Thread: Obesity
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Old 10-28-2009, 11:16 AM   #67
jonreading
 
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Re: Obesity

I have now read several excuses for obesity:
1. The fast food chains advertising compaigns force us to make poor eating decisions
2. Our parent pass along to us "fat" genes and they make us fat
3. Eating is an addiction similar to heroine and we can't stop without intervention

You know what is absent from those excuses? Our own choices.
Obesity is a problem in the US. Our society should be applying a healthy encouragment to take better care of our bodies. We should want to be in better shape. I think we have negative pressure from the glamour of thin, but I believe we should advocate a healthier lifestyle.

(Excluding those who truly suffer from illnesses which adversely affect their bodies) My keyboard is dripping with sarcasm.

Got fat genes from your parents? That sucks - you will need to tweak your lifestyle choices to make up for that problem. High blood pressure? That sucks too - guess you'll have a slightly different lifestyle too. Metabolism slowing down? Guess you can't eat like you're 18 anymore. Every day we are presented with many lifestyle choices that can affect our health.

Quote:
Fat and obese people don't make money, being fat doesn't make a profit, say like Alcoholism does. Airlines support drinking, doctor's say wine and beer are good for you. Insurance companies will still insure you. Other industries glamorize drinking, we as a society accept drinking as a part of living. Yet, drinking, being drunk, kills more people, does more social damage, is worse for your health, a unhealthy lifestyle, and it isn't pretty. Yet the liquor industry is a billion dollar industry, therefore, that makes it socially acceptable.
Quote:
Well since it's being inferred there is more to being fat than just "willpower"... The Fast Food Industry alone spends Billions getting folks to eat it's garbage...and that is just one of a thousand examples...Our entire culture around food needs to change including how we grow it, harvest it, transport it, market it and finally eat it...We're all just reflections of that on most levels...We are truly a "Fast Food Nation."
Fat people don't make money for industry? Yet the fast food industry spends billions of dollars marketing to attract customers. We are not getting straight facts and now unsubstantiated claims are starting to conflict. The food industry makes money because people choose to eat prepared meals, their weight [with respect to the industry] is irrevelant to that choice.

I have a unique approach to stress - I walk at lunchtime and work in my yard on the weekends.

I go to a special retreat for people who have weight control concerns - I call it a gym.

My wife is always there for me when I can't seem to get motivated - she intervenes with the TV power button.

I am on a special diet of foods - it's the home-cooked meal.

These comments seem sarcastic, but I am writing them to show how many small decisions each day contribute to healthier lifestyles. None of these decisions have sinister industry plots behind them, or unstoppable force applied to affect my behavior me (** my wife excluded), or countless money spend to affect me. In fact, no one cares when I do these things.

But that's the rub - I am responsible for my decisions what if no one will care if I make poor ones? No one pats me on the back when I walk at lunchtime. No one says good job when I make dinner at home. But if I'm a victim...The fast food industry made me fatty food... The grocery store made me buy junk food... My parents gave me fat genes... Work doesn't give me time to exercise... Well, maybe that's different.

Keep your victimization. I'll answer to the bag of porkrinds I ate composing this response. This thread is starting to sound like a soapbox...It's only a matter of time till someone quotes one of the anti-food industry books in circulation (wait...I think that already happened.)
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