Alright, I've been defending fat people for most of this thread, so I think it's only fair that I give some of my suggestions for a healthier society:
1) Ban tanning beds. My mom was diagnosed with melanoma once, yet she still tans every other day during the summer.
2) Reduce serving sizes. I mean, seriously, no one needs a drink that is the equivalent of three cans of soda.
3) Decrease the price of healthy foods. I love Gala apples, but they cost nearly 2 bucks a pound! If the government is as serious about health as they say, they should make healthy foods the same price, if not cheaper, than unhealthy foods.
4) Ban the majority of weight loss commercials. Most of them are pushing dangerous products on people that will only hurt them in the long run.
5) Get rid of size discrimination. For one thing, mocking people never helps: if anything, it causes unnecessary stress that cause further damage to a person's health. Another thing: fat people earn less on average. Maybe if you paid 180-pound Debbie Smith the same as 115-pound Gina "YouWannaFuckHerSoBad" Turner she could afford to buy healthier food and pay for better health care services.
6) Make PE both fun for kids and not a complete waste of time. Let's face it, baseball consists of 90% sitting/standing around, 7% chasing a ball, and 3% hitting the ball and running the bases. Waste. Of. Time. Instead, maybe implement martial arts lessons. I know I enjoyed attending karate classes and getting to hit each other while wearing pads much more than I did practicing lay-ups, and I'm pretty sure I was more active, too. One last PE suggestion: several schools have purchased Dance Dance Revolution machines for PE. Maybe more should?
Alright, I've been defending fat people for most of this thread, so I think it's only fair that I give some of my suggestions for a healthier society:
1) Ban tanning beds. My mom was diagnosed with melanoma once, yet she still tans every other day during the summer.
2) Reduce serving sizes. I mean, seriously, no one needs a drink that is the equivalent of three cans of soda.
3) Decrease the price of healthy foods. I love Gala apples, but they cost nearly 2 bucks a pound! If the government is as serious about health as they say, they should make healthy foods the same price, if not cheaper, than unhealthy foods.
4) Ban the majority of weight loss commercials. Most of them are pushing dangerous products on people that will only hurt them in the long run.
5) Get rid of size discrimination. For one thing, mocking people never helps: if anything, it causes unnecessary stress that cause further damage to a person's health. Another thing: fat people earn less on average. Maybe if you paid 180-pound Debbie Smith the same as 115-pound Gina "YouWannaFuckHerSoBad" Turner she could afford to buy healthier food and pay for better health care services.
6) Make PE both fun for kids and not a complete waste of time. Let's face it, baseball consists of 90% sitting/standing around, 7% chasing a ball, and 3% hitting the ball and running the bases. Waste. Of. Time. Instead, maybe implement martial arts lessons. I know I enjoyed attending karate classes and getting to hit each other while wearing pads much more than I did practicing lay-ups, and I'm pretty sure I was more active, too. One last PE suggestion: several schools have purchased Dance Dance Revolution machines for PE. Maybe more should?
I'll add more as I think of them.
1) that's dumb. tanning beds are a luxury that most people don't use
2) yeah, serving sizes are way too damn big. the comparison between an average size meal at mcdonald's now versus in like 1965 or something is ridiculous
3) the government can't just automatically "decrease" the price of healthy foods any more than they can "increase" the price of fatty foods. this isn't freaking communist russia, geez.
4) oh come on. see above
5) being fat isn't usually what makes someone poor. it's usually a result of it being the other way around.
6) yeah, with litigation being the way it is, especially in schools, let's encourage kids to beat the shit out of each other in class. that's a great idea. what i find especially ironic is that the same attitude that seeks to ban things like tag and dodgeball in schools is the same kind of protectionist lobby that gets all pissy about things like "weight discrimination." maybe if we stopped dumbing down PE to stupid levels, we'd have less fat kids (that, and banning certain foods and drinks from schools,which the government actually could do).
having things like DDR in PE is a cute idea, but let's be honest: it's not exactly a health plan. not to mention most schools can't afford DDR machines, which run like 3-5000 bucks a pop
Pants Man on
"okay byron, my grandma has a right to be happy, so i give you my blessing. just... don't get her pregnant. i don't need another mom."
