Obesity: It's officially a disease (veggies, diabetic, kidney, buying)

[DaniellaG]

Originally Posted by user_id

My point isn't that obesity is independent of psychological issues, after all, I mentioned the addictive nature of some fatty/sugary foods. My point is that most people aren't obese due to some "mental struggle", life issues didn't just start to become a problem for people in the last 30~40 years.
Most people are obese because they lack knowledge and have developed an addiction to junk foods, that addiction is no accident. The food industry, including restaurants, have formulated their food to be highly addictive.

As for as obese people's "stories and struggles", they certainly struggle to lose weight and their lack of success does create some anguish. But the anguish is the result of obesity and their inability to lose weight, not the cause of their obesity. The reason obese folks have such trouble losing weight is their lack of knowledge and the fact that they have billion dollar industries working against them on a daily basis.

In this thread people have spoken as if industry marketing is isolated to TV commercials, but decades ago the food industry figured out far more nefarious ways to market its products. For example, the dairy industry used the school system to "educate" kids about the dairy and forced the school systems to serve dairy....usually exclusively. Everything people know about dairy is a marketing message, not a nutritional reality. Is milk a wholesome product that kids should be drinking? No....its filled with sugar and fat, many people are lactose intolerant (~90% of asians, ~70% of blacks, ~50% of hispanics, ~20% of whites) and many have allergies to it. The industry starts its marketing before people can even speak, integrating their marketing messages into the culture as if they are facts. This, namely the efforts of the food, drug, etc industry, is why people struggle so much to lose weight. Numerous multi billion dollar industries are working against them!

Obesity is not similar to anorexia, anorexia is a serious eating disorder caused by distorted self-perception. For the vast majority, obesity isn't a mental disorder. The obese recognize the fact that they are overweight and their only issue is that they are unhappy about their weight. Of course, some people don't care if they are fat and there is a growing "fat acceptance" movement.

You do know that inpatient treatment centers often treat anorexics, bulimics, and compulsive overeaters who are obese often times. Also not all anorexics have distorted self perception. Some do see how ill they look but the disorder has them trapped. If you hear the struggle of people who have an eating disorder whether it be overeating, anorexia, bulimia the reasons behind it are very similar. All can destroy one's life. I understand not all obese people have an eating disorder but my point is one should not judge another person without knowing what that person is truly dealing with. Usually when a person is in an extreme situation with their weight or behaviors there is more going on in my opinion though then just eating too much or too little or consuming the wrong things

[Mikala43]

Originally Posted by user_id

You're speaking as if most people understand how to eat healthy and are simply eating junk food because they lack some sort of personal drive to do better for themselves, but I don't see that at all. Instead I see people that want to be healthier, want to lose weight, etc....but are systematically misinformed and don't know how to achieve it.

If lack of drive was the real issue here, the weight-loss industry wouldn't be a $20 billion dollar industry. People really want to lose weight......they just don't know how and no industry really has an incentive to help them. The government should be doing it, but instead we feed kids disease promoting foods the minute they enter the school system.

Industry marketing goes far beyond the TV, the food industry has hijacked US nutritional policy, school nutritional standards, etc. I mean, c'mon,, in the US nutritional policy is set by an organization that represents the interests of the food industry (USDA) not....a scientific body of independent scientists.

I completely disagree. I'm bombarded by lots of marketing for whole, organic foods, vitamins and supplements, to eat whole foods and grains, exercise equipment, and running shoes, etc.

I think the difference is that marketers target different demographics, or, perhaps more realistically, what marketing you CHOOSE to pay attention to.

It takes an effort to make the breakfast I did today, a lot of chopping of vegetables, and made a sauce..... to some it is much easier to go to a Mc-whatever and grab something fattening... plus their taste buds are accustomed to eating that way.

I think people know how to eat healthy.... heck, if so many people can find porn..... they can find information on eating healthy. They just don't want to.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by DaniellaG

You do know that inpatient treatment centers often treat anorexics, bulimics, and compulsive overeaters who are obese often times.

Bulimia, like anorexia, is an actual disorder. I'm not denying the existence of eating disorders, instead I'm suggesting that the vast majority of obese folks in this country do not have eating disorders.

When I see an obese person I'm going to assume what is most likely, that they are not informed about nutrition and eat poorly. If, after talking to them, I find that they have a rare genetic disorder that makes them obese....I'll change my view. But I see no reason to assume that a random obese person off the street is suffering from some eating disorder rather than what is far more likely. But how I, or anybody else, judges people doesn't really matter. What matters is why the nation is getting so overweight, it seems rather unlikely that the majority of adults now suffer from an eating disorder.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by Mikala43

I'm bombarded by lots of marketing for whole, organic foods, vitamins and supplements, to eat whole foods and grains, exercise equipment, and running shoes, etc.

