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Obesity? This is a job for Supernanny(neo soviet barf alert)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-2330255,00.html ^ | 8 27 06 | Minette Marrin

Posted on 08/28/2006 11:20:06 AM PDT by freepatriot32

Fat is not a feminist issue, as Susie Orbach once claimed. Fat is a class issue. Rich, educated people are not fat; you see almost no children in private schools who are overweight. Fatness and obesity are directly related to lower education and lower incomes. What is sad is that at a time when this country is richer than ever and ought to have better schools than ever, we have far more fat people than ever — a dangerous explosion of flab. Last week the Department of Health issued a report grimly called Forecasting Obesity to 2010 and its findings were grotesque. Within four years, it predicts, a third of all adults — 13m people — will be obese. So will 1m children

Obese means not just podgy, but dangerously, disablingly, distastefully fat, as in American fat.

This is not just shocking; it has also happened shockingly fast. As the report says, a third of all men will be obese by 2010; in 1993 the figure was only — if one can say only of such a large figure — 13%, rising to 24% in 2004.

The same is true of women, although the rate is rising more slowly; 16% were obese in 1993, 24% in 2004, and the trend is expected to rise until 2010. The proportion of boys who were obese stood at 17% in 2003 and is predicted to rise to 19% by 2010, while among girls it is expected to increase more swiftly from 16% to 22%.

This presents an awkward challenge to libertarians. The libertarian assumption is that we should all be free to do what we want, as far as possible, and if some people’s lifestyle choices involve snacking on deep-fried Mars bars and triple-processed cheeseburgers, other people have no business interfering, still less the government.

Besides, there is the embarrassing fact that those who eat and drink junk do so for cheap comfort and because they are either too poor or too ignorant (or both) to prepare healthy food. It doesn’t come well from the consumers of steamed organic asparagus and free-range ducks’ breasts to criticise those who can manage only frozen reconstituted chicken nuggets and sugary baked beans.

However, obesity does not concern only the obese. It concerns all of us. Obese parents produce obese children, and obesity places a crippling burden on the National Health Service, quite apart from the many personal miseries involved. Currently 10% of NHS resources are spent on diabetes (two-thirds of which is the avoidable type 2 associated with obesity) and this could easily double within the next four years to 20%.

This is quite apart from the increased risk among the obese of heart disease and other serious illness. More young people are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, something previously seen only in people over 40. In these circumstances even the most swivel-eyed libertarian would probably agree, for once, that something must be done and even perhaps by the government.

Curiously enough, however, in one of the few areas where our ever-intrusive government might for once justifiably intrude, new Labour does almost nothing. Possibly as a result of the ferocious lobbying of the food industry, ministers restrict themselves to making repetitive noises about healthy living and “small changes” that won’t cost anybody anything.

Tony Blair said last month that if the food industry did not agree to limit junk food advertisements by 2007 he would bring in mandatory rules, but he has said that before and more than once. Besides, why not bring them in straight away? His government has persistently ignored the demands of the Commons health select committee for a traffic light system of food labelling, enabling shoppers to make informed choices.

England’s chief medical officer warned in this year’s annual report that public health budgets were being raided to deal with deficits. That is the reality behind government talk of raising public awareness.

I have never been convinced that government health education has any effect. Despite the “five-a-day” campaign, only a quarter of people in England eat vegetables every day. About half of overweight men are in denial; they don’t see themselves as overweight, according to the report.

There is nothing complicated about being thin. Being fat is usually the result of eating too much junk food and taking too little exercise. Being thin means eating much less food, avoiding junk food altogether and taking exercise every day. It may be that nothing can be done about the plague of obesity; there is a growing epidemic in Europe and worldwide. Perhaps affluence is a disease to which only the fortunate few are immune. But if anything could be done about it, it would have to be radical.

Nobody who craves cheap comfort food will willingly give it up. But if over-processed, over-refined food and junk food were to become expensive while healthy fresh food became cheap — the opposite of the case today — people would be forced to eat well. This could be done through taxes or subsidies. Alternatively, you could ration unhealthy food.

There could be a public campaign against fattening food, just as there was against smoking, aimed at making everyone ashamed of consuming anything naughty but nice. I am just as greedy as anyone else but I have come to think of cakes, biscuits, crisps, sweets, white bread and puddings as more or less toxic. Foods like this should have health warnings — “cake can kill”. They are not just unnecessary, empty calories; they interfere with your blood sugar levels, affect your appetite and your mood; they may even induce food addiction. The same applies to alcohol: more than a modest amount makes you fat, interferes with your mood and is often addictive.

