Obese blamed for the world's ills

BBC News ^ | May 16, 2008 | BBC News

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Obese people are contributing to the world food crisis and climate change, experts say.

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine calculated the obese consume 18% more calories than average.

They are also responsible for using more fuel, which has an environmental impact and drives up food prices as transport and agriculture both use oil.

The result is that the poor struggle to afford food and greenhouse gas emissions rise, the Lancet reported.

It comes as the World Health Organization predicts the obese population will double by 2015 to 700m.

In the UK, nearly a quarter of adults are classed obese, twice as many as there were in the 1980s.

The team found that obese people require 1,680 daily calories to sustain normal energy and another 1,280 to maintain daily activities - a fifth more than normal.

The higher consumption of food has a two-fold effect, researchers said.

First of all the increasing demand for food, drives up production.

This means that agricultural processes are using more oil to meet demand, which contributes to the rising cost of fuel.

The cost of fuel is then passed on in the cost of food, making it more difficult for poorer areas to afford it.

Prices

What is more, the researchers said obese people are likely to rely on transport more and put more strain on that transport because of their mass, which again drives up prices and usage.

But the researchers said there was a solution.

Phil Edwards, who co-authored the article, said: "Urban transport policies that promote walking and cycling would reduce food prices by reducing the global demand for oil and promotion of a normal weight.

And they added: "Decreased car use would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"Transport and food policy and the importance of sustainable transport must not be overlooked."

But Dr David Haslam, of the National Obesity Forum, said it was "stretching it a bit" to blame the obese in the way.

"Really, it is discriminatory towards obese people. They are an easy target at the moment, but I think the causes of climate change and rising food prices is much more complex."

[metesky]

I want my prize, bud! Great home page, sir.

[Madame Dufarge]

OK, I'm talking and I can't shut up but the more I see this attack on "obesity" happening the more furious it makes me.

I'm a skinny smoker, and I'm fairly sure that a number of people who've been gleefully attacking smokers for quite some time now are probably not meeting Aryan Perfection standards for weight.

Smokers have been warning for some time now that the template used to demonize smokers would just be slapped on another group; but hey, smokers are just barely human any more so who cares what they say?

Anyway, I'm not trying to hijack the thread, I'm here to defend the obese.

Years ago I worked for a florist who owned four stores and an opportunity came up for one of her designers to be promoted to manager of one of the stores. The owner resisted promoting her because, "She's so fat."

I convinced her to promote "She's so fat" (who was her most talented designer).

This woman became manager, ran the most profitable store in the company, had an unswervingly loyal clientele and totally devoted employees.

She had more character in her little finger than anyone I've ever known.

It's so distressing that the velociraptors who sense a foot up in the pecking order never question the false assumption that physical appearance is an absolute indicator of character.

[GSWarrior]

It’s not nice to have fun at the expanse of the overweight.

Do I have to explain all my puns/jokes?

[Mase]

Ha, that's funny. Read a book.

What specifically would that book tell me? The Japanese have a diet very high in carbohydrates, especially from white rice and processed noodles. What will your book tell me is the reason that they don't suffer from the same rate of obesity as we do?

You must be one of those people who have a high metabolism and think all fat people are lazy gluttons, right?

Lots of obese people are lazy and gluttonous. Some obese people suffer from afflictions that make it near impossible to change their condition. However, for most people, consuming fewer calories and burning more energy through exercise will cause them to lose weight. Or, they could just continue making excuses and blaming something other than the cause.

Economics still hold. Little Debbie cakes are 1/4th the price of an equivalent number of apples

Equivalent number of apples? In terms of calories? What in the world are you trying to correlate here? You're confusing choices with economics. If Little Debbie cakes go up in price do you really think kids are going to all of a sudden choose to eat apples instead? Even though they've exhibited poor eating habits for years?

Someone who wants something sweet will on average gravitate to the least expensive option.

Maybe you haven't been paying attention to the incredible sales growth in the gourmet dessert category the food industry has experienced over the past couple of decades. People are most certainly gravitating to the more expensive option.

Money trumps health.

No, and despite your beliefs to the contrary, the "obesity problem" for the vast majority of overweight people is caused simply by consuming more calories than they burn. Trying to blame it on things like economics, HFCS, processing, chemicals, lack of fiber, artificial sweeteners or sunspots may be a sure way to drum up grant money but it has little to do with reality and highlights a lack of knowledge about human nutrition and physiology.

[maine-iac7]

+although getting people outside for 20 minutes a day for a walk would be good...

exactly - and letting kids play touch ball and other runaround things at recess = and more time in the fresh air and sunshine.

I get most of my exercise now with gardening and my swing. I put up a honest-to-goodness old timey swing like I had when I was a kid - it hangs a about 12 feet from the pines - and 'hits' all the muscle groups. total arms, neck stomach, back and legs - without any stress on hips or knees. (I'm a great gramma - and this is the perfect exercise for me - fun too - and can sing all the old childhood songs, like "You are my Sunshine" , = and singing exercises the brain, in that it causes more intake of oxygen and, like laughing, 'jiggles' the brain...and we know that it's a proven fact that laughter produces a 'chemical' that is, indeed, the "best medicine."

