I read an article on Yahoo! today about the growing concern of obesity. The number of obese people are soaring. I think maybe it’s b/c people are becoming more and more confident about themselves, so being fat doesn’t really encourage them to do something about it. What do you think?
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i think we need to give fat people a hard time like we give to smokers.
i can understand being overweight, what i don’t understand are these people that are morbidly orbese like 350 pounds and more.
Fat people are not normally confident people. We are not fat because it is finally becoming fashionable (it isn’t). We are fat because our society has invented a million and one ways to keep us from having to exert any physical energy whatsoever to get things done. Cell phones, cars, wood-chopping machines– they have eliminated the need for what would otherwise be calorie-burning activities for us. That fact, coupled with the fact that Americans spend more and more time in front of the TV, stuffing refined, sugary, highly fatty foods down their throats because they “don’t have time” to cook, is the reason America is obese.
I think that obesity is one of the leading causes of heart disease which is the largest killer of people in the world.
Probably you are right. There are so many reasons of being obese, some are because of depression, some because of just excessive eating, some have no physical activities, while some have slow metabolism process. But definitely, everyone should be aware of the risks attached to obesity. I admire you for being concern about obese people. Keep it up brother.
I think ts discusting, and it bites that I live in the fattest nation in the world.
I think we make choices, and we chose to eat way too much fast food then go home kick back watch tv and let the fat settle in our guts in on our ass.
well i beg to differ on that i think that fat people should quit eating so much, they are like a walking heart attack and develop heart problems or diabetis or even stroke, they should get on a good low fat diet or food regimen get in some excercise or take a weight class or exercise program, i would encourage overweight people to eat less and not more, its like a drug to them or more like an addiction they just like to eat and eat and thats not soo good for them and makes them have a puffy face, ya know we should all put end to obesity and overweight people in this world, you should check out shaklee.com and go to the cinch club web site under cinchcoach.com or cinchplan.com, i highly reccomend that to you or anybody else you know.
I think people have become VERY LAZY. They consider television watching a hobby and make fast foods a part of their meal everyday.
well lmao.. stop being fat… get off your couch, put down your cell phone ( how do cell phones make ppl fat?) and go to the gym… stop blaming society for your obesity!!! ( thats to stephanie)
So you’re saying being fat is cool? I doubt that very much.
The way i see it’s because of the makeup of the world and the economics that drive it. Obesity comes from over eating right. The country with the biggest obesity problem with America. In america you can buy a huge feast that could feed an african family for a month and half for less than $ 10. The average texas would eat this for lunch. Food, especially fast food is so cheap and we as people have become so lazy that shit fatty foods such as these is not only cheaper but more convenient. I watched Jamie Olvier’s School dinners and I was amazed to see how many of the kids wouldn’t eat fruit point blank. Not only was it consdered uncool but it was almost drilled into their heads that the only thing worth eating were chips and burgers.
It horrifed me, kids basically are being weened on this stuff. As an indian i ate mostly indian food which can at times be quite fatty, but my regular diet wasn’t chips and beans. Once kids get into this pattern they continue eating what’s not good for them simplu cos it tastes good. Combine this with an unhealthy apathy which grows and lingers western cultures then you get people who are unwilling to learn or take the time to prepare a healty meal preferring a bag of chips or a curry.
Inititives should be brought into to help parents and people with food preparation. Maybe booklets with easy to understand simple recipes which anyone can make cheaply and which are healthy. Jamie Oliver is doing a fantastic job trying to change the eating habbits of kids, but it’s never easy. There was a school who stopped selling chips and started selling healthier food. So some kid started up a blackmarket and sold chocolate bars and crisps in the playground (made a healthy profit but got suspended).
It’s tough
I’m equally concerned about the other problem, this need for people to be ridiculously skinny. It seems that in the US especially, some people are rebelling against the obesity epidemic by extreme dieting to be as thin as possible. It’s too extreme, you need to have some middle ground! And all these skinny people do is make the overweight/obese people feel like they should give up, because they will never be that thin. People need to encourage each other to be fit and healthy. Neither too skinny nor too fat is healthy and people need to start realising this. Take care : )
I think you are somewhat correct on one point, in that there are so many people who are obese now, that it isn’t the social stigma that it used to be, despite the well known health effects.
However, there really is no one answer to the obesity problem. Unlike our parents and grandparents, most of us have sedentary jobs and work long hours…making it necessary to “schedule” exercise rather than it being part of our daily work routine.
We eat more and more processed “quick” food rather than natural untampered with food. There is increasing concern that many of the additives and hormones put in today’s food change the body’s metabolism making it easier to gain weight and harder to get it off once we have it on.
The nutritional content of produce is declining due to green harvesting and depleted soils, so our bodies’ crave sweets and starches…unconsciously trying to get the nutrients that they don’t get in the food.
We are bombarded by media messages about eating foods that we know aren’t good for us but have become associated with a reward system.
There are emotional issues attached to overeating…eating out of loneliness, boredom, etc.
There are certainly genetic factors. Although having a genetic predisposition to gain weight doesn’t mean that you absolutely will gain weight, it does mean that you have to work harder to keep it off.
AND OF COURSE…there is just simply overeating. But you will notice I put it last, because if it was the only reason people gain weight, how do you explain the skinny-as-a-rail people that you see everywhere stuffing their faces with the very same foods that go right to the hips of others?
The number of obese people are soaring because we have become an over-indulgent society with no fear of the future.
We have more choices of candy bars, cereals, and soda pop than anyone should consume in a lifetime.
Serving sizes are huge and maost don’t get enough exercise anymore, having desk jobs and 2 cars per household.
Having confidence in oneself doesn’t cause obesity,
not having a realistic view of obesity and what it does to your body as you grow older. Things like heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure and diabeties don’t scare people anymore. As you get older metabolism slows down and losing weight is *WAY* harder than gaining it.
My wake up call was seeing someone I love very much, having a difficult time getting around when we were on a family trip to Disney. When she was my age, she was slightly smaller than I was at the time….. but a back injury made even small amounts of exercise painful and she gained a phenomenal amount of weight. I didn’t want that to happen to me.
The other problem is… Food is addictive to some people…
..if a person is an alcoholic, they stop drinking… heroine addicts get methadone so they can stop using………
a food addict needs their “drug” to survive.
I believe that the current pandemic of obesity is caused by Fear. People are very insecure about their future, jobs, security, debt, and keeping up with the status quo. The government isn’t helping either with their terrorism talk and war is happening all over the world. Fear sells products. People who are addicted need fixes. Drugs and alcohol is replaced by food, the latest gadget, a new car, a McMansion or a Mc Donalds, it all the same thing. The thrill lasts for about an hour, then something else is needed to fill that gaping hole of want that this society encourages. Also, you can probably track the sugar sales worldwide and predict an obesity and diabetic epidemic to come. Sugar is a manufactured commodity and was not available in its present refined white form until the mid 1800′s. The majority of the world became familiar with it in the second half of the last century. Before that, people used low glycemic sweeteners which broke down slowly and didn’t cause insulin spikes which add to the production of fat and weakens the immune system. These days everything has some kind of sweetener in it or high fructose corn syrup which is every bit as bad as sugar and cheaper to produce. I don’t think people are more confident. I think people have given up caring because they are overwhelmed by the media, governments and employers who control every minute of their life. And really sad part is all they have to do to change it is stop consuming and start feeling.