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Which has a Greater Impact on Health?
Windbit
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Everybody talks about how the obesity epidemic is such a danger to the health of Americans, and while I do agree that extra weight can cause problems, I'm not completely convinced that obesity is a major cause of heart failure or diabetes. It's possible, but I think there are a few other possible causes that we need to look into:
What about stress? Stress plays a major role in health: it has been shown to cause atherosclerosis, hypertension, an increase in blood sugar levels, fatigue, migraines, depression, and skin problems. 43% of adults suffer from acute stress. Overweight and obese people certainly suffer from stigmatization in society. Weight loss diets are popular, the feminine ideal is unrealistically thin, and eating disorders are increasingly common.
Speaking of weight loss dieting, research has shown that it is very difficult for a person to lose weight and keep it off. Weight loss diets lower the metabolism and can even lead to weight gain in the long run. These diets screw up the metabolism, and it's possible that many people who are obese wouldn't have become as large as they are if they hadn't tried to lose weight and just concentrated on maintaining there current weight. If we take stress into consideration, a failed diet also causes even more mental suffering. There are also studies that suggest that weight loss diets weaken cardiac muscle and cause an increase in blood cholesterol.
Another important factor is diet and exercise. Is a person unhealthy because they are obese, or are they unhealthy and obese because of improper diet and lack of exercise? People all too often believe that obesity is a cause, rather than a symptom. Research shows that poor people are on average heavier than upper class individuals. The reason is obvious: Poor people don't have much free time for exercise, and they consume cheap, unhealthy food. A poor person's overall quality of life is much lower, which also results in more stress.
However, diet itself may not be as significant a factor as stress and lack of exercise. People who want to stay healthy avoid food that they believe is harmful and exercise. In contrast, people who eat fast food tend not to exercise as much, if at all. Calorie laden food contributes to weight gain, but does it really have as much of an affect as a lack of exercise? How many people do you know that eat Big Macs three times a week and exercise 30 minutes daily? Perhaps exercise is a much more important factor in health than diet? It is also possible that people who believe they are eating healthier benefit from the placebo effect. Another possibility that has been supported by research is that the risk caused by eating unhealthy foods can be negated with exercise.
Genetics is also a big factor. Indeed, there are people groups in Italy, Greece, and Japan whose death rates dropped as their blood cholesterol levels increased. Some people simply can't lower their blood pressure through diet and exercise alone.
Genetics, lack of exercise, excessive mental stress, and ineffective weight loss diets cause a great deal of harm to the body. Poor diet is also a contributing factor, but the risk caused by it is underwhelming when compared with the aforementioned risk fators. These factors lead to a plethora of health conditions, such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes, depression, and obesity.
With that said, excess weight doesn't cause poor health: it is an indicator of poor health. However, there are people who are genetically predisposed to be heavier than average. Because of this fact, weight isn't a very reliable indicator of health. It is good that people are being encouraged to become more active, but in my opinion weight loss shouldn't be the main goal of a healthier life style. Concentrating on weight loss just increases other, possibly more significant, risk factors, such as stress. If people would just ignore weight and concentrate on a healthier lifestyle, everyone would be better off.
In conclusion, it's better to live a healthy lifestyle and be happy than to live a healthy lifestyle and hate your body. And chances are it's healthier, too.
References:
Stress: A Health and Relationship Killer
The Effects of Stress on Your Body
Cognitive Disconnect
Skeptic Volume 13 Number 1 "The Gospel of Food: The Myth of the Doctrine of Naught"
What about stress? Stress plays a major role in health: it has been shown to cause atherosclerosis, hypertension, an increase in blood sugar levels, fatigue, migraines, depression, and skin problems. 43% of adults suffer from acute stress. Overweight and obese people certainly suffer from stigmatization in society. Weight loss diets are popular, the feminine ideal is unrealistically thin, and eating disorders are increasingly common.