Just as there would need to be financial incentives to eat well, there should also be inducements to take exercise. The cost should be subsidised or declarable against tax. Employers should be required to give workers time off to go to the gym or jog. We could imitate the Japanese and have mass group exercises at work every day.

And that is the problem. Obesity, one of the trials of affluence, can be solved only, if at all, by the kind of interventionism that has been discredited by the failure of socialism. Liberty is indivisible; it belongs to the ignorant and the low paid just as much as to anyone else. Perhaps obesity is one of the many prices of liberty. Fat is a freedom issue.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: a; alert; antiamericanism; anticapitalist; barf; classist; dumbpeopledrinkbeer; dumbpeopleeattoomuch; dumbpeoplesmoke; dummiesnoexercise; fo; foodnazis; for; foryourowngood; idiot; iheartstalin; is; job; libertarians; nannystate; neo; neosoviets; nojunkfoodforyou; obesity; radicalleft; rationing; rsupernanny; socialist; soviet; starvation; supernanny; this; ultraliberals; vegans; wboopie
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To: Redcloak; Bacon Man; Hap

Bacon and Hap showed us "Who Wants to Be a Superhero" last Friday, and Xena's Guy and I loved it.

We've only seen the first episode, and I'm already rooting for Creature and Cell Phone Girl to die painfully.


121 posted on 08/28/2006 12:57:57 PM PDT by Xenalyte (No one will be sitting in sackcloth and ashes wailing, "Oh, if only we had listened to Art Bell!")
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To: Not just another dumb blonde
Where do you get the idea that if someone is overweight or a smoker they don't work as hard as someone else?


First, we are talking about trends and averages, not the perfect prediction of individual performance.

Second, Smokers and the overweight are demonstrably irresponsible with their own health. Irresponsibility in one area correlates (imperfectly) with irresponsibility elsewhere.

Third, smokers and the overweight have more sick days.

Fourth, smokers and the overweight can increase overall health insurance costs.

Fifth, in some jobs, smokers and the overweight are less effective (people might not like a cashier who smells like an ashtray, or a salesman who looks like he has no self-control.) Real biases among the public can mean lower profits for employers.
122 posted on 08/28/2006 12:59:03 PM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Your FRiendly FReeper Patent Attorney)
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To: Beelzebubba
I meant to ask what is your proposed budget for poor families.

I never propose how other people should live. ;-)

123 posted on 08/28/2006 12:59:14 PM PDT by maryz
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To: stands2reason

That's what my posts are about, that beans are good for you. They happen to be a staple in the diet of many Hispanics I know.


124 posted on 08/28/2006 1:02:59 PM PDT by Froufrou
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To: Xenalyte
I don't recall making sauerkraut creating much smell -- cooking it does.

My father (Lithuanian), though, used to talk about his making horseradish -- my grandmother made him go out on the porch to grind it!

125 posted on 08/28/2006 1:03:15 PM PDT by maryz
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To: Overtaxed

I guess everybody's not on Phase I.



Phase I and the following couple months dropped 30 pounds for me. Spiked my cholesterol because I ate irresponsibly fatty foods, which I stopped, and am now stable and healthy, but eating very little if any potatoes, pasta, white bread, and sweetened foods.

I adore short grain (calrose/sushi-type) brown rice, when properly steamed.


126 posted on 08/28/2006 1:03:18 PM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Your FRiendly FReeper Patent Attorney)
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To: Xenalyte

Sauerkraut and a perm kit sounds like a lethal combination, not to mention 100 degree heat. Poor Xena. Yikes!

We've got cool weather here in Minnesota today. At least I can comfortably have the windows open for my sensitive-nosed guy.


127 posted on 08/28/2006 1:03:30 PM PDT by mplsconservative
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To: maryz
I never propose how other people should live. ;-)


If they come to me, the taxpayer, with their hand out, saying "I'm not responsible enough to feed my family on my own", I'll happily propose that if they want my help, they should learn to cook responsibly. If they don't like responsible constraints, they can get a job and buy their own junk food.
128 posted on 08/28/2006 1:05:07 PM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Your FRiendly FReeper Patent Attorney)
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To: maryz

Maybe it was cole slaw. It had cabbage in it, I do know that, and he'd put it in giant mason jars on the windowsill, and they'd fizz and leak and that was where the stench came from.

Horseradish, now, I can totally get behind. My husband came into the kitchen once to find me eating creamed horseradish from the jar with a spoon.


