I recently encountered a colleague at the movies. He was big when I saw him a year ago, but now he was barely recognizable. Eleven days later, he was dead. He collapsed at work—three days after Christmas—and died of a heart attack. He was 46, married and at the apex of his career. He was “larger than life,” the obituary… return to article
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Reader Comments (4)Page 1 of 1 pagesOklahoma City understands that a city without sidewalks leads to obesity. Few other cities have grasped that concept, yet. Other cities limit bus routes for people without cars, forcing them to stay inside instead of going to parks or otherwise being active. Our lack of vacation days for the employed and promotion of the overworked small business owner, plus the need to be accessible 24 hours a day also can lead us to consume all that junk food just to keep us going. Yes, there is individual responsibility, but let’s don’t forget just how much governmental policies, and our collective willingness to allow it, has led to this problem.
Posted by SillyLeftist on Jan 29, 2008 at 5:38 AM Try to undereat. It prolongs your life, keeps you from getting torpid, uses up less of everything.
Posted by Kuya on Jan 29, 2008 at 9:05 PM I think that this article conflates being fat with the problems caused by an insufficiently nourishing diet. Thin people who eat poorly and don’t exercise are at risk for health problems. Dieting, particularly yo-yo dieting,
causes weight gain and other health problems, and almost all diets fail.That probably bears repeating: trying to reduce one’s weight fails more than 90 percent of the time, and can CAUSE health problems.
Poverty, stress, limited access to affordable health care, and lack of social support are all core problems that drag down life expectancy.
Having said that, the food we eat is typically highly-processed and lacks nutrition. So, if the real issue is processed food, and the contaminants and lack of healthy nutrients in the Western diet, then let’s focus on that. The problem is not fat, and conflating the two will lead to greater problems than addressing the root causes of disease.
A good resource for these kinds of issues is the website Junk Food Science.
Please stop blaming fat for public health problems.
Posted by heddybee on Jan 30, 2008 at 11:51 AM One thing I have to add is that if we’re going to let advertizing have such a powerful shaping effect on our behavior, we really don’t have a lot of room to complain. It’s a choice we make, eating processed food as our main sustenance.
We’re not B.F. Skinner’s damn pigeons, pecking the button on cue when the next novelty food is offered. Or at least, we have the potential not to be. As a matter of self-respect, yes?
Body type isn’t the issue. Eat healthy, eat less, move around more. Just walk some, a couple-three times a week at first, pretty much everyone benefits from it. You don’t have to walk for miles at one go, ask your body to adapt slowly.
(however, what if you built your stamina up over time to a level that made you feel proud, or even better, to a level that let you have more fun than you have now?)
And you’ll be more alert. You can think and remember better. Discern better all the many attempts to trick you. To play games with your mind and get you to do things thoughtlessly.
It is a game, you know. People are trying to trick you, you know. It’s in their interest that you not think much. They get rich and influential off it.
Take care of yourself more. You’re your own doctor. You’re your own best friend. (if you’re not, that’s deeply sad, f’n tragic actually)
If you had a horse or a beloved dog, you’d give it good, nutritious food and exercise, right?
When, after eating healthily and more moderately for a while, you find yourself feeling gross after a Big Mac and a Coke, you’ll know you’re on the right track. Voice of experience, my darlings. Be well.
Posted by Kuya on Feb 5, 2008 at 3:46 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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