Lets fight fat people!

Points well taken.

I worked in a food cupboard for over 9 years. The food handed out to the "needy" (god, i hated that term) was SO bad - mostly overly processed, government surplus foods.

But free coupons to the local fresh vegertable/fruit farm market went unused.
We wondered if transportation was a problem, but it was mostly disinterest.

Good eating habits need to be established early. Working with the kids is the best thing. School lunches are important place to start.

But people DO want those carbs!!!

those chemicals are addicting as well. HFCS for example causes small amounts of serotonin to be released in the brain.Tough. . in VERY short spurts. Just like drugs. Serotonin feels good. Our body wants what feels good .

No to mention the programs, ads and radio shows all hammering you with " lose weight by drinking milk" or lose weight the easy way by drinking Slim Fast.. Feel good eating light with NutriGrain...

or Cheerios saying they are a heart healthy choice..

people really buy into that propaganda . They think they really are eating well by eating out of boxes and choosing by labels.

We are getting fat and having an extreme surge in health problems because we are not eating 'food'. We are lucky in that our bodies can work like scavengers keeping us alive on very little.. but look at the state of the nation . This isnt living.

Interesting article in the NYT Magazine a bit ago -- here's a longish excerpt but I encourage people to read the whole thing:



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/magazine/18fob-essay-t.html

(Oh, it was written by the same guy as the OP article! -- Daniel Engber.)

My niece is a nutritionist. She did her intership at the NIH. She worked on the milk study. Drinking milk can help you lose weight.

it's not the milk that does anything... it's the calcium in the milk.

Plus it's drinking milk, not soda.

There is a LOT of hate. A LOT.

I can barely comment on it, it would be a huge derailing scream. Here comes my rant.

I have, as you all know, been on the fat and the thin side of this. And I have seen how the world treats me, and how it used to, and let me tell you, it's nice to be treated better.

But it also hurts like hell.

Wanna know why?

Because I am a thinner, fitter me. I make better choices and I do different things and I work hard.

But I am still me.

And I was worth treating well when I was 346 pounds.

And that person NEEDED to be treated well a lot more than the 179-pounder needs it.

Obesity and depression go hand in hand. You eat because you feel unworthy and unlovable. You lay in bed with the covers over your head and mourn the fact that you can't exercise, all while, miraculously, surprise surprise, NOT exercising. You look at yourself in the mirror, or on a scale, and think you're a failure. So you're unlovable and unworthy and so you grab the ice cream and get into bed and think about how no one understands you and how awful it is and oh poor you and look the weather stinks and those grey skies are an omen, they are telling you that you'll never get there, you'll never get it right, and it's all for naught and we're all going to that great vale of tears anyway so why not have another piece of pie? And the world agrees with you, and tells you you're worthless in all sorts of subtle and not so subtle ways. And, God help you, you believe it.

The 346 pound woman needed to be treated well. And she deserved it, dammit.

If you're only going to be nice to the 179-pounder, then you can go to hell so far as I'm concerned. I don't need it. She did. Where the **** were you THEN??

Thank you, Jespah!

Way to go, jes.

I've probably reported more studies than most on a2k about the background for trouble with fat gain, though admittedly not that many... still, I think I posted several over the years. All sorts of complex matters have been implicated besides simple will power. I've flagged on posting links on that lately, but I still see them go by in the news. I'll also agree that poor choices can be and are made (and they support the economy), and I completely get the situational depression.

I won't blame it all on chemicals, at all, and go so far as to say that is a red herring, though there is much to talk about re "chemicals", and I do pretty much avoid them, most, some.

I'll agree I've seen rage against the obese, over and over, even fury.
We also get boosters after weight loss (no, not you, Jes) who become apostles of whatever and find a new life in the pushing thereof. Jes is quite sane and her weight loss has followed from continuing engagement in it, and her pleasure from the loss is a pleasure to all of us reading. A few others at a2k have also lost a lot of weight, by their methods, all doing well but all still dealing with it.

Mostly - fat people are not other. Jes is ******* right.

Yes.

Hmm...

Im dearly dearly hoping my point here was not taken as any direct insult to anyone..
Because that is not at ALL where I am coming from when I posted this.

I read this article and I agreed with quite a bit of it. But I walked away from it feeling as if ( as a former morbidly obese person myself topping out at size 26) that we were just laying around moaning and blaming other people for everything.
Jes is right on. It is the most disgusting cycle anyone can go through. And people hate you.. oh GOD they hate you . No matter how smart you are, how funny you are, what you DO for people, WHO you are.. you are hated day in and day out simply because of what your body is.

But I hate , hate, hate , hate hearing someone just blame it on society as if it is some kind of blanket 'solution' and the simple answer is - Oh just stop hating.


huh?
Thats the issue? Hating? Really?
No sir. Not at all. That is just the crust on the entire PIE.
Our bodies are reacting in extreme ways to the crap we are being fed. Stop trying to point the blame else where and lets start working on what we are all eating.

Only in the last 50 - 70 years has morbid obesity been THIS extreme in society.
You know what else is in excess and extreme ? Processed foods and chemicals.

I think our food source needs to be addressed. Period. We have beaten around the bush of people hating others for their bodies, sued designers for showing skinny girls, and have gone to hell and high water to make people accept that we are getting fatter calling it politically correct..... But nothing , at least on the surface, is being done about our food? Hellooooooo. The food is what is making us sick. Or am I the only one who sees it this way?
Why is the one major common component (food quality) always being passed up to hand the responsibility buck on to someone else?

Does it not sound kind of insulting and demeaning, as if we as people can not move around what others think of us, when someone says " You are only fat because people treat you bad" ... or does that only sound like an insult to me? As if we can not function because someone does not like us, like we are mindless, have no purpose, have no thought, no self control.. nothing.
That to me sounds so belittling I almost can not comprehend it.

It is as if the writer was saying we (society) are doing nothing but fighting with people who are fat and that is causing the entire obesity issue.. Nothing else. Food is perfect. Society is perfect..etc.etc.etc.

It is my belief that it is not only the food we eat but our general lifestyle.
We are less physically active in so many small ways but like money small amounts of activity build up.
We no longer get up to change the channel on the TV or wash dishes by hand. we no longer walk to work or edge the lawn by hand. Clothes go into the drier not onto the outside line. These are just a few and i am sure they dont apply to everyone
Some of us are able to make up this shortfall in activity by going to the gym, but gradually as we become less physically active we become less physically strong we feel less capable of performing pysically active tasks.
Yes we do need to change our food from high fat high sugar but it (as always reccomended by dieticians) needs to be coupled with increased activity

I get that, shewolf. However society may be fluming there can be other things going on with weight gain.

I suppose to do justice I should retrieve some articles.

I am not in the mood for article retrieving, as I already posted them here on a2k.

well yeah, or just whine alot.

This pictorial essay deals with what people around the world eat. I found it most enlightening. As an aside play the spotto coke (or pepsi) game.
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373680,00.html

I've seen that advertisement for that incredible inflating/deflating woman ( ) on so many different internet sites! Weight loss must be a huge business!

you're just scrawny.

I think I'll let you go look this up all on your own. I'm over it with link giving.
Forever.