129 posted on 08/28/2006 1:05:20 PM PDT by Xenalyte (No one will be sitting in sackcloth and ashes wailing, "Oh, if only we had listened to Art Bell!")
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To: mplsconservative

That's why my favorite time is autumn - we have three or four lovely weeks where it is just PERFECT outside. I open the windows all over the house and create weird drafts, but there's nothing like fresh air moving through the house.


130 posted on 08/28/2006 1:06:14 PM PDT by Xenalyte (No one will be sitting in sackcloth and ashes wailing, "Oh, if only we had listened to Art Bell!")
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To: Gabz

Caluflower is great with butter and Garam Masala seasoning (I get it from Penzeys.com. Great cheap spices.)


131 posted on 08/28/2006 1:06:35 PM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Your FRiendly FReeper Patent Attorney)
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To: Beelzebubba

I need to drop a couple more pounds before moving to Phase II. Mmmmm.....rice and beans. And I can go back to buying whole chickens instead of just skinless chicken breast. It's cheaper by the pound and ya get a carcass for making good homemade chicken broth.

I really needed to break a sugar habit.


132 posted on 08/28/2006 1:09:20 PM PDT by Overtaxed
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To: steve-b

How do you do that? In California, produce is very expensive. $2/lb for squash and other vegetables. If I have several fresh ingredients in anything, it makes the price sore!!!!!!

We can afford it, so I'm happy. However, I feel sorry for many people that can't afford it.


133 posted on 08/28/2006 1:09:56 PM PDT by luckystarmom
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To: freepatriot32

Health and fitness is the bottom line in any life.

If one isn't as healthy and fit as one can be, they're doing something wrong -- and need to find out what it is.

"Liberal" excuses and justifications should not be tolerated.


134 posted on 08/28/2006 1:10:18 PM PDT by MikeHu
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To: Gabz

It's one of my favorties too.

The darn kid doesn't like mashed potatoes and gravy either. Now that's one of my favorite food groups!

I guess he's just weird. Of course I'll blame that on my husband. LOL


135 posted on 08/28/2006 1:11:33 PM PDT by mplsconservative
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To: Xenalyte
It had cabbage in it, I do know that, and he'd put it in giant mason jars on the windowsill, and they'd fizz and leak and that was where the stench came from.

No, I guess you mean sauerkraut. I tried making it a couple of times, but I didn't have a warm enough place to put it (in the oven with the pilot on worked best). Mine came out tasting sort of like sauerkraut, but weak -- It certainly didn't "fizz and leak"! I guess I'll have to move to a hotter climate or keep depending on the canned! Didn't it take a few days or week or so to ferment though?

136 posted on 08/28/2006 1:11:51 PM PDT by maryz
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To: Tokra

you forgot some of the other crap they can get.. which is anything at the store. my two favourites are still the girl who would buy lobster, and the guy who would buy the cheapest sodas he could find, dump them out and reurn them for deposit, then buy his beer.


137 posted on 08/28/2006 1:15:00 PM PDT by absolootezer0 ("My God, why have you forsaken us.. no wait, its the liberals that have forsaken you... my bad")
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To: meandog
Next time you go to the grocery store, get behind someone using a food stamp card and take a gander at what he/she puts on the conveyor belt. Betcha a paycheck there's plenty of expensive high caloric and starchy items and very few vegetables and fruit.

A legacy of slavery??

138 posted on 08/28/2006 1:16:52 PM PDT by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
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To: Bonaparte
There's just no excuse for not eating well at home.

BINGO!!!!

I admit to keeping a bunch of packaged stuff on hand, makes meal planning easier - but the vast majority of meals in this house are from scratch.

A week or so a go a friend, who's husband is a farm manager, gave me a boatload of potatoes - I prefer when I get chicken from them, but potatoes are good, too - Dinner last night was homemade potato pancakes with homemade applesauce. There are enough potato pancakes left for about 3 or 4 more meals.

I don't know where I get it from, but quantity cooking has always just come naturally to me..neither my mother, nor my grandmother ever did it and there are only 3 of us. I just find it far easier, and less expensive, to do up a lot at once and then store it.

139 posted on 08/28/2006 1:17:00 PM PDT by Gabz (Taxaholism, the disease you elect to have (TY xcamel))
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To: Xenalyte

I love autumn too. It "feels" like fall weather today, which is what inspired me to make soup.

Too bad autumn is followed here by a Minnesota winter. I envy you Texans like crazy then.


140 posted on 08/28/2006 1:17:37 PM PDT by mplsconservative
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