[Roscoe Conkling]

Originally Posted by HarryWho?

Yes I do. I've personally known several 300 lbers in their eighties. I have a neighbor right now. I've also had the misfortune of having a very fit friend drop dead at 32. I'm not defending obesity, and of course there's precious few benefits, but ranting about anyone overweight is silly.

There's a difference between overweight and obese.
And obese and morbidly obese.
But the one thing they have in common is that there are more in America than anywhere else in the world.
It's a ticking time-bomb.

[HarryWho?]

Originally Posted by Roscoe Conkling

There's a difference between overweight and obese.
And obese and morbidly obese.
But the one thing they have in common is that there are more in America than anywhere else in the world.
It's a ticking time-bomb.

And there's a difference between true concern and conceit. Actually, Mexico is king. They dethroned us last year.

[Roscoe Conkling]

Originally Posted by HarryWho?

And there's a difference between true concern and conceit. Actually, Mexico is king. They dethroned us last year.

The truth,unlike fast food,is hard to swallow for some people.

[HarryWho?]

Originally Posted by Roscoe Conkling

The truth,unlike fast food,is hard to swallow for some people.

The truth is much more complicated than single minded people care to believe.

[Roscoe Conkling]

Originally Posted by HarryWho?

The truth is much more complicated than single minded people care to believe.

It really isn't.
It's all about education ( the most recent figures show a drop in obesity among the very young children of low-income families CDC - Progress on Childhood Obesity | Vital Signs ) of parents to give children a chance.
But for adults it's simply a question of self-restraint.
Portion control is out of control in this country - meals sizes are aboslutely huge, soda bottles are extra large and everyone is offered supersize.
Here in Florida there's an absolute abundance of cheap produce,fruit and healthy eating options in restaurants and the weather is designed for a fit,outdoor lifestyle.
There simply isn't any excuse for obesity other than laziness and gluttony.

[HarryWho?]

Originally Posted by Roscoe Conkling

It really isn't.
It's all about education ( the most recent figures show a drop in obesity among the very young children of low-income families CDC - Progress on Childhood Obesity | Vital Signs ) of parents to give children a chance.
But for adults it's simply a question of self-restraint.
Portion control is out of control in this country - meals sizes are aboslutely huge, soda bottles are extra large and everyone is offered supersize.
Here in Florida there's an absolute abundance of cheap produce,fruit and healthy eating options in restaurants and the weather is designed for a fit,outdoor lifestyle.
There simply isn't any excuse for obesity other than laziness and gluttony.

It's more than just that. Education is very important but it's not the answer to everything. If it were, we'd all really be anything we wanted. Sadly marketing frequently trumps education and desire defines logic. I know many obese people who are anything but lazy and I even know a painfully thin glutton. It's true statistics are probably on your side, but a life defined by statistics is one I wouldn't want to live. Just for my own info., where are you getting this cheap fruit and produce? I did better in South Jersey. The only place I've found it particularly cheap is Homestead, and that's a hell of a hike.

[Trigger-f]

Originally Posted by Roscoe Conkling

Actually you're wrong in your assertion that smoking and alcoholism are a worse problem than obesity.


Obesity has been cited as a contributing factor to approximately 100,000–400,000 deaths in the United States per year[12] and has increased health care use and expenditures,[13][14][15][16] costing society an estimated $117 billion in direct (preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services related to weight) and indirect (absenteeism, loss of future earnings due to premature death) costs.[17] This exceeds health-care costs associated with smoking or problem drinking[16] and accounts for 6% to 12% of national health care expenditures in the United States.[18]

Obesity in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The problem, however, is that whilst it's easy to demonise smoking and problem drinking it's more difficult for a government to do so for obesity because so many people in the US are overweight/obese and which politician wants to lose votes by telling people not to go to McDonalds every day.

And why are you so against obesity? If you ain't obese, what do you care? I provided data that insurance rates go up due to a multitude of other diseases too (i.e. cancer etc..). It seems as I said, you have an agenda to be so adamant about it. I sense some personal issue. Perhaps a 300 pounder sat on you?

This is the real plague in America today(see below). Wake up and smell the coffee. Obese people don't drive the wrong way on expressways like the MI driver on I-275. Drugs and alcohol cause that. Obesity needs to be addressed, but you're making a big deal out of it.

Drugs, Inc. | National Geographic Channel

[New Horizons]

If I was going to choose a place to live purely for a fit, outdoor lifestyle, it surely wouldn't be Florida. Unless people's idea of exercise is flapping around in the gulf like Shamu. I'd probably go with Colorado or California, something out west for sure. And the fact that Florida still allows smoking in bars there when so many other cities and states have banned it entirely....don't let a few palm trees fool you, it's till the dirty south, an extension of Alabama. Actually even Alabama has banned cigarettes in bars in many cities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...#.C2.A0Alabama

Florida statute 386.209 prevents any local munincipality for enacting stricter laws.
386.209: Regulation of smoking preempted to state.—This part expressly preempts regulation of smoking to the state and supersedes any municipal or county ordinance on the subject; however, school districts may further restrict smoking by persons on school district property.

Originally Posted by Roscoe Conkling

Here in Florida there's an absolute abundance of cheap produce,fruit and healthy eating options in restaurants and the weather is designed for a fit,outdoor lifestyle.
There simply isn't any excuse for obesity other than laziness and gluttony.

[Papillons2]

Originally Posted by New Horizons

And the fact that Florida still allows smoking in bars there when so many other cities and states have banned it entirely....don't let a few palm trees fool you, it's till the dirty south, an extension of Alabama.

The law in Florida is that bars can't allow smoking if more than 10 percent of their revenues come from food sales. So in theory, it shouldn't occur very often. But I agree with you; it shouldn't occur at all.

I've been in several pubs in South Florida that serve quite a bit of food and manage to circumvent the law -- they cut off food sales at 10 or 11 p.m. and allow people to light up and puff away after that. Within minutes, these establishments turn into smoke-filled rooms. It's also not unusual for bars that don't serve food to put big signs up outside advertising themselves as smoker-friendly.

It flabbergasted me when I moved to South Florida in the late '80s that there were so many cigarette smokers -- of all ages -- in a place that had nice weather and offered so many opportunities for outdoor activities and physical fitness. People were just more into the bar-fly, lounge-lizard lifestyle than being healthy. I'd go out to the pool at my apartment complex and be the only nonsmoker there; in fact, people would make fun of me for not liking cigarettes. They didn't wear sunscreen, either. That was 25 years ago and I wonder how many of them are paying the price now for smoking heavily and soaking up so many rays without protection.

[Trigger-f]

Originally Posted by HarryWho?

Demonize smoking and drinking? How about logic? Do you want your kids around a smoker, a drug addict, a drunk, or a fat grandmother?

I know people like him. The occasional cigar is ok as long as you exercice, which then it becomes the regular cigar or cigarette. They might have smoked some weed too when they were at college? hehe so typical. Many people go from smoking weed, to experimenting with drugs until they drop dead. Obesity is just another issue in America. There's tons of diseases, causes of death. He gets a lot of mileage out of obesity because he has a hidden agenda (he probably hates someone who is fat or something). Maybe he needs to advocate against anorexia (that's the other end of the spectrum and it's a disease too, a disease in the head).

Feeding cancer to the human body is fine for him; being fat is a sin. Go figure.