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Can Blaming People for Being Fat Help Curb Obesity?
US News and World Report ^ | May 22, 2008 | Katherine Hobson

Posted on 05/23/2008 7:17:18 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084

Stigma can be a powerful force in changing behavior. Just ask smokers, whose once accepted habit is now so marginalized that the prevalence of smoking has dropped to about 19 percent of U.S. adults from nearly 24 percent just a decade ago. A lot of factors figured into the decline since smoking's mid-20th-century peak, but the sense that smoking is disgusting as well as unhealthful and socially costly has certainly contributed to many people's decision to quit.

Now that smokers have been taken care of, the obese are the new scapegoats for a lot of our ills. Last week, a letter published in the Lancet noted that the obese contribute more than their thinner compatriots to food scarcity and global warming, given that they eat more and require more transportation energy to move themselves around. While the authors' intent was probably not to make the obese feel worse, the media translations of the study in my quick Google search turned up headlines such as "Fat People Cause Global Warming, Higher Food Prices" and "Scientists Blame Fat People for Global Warming."

You might think that the obese could use some blame. As obesity increasingly becomes the norm, maybe society has grown too accepting. Perhaps what is lacking is the same thing that helped smokers lose their butts: a healthy dose of social stigma. If only there were more shame in being fat, maybe more people would be motivated to lose weight. But in fact, researchers say, stigma does very little to motivate overweight or obese people to change.

(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: blamegame; carboncult; carbonfootprint; diet; dieting; nannystate; obesity; pufflist; stigma
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

That’s it! I’ll have four instead of one.


41 posted on 05/23/2008 8:01:19 PM PDT by GOP_Lady
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To: JustaDumbBlonde

Spot-on zinger.


42 posted on 05/23/2008 8:02:17 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Madame Dufarge

In case you’re interested...


43 posted on 05/23/2008 8:03:14 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (To the liberal, there's no sacrifice too big for somebody else to make. --FReeper popdonnelly)
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To: Mr. Mojo

Hey, as long as they don’t pick on Twiggy types (like me), it’s groovy and I’m cool with that. :-)


44 posted on 05/23/2008 8:03:33 PM PDT by GOP_Lady
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

The NRA is well organized and have an answer for every stupid liberal argument, God bless them. They are a shining beacon to demonstrate exactly how to fight simplistic retarded feel good legislation.

Unfortunately, the oil, food and alcohol companies are falling right in line behind the tobacco companies in trying to appease liberals hoping they will get what they want and go away. They’re the next ones to go over the cliff.

They’ll learn their lesson the hard way.


45 posted on 05/23/2008 8:04:09 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Thanks for inviting the great and gracious and eloquent Madame. :-)


46 posted on 05/23/2008 8:04:19 PM PDT by GOP_Lady
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To: sheik yerbouty
Even Rosie O’donnell balked at that, exclaimning; “Did you ever see the size of my a*s?”

File under "Mental images I could have done without."

OTOH, we may have just found a use for the Sunday New York Times.

47 posted on 05/23/2008 8:06:35 PM PDT by thulldud (Congress does not want answers. They want scapegoats. (andy58-in-nh))
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To: Mr. Mojo

You can express disgust, contempt or anything else you want, that’s perfectly fine, but it rarely stops there.


48 posted on 05/23/2008 8:07:25 PM PDT by Dr.Zoidberg ("Shut the hell up, New York Times, you sanctimonious whining jerks!" - Craig Ferguson)
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA

Smoking used to be cool — obesity has always been stigmatized. Some people eat “comfort food” to make up for feelings of rejection — more stigmatization will only make matters worse.

In most cultures including America (at least for men) being fat was a sign of prosperity.


49 posted on 05/23/2008 8:09:11 PM PDT by freedomfiter2 (It's too bad I've already promised myself to never vote for McCain.)
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To: Eric Blair 2084

50 posted on 05/23/2008 8:09:27 PM PDT by Lizavetta
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To: Dr.Zoidberg

Indeed. When I encounter something that I find “disgusting,” I simply avoid it and don’t put myself into the situation again. Funny, it works all the time, and I get what I want sooner.


51 posted on 05/23/2008 8:10:01 PM PDT by GOP_Lady
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To: gracesdad
Ah! But during the Roman Period and even into the early 19th Century a full figure or more was considered to be a sign of wealth and well being.

When I was a child I was extremely active, they should have diagnosed me with HADD. My Grandparents used to tell me I was too skinny, which made me feel a bit inferior. then in the sixties when Twiggy and and the new designers came into power, I fit right in.. Still I was told by my folks that I was too skinny and that I should eat. Heck I could put away a quart of ice cream and by morning I would have lost at least 1 pound. Go figure.

Leave people alone is my view, I look on the inside not on the outside.

52 posted on 05/23/2008 8:10:01 PM PDT by oswegodeee (Dee) ( Born in the South and raised in a G_D centered home)
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To: GOP_Lady

He can pry that burger from my plump greasy hands.


53 posted on 05/23/2008 8:10:19 PM PDT by TheWasteLand
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To: Eric Blair 2084

Fat people are harder to kidnap. We have that on our side, also, we’re not going hungry.


54 posted on 05/23/2008 8:14:04 PM PDT by processing please hold ( A gov. big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have)
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To: Eric Blair 2084
If only there were more shame in being fat, maybe more people would be motivated to lose weight.

I nominate Little Richard Simmons to handle the problem.

55 posted on 05/23/2008 8:14:09 PM PDT by ConservaTexan (February 6, 1911)
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To: GOP_Lady
Indeed. When I encounter something that I find “disgusting,” I simply avoid it and don’t put myself into the situation again. Funny, it works all the time, and I get what I want sooner.

It would appear you are one of the rare people who aren't interested in forcing your view of the world on others, a desirable trait.

Uncommon, but very admirable.
56 posted on 05/23/2008 8:14:50 PM PDT by Dr.Zoidberg ("Shut the hell up, New York Times, you sanctimonious whining jerks!" - Craig Ferguson)
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To: GOP_Lady

Twiggy was hot back in the day. (Haven’t seen a pic of her since the ‘70s).

As far as the ultra-thin go, pick out almost any Ann Coulter thread — “Hey Ann, eat a friggen steak, would ya?”

For the record, I don’t have a problem with anyone stigmatizing anyone for anything. ....including AC for being a beanpole. Just as long as they don’t cry to the gov’t to do something about it.


57 posted on 05/23/2008 8:18:05 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: GOP_Lady
Photobucket
58 posted on 05/23/2008 8:21:05 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: Eric Blair 2084
Ahhh (dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah). . . YES! It's already happening. People have been conditioned and are talking about it openly and how we shouldn't eat as much. You know it, we hear it all the time.
59 posted on 05/23/2008 8:24:03 PM PDT by GOP_Lady
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To: bill1952

Ummm....Bill....ever stop to think the reason you don’t see it much anymore is because you are a criminal if you do it anywhere? That gives the false impression that hardly anyone smokes. My guess is it’s different in different areas and states, but I’d say about 30 per cent of the U.S. still smokes. The Nazis, of course, claim far less.


60 posted on 05/23/2008 8:27:01 PM PDT by The Ghost of Rudy McRomney (Using Hillary to nip Obama's heels is like beating a dead horse with an armed nuclear bomb.)
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