This article by the University of California, Los Angeles sums up my views on the obesity epidemic pretty well: It is overblown, is damaging to the morale of fat people, and may even cause fat people even greater health problems than they would normally have if they weren't constantly ostracized.
In summary, the global obsession with thinness and health is even more unhealthy than the problem it is attempting to correct.
5) being fat isn't usually what makes someone poor. it's usually a result of it being the other way around.
Actually, there was a study last year demonstrating a noteicable body-weight penalty effect on salaries. Of course, the effect only applies to women, so it didn't get any attention.
You have to keep in mind that a lot of fat people compensate for their appearance by being awesome people.
Oh, come off it, that's just a dressed up version of 'fat people are jolly lol!". They're just people, and run the same gamut of awesome-to-shitheel as the rest of us. Talk like this only serves to reinforce the notion that fat people belong to some Other class.
Oh, come off it, that's just a dressed up version of 'fat people are jolly lol!". They're just people, and run the same gamut of awesome-to-shitheel as the rest of us. Talk like this only serves to reinforce the notion that fat people belong to some Other class.
*shrug* In my experience overweight people in social situations are noticeably more social and outgoing than the average thinner person. My presumption is it's compensation. It may, of course, just be that the less courageous simply don't show up, or I may exist in a magical microcosm.
5) being fat isn't usually what makes someone poor. it's usually a result of it being the other way around.
Actually, there was a study last year demonstrating a noteicable body-weight penalty effect on salaries. Of course, the effect only applies to women, so it didn't get any attention.
i'm sure it does, but i'm saying that that isn't going to cause someone to actually be poor as much as being poor sets up conditions for someone to be fat.
In summary, the global obsession with thinness and health is even more unhealthy than the problem it is attempting to correct.
i don't know about that. if that were true, we'd be getting thinner on the whole, not fatter.
Pants Man on
"okay byron, my grandma has a right to be happy, so i give you my blessing. just... don't get her pregnant. i don't need another mom."
In summary, the global obsession with thinness and health is even more unhealthy than the problem it is attempting to correct.
i don't know about that. if that were true, we'd be getting thinner on the whole, not fatter.
Nobody ever acknowledges the increase in height... If people were just getting fatter and not any taller, that would be more of a cause for concern. It's hard to gain a few inches in height and not gain a few pounds in weight.
*shrug* In my experience overweight people in social situations are noticeably more social and outgoing than the average thinner person. My presumption is it's compensation. It may, of course, just be that the less courageous simply don't show up, or I may exist in a magical microcosm.
wow, i actually agree with cat on this. being fat may impact someone's personality, but it cuts both ways. a guy could be shy, introverted, and an asshole to compensate, or they could be outgoing, loud, and jolly to compensate. it depends on the person.
Pants Man on
"okay byron, my grandma has a right to be happy, so i give you my blessing. just... don't get her pregnant. i don't need another mom."
5) being fat isn't usually what makes someone poor. it's usually a result of it being the other way around.
Actually, there was a study last year demonstrating a noteicable body-weight penalty effect on salaries. Of course, the effect only applies to women, so it didn't get any attention.
i'm sure it does, but i'm saying that that isn't going to cause someone to actually be poor as much as being poor sets up conditions for someone to be fat.
I'm just pointing out that the picture isn't as simple as you think. Yes, poverty and obesity go hand in hand because of limited education and income, but there's also a personal financial penalty for the obese - not just in terms of what I mentioned, but in personal healthcare costs and other daily incidentals, which will probably get worse once this moral panic (that's what it is, but they have their uses) sets in and people start making them buy two seats on the plane and pay more insurance and all that sort of thing.
Nobody ever acknowledges the increase in height... If people were just getting fatter and not any taller, that would be more of a cause for concern. It's hard to gain a few inches in height and not gain a few pounds in weight.
people gaining a few pounds in general isn't the problem. it's the alarmingly increasing amount of overweight people that is the problem. BMI is a crappy indicator for this, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening.
