Posted on 11/27/2005 6:51:42 AM PST by FerdieMurphy
The NHS in east Suffolk has announced that it will no longer perform hip or knee replacements on people classed as “obese”. Never mind that the definition it uses for obesity — a body mass index of 30 or higher — is increasingly discredited, and that a much more reliable way of measuring healthy weight is waist-to-hip ratio. (It should be 0.9 or less in men, and 0.85 or less in women; you can check it on www.healthstatus.com/calculate/whr ).
A greater objection to this denial of treatment to fatties on account of their self-inflicted fatness is: where on earth do you stop?
Should NHS dental treatment be denied to women who eat too much chocolate? Should the hugely expensive course of anti-retroviral drugs for HIV be denied to promiscuous homosexuals, or sex tourists recently returned from Pattaya Beach? For that matter, what about women who have dieted rather than gluttonised all their lives, neglecting their calcium intake and so risking osteoporosis in later life?
Fatties surely have just as much right to be treated on the NHS as smokers, binge drinkers, or any other taxpayers. Instead of threatening plump people’s already threatened health by denying them treatment, how about giving them the new bits they need, while encouraging them to lose weight with a little gentle, old-fashioned mockery?
Fatties should of course be free to squeeze out of the closet, their XXXL T-shirts emblazoned with such legends as “Fat and Happy!” “Out, Stout and Proud!” and so forth. What they cannot demand, I think, is the right to be free from teasing, either in the playground or in later life. There is and always will be something innately funny about fat people. They wobble so much, for one thing.
I was once stranded for 24 hours in Houston, self- proclaimed Fat Capital of the World, and I have never seen so many enormously fat people in my life, nor felt such a juvenile but well-nigh irrepressible urge to laugh out loud. The reason they are all so fat is that they drive everywhere, and stuff themselves from dawn till long after dusk with double choc-chip deep fried spicy pepperoni monster pizzas topped with extra cheddar-style cheese, and gallon bargain-buckets of buffalo wings on the side. This is not a dignified way to behave.
But laughing at fatties is no longer encouraged in the Land of the Fat and Home of the Brave. Take their National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. Members recently staged a demonstration in New York, dressed in grass hula skirts, tiaras and flamingo headbands, throwing beach balls around and dancing the “hokey-pokey fat liberation” song. They then solemnly stepped onto scales modified with supportive words like “stunning”, “pretty” and “beautiful” instead of numbers. This is not going to help their condition any more than the mean-spirited health services in east Suffolk.
Obesity is well on the way to becoming the No 1 cause of death in the developed world, which in itself is no joke. In a few decades’ time everywhere will look like Houston, or worse still, the Freedom Paradise resort in Mexico, which boasts reinforced beds, double-width doors, and dining chairs 26in wide but without arms in case they get stuck to diners’ wider-than-26in bottoms when they stand up.
Cindy Sabo, spokeswoman for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, has given Freedom Paradise her seal of approval. Placing herself in the “oversize” category at around 400lb, Sabo recalls “some terrible experiences with some other tourists” on a recent holiday in Hawaii. “Especially some people from Asian countries would walk right up to you on the beach, poke you in the belly and make some rude joke.” What a marvellous image: a crowd of lean little Chinese people gathered around an enormous American woman, poking and prodding her delightedly while she lies there in the Hawaiian sand, huffing and puffing with a self-righteous indignation quite lost on them.
Being overweight is hardly the greatest sin one can commit, pace the doctors and consultants of east Suffolk. But that doesn’t mean obesity is an entirely neutral “lifestyle option” either. It isn’t a cardinal or mortal sin, but a venal one. But obesity does betray self-indulgence, a lack of self-control and a habit of mostly solitary greed.
Despite the protests of fatties that it’s their metabolism that is responsible, or their genes, we all know that those among our friends who incline to porkiness are almost always the ones who chomp their way through an entire packet of Chocolate HobNobs when the rest of us make do with one or two.
A certain mockery, a certain hearty Chaucerian laughter at human weakness and venality, can have a beneficial purpose; although, like shame, it is a social mechanism rather out of fashion. It might not only provoke merriment, but also suggest to its “victims” that perhaps they ought to consider their ways and be wise; or in modern parlance, review their lifestyle choices.
Laughing at fat people might be the first step on the road to them losing weight. And then those sternly Calvinistic medical men of east Suffolk might not have to bother about fitting them with new knees anyway.
Deep-fried pepperoni pizzas with cheddar cheese?
Haven't tried that yet.
Yet more health care rationing by HillaryCare (Europe).
Haven't tried that yet.
YUM! Where can I get one?
So much for personal responsibility.
A Scottish delicacy it seems.
Rather like Scotch eggs.
Deep fried pizza. For those who prefer diarrhea instead of the wind from a Scotch egg.
"Let not him who straps on his armor boast himself
like he who takes it off"
A billion lean little Chinese people. Given enough money they WILL balloon up. They have just as much self-control as any one else.
The American fatso must have looked like a beached whale. Harharhar. And she couldn't whine, cry and complain to ANYONE. All she could do was go have another 5000-calorie meal to fill the vacuum in her soul.
I wonder what their reasoning is? Are they saying that artificial joints can't stand up to the added weight or is it that fatties don't deserve them because they brought joint deterioration on by themselves?
Haven't tried that yet.
Me neither...and definitely will never try a double choc-chip deep fried pizza.
I'm mortified to be fat. Especially when it wasn't always so.
Fifty Six years old now.
Three abdominal surgeries, the first big one at the 93rd Evac in Long Binh, November 1969.
That's still a weak excuse for my present condition and I promise to double my efforts to lose weight, for the utter shame of the ongoing ordeal cuts deep.
First it was denial of service and regulation of smokers
Now it's the beginnings of the same for obese...
Next, it's denial of public NHS procedures for joggers, bikers, adventurists, bicyclists, whatever....
It's all in the plan.......and you probably do SOMETHING that doesn't comport with it....
BTW, unless those overweight professional athletes change their lifestyles after they retire, they will very quickly blow up into a fattie. There are many retired NFL linebackers who die in their 40s and 50s and weigh over 300 pounds.
From April 2003 to January 2004, I went from 304 pounds with a size 48 waist to 197 pounds with a size 34 waist. That was the easy part. When you are losing weight and people around you are noticing, you are motivated to stick to the plan.
It has been far more difficult keeping the weight off than I ever imagined. While I was losing weight, I was able to exercise it off and still eat a lot of food (though I avoided processed foods and foods high in sugar/carbs). But after a while, my metabolism adjusted to the exercise and even as I walked 7-10 miles a day, I found that I could still easily gain the weight back if I didn't stick to a strict diet.
During the past year and a half, I went back up as high as 230 pounds and a size 36 waist but now I'm back on a stricter low-carb/exercise regimen and I am on my way back to about 200 pounds, which is about right for my 6'3" frame.
I am now resigned to the fact that I will need to watch what I eat for the rest of my life, regardless of how much exercise I get (and fortunately, I love to hike and still walk at least 5-7 miles a day).
That statement tells me that you wouldn't be looking for socialized medicine to help you no matter what your condition was.
Bravo for you. I am not over weight but I feel the same.
Chinese are really quite insensitive about fat. I have a friend OF SIZE who was constantly approached at our health club by 95 pound Chinese women who would recommend diets to her.
I told her she should scream at them, "I'm fat??? Gosh, I never knew."
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