[JohnHuang2]

Thursday, June 20, 2002

Quote of the Day by surely_you_jest

[LoneGreenEyeshade]

adding just one variable to the mix — activity levels — eliminates fat as a risk factor

I would like to suggest a different variable....eliminating fast food restaurants...or at least requiring a bold posting on each door, similiar to the one required on packs of cigarettes....

"Eating at this establishment more than once will likely lead to coronary artery disease, stoke, cancer, malnutrition.....etc. etc. etc.

[neutrino]

Interesting!

[farmfriend]

Indeed the authors of the study, Michael McGinnis and William Foege, became so frustrated by the chronic incorrect citation of their data that in 1998 they published a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine objecting to the misuse of their study.

They should have just asked me to sing.

[blackbart.223]

"That study attributed around 300,000 extra deaths per year to sedentary lifestyle and poor dietary habits, not to weight, which was not even evaluated as a risk factor."

Color me stupid but but poor dietary habits coupled with a sedentary lifesyle generally results in obesity.

[Minnesoootan]

Too bad man doesn't have predators anymore,well,that's not entirely true,there are a few Mt.Lions in Kalifornia doing their job correctly....but my point being,nature takes care of the weak and sickly,so,let the fat bastards eat what they want,the natural coarse will be death,maybe sooner,maybe not,then the fat bastards gene pool decreases and you have nothing but healthy diet conscious humans running around.

All this preventing or extending the death process,especially for political purposes, bothers me beyond belief.

[Free the USA]

bttt

[Just another Joe]

An abiding weakness of the conventional wisdom is that, once a supposed fact has become part of that wisdom, it becomes almost impossible to dislodge it.

After calculating the death risk associated with various weight levels derived from six epidemiological studies, the authors employed the following assumption: "Our calculations assume that all excess mortality in obese people is due to their [obesity]"

Journalists in particular ought to start noticing that fact, rather than endlessly reprinting the same piece of junk science.

Sound familiar people?

[Great Dane]

A Lexis database search reveals that this "fact" has been repeated in more than one thousand news stories over the past three years alone. Yet the evidence for this claim is so slim as to be practically nonexistent.

Funny, it's the same with smoking, but nobody listens.

[Fifth Business]

ping

[WhiskeyPapa]

I was at a party this weekend and two of the lades were yukking it up over the fact that they both tipped the scales at over 250 lbs. Neither was more than 25 Y.O.

Jolly fat people.

Walt

[SamAdams76]

Many people replying to this article either didn't read it or didn't understand it. The article is saying that the notion that people die of obesity is unproven and is junk science.

There sure are a lot of fat old ladies around. My grandmother is 89 years old and she has been fat all her life. Furthermore, she has been up at 4:30 in the morning making biscuits, bacon, eggs and gravy for over 70 years now. Don't see a lot of fat old men though. Guess that means I ought to take a few pounds off while my wife gets to stay as fat as she wants. Bummer.

Since somebody mentioned the airlines in this thread, might as well throw my two cents in. I think airlines should charge by the pound. Passengers should get on a scale and pay XX amount per pound, depending on how far they will be flying that day. That would solve a lot of problems and those weigh a lot will be charged enough money to warrant two seats.

I don't want to sit next to fat people on the airplane and I sure as hell don't want to sit next to myself either. Not until I take a few pounds off, anyhow.

Speaking of fast food, it's not the fast food that does me in but the slow food.

[ChasingFletch]

Junk Food about Science!!! We have learned that it's really about ........genes. Chow Down Folks !!!!!! My Granny (God Bless YOU) smoked filterless Camels from the ages of 17 to 94, ate butter-laden eggs and bacon for breakfast every morning.........and worked in the garden. The only reason she died so early(at 97) was because they put her in a nursing home and prohibited her her smokes and eggs). Genes......it's really difficult to overcome the influence of genes (and who wants to-not me certainly)........especially when those jeans are on some lovely girl's legs and backend !! Oh...... a different subject! YOI !!!

[Mamzelle]

Though I don't want the GUV to do anything about it, when I pick up my children at school I watch quite a parade of morbidly obese children. When I was in school, a chubby girl was considered "fat"--now that same amount of chub in a child would be considered only mildly overweight.

I don't think it's just a matter of "super size" portions at fast food joints, I think it's a matter of people not cooking at home anymore. It's just easier to pick up a pizza on the way home...not only does it put on the pounds, but it takes a hunk of your household budget!

Go get some bags of nice veggies, teach the kids to make a crisp salad by soaking the greens in cold water for 20 minutes, steam the broccoli/cauli/squash until barely tender with lots of cut-up unbuttered potatoes, add a moderate serving of lean meat and throw out the Little Debbies and potato chips. You'll be satisfied if there's variety and a small amount of heavy carb such as taters, pasta or rice...it's not even hard to cook--just prop a big colander over a pot of boiling water and steam away. I know of what I speak, being at war with the same fifteen pounds my whole post-thirties life.