[Ynot]

People come in all shapes and sizes. Personally, I'm getting real tired of "others" trying to dictate the boundaries of what is normal and accepted, etc.

My other issue is with how "obesity" is determined. The body mass index is generally applied across the board, but there are exceptions. These are not taken into consideration when health officials' records tabulate obese patients.

Being overweight or obese is an individual problem, but I fear the government will soon attempt to regulate that, too. Yes, you can argue the increase in health care and insurance, but it's still regulating. What a person weighs does not matter to me, it does not affect my well being....it may effect theirs, but it is their problem to fix if they want to--not to be made to feel inferior or less of a person.

These type of reports are useless and insignificant INHO. And no, I'm not overweight or obese.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Ynot

I'm getting real tired of "others" trying to dictate the boundaries of what is normal

What if the "other" is a doctor?

[southernnaturelover]

The racial part of this does play a role IMO. Just yesterday I was sitting in a buffet Chinese restaurant and I was looking around at the people, with exception to a couple, all of the white folks were average size, and nearly all of the black folks were fat. For some reason this seems to be mostly black women, the men are thinner.

[bluebeard]

Regardless of whether BMI is an accurate predictor of health or not, and to what amount obesity is different by race (its definitely is, but that only accounts for part of it) it's obvious that in the US, and in the South specifically, that people don't do enough exercise or care about their diets enough. Direct health measures (stroke incidences, various mortalities, etc...) show this to be true.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by bluebeard

Regardless of whether BMI is an accurate predictor of health or not, and to what amount obesity is different by race (its definitely is, but that only accounts for part of it) it's obvious that in the US, and in the South specifically, that people don't do enough exercise or care about their diets enough. Direct health measures (stroke incidences, various mortalities, etc...) show this to be true.

Might be the average incomes. They are lower in the south.

A man will marry the best looking girl he can afford.

Tight butts get rich husbands.

[soulful]

I don't know why it would have anything to do with race.

Instead, it seems as if it is related to a lack of education and/or a self destructive nature.
A person who intentionally destroys/damages their body has issues that need to be addressed.

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by soulful

I don't know why it would have anything to do with race.

Because of genetics. Look at Asians for example, I seldom see a fat Asian person, despite the fact that their diets contain lots of fat.

[soulful]

There are plenty of fat white folks.

[mimpdaddy]

Exactly!

[GloryB]

It isn't a race issue. It is because Mississippi and Alabama have the BEST food in America. Period. If I lived there, I would be a cow by now. A VERY HAPPY cow.