I figured out how to cure the "Obesity Epidemic"

You are missing the point. Food is just one way people cope with their problems. People in countries with no food are forced to cope in other ways. If they had food, some of them would cope with their problems using food.

Californian wrote:

Its like being an alcoholic or smoker, expect you had a choice wheter or not to start drinking or smoking, but you didn't have a choice in whether or not to start eating.

uhh but you do have a choice as to when you stop. You don't have a choice as to whether or not you drink water/fluids, but you never see stressed out people gorging on H20.

Addiction can be solved in every case. I don't know what you are suggesting but it seems like this: obese people have no self control and it's not their fault. Lack of self-control, in whatever context it occurs, is always the fault of the person. That's what it's called "self"-control. And if it were impossible to control the self there wouldn't be a word for it.

You may not always have a choice to start but you always have a choice to stop.

by that logic... wrote:

TRNR wrote:

Anyone with a BMI 10 points above the normal pays 50% higher health care premiums. Why should the people who take care of themselves pay the way for all the fat asses and smokers out there?

also, anyone who runs for more that 30 minutes a day, 4 times a week should pay higher premiums. a sliding scale too - so if you're logging 80 mile weeks, you pay even higher.

why? because of the injuries you clowns sustain.

and charge double premiums for anyone who listens to trackhead's advice, buys a pair of h-streets, and comes in the with a stress fracture.

This is entirely stupid. If you had stress fractures twice a year for the rest of your life it wouldn't compare to the cost of living with diabetes or heart disease. It is well known that both overeating and eating a poor diet (ie, bad food choices) can and will, even with no other risk factors, contribute to these diseases. Why do you think we are having kids (KIDS, not even teenagers yet!) with "adult"-onset diabetes? This isn't a genetic problem; it's environmental.

Learn a little.

Rates of general stress have increased dramatically? And things like World Wars I or II weren't stressful? How about the 30s Depression? Maybe the threat of nuclear winter during the 50s was a relaxing experience?

If people are turning to eating as a coping mechanism, then that is a lifestyle decision, one which has consequences. I don't expect everyone to choose 10 miles, but rather something that is closer to 10 miles than a drive to KFC. Go for a bike ride, go swimming, heck, go for a walk (just not to the KFC).

It may not be directly addressing the 'root cause' of your problem, but some form of physical activity is a damn better way to deal with it than consuming copious quantities of grease.

And I will say it again, are you seriously suggesting that in the last 20 years we have genetically evolved to such a degree that uncontrollable chemical problems resulting in food addictions have been blossoming like crazy? And only in those parts of the world where Mickey Ds and company have permeated the marketplace?

(your community) CROSS COUNTRY: REDUCING CHILDHOOD OBESITY

hmmm wrote:

Addiction can be solved in every case. I don't know what you are suggesting but it seems like this: obese people have no self control and it's not their fault. Lack of self-control, in whatever context it occurs, is always the fault of the person. That's what it's called "self"-control. And if it were impossible to control the self there wouldn't be a word for it.

You may not always have a choice to start but you always have a choice to stop.

I don't disagree with you 100% here, but I do think you drastically over-simplify things. Many people believe, as you do, that alcoholics/over-eaters/drug addicts simply need to decide to stop for a miraculous recovery to occur. Truth is, those that go cold turkey, with no support system or help along the way, are more likely to go right back into their addiction. You have to realize that people who truly fight to overcome addictions will never be rid of their addictive traits and will have to fight their addictions every single day for the rest of their lives. If they don't have those impulses, then they weren't addicts.

Food has always been available, but the stress in our society has steadily incresaed over the last 50 years, causing more dormant eating disorders to become manifested. Many people are born with eating addictions, but not everyone develops eating disorders. It takes stressful circumstances or tragic events, in many cases, for the eating disorder to come out. I would argue that the life of the average westerner is far more stressful now than it was 50 years ago.

The media has also created stress and body image problems in the last 20 years that previously didn't exist. Go to a news stand and take a look at the magazines. Women with anorexic figures are portrayed as having ideal bodies that all women should strive for. There are now tons of magazines showing men having the perfectly sculpted figure. So now you have women and men striving for bodies that they may not be physically capable of sustaining. Add the use of diets, such as Atkins, and many people become anorexic, then, in the process of restricting food intake, become chronic overeaters. The stress of puruing a diet to have the perfect body is enough to make many people binge on food. I find it interseting that rates of anorexia have increased substantially, even as obesity rates have done the same. That tells me a big part of the obesity problem is the stress that the media puts on people by making them feel bad for not having a perfect body.

Hell no. I like my In n' Out 4x4 and other double cheeseburgers that are out there. I'm not gonna suffer because of those fatties. Teach them to workout so they can eat shit like that to.

College Guy wrote:

Californian wrote:

But some people are overweight through no fault of their own...

No. In countries where there is no food, there are no fat people.

