“I am concerned for people’s well-being.” Are you? It sounds more like you believe fat people don’t care about how they look and fat people lack discipline.
Obesity is obviously a problem in the US and increasingly in rest of the world and it is costly in terms of money, health, and personal quality of life, and not to mention shaming.
Obesity is increasing not because fat people lack the character you apparently have. In my experience with people, fat people are some of most disciplined people I’ve known, trying thousands of crazy diets and crazy exercise, which work only temporarily. Nor is obesity the “scourge of prosperity.” The poor are getting fatter too. It is not easy being fat, particularly with shaming like this, and if preventing obesity were as simple as discipline or diet or exercise, there wouldn’t be very many fat people around. I think obesity is the body’s reaction to modern-day toxins and manufactured food. But I’m not completely sure how to permanently defeat this. The current recommendations by “experts” seem to be calorie-restriction diet and exercise, and that works only temporarily. I’ve had far more success with other methods, such as reducing anxiety, avoiding manufactured foods, avoiding refined sugars, and exercise; but even these work only temporarily. And you only have to open your eyes a bit to see the confusing and conflicting array of solutions. So I’m not sure how better health education could work, until science knows exactly what’s going on.
But the one thing we know does not work is trying to blame obesity on people’s character.Sean, I would humbly ask that you kindly reconsider your rather harsh judgment of people in wheelchairs who in certain cases apparently appear to vary from your sense of “what people with no means of independent ambulation should look like.”
I was a former D-1 college athlete who during and after college became an avid runner. In fact, I ran 26 consecutive Peachtree Road Races (10 K) in Atlanta and numerous other (5 K) (10 K) and (15 K) races. I thought my joy of running would continue into old age until Doctors discovered I had a spine tumor that effectively hard-stopped all of my beloved daily running and all participation in future races- dead in its track. fat people in wheelchairs” are not proof of an obesity issue.
while there are fat people who use wheelchairs and mobility scooters just because they’re fat the vast majority of fat people using those have underlying health issues that are the reason for their weight (either by virtue of the condition itself or one or more medications treating it). additionally many could’t be active even if they were a healthy weight.
add in the fact that government aid for people with disabilities is minimal even compared to what low income individuals can get and there’s more restrictions that start lowering how much one gets depending on how much one makes. I’ve talked to more than one disabled person who doesn’t work because they make less total when they work than what they do just with disability aid when they’re not working. they’re still below the poverty line and barely living hand to mouth but they’re still making more than they would otherwise. and virtually everyone I’ve talked to in that kind of situation WANTS to work as much as they can, it’s just that point in which you’re considered to be making too much to get disability aid is still way below a livable income.
if you have people who can’t be as physically active as healthy people, who take medications that can make them gain weight, don’t have the income to buy easy to make healthy food, and don’t have the energy/ability to do much cooking when they find cheap healthy food sources they can afford OF COURSE they’re going to be doing things like getting the cheapest fast food and other ready made food items that they can.
At some point during the delicate surgery to remove this large yet gratefully benign tumor, I became paralyzed from the chest down-virtually ensuring I would never run again. Due to an almost monthly number of attendant serious illnesses from ages 52–59, I was also unable to transfer into a racing wheelchair and resume running this way (as so many brave paraplegics and amputees do.) As such, if I spent any time pining for my former good health and mobility that I routinely took for granted, it would be quite easy to rapidly evolve into an angry, bitter person, looking askance at others who may be less fortunate financially yet still capable of achieving the better health/mobility that I was robbed of. I-
I hope you will acknowledge you are basing your view from an extremely limited observation of someone you don’t know who happens to be ahead of you in a grocery store/Walmart check-out line/queue.
Sean please at least consider exercising some restraint in your judgment in this area by acknowledging you may not have all of the facts regarding the full health record of people in wheelchairs. It is my prayer/wish for you that you find a place in your heart to alternatively weigh the merits of a position that may warrant some degree of compassion before forming such sweeping generalizations of people. The odds are that at least a few of us you come across might be former runners who would love nothing more than just one day with the youth and good health you have been so blessed with, so that they may go out for just one more run.
Peace and continued good health to you Sean and for any readers who happen to stop by this post. PeteLook at these statistics, let them sink in for a moment. I can definitely testify that living in Colorado just makes you move more. The mountains literally call to me when the weather gets warm. Hiking, Camping, REI, OH MY! Here, you will be told (lectured) by complete strangers to “Go do something outside. Get lost. Go buy a dog. It’s too nice not to”. There’s some nut jobs (Boulder) that take health to an ‘unhealthy’ place here…but I much prefer the gluten-free vegan crazies to the alternative. And some of that sedentary lifestyle comes on account of our civil planning, or lack thereof. The majority of American life is designed around sprawling suburbs and exurbs with no access to public transportation and few places worth going within walking distances of where people live.
When I lived in an inner suburb of St. Paul I walked or took the bus almost everywhere I went. I lived without a car, quite functionally for years even with a toddler. During my K-12 education, with the exception of middle school (seventh and eighth grade), we had physical education EVERY day.
And I was heavy. Always. With an intelligent mother watching what I ate.
Now they call it “metabolic syndrome”.
The only time I lost weight was when Senior Lifesaving was immediately before lunch. We would swim 25 laps, and then I couldn’t eat lunch, and if I’d eaten breakfast, I’d have thrown it up in the pool. I lost 15 pounds in six weeks. And gained it back, immediately.
“Lose weight!” my doctor tells me. I don't argue the points but am suspicious of that infographic. There are strong state dependencies. This might suggest collection biases. i also assume that the categories are based on some sort of normal distribution. In other words: it's impossible for 30% of the population be beyond 3 deviations for average. I guess I don't understand the scale but for it to make sense shouldn't there be an equal number of above and below average? And if so, an (equally) high percentage on either side is fine. Or, show me an info graphic of non-obese people. It would look pretty good.
