Posted on 03/15/2011 2:38:17 PM PDT by Pining_4_TX
Since the anti-obesity campaign is allegedly motivated by scientific findings, it would seem reasonable and prudent to make doubly sure that those claims are factual and trustworthy. Yet, we continue to find that the case against obesity is significantly flawed. Not only are the claims of an obesity epidemic often wildly exaggerated, but the science linking weight to unfavourable mortality outcomes is also frequently nonexistent or distorted.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiked-online.com ...
ping
Whom do I believe, someone who claims that there is no obesity “epidemic” (obviously a metaphor), or my lyin’ eyes. The “epidemic” is real, but so is the agenda. So, we agree 50% ;-)
Anybody who cannot acknowledge the epidemic of obesity in our time is brain dead. The consequences of obesity are huge and understated: obese people actually have brains that are 10% smaller than weight appropriate individuals.
Surgeon General: Buying Iodine a "Precaution"
I agree. Obesity is a real health problem in the U.S., but there’s also an agenda. As Rahm Emmanuel said, “never let a crisis go to waste.”
If you are basing this on your own observations, then it is similar to people looking at NYC or Hong Kong and concluding that the earth is overpopulated. It is subjective rather than scientific.
Smaller brains? Where is your proof? If there is an epidemic of obesity and obesity is such a hazard, then why are we living longer than ever? In the case of diabetes, it is likely that the diabetes is what causes weight gain, not the other way around. There is also some evidence that weight gain in diabetics is the body’s way of coping with insulin resistance.
As I said before, what everyone knows to be true, usually is not.
The young are flat out fat, because their parents cannot say NO to anything their little hearts desire. I have 5 children, 4 of them are borderline morbidly obese. They lived with their mother most of their lives, and she pampered them, fed them the most fattening things I could imagine. If you are familiar with “Schwans” food delivery, you know how rich and sweet their products are. Want a treat, have a 400 calorie popsicle, or a couple of soda pops and a candy bar. When I was younger, if you wanted a candy bar and pop, you bought it yourself, out of your own money....and that money did NOT come from mom or dad. Meals were served three times a day, and you ate then, or starved. We were kicked out of the house in the A.M. to play, or get stuck cleaning or mowing the lawn, picking weeds, or even painting a fence. TV was shut off all day.
But I don't agree about that there isn't an obesity problem. It exists, but life-style changes won't fix it.
There is reason to believe that there is an infectious source to some of the obesity problem: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infectobesity. And there are reports that show lifestyle changes don't affect it: Exercise Reduces Hunger In Lean Women But Not Obese Women.
Obesity has been tied to auto-immune diseases like fibromyalgia and autism and celiac disease. None of these are cured by life-style changes.
It'd be nice if the politicians would stop worrying about obesity and let the scientist work on the problem.
“It’d be nice if the politicians would stop worrying about obesity and let the scientist work on the problem.”
Amen to that.
Hey, I’m in shape. (Round is a shape.)
I see the whole thing within the context of my favorite Chesterton quote:
“The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog.” — GK Chesterton
Not quite. There is plenty of data that contradict the “study” and that contradicting data is confirmed by the observations of a lot of people. Remember, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Statistics is best understood today as a form of political rhetoric. I can find you “scientific” studies showing that today’s children are doing just fine academically. The authors, of course, are shilling for the government school special interests. But what would the observations of real people amount to in the face of “science”.
As the linked article states: “It is defined as a person’s weight in kilograms divided by their height in metres, squared (kg/m2).”
However, a person's weight does not vary with the square of their height. If people grew proportionally in all directions (LXWXH), it would actually vary with the cube of their height.
People don't grow proportionally in all directions, so the weight doesn't actually vary in proportion to either the square or the cube.
If you accept (for a moment) that the BMI chart is accurate for average people — what does that mean for very tall people? It turns out, that a lot of tall people are being unfairly labeled as obese. Here's a web site that has all this worked out, and includes a handy calculator.
http://inside.mines.edu/~gmurray/BMIApplet/BMIApplet.html
Take a person 6'6” tall. According to standard BMI tables, he's obese, if he weighs over 260 lbs. However, he could pack on another 8 lbs., if the BMI adjusted for tall people is used.
Today, few people walk anywhere. Food is readily available, not terribly expensive and almost impossible to avoid. Most people of driving age own a car. Yet we are living, on average, much longer than our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Much of this may be due to better medicine and medications, but not all of it.
Imho, the worst thing that we might do is to overreact, and allow the government to become involved. This kind of thing tends to work itself out, and as long as our average lifespan stays the same or improves, I'm not going to be overly concerned.
Some are meant to be round. :)
1 out of every 3 women at my large corporation, are not just overweight... they are rotund and obese. With all that blubber, they look to me, like Walruses.
and yet, 60 minutes does a piece last week about hunger in America... so which is it?
I think it’s fat... America is fat..mostly due to junk food diets, soda pop, and television.
Well, who hasn't?
I don't know where you live, or in what industry you are employed, because that does make a difference, but I do agree that there are many more overweight people than we saw in the past. I also agree that part of the problem is too much of the wrong foods and not enough exercise.
Still, Americans are living, not just longer, but much longer than our parents and grandparents. How many people in this country starve to death each year? I would bet that the number is *extremely* low, particularly if we factor out anorexia.
This is an attempt at linkage. AIDS treatment costs a lot of money and is going to cost more. AIDS is linked to behavior. They’re trying to say that catching AIDS is the same as being obese. They’re just trying to justify the behavior and the cost.
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