[wbill]

Seriously. BMI is far more about creating a crisis than identifying one.

You got that right. Buddy of mine is into cycling. He rides literally hundreds of miles a week. The only fat in him is likely from what he ate for lunch.

He's stocky - built like a weightlifter. Not too long ago, his doc took a look at his BMI and told him that he needed to drop 30 lbs.

My friends reply? "From Where?" He's shopping for a new doctor.

[dan1123]

However, for most people, consuming fewer calories and burning more energy through exercise will cause them to lose weight. Or, they could just continue making excuses and blaming something other than the cause.

Look here here and here

[Covenantor]

One wonders what the ideal citizen might look like to these folks. Let’s see - skinny, doesn’t move around, doesn’t eat anything, doesn’t use any fossil fuel for entertainment, doesn’t heat his or her house, doesn’t exhale deadly carbon dioxide - I know! A corpse.

Uhhh....didn't you get the memo? The preferred term is " homeless, differently-enabled, gender-liberated, free-to-be-me, eco-friendly, carbon-free lifeform". Pay attention, it is a huge Democrat voting block that always delivers on election eve at the 12th hour.

Also strike the term "compost" when referring to such.

[Billthedrill]

Dang it. I said “dead” when I meant “differently vital”...

[Mase]

Look here here and here

1. Yes, some people are genetically predisposed to being obese. If you look back at pictures of Americans at the turn of the century you rarely see obese people. That's because they worked their asses off even though they had a diet high in starch.

Did you find an explanation for why the Japanese don't suffer the same problems with obesity that we do even though they have a diet high in carbohydrates?

2. Yes, we've known that leptin plays a role in the burning of fat for some time now. It will be interesting to see if any new drugs can be developed from this.

3. Almonds make people feel more satiated than other foods. Ok.

I'm still looking for you to show us where cutting out processed flour and HFCS from our diets would eliminate obesity.

[dan1123]

1. The genetics of weight are 80% inherited, as the article shows the result of a study of hundreds of adopted children (they followed the weight patterns of their biological parents even though they were adopted at less than a year old), and identical twins separated (matched the twin even when separated at birth).

2. Leptin regulation and the results of studies in mice and in a few human instances that regular leptin injections returns appetite and weight back to normal. In other instances, leptin is often not able to be received, and a higher amount of leptin shows up in the bloodstream of the obese person.

3. The almond study showed that a higher caloric intake did not equate to weight gain. Not all calories contribute to weight gain.

[Brilliant]

Oh, OK. I need to read a little more carefully.

[Eric Blair 2084]

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[johnthebaptistmoore]

Whenever the leftist indirectly attack their own leftist politicians, in this case, all of their fat leftist politicians, it’s always a sweet thing to all of us conservatives. :)

[Eric Blair 2084]

Obama had to quit smoking in order to run for the Dem presidential nomination. He quit smoking but he is now up to 5 packs of Nicorette/day.

Michael Moore came under a lot of fire for producing a retarded movie/piece of garbage about health care reform when he is a fat POS who is prone to diabetes and high blood pressure.

See, if you are going to ask the sheeple to be holy you have to walk the walk.

This is what leftists use against “conservatives” or “Republicans” every time one of them is caught with a hooker in a hotel room. Daily Kos loves it when family values conservatives are exposed. They had a field day with Larry “wide stance” Craig. Can’t blame them. Hypocrisy is nauseating.

But the sword has two edges.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Everyone I work with who drinks diet soda is very large.

Is that from the soda itself, or from the satisfying of hunger cravings that might be triggered by the sodas?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I have an uncle who’s obese. I hope they don’t go after him, but then again, who the hell am I kidding? They’ve been successful with smokers, they’ve dropped the DUI limit to .08, they’ve raised the drinking age to 21, and they’ve banned recreational drugs (fueling some of the violence north and south of the U.S.-Mexico border due to illicit demand.)

Full disclosure: I’m overweight myself, but I don’t consider myself obese, just gross. :-)

[TigersEye]

Make it illegal to sell food to fat people.

[BigCinBigD]

It's my fault. Every time I eat a second cheeseburger some 3rd world ragamuffin dies. Yummmm I said muffin.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Don’t think they haven’t thought of that idea.

Before that, mark my words you will see some of these cash strapped socialist states like NJ, NY, MA, CA impose a “fast food tax” first.

The justification will be...if Gubmint is paying for your healthcare and diabetic testing equipment it is their right to intervene and reduce taxpayer costs.

It’s just a matter of time.

Call it schadenfreude and I’m not proud of myself, but I for one will be in a smokey cigar bar laughing my ass off when the law passes. I’ll be thinking of every 350 pound heffer who waved their sausage like fingers in front of their face when I smoked a cigarette in TGIF and then dove face first back into their plate of the Friday’s sampler platter that they ordered for themselves.

It will happen. It’s not a question of if, just a question of when.