Pants Man on
"okay byron, my grandma has a right to be happy, so i give you my blessing. just... don't get her pregnant. i don't need another mom."
Nobody ever acknowledges the increase in height... If people were just getting fatter and not any taller, that would be more of a cause for concern. It's hard to gain a few inches in height and not gain a few pounds in weight.
There's a lot to be said for this. The average female height has shot up like three of four inches this century, and our proportions have changed somewhat too. And yet, the size charts used in Aus haven't been updated since 1920...
*shrug* In my experience overweight people in social situations are noticeably more social and outgoing than the average thinner person. My presumption is it's compensation. It may, of course, just be that the less courageous simply don't show up, or I may exist in a magical microcosm.
wow, i actually agree with cat on this. being fat may impact someone's personality, but it cuts both ways. a guy could be shy, introverted, and an asshole to compensate, or they could be outgoing, loud, and jolly to compensate. it depends on the person.
So, maybe if thin people ate a damn sammich once in a while, violence and hatred would decrease?
wow, i actually agree with cat on this. being fat may impact someone's personality, but it cuts both ways. a guy could be shy, introverted, and an asshole to compensate, or they could be outgoing, loud, and jolly to compensate. it depends on the person.
I didn't say it was across the board, or that it was some massively pronounced thing.
But extreme situations tend to produce extreme people, in both directions.
5) being fat isn't usually what makes someone poor. it's usually a result of it being the other way around.
Actually, there was a study last year demonstrating a noteicable body-weight penalty effect on salaries. Of course, the effect only applies to women, so it didn't get any attention.
i'm sure it does, but i'm saying that that isn't going to cause someone to actually be poor as much as being poor sets up conditions for someone to be fat.
I'm just pointing out that the picture isn't as simple as you think. Yes, poverty and obesity go hand in hand because of limited education and income, but there's also a personal financial penalty for the obese - not just in terms of what I mentioned, but in personal healthcare costs and other daily incidentals, which will probably get worse once this moral panic (that's what it is, but they have their uses) sets in and people start making them buy two seats on the plane and pay more insurance and all that sort of thing.
i agree, but again, that doesn't actually make them poor. it forces them to pay more in their everyday lives than a person who isn't fat, but honestly, that's on them, not society. i mean, if you're so fat you take up the space for two seats on a plane, you should freakin have to buy those two seats.
Pants Man on
"okay byron, my grandma has a right to be happy, so i give you my blessing. just... don't get her pregnant. i don't need another mom."
Empty calories are cheap. Hell, they're subsidized.
Filling, healthy calories are less so.
meaning what.
being healthy and being fat are both expensive in the long run. if being fat actually makes someone poor, then you could make the same argument for being healthy
Pants Man on
"okay byron, my grandma has a right to be happy, so i give you my blessing. just... don't get her pregnant. i don't need another mom."
There's also something to be said for altering the way government does subsidise food. HFCS is the most obvious problem, but I've seen a few threads on mommy blogs describing the godawful state of food-stamp programs. A lot of state governments seem to use them as a clearinghouse for excess cheap stock - so you can buy fruit juice and sodas but not fresh fruit, you can't buy wholewheat bread, you can only buy the shitty fat-ful meat cuts, etc etc.
Being fat with shitty food is often cheaper than thin with healthy food. You'll get sick pretty fast, of course, but if you're poor enough, they can't make you pay for it anyways.
Being fat with shitty food is often cheaper than thin with healthy food. You'll get sick pretty fast, of course, but if you're poor enough, they can't make you pay for it anyways.
who cares about short term? you don't get fat from eating crappy food for a week, you get fat from eating crappy food over an extended period of time.
Pants Man on
"okay byron, my grandma has a right to be happy, so i give you my blessing. just... don't get her pregnant. i don't need another mom."