Speaking of weight loss dieting, research has shown that it is very difficult for a person to lose weight and keep it off. Weight loss diets lower the metabolism and can even lead to weight gain in the long run. These diets screw up the metabolism, and it's possible that many people who are obese wouldn't have become as large as they are if they hadn't tried to lose weight and just concentrated on maintaining there current weight. If we take stress into consideration, a failed diet also causes even more mental suffering. There are also studies that suggest that weight loss diets weaken cardiac muscle and cause an increase in blood cholesterol.
Another important factor is diet and exercise. Is a person unhealthy because they are obese, or are they unhealthy and obese because of improper diet and lack of exercise? People all too often believe that obesity is a cause, rather than a symptom. Research shows that poor people are on average heavier than upper class individuals. The reason is obvious: Poor people don't have much free time for exercise, and they consume cheap, unhealthy food. A poor person's overall quality of life is much lower, which also results in more stress.
However, diet itself may not be as significant a factor as stress and lack of exercise. People who want to stay healthy avoid food that they believe is harmful and exercise. In contrast, people who eat fast food tend not to exercise as much, if at all. Calorie laden food contributes to weight gain, but does it really have as much of an affect as a lack of exercise? How many people do you know that eat Big Macs three times a week and exercise 30 minutes daily? Perhaps exercise is a much more important factor in health than diet? It is also possible that people who believe they are eating healthier benefit from the placebo effect. Another possibility that has been supported by research is that the risk caused by eating unhealthy foods can be negated with exercise.
Genetics is also a big factor. Indeed, there are people groups in Italy, Greece, and Japan whose death rates dropped as their blood cholesterol levels increased. Some people simply can't lower their blood pressure through diet and exercise alone.
Genetics, lack of exercise, excessive mental stress, and ineffective weight loss diets cause a great deal of harm to the body. Poor diet is also a contributing factor, but the risk caused by it is underwhelming when compared with the aforementioned risk fators. These factors lead to a plethora of health conditions, such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes, depression, and obesity.
With that said, excess weight doesn't cause poor health: it is an indicator of poor health. However, there are people who are genetically predisposed to be heavier than average. Because of this fact, weight isn't a very reliable indicator of health. It is good that people are being encouraged to become more active, but in my opinion weight loss shouldn't be the main goal of a healthier life style. Concentrating on weight loss just increases other, possibly more significant, risk factors, such as stress. If people would just ignore weight and concentrate on a healthier lifestyle, everyone would be better off.
In conclusion, it's better to live a healthy lifestyle and be happy than to live a healthy lifestyle and hate your body. And chances are it's healthier, too.
References:
Stress: A Health and Relationship Killer
The Effects of Stress on Your Body
Cognitive Disconnect
Skeptic Volume 13 Number 1 "The Gospel of Food: The Myth of the Doctrine of Naught"
Windbit on
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You're wrong. Excess weight is a major contributing factor to poor health, especially heart disease and diabetes. While some people may be larger or heavier at their "normal" or optimum weight than other people, that in no way excuses overweight people for being malnourished and sick. The obese are stigmatized for a reason - the lifestyle that they enjoy is not only severely damaging their own bodies, but has an inordinate impact on the wider health of society.
This same laziness is generally the reason they have been using shortcuts to buy and consume cheaper foodstuffs and a refusal to spend the time planning, gathering, and cooking the healthier choices. This same laziness also effects the amount of exercise they may recieve in a day. Using the elevator / escalator to go up or down a floor in a building instead of using the stairs. Ordering in a pizza instead of walking down the road to the grocers to pick up some vegetables and cook a meal.
Saying the poor have less time is a copout. Unless they are working more than 12 hours a day including commute it is very easy to eat healthy and exercise. It takes mental and physical discipline, not saying "I had a rough day, so I am going to relax in front of the TV for 4 hours and order in, then watch more TV and go to bed."
