Chewing the Fat
I want to know how I can get my hands on some of that research grant money that's being thrown around. Somebody actually funded a recent study by the Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego that concluded, after interviews with more than 12,000 people, that hanging around with fat people can cause you to get fat. I'm really glad to know that, since all these years I've thought that eating too much was the culprit. I wonder what would happen if some obese guy hung around for a while with a skinny crowd and the fat guy started to lose weight? Somebody'd have to fund another study. They used to blame the tendency to get fat on genes. Now it's having fat friends. I need about a hundred grand to study the fact that if you drink too much booze you greatly increase your chances of falling down.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:20 AM
11 Comments:
I've found that to be true in my experience. One will naturally gravitate towards people with similar philosophies. I was raised to eat in a healthful manner, and not to overindulge. Everyone in my family is thin. And although I don't socialize very much, the people with whom I do socialize are also thin. I like to be with people who think like I do about excessive eating, and who maintain an active lifestyle.
On the other hand, the people I know who have weight problems eat out a lot, snack a lot, have sedentary lifestyles, and no doubt, hang out with people who are the same way.
Nothing wrong with that except it is very unhealthy. Being fat has now surpassed smoking in terms of causing health problems.
I agree with everything you say here, Kate. The only thing omitted from the whole concept is personal discipline and will. I'm in pretty good shape, and when I spend time with my brothers, both of whom are decidely overweight, I don't gain a pound because I exercise and I'm careful, as you are, about what I eat. The real question, I think, is not whether hanging around with folks who are heavy is an incentive to eat too much, but why people in general are unwilling to take care of themselves.
Kate wrote:
>>I've found that to be true in my experience. One will naturally gravitate towards people with similar philosophies.>>
And of course you're absolutely right, Kate. My main question is who it took thousands of dollars in grant money and a lengthy study to figure out what we knew all along.
I think the study has done some good. For one thing it has people talking about the problem. And it's one of those things that you know instinctively to be true, but it takes someone verbalizing it before you get a "duh" moment, and it all comes together.
I have a tendency to be very intolerant of fat people. As a diabetic I've had to be on a diet pretty much my entire life. If I can do it, so can anyone else. And if this country moves towards universal health coverage than I'm going to resent the hell out of paying exorbitant taxes for people to feed their Twinkie habit.
There's a show on the health channel that apparently comes on every week, although I've only seen it once. It is filmed in NYC at a hospital for people who are so fat that they can no longer even move. They are stuck in bed, and have to use bed pans, and have the nursing staff roll them over like gigantic whales just to clean between their rolls of fat. And they STILL call for delivery food. And they can't even move. And we, the tax payers, are funding that. It's obscene.
I will never, ever be able to understand how someone can have so little respect for their health, themselves and their spouse that they can become fat.
Holy Hannah, what about the people who are heavy (fat as you two call it) through no fault of their own. I , myself, have had to take oral chemo for 5 years for breast cancer. The pill makes one gain +/- 65 lbs or more. It is easy to make judgment calls about other people but to assume that one is overweight just because one lacks self discipline strikes me as rather a smug attitude. I don't find anything in the slightest funny about making fun of another's affliction. People who suffer from Crone's Disease have to take a form of steroids that make them gain over 100 lbs. Some of them never lose the weight after the disease is in remission, some are lucky and do lose it. So the next time you see a fat person, maybe it would be better to see the person inside the body, rather than judge them.
Once again, my name was not added to the comment. The above comment comes from me.
Alas, there is always a downside to "humor." Every one of us, I bet, has something in their life that is the subject of others' jokes. I can tell you for certain I am, and the only thing that matters to me is if it's a good joke or not. Someone once said wisely, "a sense of funny is laughing when somebody else slips on a banana peel; a sense of humor is when someone laughs when he himself slips on a banana peel." To which I can only add, I don't ever want to hurt anyone, and apologize if I did. I regret the reality that it's impossible to look for humor in human weakness, foibles, and folly without offending someone, even one's friends.
To which I can only add, the subject of this piece isn't about being overweight, it's about the people who line their pockets exploiting those who are.
John... we've been hearing a lot of reports lately about how if one wants a grant "granted" all one need do is reference it to global warming! Not sure how they could make a case for implicating the obesity crisis in global warming... but someone's surely going to try it if there's money in it!
Some of the happiest people I know are overweight... "jolly" might be a good description for it. And they are great fun to be around. Somehow... the overweight really know how to live... (eating and drinking whatever makes them happy... without much thought for the future) They manage to turn the eating of food into an event of almost religious proportions.
The problem is... people are eating for "taste" alone. And there's nothing wrong with that... (unless you want to stick around for awhile)
Instead we have to get our head around eating for "nourishment"... in essence we must eat the food that will fuel our bodies most efficiently.
The solution requires a fundamental shift in thinking. The question of why we put food in our mouths at all must be asked... (and answered) Until this shift in thinking happens... the obesity crisis will continue unabated.
It also doesn't help that there are people out there making truckloads of money out of flogging foods (with a healthy heart tick... and a promise of no additives and preservatives... and my personal favourite NO fat)... foods that are completely devoid of nutrients.
In some cases... it would be more nutritious to eat the packaging! LOL
LOL, Jean. How about "No Fat Half and Half?" I'm not kidding, you can get it in the supermarket. Wouldn't that be a bit like a no fruit fruit salad?
But seriously, the biggest culprit by far in the so-called obesity crisis is indeed the pursuit of money, "super-sizing" for starters, huge portions at lower prices with cheap unhealthy ingredients made to taste good with chemical additives.
Fortunately we don't have so much of that here... we are more likely to be "underfed" in a restaurant here than overfed. That's not to say we won't be overcharged tho! LOL
I think at the "heart" of it (pardon the pun)the biggest culprits are the juggonaut industries like the government protected canola and soy bean producers and manufacturers who put their heads together back in the 70s to demonise natural fats (like good old fashioned butter and the tropical oils like coconut and palm oil) and forced a whole generation of people into obesity through (virtually) no choice of their own. Over the past 30 years we have all been brainwashed into believing how bad butter and saturated fat is for our heart... (not entirely true at best and a gargantuan lie at worst)... simply to promote and protect these burgeoning megabucks industries. Ever wondered why obesity wasn't really an issue before the 70s? And no... it's not entirely because we are now more sedentary... although that is one of the furfy's getting aroung!
John, I thought this was one of your best! And no, you're not mocking people with large waistlines...you are exposing the public's media-fed and delusional process of thought. This one is a gem!
And Jean, I believe it is the corn industry at fault...at least here in the states it is. Our farmers produce so much surplus, government subsidized corn that they are running out of places to put it. Much of where it goes is in the form of corn syrup. Corn syrup is in EVERYTHING! You cannot escape it. And those extra caloric additives, (in breads, cereals, drinks, even meats, etc.) coupled with "super-sizing" are a big part of what's popping our pant buttons!
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