Being fat with shitty food is often cheaper than thin with healthy food. You'll get sick pretty fast, of course, but if you're poor enough, they can't make you pay for it anyways.
who cares about short term? you don't get fat from eating crappy food for a week, you get fat from eating crappy food over an extended period of time.
Oh, come off it, that's just a dressed up version of 'fat people are jolly lol!". They're just people, and run the same gamut of awesome-to-shitheel as the rest of us. Talk like this only serves to reinforce the notion that fat people belong to some Other class.
*shrug* In my experience overweight people in social situations are noticeably more social and outgoing than the average thinner person. My presumption is it's compensation. It may, of course, just be that the less courageous simply don't show up, or I may exist in a magical microcosm.
This may or may not be true on a superficial level, but I think that it is warranted to make the claim that obese people run a much higher risk of poor self-esteem, stress, and depression.
This may or may not be true on a superficial level, but I think that it is warranted to make the claim that obese people run a much higher risk of poor self-esteem, stress, and depression.
Never mistake being social with having high self-esteem.
There's also something to be said for altering the way government does subsidise food. HFCS is the most obvious problem, but I've seen a few threads on mommy blogs describing the godawful state of food-stamp programs. A lot of state governments seem to use them as a clearinghouse for excess cheap stock - so you can buy fruit juice and sodas but not fresh fruit, you can't buy wholewheat bread, you can only buy the shitty fat-ful meat cuts, etc etc.
Stop exempting candy and soda from sales taxes, for that matter.
Being fat with shitty food is often cheaper than thin with healthy food. You'll get sick pretty fast, of course, but if you're poor enough, they can't make you pay for it anyways.
who cares about short term? you don't get fat from eating crappy food for a week, you get fat from eating crappy food over an extended period of time.
Short term being, like, Age 1-40.
okay,
A) short term is not 40 years
and
if you think you can't develop serious and expensive medical issues in 40 years of being fat, you're insane.
Pants Man on
"okay byron, my grandma has a right to be happy, so i give you my blessing. just... don't get her pregnant. i don't need another mom."
I use anecdotal evidence because I can verify it by existing. Theoretical claims get "Oh yeah well show me the article." :P
And I'm not fat anymore, so I'm afraid I can't help you there. Regardless, I was mostly noting that it can take YEARS before being overweight will have a major effect on your health such that it costs you money. It can take much less than that, sure, but, hell. Sumos.
I use anecdotal evidence because I can verify it by existing. Theoretical claims get "Oh yeah well show me the article." :P
And I'm not fat anymore, so I'm afraid I can't help you there. Regardless, I was mostly noting that it can take YEARS before being overweight will have a major effect on your health such that it costs you money. It can take much less than that, sure, but, hell. Sumos.
you used 40 years as an example. chronically overweight kids can develop lung and heart problems by the time they hit puberty.
i don't know what the hell you're trying to argue. that fat people are pictures of health until they get over the hill? God.
Pants Man on
"okay byron, my grandma has a right to be happy, so i give you my blessing. just... don't get her pregnant. i don't need another mom."
Being fat does not automatically cost more than being healthy.
and the same is true the other way around. being healthy doesn't mean eating a gourmet chicken farmed in france off a hooker's ass before you go to a gym made out of gold where your personal trainer charges you 500 bucks an hour
exercise is the cheapest thing in the world. all it costs is your time. and only 3 hours a so a week is all you need
Pants Man on
"okay byron, my grandma has a right to be happy, so i give you my blessing. just... don't get her pregnant. i don't need another mom."
Done a bit of quick research. The number to the left of the country's name is there rank in the number of individuals whose BMI exceeds 30, making them obese. The number to the right of the country's name is there rank in life expectancy. These are the statistics for the 2005-2010 period:
1 United States of America 38
2 Mexico 48
3 United Kingdom 22
4 Canada 11
5 Greece 19
6 Australia 5
7 New Zealand 13
If the obesity epidemic were as dangerous as we are lead to believe, surely we'd be seeing it's effects. Isn't it interesting that Australia, the sixth most obese nation, is fifth in life expectancy? Canada, the fourth most obese nation, is eleventh in life expectancy. If obesity is poised to significantly reduce our lifespans, why aren't the other obese nations near the United States and Mexico? Isn't it possible that some other factor is causing our relatively shorter lifespans? For example, maybe it's the epidemic of violence that plagues the US?
