http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080110/hl_afp/lifestyleushealthobesity_080110170913 Were people healthier 100 years ago before we had fast food and all the modern conveniences?
People have the opportunity to be healthier now. They also have the opportunity to eat themselves into an early grave like never before.
Or did they eat biscuits and bacon all the fucking time, but spend their days laboring until their hands bled?
Arteries, hearts, stomachs, intestines, and livers everywhere disagree! Because I suppose every doctor, dietitian, and scientist out there who has, you know, done research and seen the effects of obesity on the human body is just wrong about it, and obesity can't possibly be bad for us. Getting tired going up one set of stairs, being unable to bend over, having breathing problems, heartburn, diabetes, ulcers, back problems, knee problems, healing more slowly, having higher risk of heart attack and stroke, having high cholesterol, and clogged arteries, is obviously okay. And I'm sure people just love being fat and choose to be fat. Otherwise, we wouldn't have pictures of fat women all over the covers of magazines, and 300 pound women modeling on catwalks. Oh wait, I forgot, people are obsessed with weight loss, and it's not just Americans. The BBC just reported this past week that up to 1/3 of Brits are dieting at any point and time. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7176836.stm This makes sense, though I think he means "choice" more in the sense that I mean "laziness and lack of will, and misinformation." When I got to college and I started bringing food from home, my roommate was happy to eat it and she told me she loved it. I told her it was all made from fat-free and lowfat ingredients, and she was surprised. I brought in fat-free sugar-free chocolate pudding (30 calories a serving), and she didn't believe me it was good - until she tried it. People have this idea that "fat free" = "nasty". Not everyone knows that you can cook any number of healthy meals in less than 30 minutes each. Lowfat chicken and brown rice, if cooked right, is delicious - and it takes about 20 minutes to make it. People just don't know how to cook this stuff, or don't want to, or think it won't help. Sometimes I feel like setting up a class to teach fatties how to cook all that lowfat stuff.
Most of the time, they do choose to be fat. Every time they decide to sit down rather then exercise. Every time they pass over the healthy items on the menu or at the grocery store. That is a choice to be fat. You have to do more than cry about how badly you don't want to be a porker before anyone should accept it's not your fault. The simple fact is that most people are not willing to suffer, sweat, and discipline their urges in order to be healthy. They refuse to admit to themselves how bad their personal habits are, or that anything good can come from discomfort and self-denial. Nobody with that mentality deserves even the tiniest measure of sympathy.
Daughter was watching Supersize Me last night. It's a while since I've seen it, so I must admit, I was shocked at how little most Americans walk in a day. That, plus all the labour-saving devices... disaster waiting to happen. A few months ago, there was a short series over here about how the Edwardians used to eat. Fact is, rich Brit Edwardians ate even worse than somebody who goes to Mickey D's three times a day - loads of meat, the few veggies boiled to a pulp, far too much alcohol, and something like three times the amount of calories than it's calculated we need to be healthy. But they were far more active than we are, so they burnt off a lot of it. I was reading an article at the weekend that said nobody should eat anything their great-grandmother couldn't have eaten - ie, get away from the processed stuff - but then somebody else said nobody should eat anything our neolithic ancestors couldn't have eaten. Besides, daughter's great-grandmother - my gran - firmly believed that more than one piece of fruit a day was toxic to the colon and veggies needed to be boiled into submission. Not that healthy. IMHO, you can get far too hung up on this stuff. To put it simply: a little of what you fancy does you good. Too much of anything is bad. Anything else has probably been devised to sell a book.
What amazes me is that with thousands and thousands of books, tapes, CDs, conventions, diet pills and weight loss treatments, it all boils down to is this: "Eat fewer calories than you burn." That is how you lose weight. It's not difficult. But like you said, Linda, anything else has probably been devised to sell a book. It's not that difficult. Hell, you don't even have to exercise (though I highly recommend it!). Eat fewer calories than you burn, and you will lose weight. J.
Not in the sense most would use the term. Being overweight is a PASSIVE lifestyle choice, rather than an active one. In other words, you are choosing in the negative to NOT do the - for some people rather extreme - things you have to do to have what's considered a "healthy" weight. I, for one, never fail to be amused when the person who, metabolically NEVER has to worry about being overweight....a person who could LIVE off donuts dipped in molasses and never gain an ounce....climbs upon the soapbox to lecture those who are overweight. If you have fought your weight all your life and you want to rail at the "laziness" or unconcern of those who have not fought so hard against the weight as you have - okay. Fine. You are entitled to claim the moral authority. If you have never had to....do please sit down - because us fat people don't take you seriously.
I personally have no great interest in being at the 170something they say is healthy, but I'd LOVE to get down to around 200 or so... However, I have not found that I have the fortitude to stick to a low calorie program for the year or more it would take to do that (or a comparable exercise regime) - nor do I anticipate such a radically altered diet the rest of my life to STAY down there. I know my limitations.If I had the money to go to a place where I was isolated into an intensive weight program (a "fat farm") i would absolutely do so. but on my own? Tried that...a dozen times or more...the first time I plateau for a few weeks, it's over.
If Lindsay Lohan can go from a healthy looking babe to the female version of Skeletor in less than a year, surely you can do it too, with anorexia, and enough cocaine.
Meth is the way to go. Stay up for a week straight tweaking without eating anything, and the pounds will literally melt off!
Don't forget the massive consumption of tobacco (at least by men) and the fact that even the middle class (in Britain) could afford servants who did all the housework for them.
I disagree. Not exercising is a passive choice, but one way or another, you have to feed yourself every day, and what you choose to eat is not a passive choice. IMHO.
I think you can have a predisposition to put on weight, but after a certain point it's pretty much down to choice. I've never been heavier than about 16 stone (~220lb) even when I was getting practically no exercise. To put on weight beyond that, I'd be having to deliberately eat the most fatty foods I could find. At some point, these people must be looking down at the scales and thinking "well, I can't actually see the reading because my stomach's in the way - perhaps I'd better cut back on the cheeseburgers? Nah."
