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 ...
I’m afraid to click on that link.
But if they want to make being a fat, drunk, smoker uncool for the children, the social engineers are going about this all wrong.
They need to find somebody who is the most un-cool jackass to film a public service announcement. Reverse psychology.
Let John Kerry look at the camera and say....”Kids, if you want to be cool like me, smoke Marlboro Lights and drink Budweiser.”...I guarantee no teenager will ever smoke a cigarette or drink beer.
They’ll just do cocaine. It’s cheaper than smoking and you can even do it in a bar.
Hey, Ghost, maybe obesity can be the next thing that Dick Morris can tell politicians to use to help get elected.
Food for thought:
A fetus grows with insufficient vitamin D and the newborn continues with deficient D status and cows milk (which is high in saturated fat). The baby is then given copious amounts of high fructose corn syrup and the process of destroying the natural phospholipid status of cell membranes is complete. The child can never achieve proper levels of muscle synthesis until the cell membranes have been remodeled via dramatic reductions in non-omega 3 fatty acids (omega 6, saturated fats and trans-fats) and dramatic increases in omega 3 fatty acids.
Do we blame the ignorant parents, the the ignorant children, the ignorant physicians, the ignorant dieticians, the sold out scientists at the NIH or the food producers?
I was 6’2”, 180 pounds, 55 years old, and running 6 minute miles when I discovered I was diabetic. Modern western humans lose 1% of their muscle mass each year from age 30. This metabolic meltdown does not begin with being lazy and gluttonous. The modern diet elicits muscle starvation and carbohydrate craving long before it becomes symptomatic as obesity and diabetes. People are inclined to eat more because their muscles are starving and a glucagon signaling apparatus tells them to continue eating.
Food for thought:
A fetus grows with insufficient vitamin D and the newborn continues with deficient D status and cows milk (which is high in saturated fat). The baby is then given copious amounts of high fructose corn syrup and the process of destroying the natural phospholipid status of cell membranes is complete. The child can never achieve proper levels of muscle synthesis until the cell membranes have been remodeled via dramatic reductions in non-omega 3 fatty acids (omega 6, saturated fats and trans-fats) and dramatic increases in omega 3 fatty acids.
Do we blame the ignorant parents, the the ignorant children, the ignorant physicians, the ignorant dieticians, the sold out scientists at the NIH or the food producers?
I was 6’2”, 180 pounds, 55 years old, and running 6 minute miles when I discovered I was diabetic. Modern western humans lose 1% of their muscle mass each year from age 30. This metabolic meltdown does not begin with being lazy and gluttonous. The modern diet elicits muscle starvation and carbohydrate craving long before it becomes symptomatic as obesity and diabetes. People are inclined to eat more because their muscles are starving and a glucagon signaling apparatus tells them to continue eating.
Food for thought:
A fetus grows with insufficient vitamin D and the newborn continues with deficient D status and cows milk (which is high in saturated fat). The baby is then given copious amounts of high fructose corn syrup and the process of destroying the natural phospholipid status of cell membranes is complete. The child can never achieve proper levels of muscle synthesis until the cell membranes have been remodeled via dramatic reductions in non-omega 3 fatty acids (omega 6, saturated fats and trans-fats) and dramatic increases in omega 3 fatty acids.
Do we blame the ignorant parents, the the ignorant children, the ignorant physicians, the ignorant dieticians, the sold out scientists at the NIH or the food producers?
I was 6’2”, 180 pounds, 55 years old, and running 6 minute miles when I discovered I was diabetic. Modern western humans lose 1% of their muscle mass each year from age 30. This metabolic meltdown does not begin with being lazy and gluttonous. The modern diet elicits muscle starvation and carbohydrate craving long before it becomes symptomatic as obesity and diabetes. People are inclined to eat more because their muscles are starving and a glucagon signaling apparatus tells them to continue eating.
The link is to an Eddie Murphy skit on SNL. It is hilarious. If you mock the obese, you will love this. I know I did.
I’ll check it out tomorrow and get back to you. I have to be up early.
Good night.
Good point. Rubenesque women were also considered the most attractive — maybe because they were more likely than skinny women to bear and rear healthy children; when periodic famines were the norm.
I already avoid corn syrup. It gives me horrible migraines. Maybe that’s why I’m thin. Not sure how to get more omega 3s and less omega 6 and sat fats though.
The past is the past and everyone has their particular view of what they find attractive. I find obese women very unattractive, yet also find that thin women are usually nuts.
Gluttony is one of the many sins and we're all sinners...even the non-smokers and the non-fat folks. I believe there's some virtue in the old maxim: Mind your own business.
What are your thoughts on that?
Thanks for the ping!
LOL-the toe-sucker’s words of wisdom.
I know what you mean, but its more than that.
Back in the day, everyone and their parents smoked, and now I only know one person who smokes.
Or a return of Sear Roebuck catalogs. I also think they used corn cobs. Maybe some are left after they get the corn for ethonol. We will have to recycle those corn cobs. Just have no idea how to dispose of them.
I couldn't count the many, many customers buying cigs at our local convenience store. Guess they then head for an underground dugout where they can enjoy a smoke with other ostracized "lepers".
I think shame can be a positive thing. And we’ve surely lost our ability to feel any.
That’s what I mean. I live in the Toledo area. EVERY gas station, convenience store, most grocery stores, drugstores, etc; all carry smokes,cigs, cigars, as well as chew, bulk tobacco and papers- and then add on to that the tobacco shops. The girl at my corner gas station (a very small one)told me the number of cartons they keep in the back room is in the THOUSANDS. Multiply that more than a thousand times at least for Lucas County.
A fine idea!
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