Just to put things in perspective: even though the US is 38th in life expectancy, the actual American life expectancy is 80. Compare that with the 18 countries where the average life expectancy is below 50. Swaziland in particular is the country with the lowest life expectancy: it ranks in at 195 with an average life expectancy of 39.6.
Maybe instead of pumping all that money into attempting to increase the lifespan of the average American by a couple more years so we can catch up with Australia, we should be using it to give people in other countries a chance.
For example, the chance to live long enough to spend more time worrying "Do these pants make me look fat?" rather than "How am I going to live another day?"
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Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratormod
There's also something to be said for altering the way government does subsidise food. HFCS is the most obvious problem, but I've seen a few threads on mommy blogs describing the godawful state of food-stamp programs. A lot of state governments seem to use them as a clearinghouse for excess cheap stock - so you can buy fruit juice and sodas but not fresh fruit, you can't buy wholewheat bread, you can only buy the shitty fat-ful meat cuts, etc etc.
The big one is generally in the time and expertise it requires to cook healthful food. It takes at least some know-how to know how to prepare a healthy, tasty meal, and it takes time to do so. The "healthy" alternatives to easy-to-cook meals like, say, Hamburger Helper tend to taste bad (well, worse).
Also, fresh produce is expensive these days and prone to spoil, which means more trips to the store, which means more time.
Just to put things in perspective: even though the US is 38th in life expectancy, the actual American life expectancy is 80. Compare that with the 18 countries where the average life expectancy is below 50. Swaziland in particular is the country with the lowest life expectancy: it ranks in at 195 with an average life expectancy of 39.6.
Oh jesus can you concede that maybe there are other important factors besides obesity when looking at the different life expectancies between Swaziland and the US? I mean, being a lardass might kill you when you're 55 but machetes to the head kill you now and parasites can kill you within a few months.
Posts
1) Ban tanning beds. My mom was diagnosed with melanoma once, yet she still tans every other day during the summer.
2) Reduce serving sizes. I mean, seriously, no one needs a drink that is the equivalent of three cans of soda.
3) Decrease the price of healthy foods. I love Gala apples, but they cost nearly 2 bucks a pound! If the government is as serious about health as they say, they should make healthy foods the same price, if not cheaper, than unhealthy foods.
4) Ban the majority of weight loss commercials. Most of them are pushing dangerous products on people that will only hurt them in the long run.
5) Get rid of size discrimination. For one thing, mocking people never helps: if anything, it causes unnecessary stress that cause further damage to a person's health. Another thing: fat people earn less on average. Maybe if you paid 180-pound Debbie Smith the same as 115-pound Gina "YouWannaFuckHerSoBad" Turner she could afford to buy healthier food and pay for better health care services.
6) Make PE both fun for kids and not a complete waste of time. Let's face it, baseball consists of 90% sitting/standing around, 7% chasing a ball, and 3% hitting the ball and running the bases. Waste. Of. Time. Instead, maybe implement martial arts lessons. I know I enjoyed attending karate classes and getting to hit each other while wearing pads much more than I did practicing lay-ups, and I'm pretty sure I was more active, too. One last PE suggestion: several schools have purchased Dance Dance Revolution machines for PE. Maybe more should?
7, 8, and 9) Free healthcare.
I'll add more as I think of them.
1) that's dumb. tanning beds are a luxury that most people don't use
2) yeah, serving sizes are way too damn big. the comparison between an average size meal at mcdonald's now versus in like 1965 or something is ridiculous
3) the government can't just automatically "decrease" the price of healthy foods any more than they can "increase" the price of fatty foods. this isn't freaking communist russia, geez.
4) oh come on. see above
5) being fat isn't usually what makes someone poor. it's usually a result of it being the other way around.
