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it is certainly okay to dislike this particular obese woman, because she is hurting her children. how many of you think that those 2 children will have any possibility of understanding "normal" behavior in terms of eating and living?
this woman is clearly full of self-hate and trying to speed up her own demise, or she is totally clueless. either way, she sets an incredibly bad example for her children, and, because she made such poor choices in life and CONTINUES TO MAKE THEM, they have no other role model to turn to for guidance.
HMO's and insurance companies love it when we turn into cannibals and blame each other for rising medical costs. This lets them off the hook...They laugh all the way to the bank!...There is a lack of boundaries these days when it comes to judging and pointing fingers at others. And searching for scapegoats and targets among our peers versus directly confronting corporations and looking at the role they play in the scheme of things. We fall prey to all of their manipulation tactics over and over again and this goes for politicians too. They know how to "unleash the beast" and turn us against each other.
I really don't think all the obese people out there are predisposed to being fat. I really don't. I had the opportunity to look through yearbooks from two different areas--one set in southern Iowa, one set in Northern Utah.
In both areas the high schools were huge. I looked through the yearbooks from the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and so forth. Up until the 1970s, you'd be hard pressed to find 5 people in either high school in any year who were obese.
Fast forward to the 1980s, and there are more and more obese teens. In the yearbooks from my high school graduating year (2001) probably 200-300 of the kids were obese.
I have a very hard time believing that all those kids are genetically predisposed to being that heavy. People my parents age up to the elderly tell me that it was really rare to find someone who was obese, and even the obese person in question was capable of walking, and as children, keeping up with the other kids. Today I meet people my own age who cannot walk a mile (I'm 28). I walk into a supermarket and there are people in their 30s and 40s who have to use a motorized grocery cart to buy groceries because they cannot walk but are not obviously handicapped--they don't have a wheelchair. I see people waddling around all the time--huge people.
We are doing something as a society to cause people to pack on pounds like this. I don't think it is genetic. I did live in Japan for 8 years. Here are the differences between my childhood years in Japan and my childhood years in Las Vegas:
-In Japan people walk more and bike more, and the city I lived in had more sidewalks and crosswalks.
-In Japan people don't get their driver licenses until they are 21, and most families own one car.
-In Japan a 12 oz soda was $2 off base, and $0.50 on base.
-There was no high fructose corn syrup or soy waste in anything--in fact the only Japanese foods that had soy in them were things like soy sauce and tofu.
-Nearly every place I needed to go was within walking distance -- shops, grocery store, church, everything.
-when we went to McDonalds in Tokyo, my happy meal was smaller than its American equivalent: 6 oz soda (American version is 8 oz) even smaller fries. Only the burger was the same size. My mother's Big Mac meal was smaller too, the burger was the same, but it came with a 12 oz drink and small fries instead of the standard 24 oz drink and medium fries that the American version comes with. My mother's meal was $7 and mine was $4. In America at the time, my mother's meal would have been around $4 with tax and mine would have been $3.
-Japanese people encourage their kids to get out more -- to work out and play a lot more. Even in the 1990s my parents noticed this -- the American kids would stay inside, the Japanese kids would get out and play more.
In Las Vegas (and Salt Lake City)
-crosswalks are seldom and rare. People complain about heat and cold and snow and wind and don't want to get out and do their errands that way.
-Junk food is cheap.
-McDonald's has far bigger portions.
-American mothers are paranoid that their kid is going to get abducted so they don't let them play outside. Or Junior doesn't want to play outside because the cool kids are playing video games.
-Things are NOT within walking distance, unless you want to spend hours walking. The grocery store is 40 minutes away via walking, the post office an hour, and forget the library or the mom and pop store.
-Artificial, subsidized crap in all the food, even stuff like crackers and sugar-free strawberry glaze.
-American kids get their driver licenses at 16, so the bike, if they ever used it, gets left behind.
I've met immigrants from Mexico, Iran, South Africa, France, Ecuador, and many other places, and they claim that their native countries are more like Japan was: junk is more expensive, people get out more, people bike everywhere, and people slaving away at a gym is unheard of.
Anaheim is probably the most pedestrian friendly place I've come across in the US. Many of the natives don't walk anywhere. When I go out and do my errands and do my 5 mile walks, I encounter Mexicans, Iranians, French people, Laotians, and whatnot, but hardly any other white people or any black people. The immigrants here bike and walk everywhere. The local born and bred for generations Americans? Well, the mailbox is starting to seem like a long walk in some cases.
I was chubby when I was young and started to slim down at around 10 or 11 when I grew taller...My parents sent me to a Catholic school but there were were bullies and mean kids at my school too...I got called names at times and ridiculed for being "bigger." (And I wasn't even that "big!") I'm sure that I probably seemed like an easy target because I was shy and self-conscious back then...I went on to become anorexic for 9 years. I'm one of the lucky ones who didn't end up dead...Today I am at a normal weight. No one calls me "fat." But I still have a few scars left from all the mean bullies who targeted me in grammar school...I don't want to be a "busy-body" and point fingers at other people just because they don't look like me or weigh more than I do! I don't want to be a bully.
