Obesity is a disease

[BroDeal]

The American Medical Association voted to classify obesity as a disease. Not to be too cynical but this sounds like a cunning plan to drum up more business, paid for by insurance companies.

Meanwhile over at the restaurant owned by Paula Deen, who is referred to as the Baroness of Butter and is evidently a closet member of the Ku Klux Klan, there is a line waiting to get in. A sad picture of America.

 

[ElChingon]

Next thing you'll hear is being alive a disease.

 

[hfer07]

The American Medical Association voted to classify obesity as a disease. Not to be too cynical but this sounds like a cunning plan to drum up more business, paid for by insurance companies.

Meanwhile over at the restaurant owned by Paula Deen, who is referred to as the Baroness of Butter and is evidently a closet member of the Ku Klux Klan, there is a line waiting to get in. A sad picture of America.

+100000 sad indeed

Obama care will be making "a kill" at the expenses of "F.A.T. America"

 

[Master50]

Next thing you'll hear is being alive a disease.

Well it always ends in death?

 

[gregod]

...

don't these people own a mirror or a scale?

that said, i am somewhat sympathetic to the idea that obesity is a disease. more specifically, it is a food-borne illness. the US food (and water) supply is so laden with corn syrup, steroids and antibiotics that there is evidence that these are affecting americans' ability to manage their appetites, absorb nutrients and metabolize what they consume.

 

[aphronesis]

Still a stretch of either term. And next to useless as conventionally construed and treated. Even given that a good proportion of the US food/water supply is horribly contaminated, one could still elect to change their habits, research the problem and seek alternatives when faced with the visual evidence of the condition--regardless of how it's classified.

 

[gregod]

Still a stretch of either term. And next to useless as conventionally construed and treated. Even given that a good proportion of the US food/water supply is horribly contaminated, one could still elect to change their habits, research the problem and seek alternatives when faced with the visual evidence of the condition--regardless of how it's classified.

in theory yes, but it is difficult to know that one should change one's habits when one is bombarded with messages that reassure that nothing is wrong in spite of the visual evidence. look at your country and austerity. the "visual" evidence is that it has further weakened the economy but your politicians are touting that it is working just fine and pushing for more cuts.

furthermore, even if one changes one's eating habits, there is speculation that some of the metabolic changes may be irreversible. in which case, classification as a chronic disease may be appropriate.

 

[aphronesis]

in theory yes, but it is difficult to know that one should change one's habits when one is bombarded with messages that reassure that nothing is wrong in spite of the visual evidence. look at your country and austerity. the "visual" evidence is that it has further weakened the economy but your politicians are touting that it is working just fine and pushing for more cuts.

furthermore, even if one changes one's eating habits, there is speculation that some of the metabolic changes may be irreversible. in which case, classification as a chronic disease may be appropriate.

Obviously a good amount of the people on this board are aware that it would take more than a change of eating habits and food.. That said, I know quite a few people with degrees outside of industrial medicine who would argue that reversing the effects on one's metabolism is not impossible. A long term project maybe--especially depending on the degree and duration of the damage (ok, most in that photo)--but achievable.

Not sure which country you think is mine--not that it matters that much in the long run.

 

[gregod]

Obviously a good amount of the people on this board are aware that it would take more than a change of eating habits and food.. That said, I know quite a few people with degrees outside of industrial medicine who would argue that reversing the effects on one's metabolism is not impossible. A long term project maybe--especially depending on the degree and duration of the damage (ok, most in that photo)--but achievable.

Not sure which country you think is mine--not that it matters that much in the long run.

it says "London, UK" in the upper right corner of your post -------------------------------------------☝

 

[aphronesis]

it says "London, UK" in the upper right corner of your post -------------------------------------------☝

It's where I live. In terms of your comments though, as I said, it doesn't make much difference even if the administrative and economic jargon changes some.

 

[FitSsikS]

"It's not a disease." click Ricky Gervais

 

[Master50]

By making Obesity a disease the processed foods get a pass and the drug companies get a licence to treat it. Maybe we can turn this into a problem for fat food restaurants for infecting it's patrons.
I have a close family member who is morbidly obese and I know it has been exasperated by hormonal issues. She never ate any more than me and as children we got a lot more exercise. As adults I am very active and she is not but not enough to explain a 250 pound difference. I recognize there is some validity to the idea that some obesity is rooted in organic causes but it is far too widespread and when we look at Fat food introduced into cultures that traditionally don't have obesity issues that we must acknowledge the connection. Where ever Fat food restaurants open the locals get fatter.

 

[rhubroma]

In media stat virtus (in the middle lies virtue). This simple and elegant Latin phrase succinctly expresses all that is wrong with our bulimic culture. It is, obviously, an admonition against excess. Though how in this age of conspicuous consumption and market fundamentalism, which even conditions how Americans nourish themselves (although nourish is an abomination here), all in the name of eternal economic growth, is changing habits possible, I've asked? Frankly the habit has sedated the population, which is always looking for the easy way out as I have seen among my chubby students.