6) yeah, with litigation being the way it is, especially in schools, let's encourage kids to beat the shit out of each other in class. that's a great idea. what i find especially ironic is that the same attitude that seeks to ban things like tag and dodgeball in schools is the same kind of protectionist lobby that gets all pissy about things like "weight discrimination." maybe if we stopped dumbing down PE to stupid levels, we'd have less fat kids (that, and banning certain foods and drinks from schools,which the government actually could do).
having things like DDR in PE is a cute idea, but let's be honest: it's not exactly a health plan. not to mention most schools can't afford DDR machines, which run like 3-5000 bucks a pop
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA
Wrong.
Last girl I dated got upset when I started losing weight around when she started wanting me back. :P
Her body fat was 15%, and she's like, physically perfect almost, appearance-wise.
When we were dating, my weight was never below 235.
I could go on with anecdotes, but never underestimate the love some sexy women have for huggable teddy bear men.
this is true, and also gross. i mean, i'm not gay or a girl. but if i were either, i don't think i'd go for a fat guy.
edit: also the way you phrased your story is hilarious
'Obesity Epidemic' Overblown, Concludes UCLA Sociologists
This article by the University of California, Los Angeles sums up my views on the obesity epidemic pretty well: It is overblown, is damaging to the morale of fat people, and may even cause fat people even greater health problems than they would normally have if they weren't constantly ostracized.
In summary, the global obsession with thinness and health is even more unhealthy than the problem it is attempting to correct.
Everyone has their tastes.
My uncle is outright obese (awesome guy though), and his wife's -very- attractive -and- educated. Met her at a college I think.
You have to keep in mind that a lot of fat people compensate for their appearance by being awesome people.
Actually, there was a study last year demonstrating a noteicable body-weight penalty effect on salaries. Of course, the effect only applies to women, so it didn't get any attention.
Oh, come off it, that's just a dressed up version of 'fat people are jolly lol!". They're just people, and run the same gamut of awesome-to-shitheel as the rest of us. Talk like this only serves to reinforce the notion that fat people belong to some Other class.
*shrug* In my experience overweight people in social situations are noticeably more social and outgoing than the average thinner person. My presumption is it's compensation. It may, of course, just be that the less courageous simply don't show up, or I may exist in a magical microcosm.
i'm sure it does, but i'm saying that that isn't going to cause someone to actually be poor as much as being poor sets up conditions for someone to be fat.
i don't know about that. if that were true, we'd be getting thinner on the whole, not fatter.
Depends on how far the vicious cycle goes.
Twice the hate could mean twice the comfort eating.
Nobody ever acknowledges the increase in height... If people were just getting fatter and not any taller, that would be more of a cause for concern. It's hard to gain a few inches in height and not gain a few pounds in weight.
wow, i actually agree with cat on this. being fat may impact someone's personality, but it cuts both ways. a guy could be shy, introverted, and an asshole to compensate, or they could be outgoing, loud, and jolly to compensate. it depends on the person.
Twice the comfort eating, four times the hate, four times the comfort eating, five times the hate...
See? If society keeps raggin' on fat people so much, we may cause a true obesity epidemic (only half serious)!
I'm just pointing out that the picture isn't as simple as you think. Yes, poverty and obesity go hand in hand because of limited education and income, but there's also a personal financial penalty for the obese - not just in terms of what I mentioned, but in personal healthcare costs and other daily incidentals, which will probably get worse once this moral panic (that's what it is, but they have their uses) sets in and people start making them buy two seats on the plane and pay more insurance and all that sort of thing.
people gaining a few pounds in general isn't the problem. it's the alarmingly increasing amount of overweight people that is the problem. BMI is a crappy indicator for this, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening.
There's a lot to be said for this. The average female height has shot up like three of four inches this century, and our proportions have changed somewhat too. And yet, the size charts used in Aus haven't been updated since 1920...
So, maybe if thin people ate a damn sammich once in a while, violence and hatred would decrease?
I didn't say it was across the board, or that it was some massively pronounced thing.