I saw some movie and there were happy kids running around playing soccer in I think malaysia, but I could be wrong. I said wow, those are some skinny kids and my dad says it is not hard to be skinny when there is no food. I didn't know what to say because I did not check to see if they were getting enough nutrition, but I ran by the elementary school the next day and I was a little sad to see so many little porkers schlepping their way to class not even caring that they looked like little butterballs.

Just like being in the cold only helps, not causes, people get more colds, being in America helps people get eating disorders which causes them to be obese.

You are confusing self control with addiction. If you have a chemical food addiction, you do not have control over whether or not you stop. Just like a smoker does not have a choice as to whether or not they stop. The only solution is to get treatment for the problem. Some people do not have self-control, others have an addiction. There is a difference between the two.

fartleker. wrote:

Hell no. I like my In n' Out 4x4 and other double cheeseburgers that are out there. I'm not gonna suffer because of those fatties. Teach them to workout so they can eat shit like that to.

Just because you aren't getting fat doesn't mean they aren't killing you slowly. People aren't smart enough to control themselves and will sue In and Out because they forced them to get fat.

California,

We are waging a losing battle with some people in here. It will take a Rush Limbaugh-like epiphany for people to realize that the world isn't always as simple as "do or don't".

Californian wrote:

Just like a smoker does not have a choice as to whether or not they stop. The only solution is to get treatment for the problem. Some people do not have self-control, others have an addiction. There is a difference between the two.

It's funny how MOST of these "addicted" people manage to stop when they get some fatal disease (cancer, emphazema, etc). Whooops guess they found out they wern't addicted afterall. Just like fat people that have a heart attack start exercising and stop eating crap. Just an observation.

People feel more stress from working 12 hours at their job than they do worrying about a war or being attacked by nuclear weapons. People are stressed by tangible things that they see on a daily basis (deadline at work, being $10,000 in debt on their credit card, getting done the 20 things they need to do that evening). Tangible stress has a greater impact on people than stress outside the realm of their day to day activities.

And, while exercising may be healthier than eating to deal with a problem, both do absolutely nothing to solve, both are just coping mechanisms. And, no I don't beleive that we have genetically evolved in the last 20 years, but the more food their is, the more peeople who do have food addictions or traumatic and stressful events will you eat it.

It seems a bit odd to point at too-strict diets as one of the main causes of over-eating. Counter-intuitive, at least. Is this demonstrably true? Are many obese people former anorexics?

Californian wrote:

People feel more stress from working 12 hours at their job than they do worrying about a war or being attacked by nuclear weapons. People are stressed by tangible things that they see on a daily basis (deadline at work, being $10,000 in debt on their credit card, getting done the 20 things they need to do that evening). Tangible stress has a greater impact on people than stress outside the realm of their day to day activities.

And, while exercising may be healthier than eating to deal with a problem, both do absolutely nothing to solve, both are just coping mechanisms. And, no I don't beleive that we have genetically evolved in the last 20 years, but the more food their is, the more peeople who do have food addictions or traumatic and stressful events will you eat it.

Californian, all youre arguments are bullshit. Alcoholics drink because of the same life problems - and they pay tax bigtime. The obese with the same life problems pay no extra tax!

Tangible things in their day to day activities? Like being taught in school to hide under their desk when the air raid warning went off because a few nuclear warheads were about to vapourize them, their friends, mummy and daddy and the pet poodle? Or what about some mother working 14 hours a day at some factory assembly line putting together munitions so the husband at the front lines on the other side of the world has something to shoot at the bad guys before they get a chance to blow him up? You are aware that large numbers of males left their jobs and families to go fight in both World Wards, aren't you? I would class that as a reasonable amount of tangible stress, certainly a little more than rushing to get Bobby-Sue and Jimmy-Bob in the minivan after school.

Of course they are both coping mechanisms. Nowhere did I suggest either was a solution. But exercise is a far better coping mechanism than gorging oneself at the grease buffet.

The availability of food in the western world has not been an issue for society as a whole through the 20th century. The decisions of the masses to conciously CHOOSE lesser quality foods and sedentary lifestyles has significantly changed though. But to suggest that there has been some fundamental shift in stress levels in the last 30 years that has caused such weight gain is awfully ignorant of the real world. Maybe you need to go for a run and reflect on this with a clear head.

Californian wrote:

The media has also created stress and body image problems in the last 20 years that previously didn't exist. Go to a news stand and take a look at the magazines. Women with anorexic figures are portrayed as having ideal bodies that all women should strive for. There are now tons of magazines showing men having the perfectly sculpted figure. So now you have women and men striving for bodies that they may not be physically capable of sustaining.

Which point are you argueing? That people are rebelling against the mass media induced 'ideal' form and saying "heck no, I'm going to go for the complete opposite look. Double Quarter Pounder with cheese, here I come!"? How is chowing down on fast food striving for any kind of perfectly sculpted body they may not be physically capabla of sustaining? They won't be able to sustain the body that results, but that's because it will have run into a heart attack.