Are there any measures? For instance if our lifespan is increasing yet we are getting more obese, it's hard to conclude that being obese is bad. We all know it is. But it would be nice to map unhealthiness with real measures.
“Tell me how!” I tell my doctor.
Then we moved to an outer suburb of Atlanta and suddenly everything is fenced in and separate from everything else. If I could walk straight to the nearby shopping center, it would take 5 minutes. But instead I have to navigate two steep hills and go around the perimeters of two neighborhoods and it takes closer to 20 minutes. When it’s 90+ degrees out, there is little incentive to make the walk unless the car isn’t an option. People here routinely spend an additional 1.5 to 2 hours a day sitting in traffic to commute to their jobs. Long work weeks, and long car commutes, only to make stagnating wages, means most Americans don’t have the time, money, or ambition to eat healthier or exercise. Healthy food is NOT expensive. I can cook a dinner for myself for the same or usually quite a bit less than even a small extra value meal from McDonald’s these days. In fact, for about 20.00, I can make a week’s worth - 7 meals - of Lasagna for myself including buying the ground beef and Ricotta cheese (which is around 4.00 here). A head of lettuce and I have a snack or lunch for 3–4 days. An initial investment in olive oil, and I can buy whole grain pasta, with sauce and fresh mushrooms - for 5–7 bucks (mostly for the fresh mushrooms, canned shrooms are a dollar to a buck fifty) - and make enough of a healthy spaghetti for EIGHT meals. One flaw is the way obesity is measured.
Obesity is defined as a BMI greater than 30, which is determined solely on height and weight. While I’m not saying that America doesn’t have a health problem, it is possible for somebody to be in good shape and still be considered obese (how large a portion that is, I don’t know).
The one thing I’d disagree on is that people don’t care how they look. It comes down to the economic principle that time and money are scarce resources. It’s often cheaper and more convenient to eat fast food than it is to eat healthy. In addition, most people are balancing work/school, social time, and other things in their schedule already that it’s restrictive to implement a fitness regime. Ultimately the marginal cost of switching to a healthier lifestyle often beats out the marginal benefit. We’ve created a perfect storm of factors that make healthful living something of a luxury. It’s not always that people cannot afford to eat healthy food, but rather the lack of information and action with regards to what is affordable and nutritious.Basically claiming that poor people are only fat because they simply cannot afford healthy food is a ridiculous misconception. I teach inner city middle schoolers, most of which are low income English language learners, they often eat junk food because they simply don’t know better. It’s not the lack of access to nutritious food, which is just as affordable as junk food, but rather the lack of knowledge on the subject.This one really hit home for me, bringing back many childhood memories. The kids of 50 years ago ate home cooked food, freely roamed the outdoors for 3–6 hours a day and one of the requirements for passing Middle School Phys Ed, was to climb an 18 foot vertically suspended rope, freehand and get back down without injury. Roughly one in a hundred kids were moderately overweight but like everyone else, they still had to run a mile, at least three times a month in gym class. The scourge of prosperity is NOT obesity. That is totally a policy decision on the part of the U.S. government. How do I know that?
Japan. Japan is a highly prosperous nation, and has been since the 1960s. Yet her obesity rate as of 2019 was at around 3.6%, or lower than Ethiopia’s or Niger’s! (These two nations are some of the poorest in the world, with high rates of malnutrition.) So prosperity, even prosperity that has lasted decades, does not lead to high obesity rates. That’s a silly connection.
What did and does lead to high obesity rates is the U.S. government making a huge change in agricultural policies in the late 1970s. Before this massive change, the U.S. government paid farmers NOT to grow too much food since that would keep agricultural prices relatively stable and high enough for farmers to make a profit. It also meant that the food system in the U.S. was not flooded with food so therefore Americans could eat non-fatty foods in normal portions. After a huge overhaul in the farmer subsidy system in the late 1970s, the U.S. government started paying farmers to grow lots of food. All of that food had to go somewhere, so it was dumped in the U.S. food system. That’s when companies, led by the fast food giants, needed to figure out novel ways to cram all this extra food into the stomachs of Americans. That’s when fatty and highly-processed foods started to proliferate and flood American grocery stores, and the obesity rate started its crazy climb in the U.S. All because the subsidy system totally controlled by the U.S. federal government was changed for the far worse. Here’s the video that explains all of this. Start at 5:27 for the relevant part.
I have seen countless times:
- An obese parent in front of me at the grocery store, with an obese child under the age of 10. Their grocery cart is full of pure junk food.
- An obese person in a wheel chair ordering fast food.
- People eating candy bars for breakfast on a daily basis.
- Coworkers, who complain about their diabetes, with a bowl of candy by their monitor that they pick at all day.
- I know of at least 3 people with diabetes who had their foot (or other limb) amputated because they couldn’t control their eating.
- Children, under the age of 10, who weigh over 150 lbs (68 kg). These children are stretching their skin out and effectively ruining their bodies.
Our health education is pathetic. Our Physical Education and Gym programs are skeletal at this point.
Our country literally subsidizes food that makes people fat. We are essentially paying people to get fat.
It bothers me because people’s lack of discipline (or caring) ramps up healthcare costs that I have to pay for in tax dollars.
It bothers me because people don’t care about the way they look. They are willing to just let go.
But more than anything I am concerned for people's well-being. You don't always get second chances on heart attacks and strokes.
We are a prosperous country. But the scourge of prosperity is obesity.
I don't despise obese people but I do despise it as a health epidemic in our country.
1 Comments
Nice
ReplyDelete