<p>Hey! How about all those depressed people! They cost tax payers millions in lost wages and medical bills. Just quit being sad, for pete’s sake. Smile! And hey! How about those anorexics (EAT!!) and those alcoholics (quit drinking!!! ) </p>
<p>Come on people. Have some compassion. No one wants to be fat. If it was as easy as not eating then everyone would be the perfect weight…whatever that may be this week. Some problems are just more visible than others.</p>
<p>Wow, this thread makes me sad for humanity.</p>
<p>A recent NYTimes mag article cited a obesity study (set points?) finding that many who diet and keep the weight off are actually starving themselves. And that it was almost impossible for those who were heavy to keep the weight off (likewise diff for those who were thin to keep on the “extra” pounds).</p>
<p>I witnessed this in my own family. My M had the fastest metab in history - - she could eat anything and did - - but never gained weight. She was 5’6 and weighted only 108 when she married, swelled up to 130 w/ her second pregnancy and spent most of her life at 120. The luck of the draw, not healthy eating.</p>
<p>In terms of the obesity epidemic and children, I wonder how much of the problem is not “fighting” w/ kids about food. DH used to take pride in the fact that, unlike me, he never fought w/ the kids about food (truth is he didn’t fight w/ them about anything - - I was the enforcer, Mrs. Meanie to his Mr. Fun). But if someone doesn’t say, “take the fruit as a snack; the cookies are for dessert, after dinner only,” or “I packed chips in you lunchbox, we’re not stopping at the truck” or “you’ve already had 2 slices of pizza, that enough,” how do kids learn about portion control, etc.?</p>
<p>Garland and mythmom - - you are both to be admired. Sorry the posts are so harsh. Dieting is often, as momof2inca stated, painful, uncomfortable and stressful - - she left out unsuccessful, even for those who put forth a sincere effort. (Momof2, glad it worked for your H, but that doesn’t mean dieting will works as well or at all for others hoping to shed 30lbs.)</p>
<p>“Hey! How about all those depressed people! They cost tax payers millions in lost wages and medical bills. Just quit being sad, for pete’s sake. Smile! And hey! How about those anorexics (EAT!!) and those alcoholics (quit drinking!!! )”</p>
<p>You are actually bringing up a very good point, which is severe underfunding for controllable problems. Depression is a very neglected illness now, and more money needs to be spent on it.</p>
<p>I would like to address the food stamp issue for a moment. Having had a part time job as a grocery store cashier for several years, I can assure you that the cheapest food is garbage. When you have x amount of $ to feed a family for a month, are you going to buy 10 pkgs of ramen noodles (full of fat & sodium) for a $1.00 or a 3 lb bag of apples (about 8 apples) for $3.99? Meat, fruit and veggies (exception of canned) are much more expensive than ramen, macaroni, rice, and other items. These cheap items make poor people fat. It is all empty carbs. On the flip side, it would really irk me when people would come through and only buy chips, individual koolaid type drinks, cakes, etc… and not even attempt to make informed choices. </p>
<p>Another factor with poor people/obesity is the fast food dollar menu. My Dd had a friend that was dirt poor. Thiss family only ate $5 pizzas or off the $1 menu. The parents were huge. They could have taken the $10 - $15 per day they were spending on double cheeseburgers and bought nutritious food but were not willing or perhaps informed enough to do so.</p>
<p>I believe that people on food stamps should get a certain amount of $ per month that can only be applied to fruit, dairy, meat & veggies with an additional balance to be provided toward discretional items. Also, they should be required to attend mandatory nutrition classes on how to pick proper food. Just my .02.</p>
<p>How about we not allow physicians to order alcoholic drinks during the week.
How about making it mandatory that they take a class on alcohol blood levels and their effects on ones ability to do surgery.</p>
<p>And do I have this right?
Fat people are fat because they have no self control…
Depressed people are in need of funding to help their depression.
Now how about the fat depressed guy that eats to feel better. Loser or in need of help from our tax dollars?</p>
<p>“I believe that people on food stamps should get a certain amount of $ per month that can only be applied to fruit, dairy, meat & veggies with an additional balance to be provided toward discretional items. Also, they should be required to attend mandatory nutrition classes on how to pick proper food. Just my .02.”</p>
<p>You are very right, however, there have been lawsuits brought on behalf of recipients of fod stamps that overturned any restrictions or mandates that they buy healthy foods. The argument is that their children should not be deprived of junk food just because their parents are poor. In the state I lived in, they won, and there were no controls. I don’t know if this is universally true in other states.</p>
<p>“How about we not allow physicians to order alcoholic drinks during the week.
