Obesity in America, with Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Kelly Brownell, PhD.

WebMD ^ | June 12, 2003 | Transcript

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Why don't they start by getting rid of that poisonous upside down food chart they're always pedaling?

[arielb]

what's poisonous?

[xrp]

Moderator: Mr. Secretary, why not ban cigarettes? They have no redeeming qualities. It would certainly reduce the tobacco related illnesses and expenses.

Thompson: We need to regulate tobacco and as long as it is a commodity that is legal. People have become addicted to tobacco, and it is necessary for us to try and influence those individuals and offer the 70% of smokers that want to quit the opportunity to do so with programs that will assist them in accomplishing that objective. By banning the products outright, you will encourage black markets, smuggling, and other ways to circumvent the law, and it does not appear that anyone is willing to ban tobacco completely.

Mildly ironic when put in perspective to marijuana...

[tdadams]

Why don't we just euthanize all fat people. Would that make the health police happy?

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

The massive doses of carbs (sugar) that they want you to eat, that causes all the obesity, high blood pressure, cholesteral, etc.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Increase taxes on food and ban eating in restaurants and any public place. Demonize eaters (by saying that all eaters litter and other vague generalizations) treat them as arrogant and selfish then ban food altogether. This is the smoke Nazi Plan. The food Nazi's need to pay attention. Set up a Nazi organization call "Food Free America". Tell everyone "It's for the children".

[arielb]

i guess that explains all those obese elite carbo-loading marathoners I've been seeing lately. Or maybe I need new glasses :P

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

If you are marathon training, you might be able to deal with the unbalance, but how many people run twenty plus miles a day?

4 out of 5 people can't deal with the overdose of sugar.

[xrp]

If I buy heavily taxed fat food, yet am 6'1" and weigh 180 pounds because I workout vigorously, do I get tax rebates? May I claim rebates even if I don't buy the 'fat food'? Kind of a Earned Food Fat Tax Credit? EFFTC would rule...

[Mamzelle]

I'll bet it isn't good for the marathon-runners, either...

[arielb]

that's why sugar is on the top of the pyramid. Complex carbs-the foundation of every society that has no problem with obesity (chinese, japanese, african, etc) are on the bottom. But of course if you eat too much of anything it will kill you

[arielb]

prove it

[Mamzelle]

I said, "I'll bet" which means it has yet to be proven--mostly because it's been so hard to get real studies conducted on something that ought to have been studied at length. I would very much like to see it tested. Atkins complained frequently about how none of the nutritional branches of the major disease societies was even willing to test his assertions.

The idea of carb-loading is assumed to be effective--but it was also widely assumed that fat made us fat. Carbs make us fat.

Could be that carb-loading may not work out to be the good idea it has seemed.

[brewcrew]

Member: Secretary Thompson, regarding your statement that the government should single out fast food places that make us fat, I disagree. Good health is based on personal choice.

Oh my God. What a concept.

[MrLeRoy]

Also ironic: "I happen to be very much in the camp of allowing people to have personal choices".

[goodnesswins]

What do you consider a complex carb? That's the question....most people don't understand there's a difference.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Even though you, like me, are in good shape, food must be banned. There are many scientific studies showing that food is a factor in most deaths. Most dead people at one time or other have consumed food. The ban and plan of "Food Free America" is to save us all from the toxins in food. A sister organization "Water Free America" is just getting start, but they have a lot of backing.

[goodnesswins]

Actually, carb loading, to a certain extent may have worked in an agrarian society (where people work HARD all day long at physcial labor)....but in today's world people sit around too much on their butts!

[brewcrew]

I can tell you this: Two weeks ago I went on a low-carb diet. No flour, no sugar, no potatoes, no rice, no grain. Very little fruit. I've lost 13 lbs. and have lost any semblance of craving for those foods that I thought brought the most enjoyment (mainly desserts).