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Posted on 07/22/2004 8:43:11 AM PDT by aynrandy
Coloradans are almost annoyingly healthy.
Joggers, hikers, bikers, organic markets and a proliferation of gyms make it difficult to stay chunky with a clear conscience.
In a year's time, I'll probably be sucking down wheat grass cocktails after my 20-mile jog, but at this point, my weight tends to fluctuate between flabby and floppy, depending on how many burritos I've consumed that day.
I'm not alone. In March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that obesity will overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in the United States by next year if current rising trends continue.
Thankfully, registered dietitian Bonnie Jortberg, program director of Colorado Weigh, a weight management program at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, tells me that my superfluous 15 pounds are a far cry from obesity.
And it turns out, the extra weight isn't even my fault.
Until now, I have always assumed my clandestine visits to the local fast-food joint were just a shameful character flaw, my extra flab a source of endless personal embarrassment.
But according to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, if my sporadic indulgence of junk food becomes habitual, it can be classified as a disease, and you'll be called upon to help cure me.
This week, the Department of Health and Human Services has removed language that stated obesity was not an illness.
The decision will open the floodgates for brand-new Medicare entitlements, which include weight-loss therapies like stomach surgery, diet programs, and behavioral and psychological counseling.
"I think it's tremendous," contends Jortberg, who sees long-term benefits to the language change. "Let's compare this to smoking. As a taxpayer I am more than happy to pay for a smoking prevention program. Because I know that in the long term it will save me money as a taxpayer. Because if you can get people to quit smoking, and have successful tobacco prevention programs for kids, I think that's well worth the money."
Radley Balko, policy analyst with the Cato Institute, is skeptical about the lasting benefits of HHS's decision since "we're talking about the elderly here - they're the primary beneficiaries of Medicare."
Balko believes that while "we know how to beat obesity (good diet and exercise), we've yet to figure out how to get people to abide by it."
Diet programs, he says, fail at rates of between 80 and 95 percent. And there's no doubt that private insurance companies will follow suit and we will be seeing higher health insurance premiums. In Balko's words, "we'll likely be paying now and later."
For now, HHS is still trying to decide exactly which procedures and therapies will be sanctioned. In the meantime, Thompson has transformed a personal problem into a collective concern, continuing a dangerous trend that blurs the lines between public and personal responsibility.
Balko believes Thompson's decision is only an incentive to make poor choices. That it's basically "a promise that if you allow yourself to get obese, taxpayers will bail you out."
Even Jortberg admits that personal responsibility is the most important element in fighting obesity, because "at the end of the day, you're still the person responsible for the things that you do. You should never let someone off the hook for that."
Unfortunately, that's exactly what HHS is doing.
You work hard and suffer. You wake up at 5 in the morning to jog, you read every label at the local market, you avoid hydrogenated oils, torture your taste buds with ghastly grain cereals and pretend that rice cream and whole- wheat pasta taste like the real thing.
I don't.
And that shouldn't be your problem.
David Harsanyi's column appears Monday and Thursday. Contact him at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com .
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You can't generalize; some obesity is caused by overeating, drinking, lack of exercise, etc. Other cases of obesity are genetically determined. The government should try to make the distinction if they are going to treat obesity as a disease.
BULL ! Obesity is caused by sloth and gluttony, and I won't believe otherwise until you show me a 400 person who has died of starvation.
Am I alone in finding that man incredibly obnoxious?
Well, some people have faster metabolisms than others, but you have got to eat a LOT of food to reach the sizes of some of the people I saw waddling around the buffets in Las Vegas over the weekend.
"Well, some people have faster metabolisms than others"
That is true, I used to be able to eat anything I wanted and not gain an ounce. My metabolism has slowed and it takes a lot more exercise to be able to eat half the amount I used to chow down.
Several years ago, I saw an ABC News Prime Time segment about obesity. It was always understood that some people are obese in spite of caloric intakes similar to people of normal weight. This was based on studies that had obese people keep daily logs of exactly what they ate. But a new study measured caloric intake by using some sort of urine test. Turns out the obese subjects were greatly under-reporting what they ate. E.g., one man claimed he was eating only 800 calories a day but he was actually eating 3200 calories a day. (A normal diet for a typical healthy person is 2000 calories a day.)
Government won't stay out of anything.
I've heard that but I'm not real smart and I don't understand that if you take in, for example, 2,000 calories and expend 3,000 calories how one can gain weight. That would seem to violate some law of physics. Perhaps those with that genetic formation are coppertops and should be hooked up to the grid?
I blame Bush for my beer belly
I blame Bush for my marrying a Sicilian woman who loves to cook. I tell my friends to beware when they come over cause my wife is a "feeder"
"No offense...."
Yeah, I find him obnoxious, too. About 50 times a day (the number of times his ads air on Fox News)
The very worst consequece of this disasterous policy is the social engineering and loss of liberty that will surely follow. Witness the current "click it or ticket" campaign, and road blocks (yes, ROAD BLOCKS!) used to enforce seatbelt laws. These invasive and paternalistic laws are 100% a result of the socialist nature of who pays for accident costs.
Now think of the scale and invasiveness of laws needed to regulate your body weight! It is common knowledge that losing weight requires nothing short of a lifestyle change. Literally everything you eat, and most all your activities will become targets. The details of your life, from the most trivial to the largest will become regulated as taxpayers seek to limit their liability. Witness Exhibit 1:
"I think it's tremendous," contends Jortberg, who sees long-term benefits to the language change. "Let's compare this to smoking. As a taxpayer I am more than happy to pay for a smoking prevention program. Because I know that in the long term it will save me money as a taxpayer. Because if you can get people to quit smoking, and have successful tobacco prevention programs for kids, I think that's well worth the money."
Only an independent people can retain their liberty. Rely on the state and you'll become a ward of the state.
My cousin died last due to complications caused by genetic obesity. She weighed over 400 lbs. She was 45 years old, and was obese since she was an infant. From the time she was a teenager, she had been in and out of clinics, tried every diet available from Weight Watchers to Atkins, visited "fat farms" and was admitted to in-patient hospital clinics for supervised fasting, had stomach-stapling and bypass surgery.
NOTHING HELPED.
This poor woman did not cram herself with junk food, she followed every diet she was on fanatically, but she had a metabolic disorder. And yes, she did try fasting in a hospital, in-patient setting, lost 3 lbs. in 3 months of treatment.
Am I the only one that finds it strange that people in Ethiopia or Cambodia never seem to suffer from obesity? Surely if this is a disease it can't only be affecting Americans, can it?
Nonsense, healthy eating habits and discpline will cure obesity from all sources. There were no obese people in Auschwitz.
Your problem is you're trying to define the term 'disease' in a rational, logical and scientific sense.
You see, such an antiquated definition of 'disease' stands in the way of progress. A massive government program, billions of dollars and a great deal of control are at stake here. So government will redefine 'disease' to mean whatever suits its purposes.
You're right... my bad. All rational thought seems to have gone out the window with this 'redefinition'.
If this is a true statement, what was the name of the "gene?"
Obviously, the "gene" must have been identified that caused this obesity in order to name it "genetic obesity."
And since the "gene" had to be identified, why did your cousin's doctors not treat your cousin based upon that identified gene, instead of all of the other doomed to failure procedures that let to your cousins premature death?
Sounds like to me that you have the basis of one hell of a malpractice suit.
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