Posted on 12/10/2017 8:49:27 PM PST by nickcarraway
HERE’S a big fat shocker: Almost two-thirds of Australians are overweight or obese. Being flabby is the health crisis of our age. It’s the new smoking.
But what is the main cause of our expanding waistlines? Quite simply, we’re lazy. We prefer machines to do the physical work we once performed ourselves.
Early this week at Southern Cross Station, I observed a phenomenon that illustrates our disdain for exertion. Dozens of commuters were queued before a crowded escalator leading from the first floor to the ground level. Next to it was a near-vacant staircase. Instead of waiting for the escalator, these slothful individuals could have burned a kilojoule or two by using their legs.
Evidence of such laziness is everywhere. Thanks to the free tram zone in the CBD, for example, workers and shoppers who might have once walked a few blocks now catch public transport for a single stop. It seems we’re allergic to walking even short distances.
Similarly, on 3AW this week a bus driver named Ralph told me that younger patrons regularly board his vehicle to travel a few hundred metres. Sometimes the wait for such absurdly short trips exceeds 20 minutes. Yet apparently relaxing in a bus shelter is preferable to short stroll.
Even the humble remote control caters to our activity aversion. Rather than leap from the couch every time we wish to adjust the volume, or change a channel, the proliferation of small electronic boxes on our coffee tables allows us to remain seated for extended, and unhealthy, periods.
All this dramatically reduces the energy we expend over a lifetime. As a result, the CEO of Diabetes NSW and ACT, Stuart Eastwood, estimates that 21st century adults engage in 85 per cent less daily activity than their equivalents 100 years ago. But have we cut our food intake by an equivalent amount?
No. Modern Australians combine their distaste for exercise with a passion for eating junk and gulping sugar-laden fizzy drink — both, too often, by the bucketload.
And the results are obvious: 63.4 per cent of us are overweight or obese. Almost 5 per cent have type 2 diabetes, and the incidence of that largely preventable disease is growing rapidly. Diabetes can lead to blindness, amputation and early death. If we don’t do something, average Australian life expectancies will decline.
Fortunately, a solution for obesity is at hand. On the excessive eating and drinking front, groups like the Greens and the Australian Medical Association want to impose taxes on junk food and soft drink. These, they hope, will guide overweight Australians towards healthier dietary alternatives.
Since the introduction of the GST, however, we’ve already experienced a pseudo tax on junk food — and it hasn’t worked. Thanks to John Howard’s 2001 deal with the Democrats, fresh fruit, veggies and meat are exempt from sales tax. Yet still we prefer cramming our gobs with fat and GST-laden takeaway food.
Increased activity levels are the answer. And because too many of us lack the will to get out and exercise, some group coercion is required.
Apart from those who are physically incapacitated, no one really needs an escalator to go from one floor of a railway station, or shopping centre, to the next. All such devices should be removed, thus forcing otherwise inactive people on to the stairs.
The same is true for lifts in low-rise buildings. At 3AW, for example, we occupy the top floor of a squat, seven-storey structure. Climbing the stairs each day to and from our office would do both my colleagues and me no harm — and probably a power of good. So after the escalators at Southern Cross station have been dismantled, we should also remove unnecessary lifts.
And on public transport, why do so many people insist on sitting when standing is healthier? Apart from a small area reserved for the disabled, the pregnant and the elderly, the seats on every tram, train and bus should be replaced with safety straps.
More commuters will be accommodated during busy periods, and standing erect for an hour or so each day won’t hurt office workers whose main form of exercise consists of manoeuvring a computer mouse around a desk.
Usually I’m not a fan of banning things. But rising levels of obesity threaten our collective wellbeing. If unnecessary labour-saving devices like escalators, low-rise lifts and seats on public transport are eliminated, we’ll probably whinge a bit — but our shrinking waistlines will reap the benefits.
— Tom Elliott is 3AW drivetime host, weekdays 3pm-6pm.
Tom Elliot is a limited world blowhard. There are many different reasons people are obese besides lack of exercise. What about those that can’t exercise? What about those that are on medications that cause weight retention. What about those that have thyroid conditions or Graves disease. There are more. But this idiot just wants to get his little fame game so he can point out other people’s problems that may not exist. He is better described as a dilettante. That’s an amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge but doesn’t.
rwood
Yes, I did.