I'm sure you are, but its all directed at selling particular products not educating people on how to eat healthfully. Switching to organics, buying supplements, buying some exercise equipment, etc is not going to help one lose weight. You don't see that many ads for whole foods, but eating a particular whole food isn't going to help one lose weight either. For example, I keep seeing pistachio commercials. How is eating pistachios going to help someone lose weight? If people eat them on top of their existing diet they are likely to gain weight because they are so calorie dense.

But of course marketers target different demographics.

Originally Posted by Mikala43

It takes an effort to make the breakfast I did today, a lot of chopping of vegetables, and made a sauce..... to some it is much easier to go to a Mc-whatever and grab something fattening... plus their taste buds are accustomed to eating that way.

It took very little effort to make my breakfast, I poured some granola, dried fruit, pepitas and unsweetened soy milk in bowl and ate it. Eating healthy doesn't have to take much time, nor does it have to cost much. The primary issue, from what I see, is that people simply don't understand what is and isn't healthful and, as you say, they don't always have taste buds that are accustomed to healthy foods. But that is by design, the food industry has got them "hooked" on their addictive creations.

Though, at least in my personal experience, I find that people consistently think healthy foods are going to taste worse than they do. Why is healthy food so consistently associated with bad tasting food? That doesn't seem to be an accident.........

[Mikala43]

If they wanted to eat healthy they could look it up on the internet. It ain't that hard.

Basically, people do what's important to THEM and for a lot of the population they WANT a Big Mac so they EAT a Big Mac. Then go looking for a diet pill to lose the weight. They know it's bad for them, they know that at the very least they should go to Subway..... they just don't WANT to.

I think in large part it is sheer laziness and self indulgence. I used to be able to eat anything I wanted, literally ate 5 meals of some sort a day and not much low fat... I was thin. As I've gotten older I started keeping weight on.... so I had to adjust what I ate and how much of it I ate. Why? Because 1) it's healthier; and, 2) I like being thin and in shape.

So vanity and health are more important to me than the Big Mac.

[DaniellaG]

Based on statistics 40%-50% of severely obese adults suffer from binge eating disorder while 10%-15% of moderately obese adults suffer from binge eating disorders.
People who are just overweight by 20 pounds for example I can see it being about bad food choices but when a person becomes so overweight where they have a hard time functioning there is more going on.

[UNC4Me]

Originally Posted by Luckyd609

Sure, a million excuses as to why overweight people cannot lose weight. Very few are medical. So as we are waiting for the 'answers' I guess people should just continue to keep their horrible eating patterns and just make excuses.
No one is saying losing weight is easy. In fact it is just about one of the hardest things to do, but making excuses helps no one. If one is truly committed to losing weight they will find the answers and do the work and end up being successful.

Please point me to the post where I said obese people bear no responsibility for their weight. You can't since I never even remotely said that. What I did say is that many obese people attempt to diet and lose weight with little to no success. Yes, sometimes they may be cheating on their diet. But, since 35% of these folks have an issue with insulin resistance or another metabolic issue, you can't assume that for ALL of them. If therapies for these issues can be developed that can, in conjunction with healthy eating and exercise, increase the chance of success why would that be a bad thing?

[user_id]

Originally Posted by Mikala43

If they wanted to eat healthy they could look it up on the internet. It ain't that hard.

Where are they going to look? The internet is filled with poor nutritional information and how does someone that doesn't know nutrition tell the nonsense from the facts? But learning about good nutrition isn't that hard for an educated individual, just open a college textbook on nutrition. But educated individuals are less likely to be overweight.

Originally Posted by Mikala43

I think in large part it is sheer laziness and self indulgence.

So you think that American society has gotten a lot more lazy and self-indulgent over the last few decades?

If people were really that lazy and uninterested in their health, I don't think there would be a multi billion dollar diet industry.

Originally Posted by DaniellaG

Based on statistics 40%-50% of severely obese adults suffer from binge eating disorder while 10%-15% of moderately obese adults suffer from binge eating disorders.
.

Based on what statistics? What are you citing? Moderately obese? Severely obese? What do those mean?

Again, I'm by no means suggesting that people don't get obese from eating disorders, instead I'm suggesting that this doesn't explain the rapid increase in the number of overweight and obese people over the last few decades. Why would eating disorders suddenly become so wide spread?

[user_id]

Originally Posted by UNC4Me

But, since 35% of these folks have an issue with insulin resistance or another metabolic issue, you can't assume that for ALL of them. If therapies for these issues can be developed that can, in conjunction with healthy eating and exercise, increase the chance of success why would that be a bad thing?

Insulin resistance is primarily a diet related condition, so focusing on some sort of drug therapy is a bit strange. Though, I'm sure the pharmaceutical industry loves the idea.

[DaniellaG]

If you go on eating disorder statistic sites or health sites such as Cleveland Clinic it gives those percentages. I would think mild obesity would be at the low end of obese bmi which is 30 and morbid obesity is over 40 bmi.
There is a huge increase of eating disorders in every group from children, males, older adults. I read that for older adults an over 40 percent increase of ed suffers then 10 years ago.