as not to be “mean-spirited.” </p>
<p>Well, sorry, if that’s mean-spirited, then so be it. You are not entitled to my space, no matter what your size. And no matter what the reason for it.</p>
<p>More evidence is coming in on calorie restriction and its many benefits. If you aren’t familiar with the topic, a somewhat lengthy article in the NY Times magazine is an eye opener:
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/magazine/11Calories-t.html?scp=3&sq=&st=nyt[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/magazine/11Calories-t.html?scp=3&sq=&st=nyt</a></p>
<p>Frankily, I have seen its effectiveness in my own family, and have always been grateful to my mother that things like chips and soda were never on her grocery list. Once people have lost their taste for the unsugared and unsalted, how hard is it to convert back to basic foods?</p>
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Some people are afflicted with this extreme and I’m sure there are lesser degrees of it. I’ve read of studies that confirm it and about one where they can stimulate certain areas of the brain which causes the person to finally have the ‘full’ feeling. Various drugs affect it as well. This is yet another reason why ‘understanding people’ should not inflict their own personal experience of how their own body functions on others who have a different body. Some people, probably most, have a ‘normal’ hunger satisfaction level where they’re hungry at appropriate times and feel full at the right time. Others never feel full and yet others, as with another poster, don’t frequently feel that hungry. For those who casually say “it’s easy, just eat less” I’d like to see them simply try not eating for 2 days to see how their body reacts and the compulsion they’ll feel to eat. Maybe some people have that similar feeling of a compulsion to eat only their same threshold is measured in a small number hours rather than 24 or 48.</p>
<p>I’m not attempting to provide excuses but rather just stating that we all have different physiology and backgrounds and therefore shouldn’t inflict our personal experience on others. </p>
<p>That said, I do agree that a significant number of overweight people could achive a more healthy weight by ensuring they cut the junk and restaurant food, change their eating habits, become more aware of the calories that are in different types of foods (including ‘good’ foods), exercising, etc. But this is often easier said than done and I think truly more difficult for some than others.</p>
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<p>My Mom had to go on a low sodium diet. She complained about it for awhile, then seemed to adapt. One day we all went to a cafeteria style restaurant. She sat down, took a bite of her green beans and nearly gagged because they were so salty.</p>
<p>I remember wondering if it would be impossible to enjoy iced tea without sweeteners. Now I would probably gag like my mom if I took a swig of iced tea that had any kind of sweetener in it.</p>
<p>The preference for salt and sugar can be altered.</p>