But I am from New Orleans, so I love to eat, and I fall off the diet wagon all the time.
But my theory is that if I burn enough calories on a daily basis that should make up for my cheating when it comes to food.
I mean once a year I eat a king cake from Maurice’s French Pastries in New Orleans, and that thing is about a zillion calories, but it’s just so good. Gotta have those pleasures, but then I work them off.
The thing that I really enjoy the most about my exercise regimen is that it has made me so much stronger and so much firmer than I was.
Skating has made my legs into solid muscle, zero % fat there, weight lifting for the arms and chest, and then the push ups, ab wheel and planks for the core. Skating also works the core very well as it is used to maintain balance constantly.
The exercise makes me feel good physically and mentally, and as a consequence of that, also spiritually. Gonna do it for as long as I possibly can.
I’ve replaced beef in dishes with turkey it has made keeping the 70 lbs I shed quite easy. I didn’t really do this on purpose but I can’t attribute it to much else
bookmark
Hahaa love it! I am too many nights yet I don’t fit well into the pants I bought just over a month ago. I’m telling ya’ when you get a certain age unless you dine like a rabbit and work out like a supermodel there’s no way to stay slim if it is not in your genes to do so.
Quoting Peter Gibbons: “It’s not that I’m lazy, Bob. It’s just that I don’t care.”
Forget BMI. Look around. There are fat people everywhere. It’s a death knell for this country. No fat muzzies, though. They are preparing for the battle by staying lean.
You’re a heretic. Don’t you know that the great Limbaugh has told millions of conservatives that exercising is a waste of time. (I honestly turn off the radio when he starts that crap).
Forget that for millennia man has to pretty much work all day to maintain his life and now we have machines and others to do that for us. Fat people will come up with a million excuses why they’re not responsible for their own bodies. Even “conservatives” who claim to want to be left alone and be responsible for their own lives will blame anything but themselves for their condition.
Here is a great inspirational video of Arthur Boorman.
It is amazing that he was able to lose weight and be able to walk, run, etc. after being disabled, paratrooper knee injuries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIXOo8D9Qsc
#TrueTrue
He’s wrong. There is a weight loss saying...”You can’t run away from your fork”.
A typical adult man will burn about 500 calories running 3 miles.
Between getting ready to run, finding a place to run, running itself, showering after running, etc...this process could take 2 to 3 hours per day. It would be a heck of a lot easier just to get a regular black coffee instead of a Caramel Frappuccino at breakfast or carrots instead of large fries at lunch. Make both substitutions and it is the equivalent of running 6 miles a day.
I’m not saying that exercise isn’t important. I run 10 to 15 miles a week. It has many great health benefits. Lifting weights is great for bone density and hormone regulation.
But...you just can’t run or lift yourself from fat to skinny.
Exactly. Someone actually read what this guy wrote.
Yeah, exercise, cut down on the calories - all good. But this guy proposes having the government taxing certain items it deems undesirable and banning other “undesirable” items. Great! Now our nanny government bosses will decide what is desirable for us and what is not, because, according to this clown, individuals are incapable of making adjustments and the government minders must step in and help us.
Just great. My gosh are people really this brain dead?
Yes, what you said...I believe moderate exercise can be really good for you, but isn’t necessary if you do not lead a SEDENTARY life....ie sit on your bum many hours a day. Put an odometer on yourself...do at least 10,000 steps. It does make a difference, BUT, it wasn’t till I quit most carbs that I lost 20 lbs.
Carbs? Or your thyroid?
Yes, I know that I am. And I have heard Limbaugh say that, and yeah I know you can lose weight simply by dieting, I have done that before in my life as well.
I am definitely not going to knock dieting. But I have really come to find that exercise has other benefits that dieting does not, at least not for me.
Exercise has helped me physically, mentally and spiritually. It’s a fantastic stress release. It helps keeps things in balance for me.
I honestly feel blessed by God to still be here on this earth being able to skate my laps under some of the amazing sunsets that I have seen. It’s just great to find something that makes you happy to be alive and makes your spirits soar.
Not going to get that from dieting.
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