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EDIT: Saggio already said it but it bears repeating: while being over weight is a symptom of poor lifestyle choices, it is also a contributing factor to other health issues in and of itself disregarding all the other causes that made a person overweight in the first place.
MWO: Adamski
Umm, what? It's not easy at all to work 10 hours a day, then come home and have to wrangle families. Plus, healthful food costs more than unhealthful food. It's a whole lot easier to feed a family of 5 on low-quality food full of transfats and other nasties than it is on nice organic healthful stuff.
As long as a person is willing to actually cook food as opposed to boil water add noodle and flavor packet. It is very easy to eat healthy and cheaply. Cereals, veggies, breads, and butcher meats such as lean ground beaf or chicken breast.
Adding sauces adds flavor and variety but also increases sugar and fat intake along with cost.
MWO: Adamski
The vast majority of doctors disagree with you.
What about it? This isn't a zero sum game. Most major health problems have multiple causes.
This is a minor point, but stress does not cause migraines. (I suspect that stress alone, separate from diet, does not cause atherosclerosis or blood sugar issues, either, but I'm not 100% sure about that.)
That's why weight loss diets are a bad idea.
Yes, there are major industries that thrive by getting overweight people to do unhealthy things to their bodies like crash diets and Atkins. However, the existence of such industries does not imply that obesity is not also a significant health risk.
Something can be both a cause and a symptom. Many health problems are cyclical like that.
This is almost certainly true, particularly of exercise. The health benefits of 30 minutes of intense daily cardio exercise are immeasurable. There are so many health problems that that one simple habit can significantly improve. Here's the rub, though - show me one obese person that has been getting 30 minutes of intense daily cardio exercise for at least 12 months. I've met a lot of obese people who claim to exercise, but they don't, really - many people believe that housework is cardio exercise (it's not) or walking is cardio exercise (it's not) or that they get 30 minutes per day but in actuality they get more like 10 because they spend the first 10 minutes stretching and the last 10 minutes walking.
Most people significantly overestimate how active their own lifestyles are.
Oh, it absolutely is. But, again, health is not a zero-sum game.
Not nearly as large as some people act like it is.
If you get 30 minutes of cardio exercise per day, eat a 30/30/40 diet at an appropriate caloric intake for your body and activity level, practice good stress management techniques, get 8 hours of sleep per day, drink lots of water, and avoid processed sugar... if after doing all those things consistently for a year you're still overweight, only then do you get to appeal to genetics.
Usually, though, when people cry "it's in my genes" what they're really saying is "I want an excuse to sit around and eat junk food all day!" Outside of a handful of very rare diseases, genetics aren't going to account for more than a 20-25 pound variance in weight. If you're 50 pounds overweight and you're not a bodybuilder, you're probably not living right.
Well, you need to understand that there is a difference between being overweight and being obese. It's possible to be mildly overweight and still have a more-or-less healthy lifestyle. It's not possible, outside of a small handful of very, very rare metabolic disorders, to be obese and be healthy.
Sure, I agree with that. I don't think that weight should be ignored entirely, but it should take a back seat to healthy lifestyle habits.
Seriously, though - so few people actually practice a healthy lifestyle consistently, but plenty of people claim they do. People who have the basics of diet and exercise down are very, very rare.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Edit: Wait a second...
Seriously though, exercise does help, always. And you're rarely getting enough of it, no matter howm uch you think you do. Unless you're starting to look like Schwarzenegger, you can probably afford to do a little more. Obesity is healthy only in the rarest of cases, and is a correctable health condition. Get on it ASAP, before you're old and tired too. Or, you know, dead from heart disease.
Oh, actually. Also. Tension headaches are not migranes. A lot of people get a "migrane" when they get a really intense headache. Migranes are not just intense headaches, they are different from headaches, pain relievers do nothing for them, and they last for fucking ever. If you think you have a migrane, take a Zomig. If it goes away, it's a migrane, if not it's not.
I'm curious about the source of your obsession and irrational skepticism on the subject.
Its terribly irritating.