Study: We're Eating Ourselves to Death

AP ^ | 03/09/04

[traumer]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans are sitting around and eating themselves to death, with obesity closing in on tobacco as the nation's No. 1 underlying preventable killer.

The government is offering constructive, even lighthearted, advice to fight what it calls an epidemic of expanding waistlines. Americans will be told in a new ad campaign they can lose midsection ``love handles'' and double chins one step at a time if they eat less and exercise more.

[trebb]

I almost choked on my double Big Mac and triple fries when I read this tripe... </sarcasm

[Mears]

Will the smoking police now become food police?

Will kids spy on their parents and tell the authorities if they eat potato chips?

Will neighbors peer out the windows to see what's cooking on the grille?

Will children be removed from their homes if too much sugar and fat is served?

Will forced marches and mandated exercise encourage us to get off of our couches?

The sad thing about all of the above is that some of this might happen.

I'm a slim smoker and I really think the entire thing is quite funny. Thank God the government has decided to demonise another group of people.

[valkyrieanne]

Everybody dies, Sec'y Thompson - get used to it. If the fat don't getcha, something else will. It's a scientific fact that every person over the age of 50 who's died has at one time or another in their life eaten food.

[MeekOneGOP]

LOL !

[ApplegateRanch]

I'm a slim smoker and I really think the entire thing is quite funny. Thank God the government has decided to demonise another group of people.

Reminds me of when I was considerably overweight & smoked regularly. I had a physical, and my cholesterol was 135. The doc saw that, smiled and asked about my diet. When I told him of 2 dozen eggs/week; lots of bacon & pork steaks, and potatoes fried in bacon grease, he lost his smile.

"I'll show you the folly of your diet; I'll take more blood & do a triglyceride screen; THAT will show you what your diet is doing to you, despite the cholesterol!"

The triglycerides came back low-normal; and the HDL/LDL ratio was excellent.

Was he glad for me? HAH!

He literally cussed me as an "affront to medical knowledge", and dropped me as a patient!

They'll have to pry that batter-fried drumstick from my cold, dead fingers!

[ElizabethP]

But it doesn't have to be one extreme or the other. There is a happy medium (as I have discovered after spending my teenage years starving and puking) that involves healthy eating and exercising and enjoying everything in moderation. For example, most of my meals consist of grilled seafood or vegetarian selections. Tonight, however, I treated myself to a fried oyster plate with hush puppies. I eat fried food about once every three or four months.

And of course everyone has the right to eat as much as they desire. However, it is incredible how ignorant some people are as far as nutrition goes. You would think that people would care about what was entering their body.

[CommandoFrank]

We're just too darn fat, ladies and gentlemen, and we're going to do something about it,"

Oh oh... I just finished off a huge bowl of strawberry shortcake with a huge scoop of whipped cream. I expect a knock on my door any moment.

Burp...

[Mears]

Hey you "affront to medical knowledge",enjoy that fried chicken!!

The government has become nothing but a spoilsport and will not be happy until we are all miserable----healthy but miserable.

They still haven't figured out anything that will prevent dying,though,but I'm sure they think they will eventually solve that "problem" also.

[ApplegateRanch]

At the hospital where I worked, I would periodiclly remind some of the over zealous health-nazis that medical science has not changed the death rate one iota:

It is STIll one person, one death!

I don't expect that to change, either; except in the case of those who insist on experiencing the Second Death.

So, quit if YOU want; otherwise, enjoy that smoke as much as I do my fatty foods.

[xp38]

[ApplegateRanch]

Speaking of the War On Fat...

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_879026.html?menu=news.quirkies

Fat woman wins drivers' licence back with diet

A 14-stone Chilean woman who was told she was too fat to drive has won back her licence after hiring a nutritionist to help her diet.

[metesky]

Silicone or saline? Isn't that the more important question?

If one donates, doe one get, uh, part ownership of the new product? Visiting rights?

[Sapper26]

For years they said smoking will kill me, so I quit. Like many ex-smokers I put on extra weight, now that will kill me. The hell with it, I going to start smoking again.

[Conspiracy Guy]

From my oldies file.

FAT

The real problem is physics.

Girth is determined by an individuals resistance to atmospheric pressure (ap). My resistance to ap is low therefore the pressure pushes on my surfaces making me appear slim. Fat people have a high resistance to ap so they spread out. Light people have a high resistance to gravity. Heavy people have little resistance to gravity.

Food has nothing to do with it. We can balance the scales by banning atmospheric pressure and gravity.

"Stop the atmospheric pressure and gravity now! It's for the children!"

Conspiracy Guy 9/14/3

[Labyrinthos]

A poor diet and physical inactivity caused 400,000 deaths in 2000.

Oh please. If the report said that "poor diet and physical inactivity may have contributed to 400,000 deaths in 2000," I might give the report some weight. But "caused?" Yeah right.

[GraniteStateConservative]

``We're just too darn fat, ladies and gentlemen, and we're going to do something about it,'' Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said Tuesday at a news conference.

It sure is a good thing the GOP is in power; otherwise, we might have a meddlesome liberal government sticking their noses in our lives where they don't belong.

[GraniteStateConservative]

The GOP is from the government and they're here to help you. Don't you feel better knowing that?

[GraniteStateConservative]

Jack-booted food police thugs will pay you a visit. Stay armed, stay safe...

[Labyrinthos]

1--every citizen has the right to eat as much food as they can purchase, to be as fat as they desire. (Amendment IX: The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.")

I think you're looking in the wrong direction. This is a "commerce clause" issue, which provides the basis for federal interference -- I mean involvement -- with transportation and enery production and supply. Fat people consume more petro than proportionate sized people. Why? They tend to drive, rather than walk, the block and a half to Dunkin Donuts; the extra weight results in lower fuel efficiency when they drive; and they reduce the capacity of airplanes resulting in more flights to move the fatties than the non-fatties.

[SamAdams76]

I would rather die of obesity and a satisfied stomach than skin and bones, starving to death.

So would I. But speaking as one who was obese for many years, being obese is no fun either. I finally conquered my obesity through a regular exercise program (mostly walking) and controlling my portions (and eliminating entirely carb-laden convenience foods).

I'm not for nanny government or any kind of government intervention. But it is true that America is just too damn fat. I consider myself very fortunate that I am one of the few who was able to break out of the "overeating and underexercising" rut that I was in. Not many can and for those people, more serious health problems often develop such as Type II diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, etc.

While I do not support a big-government solution to the problem, the fact is that the aforementioned health conditions are costing us many billions of dollars a year and are driving up health care costs for everybody. I must say that I have some resentment subsidizing health care for all those who do not take care of themselves. I only see a doctor once every couple of years for a physical and the only prescription in my adult life was a two-week antibiotic for a sinus infection I had back in 1995. But nearly every overweight person I know sees doctors constantly and are on pills for this and that for pretty much the rest of their lives. Furthermore, they are always feeling tired and miserable and have all sorts of aches and pains. These are people my age too. Now that's no way to livej and seeing them is what motivated me to take my excess weight off before it was too late for me.

Having taken off about 100 pounds, I feel like an entirely new person. Tons of energy and a whole new outlook on life. Just little things like being able to tie my shoes without sitting down or being able to get out of a chair without having to use my arms to push myself up, make me really appreciate my new lifestyle.