But extreme situations tend to produce extreme people, in both directions.
i agree, but again, that doesn't actually make them poor. it forces them to pay more in their everyday lives than a person who isn't fat, but honestly, that's on them, not society. i mean, if you're so fat you take up the space for two seats on a plane, you should freakin have to buy those two seats.
Empty calories are cheap. Hell, they're subsidized.
Filling, healthy calories are less so.
meaning what.
being healthy and being fat are both expensive in the long run. if being fat actually makes someone poor, then you could make the same argument for being healthy
Being fat with shitty food is often cheaper than thin with healthy food. You'll get sick pretty fast, of course, but if you're poor enough, they can't make you pay for it anyways.
who cares about short term? you don't get fat from eating crappy food for a week, you get fat from eating crappy food over an extended period of time.
Short term being, like, Age 1-40.
This may or may not be true on a superficial level, but I think that it is warranted to make the claim that obese people run a much higher risk of poor self-esteem, stress, and depression.
Never mistake being social with having high self-esteem.
okay,
A) short term is not 40 years
and
In twenty five years of being fat I'd never exhibited poor health except "lol you're a fatty."
man, for a guy who's supposedly not a big fan of anecdotal evidence, you're sure using it a lot in this thread.
not to mention the fact you've got another 15 years before your "short term" is over. let's see how you feel when you're 38.
And I'm not fat anymore, so I'm afraid I can't help you there. Regardless, I was mostly noting that it can take YEARS before being overweight will have a major effect on your health such that it costs you money. It can take much less than that, sure, but, hell. Sumos.
you used 40 years as an example. chronically overweight kids can develop lung and heart problems by the time they hit puberty.
i don't know what the hell you're trying to argue. that fat people are pictures of health until they get over the hill? God.
Yeah, some people can suffer from being fat right away.
Others won't notice it until the heart attacks coincide with their mid-life crisis.
Combine that with fatty food being cheap, and you've got:
Being fat does not automatically cost more than being healthy.
and the same is true the other way around. being healthy doesn't mean eating a gourmet chicken farmed in france off a hooker's ass before you go to a gym made out of gold where your personal trainer charges you 500 bucks an hour
exercise is the cheapest thing in the world. all it costs is your time. and only 3 hours a so a week is all you need
1 United States of America 38
2 Mexico 48
3 United Kingdom 22
4 Canada 11
5 Greece 19
6 Australia 5
7 New Zealand 13
If the obesity epidemic were as dangerous as we are lead to believe, surely we'd be seeing it's effects. Isn't it interesting that Australia, the sixth most obese nation, is fifth in life expectancy? Canada, the fourth most obese nation, is eleventh in life expectancy. If obesity is poised to significantly reduce our lifespans, why aren't the other obese nations near the United States and Mexico? Isn't it possible that some other factor is causing our relatively shorter lifespans? For example, maybe it's the epidemic of violence that plagues the US?
Just to put things in perspective: even though the US is 38th in life expectancy, the actual American life expectancy is 80. Compare that with the 18 countries where the average life expectancy is below 50. Swaziland in particular is the country with the lowest life expectancy: it ranks in at 195 with an average life expectancy of 39.6.
Maybe instead of pumping all that money into attempting to increase the lifespan of the average American by a couple more years so we can catch up with Australia, we should be using it to give people in other countries a chance.
For example, the chance to live long enough to spend more time worrying "Do these pants make me look fat?" rather than "How am I going to live another day?"
The big one is generally in the time and expertise it requires to cook healthful food. It takes at least some know-how to know how to prepare a healthy, tasty meal, and it takes time to do so. The "healthy" alternatives to easy-to-cook meals like, say, Hamburger Helper tend to taste bad (well, worse).
Also, fresh produce is expensive these days and prone to spoil, which means more trips to the store, which means more time.
Since when was time not extremely valuable?
Oh jesus can you concede that maybe there are other important factors besides obesity when looking at the different life expectancies between Swaziland and the US? I mean, being a lardass might kill you when you're 55 but machetes to the head kill you now and parasites can kill you within a few months.