How about making it mandatory that they take a class on alcohol blood levels and their effects on ones ability to do surgery.”</p>
<p>This is a great idea. And mandatory blood alcohol levels done unannounced. Also to be done on machinery operators, and people who walk out of bars or alcohol-serving restaurants towards their cars. A lot of mishaps could be prevented. </p>
<p>I think that you should contact your local medical society about this great idea.</p>
<p>As to the depressed overweight person, s/he could be evaluated on both fronts and helped. Need more funding though, you are right again!</p>
<p>"But, Dr. Berry added, “I quickly learned that when I was riding with someone with a 36-inch waist, I could be looking at the back of their waist when they rode away from me.”</p>
<p>From the article referenced. A 36 inch waist is not bad! So many obese people are 44+ waist.</p>
<p>"Even Mr. Hampsten has been surprised by the cycling paradox. He recalls a woman from San Diego who went on one of his trips. “She was quite overweight,” he said, and even though she claimed to be an experienced cyclist, he worried that she would have trouble keeping up with the group. He was wrong. </p>
<p>“She rode so well,” Mr. Hampsten said. “Her cadence was very efficient. I was just amazed and delighted.”"</p>
<p>I had no experience with this issue until recently, when I befriended an extremely obese, relatively young, person. She is truly a joy - caring, funny, friendly, and very well educated. But I feel so bad for her. She can not live a normal life and has numerous obesity-related health issues (including recurring celulitis (s?), diabetes, and joint failure) . She truly has a severe food addiction, and in spite of ongoing counseling, has not been able to bring this under control. (Exercise is sort of a moot point - she can barely walk.) It’s like watching an alcoholic in the final throes of liver cirrhosis still drinking. It makes me feel powerless to help her, but I know that I can’t. I just see her killing herself and it is terribly sad as she has so much to offer. Unfortunately, she is also responsible for a group of young people - including choosing food for them quite often - and it is not good.</p>
<p>I guess my point is that there is an extreme end of this spectrum, and at least in this instance, it is indeed a severe illness of the addiction variety.</p>
<p>“Maintaining proper weight is a ridiculously simple formula: calories in = calories out.”</p>
<p>My goodness! I’ve been reading along with my mouth open (not eating, just aghast!) and have to say something. My wife eats less then anyone I know. She often doesn’t have anything at all till afternoon, and then it might be a bite of something healthy and innocuous. For dinner she normally has half the portion of anyone else. If I’m serving, I can never get her portion small enough. And yes, she IS overweight. From her METABOLISM! NOT from how much she eats. “Calories in = calories out?” Sure. Makes sense. In many cases. Certainly not anywhere close to all. And before you judge anyone for how much they eat, why not go up to them and just ask if you should judge them for eating so much or do they have a hormonal imbalance and then it wouldn’t be right to judge them? You wouldn’t want to embarrass yourself by judging the wrong people, would you?</p>
<p>The obesity “epidemic” can be dated with some precision to the marketing strategy of Archer, Daniels, Midland in the mid-50s to saturate the wholesale prepared food market with low-cost corn-based sweeteners. There is no time in the history of the world prior to that in which corn-based sweeteners (now 72 pounds per person per year, and rising - it had been less than a half a pound in 1950) had overwhelmed a nation’s diet. (Did you know that, for example, since the 1950s, there is sugar in your salt?)</p>
<p>There have been quite a few articles on the addictive nature of corn-based sweeteners, or more precisely, their impact on pleasure centers in the brain (and, when the pleasure centers are not fed, the resulting depression), as well as specific impacts on metabolic rates. Americans didn’t all of a sudden decide they were going to eat more, or more poorly. It was a specific outgrowth of corporate policy, and will likely require similar changes in corporate policy to change it.</p>
<p>There is a new field of ethno-nutrition, cataloging the changes in diet country by country with the introduction of processed foods, and specifically, of corn-based sweeteners. In every case, changes in weight are closely association with their mass introduction.</p>
<p>I think to say people are killing themselves misses the point virtually entirely.</p>
<p>Not happening, Mini. The food lobby is as powerful as the gun lobby, and those corn-based sweeteners are quite addictive, and quite good for the food industry’s bottom line.</p>
<p>Even getting restaurants to eliminate trans-fat (which should be a no-brainer), has not been so easy.</p>
<p>Things that taste so good usually are filled with all kinds of transfat and/or high fructose corn syrup.</p>
<p>That’s why, unless you hope to become a food-Nazi, becoming friends with being overweight is not a particularly bad idea.</p>
<p>Do NOT eat breakfast if it means adding more corn-based products or sweeteners. (That will rule out almost all boxed cereals, and many packaged bread products, and even lots of processed sausages.)</p>
<p>Southwest Airlines charges by the seat. If you need two seats due to epilepsy or cancer – perhaps because you need to travel with a nurse – they’ll charge you for two seats. If you need two seats due to your size, they’ll charge you for two seats. Where’s the discrimination?</p>
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<p>Wha…? You think that human behavior changes as gradually as DNA? I don’t even know how to respond to that. Population behavior can and often does change enormously in less than a generation. Look at China in the mid-80’s and today; there’s been a cosmic shift in lifestyle and behavior of every kind, including diet and exercise patterns. Their DNA hasn’t changed at all.</p>
<p>But you’re talking about 30 extra pounds, not about obesity. No doubt, given a life-long healthy diet and reasonable exercise, some people will be skinny, some fleshy, and many in between. But only a tiny fraction will be obese, much less morbidly obese, and most of us seem to be talking about serious obesity (NAAFA, SW Airlines, etc.). I think we (1) need to address obesity as a serious and preventable public health issue without adopting (2) the insane and misogynistic cultural notion that women with wide hips are worthless human beings. We can be very concerned about the first idea without embracing the second.</p>
<p>Hanna–my point is that everyone did not decide to make the same unhealthy choices spontaneously. Look at our environment, and read Mini’s posts. Of all people, I thought you’d be a little more informed on this.</p>
<p>And my other point is that, to maintain that “only 30 pounds” I have to, basically, eat much less (though healthfully) than the average, “normal-sized” person, in addition to far more than the average exercise. That maintains; it does not lead to weight loss.</p>