When a culture is taught from birth that more is always better, that quality is subordinated to quantity, that measure and constraint are prohibitive to self-realization (whatever that means), and when food is treated like any other product for which greater consumption equals greater profit, then the results are hardly surprising. The myriad of snacks in the supermarkets and the super-sized offers are enough to comprehend the folly. This is also the case especially among the poor, for which low cost fast food loaded with grease, fat and sugar has a facile appeal. This, too, is the market.

And then there is a whole diet and health industry to make a killing by preying upon the people’s conformism and ignorance. I have never witnessed so much health fanaticism as among a population that is so unhealthy. Instead of drinking a nice glass of Coke, or eating a normal ice cream cone, one must consume a gallon of Diet Coke and great quantity of low fat frozen yogurt, because it’s healthy. What a world. Americans are the victims of their own excess, which is proverbially called way of life.

 

[gregod]

By making Obesity a disease the processed foods get a pass and the drug companies get a licence to treat it. Maybe we can turn this into a problem for fat food restaurants for infecting it's patrons.
I have a close family member who is morbidly obese and I know it has been exasperated by hormonal issues. She never ate any more than me and as children we got a lot more exercise. As adults I am very active and she is not but not enough to explain a 250 pound difference. I recognize there is some validity to the idea that some obesity is rooted in organic causes but it is far too widespread and when we look at Fat food introduced into cultures that traditionally don't have obesity issues that we must acknowledge the connection. Where ever Fat food restaurants open the locals get fatter.

excellent point.

 

[The GCW]

The, how can I profit off of obesity, scam.

Obesity is NOT a disease.

Of course some humans may have honest health issues which cause weight gain, but not to the extent of the population that is currently overweight.

It seems like mostly life style choices and large corporations causing obesity.

Look in the average grocery store. The bread isle in a large grocery for instance has a lot of choices with partially hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrup etc. but only a limited choice for bread with out those obesity causing substances. And bread is just one example, look at crackers, pastries, cereal etc. Then a loaf of bread which is healthy is expensive so the average person / family ends up making choices which in 20 years becomes an issue.

If it's not good to eat meat, what about meat pumped with hormones etc. If meat tends to make people obese, the addition of chemicals pumped into meat may cause other health problems which then make humans exercise less. Chemicals are not just in meat either.

Large corporations do their part in this problem.

Look at schools. In one room they teach about eating healthy and avoiding bad foods and in the next room they sell bad food in cafeterias. In some schools they even have fast food joints selling their bad food to students.

And if you hardly exercise for 20 years, you don't end up with a disease, you end up fat.

 

[python]

obesity is no bigger a disease than any other form of visually measurable and considered excessive condition when compared to some contemporary (YET QUITE ARBITRARY, culturally speaking) norm of human appearance.

ugly and fat westerners live twice as long as most thin africans and perhaps are half as content as those lean untermenschen

i think dwelling on the superficial point of how others look is horribly misleading and counterproductive...

it is far more important to a contemporary western society to figure out why our other excesses result in multiple layers of lard obstructing our vision, self-assessment and objective thinking.

 

[ChrisE]

Meanwhile over at the restaurant owned by Paula Deen, who is referred to as the Baroness of Butter and is evidently a closet member of the Ku Klux Klan, there is a line waiting to get in. A sad picture of America.

How dare you insult those real 'merikans'. Those fat rolls have some use...you can hide an assault rifle in all of that blubber so they can defend themselves against tyranny.

If you look closely you can see Clarence Thomas on the right in that picture.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Do you think americans know that canteens in the rest of the world actually offer salats and healthy food for the students and employees? I'm actually baffled they are allowed to serve fast food in school cafeterias in the way they are. No wonder there's a obesity problem.

 

[Master50]

obesity is no bigger a disease than any other form of visually measurable and considered excessive condition when compared to some contemporary (YET QUITE ARBITRARY, culturally speaking) norm of human appearance.

ugly and fat westerners live twice as long as most thin africans and perhaps are half as content as those lean untermenschen

i think dwelling on the superficial point of how others look is horribly misleading and counterproductive...

it is far more important to a contemporary western society to figure out why our other excesses result in multiple layers of lard obstructing our vision, self-assessment and objective thinking.