HMO's and insurance companies love it when we turn into cannibals and blame each other for rising medical costs. This lets them off the hook...They laugh all the way to the bank!
AFAIK about 30% of medical costs are avoidable (the vast bulk of which coming from obesity & smoking).
This far bigger than most HMO's/insurance carrier's profit margins. Also far bigger than malpractice costs. It is not, however, the worst problem driving up medical costs: we pay the entire world's R&D bill (since the rest of the industrialized world's governments force prices down, we in America bear the entire brunt of paying for new research by then buying new drugs/technologies at full cost), and for the last 40 years the number of new doctors graduating has leveled off (almost no growth in med. school slots) while the population was getting both substantially bigger and substantially older, creating a shortage of MDs driving up the costs of seeing a doctor.
As an aside though, the benefits to losing weight personally in terms of additional quality-adjusted-life-years are far bigger than the costs to society of extra medical care consumed. The people with the most to benefit by fighting obesity are the obese.
In both areas the high schools were huge. I looked through the yearbooks from the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and so forth. Up until the 1970s, you'd be hard pressed to find 5 people in either high school in any year who were obese.
Very good. And those who were most likely had glandular or other medical problems, so their obesity was not due to stuffing their fat faces with chemical good made from imported light oil every 5 seconds.
I went to high school in the 1970s and I can only remember one person from grade school, junior high or high school who was fat and he had medical problems (was in the hospital a lot too).
Sure, there were a few people who were a little chunky or chubby, but most grew out of it by the time they got to high school, and I don't ever remember anyone calling anyone names for being obese.
Quote:
Originally Posted by suissegrl702
Fast forward to the 1980s, and there are more and more obese teens. In the yearbooks from my high school graduating year (2001) probably 200-300 of the kids were obese.
I have a very hard time believing that all those kids are genetically predisposed to being that heavy.
They aren't.
It coincides with the introduction of foreign imported light oil into your food supply.
All of your artificial food colorings and artificial food flavorings and artificial preservatives are made from Bonny Light, Arabian Light, Tijauna Light and other light oils.
You cannot make them from California Heavy, Illinois Intermediate, West Texas Intermediate, North Slope Heavy, East Texas Sour or anything else.
It's light oil or nothing at all.
You have 49 operating oil refineries, but only 17 produce gasoline. The other 32 produce petro-chemicals for the US life-style.
Companies like Wild Flavors and Givaudan use those petro-chemical feed stocks to produce all of the artificial ingredients in food, especially those foods that are frozen, microwaveable or ready-to-eat.
And the reason is, no one will eat them if they are not full of chemical oil goo because they look nasty and taste nasty.
Quote:
Originally Posted by suissegrl702
I've met immigrants from Mexico, Iran, South Africa, France, Ecuador, and many other places, and they claim that their native countries are more like Japan was: junk is more expensive, people get out more, people bike everywhere, and people slaving away at a gym is unheard of.
Anaheim is probably the most pedestrian friendly place I've come across in the US. Many of the natives don't walk anywhere. When I go out and do my errands and do my 5 mile walks, I encounter Mexicans, Iranians, French people, Laotians, and whatnot, but hardly any other white people or any black people. The immigrants here bike and walk everywhere. The local born and bred for generations Americans? Well, the mailbox is starting to seem like a long walk in some cases.
Yep, technology makes people fat, lazy and stupid.
I don't want to get stuck in hate and blame towards anyone or any group of people...I don't want to become a bigot. I don't want to go out searching for scapegoats and "targets" to hate and blame for my supposed misfortunes...Politicians and "big business" love to create "angry lynch mobs." Politicians on both sides want to "stir things up" and take advantage of our anger and discontent.."Big business" doesn't want to pay higher wages or keep costs low...It's in their best interest to keep us divided and at each other's "throats." This way they can do what they want without any repercussions or accountability on their part. ...I don't want to be "putty" in their hands. This is why I don't get all caught up in the "hate monguling." Or "blame games" that turn friends and neighbors and family members against each other...And we are part of a "family" here in the USA whether we like it or not! A family that practices "cannibalism!"
Hate? Thats a strong word. I dont hate the obease. I question their decision making tho. When I'm at an all you can eat Buffet and I eat 2 plates of food while an obease person eats 4 in the same period of time, I think don't they even care about what they are doing to themselves? Obviously not. Or when you see an obease person supersize their meal. wtf. Its hard to gather sympathy for that mentality.
I'm 48 years old. I have old battle wounds, survived cancer and work out. I have the same waist I had when I was 20. I have bought the same size jeans for 30 years. 30/32's.
I noticed at 40 I was starting to be a tight fit. I changed eating habits and started doing more running. Its all about choices with some exceptions.
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