Westerners are trending downward for life expectancy after trending upward for nearly a century. Modern medicine and better nutrition are the main reason they live longer than the "skinny" people of Africa. There is lots of newer evidence that low calories and high nutrition is closer to the best recipe for long life. The western eye is getting so used to fat as normal that we now call anyone who's ribs are distinguishable as being too thin, even though 50 years ago that was exactly a fit person. My friend has a young Lab that lives in the country and is about as fit as a dog can be yet he is constantly barraged by well meaning fat pet owners that say he isn't feeding his dog enough. He has at least once had to provide a health report from a vet to dissuade cruelty accusations from escalating. I don't know if this is because people are over feeding their pets based on their own food issues or ?.
I recall a series on PBS about a modern family living like early homesteaders and the father seeking medical attention because he though he was dying of some wasting disease. He was stronger, fitter and leaner than he had ever been but his appearance in the mirror scared him. His doctor said this is how you were meant to look when you are at your peak fitness and that he was in fact healthier than he had ever been, yet his culture twisted it into sickness?
In fact how we look is not the issue. it is how we measure the signs of what we see is changing too. More and more we expect a belly roll and muffin tops are normal on girls. That we can't tell if there are muscles under the layers of fat is normal? Just by image I think we want to be 20 to 30 pounds overweight to look normal.
Looking at countries where a lean man is lean because he is also consuming his own muscles is not a fair comparison. Those people in Africa are malnourished and are not meeting their caloric base lines so by appearance those people should be more muscular if they were healthy too.
In the 1930s clean your plate was a critical message but in this century the message should be there is too many calories on your plate and take less. Stop eating before you feel full. Spend more time cooking unprepared foods. feed your body and not your sadness.
So I guess I agree with your last point but the appearance of normal has shifted to accommodate a distorted view of what healthy looks like and the bar is moving to accept fat as a more normal appearance.

 

[42x16ss]

Do you think americans know that canteens in the rest of the world actually offer salats and healthy food for the students and employees? I'm actually baffled they are allowed to serve fast food in school cafeterias in the way they are. No wonder there's a obesity problem.

I'm guessing that's because it would be infringing on their right to buy gross takeaway food

I remember Jamie Oliver's series where he was addressing the food served in UK cafeterias. There were parents demanding "proper" food instead of beautiful fresh sandwiches, fruit, soups and salads and passing their kids things like McDonald's and KFC over the school fence.

What chance does the next generation have when f-wit parents like that make them think it's normal to eat that cr@p every day

 

[Polyarmour]

I'm guessing that's because it would be infringing on their right to buy gross takeaway food

I remember Jamie Oliver's series where he was addressing the food served in UK cafeterias. There were parents demanding "proper" food instead of beautiful fresh sandwiches, fruit, soups and salads and passing their kids things like McDonald's and KFC over the school fence.

What chance does the next generation have when f-wit parents like that make them think it's normal to eat that cr@p every day

Have you noticed Jamie Oliver is looking a bit porky lately?

I'd put him as 10-15kgs overweight.

That's because like most people, he is completely obsessed with food and has overlooked the other half of the health equation.... Exercise!

 

[Polyarmour]

By making Obesity a disease the processed foods get a pass and the drug companies get a licence to treat it. Maybe we can turn this into a problem for fat food restaurants for infecting it's patrons.
I have a close family member who is morbidly obese and I know it has been exasperated by hormonal issues. She never ate any more than me and as children we got a lot more exercise. As adults I am very active and she is not but not enough to explain a 250 pound difference. I recognize there is some validity to the idea that some obesity is rooted in organic causes but it is far too widespread and when we look at Fat food introduced into cultures that traditionally don't have obesity issues that we must acknowledge the connection. Where ever Fat food restaurants open the locals get fatter.

I'm sorry but people don't get fat by breathing air.
It's called the Conservation of Mass Theory.
Alternatively Calories IN - Calories OUT.
There is not a person on the planet who has bypassed this rule.
Even those who claim hormonal imbalances are bound by the Laws of Physics.
Fat people don't like eating in front of you because they don't want the disapproval. (perceived or otherwise)
As soon as you are out of sight they are tucking into Mars Bars.

 

[Polyarmour]

Karl Lagerfeld gets himself into trouble criticizing fat women.

"It's the fat women sitting in front of televisions with their pack of crisps who say slim models are hideous"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-30/curvy-french-women-fat-chanel-karl-lagerfeld/5056630

 

[Polyarmour]

Body dysmorphia in modern society

Does anyone else have this problem?

I turn up at my local race venue and compare myself to others.
I'm not the skinniest, not the fattest, I'm about midway compared to the guys I race against.
At 6ft1 & 78kgs I'm thinking I'd be happy if I lost a couple more kgs.
Yet I go to work and I constantly get comments about my weight.
Too skinny, wasting away, gone too far with the cycling, obsessed, no strength etc.
I have normal BMI for my age and height. Not even athletic.
These comments are coming from fat people who would be mortally wounded if I pointed out their shortcomings.

I read the other day about a condition called Fatorexia.
People look in the mirror and can't see that they're fat.
Coz everyone else is fat too. It's normalized.

 

[42x16ss]

Have you noticed Jamie Oliver is looking a bit porky lately?

I'd put him as 10-15kgs overweight.

That's because like most people, he is completely obsessed with food and has overlooked the other half of the health equation.... Exercise!

Very true, he is looking a bit porky but when you look at the long term effects associated with the type of diets he was appealing against, you can only have praise for his intentions.