Being Fat or Smoking: Why is One Worse Than The Other?

Apparently, how heavy one becomes is determined, in part, by how the hypothalamus and the brain stem adjudicate the conflicting signals from the mouth and the gut. Some people feel full quite early in a meal; others, like Vincent Caselli [the man to whom the title of the article refers], experience the appetizer effect for much longer. In the past several years, much has been discovered about the mechanisms of this control. We now know, for instance, that hormones, like leptin and neuropeptide Y, rise and fall with fat levels and adjust the appetite accordingly. But our knowledge of these mechanisms is still crude at best.

Consider a 1998 report concerning two men, "BR" and "RH," who suffered from profound amnesia. Like the protagonist in the movie "Memento," they could carry on a coherent conversation with you, but, once they had been distracted, they recalled nothing from as recently as a minute before, not even that they were talking to you. (BR had had a bout of viral encephalitis; RH had had a severe seizure disorder for twenty years.) Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, thought of using them in an experiment that would explore the relationship between memory and eating. On three consecutive days, he and his team brought each subject his typical lunch (BR got meat loaf, barley soup, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, bread, butter, peaches, and tea; RH got veal parmigiana with pasta, string beans, juice, and apple crumb cake). Each day, BR ate all his lunch, and RH could not quite finish. Their plates were then taken away. Ten to thirty minutes later, the researchers would reappear with the same meal. "Here's lunch," they would announce. The men ate just as much as before. Another ten to thirty minutes later, the researchers again appeared with the same meal. "Here's lunch," they would say, and again the men would eat. On a couple of occasions, the researchers even offered RH a fourth lunch. Only then did he decline, saying that his stomach was a little tight". Stomach stretch receptors weren't completely ineffectual. Yet, in the absence of a memory of having eaten, social context alone,-someone walking in with lunch-was enough to re-create appetite.

I guess this means that either no one has an opinion about this or else everyone is so emotional over it they can't answer.

Calling someone out on their eating habits related to their obesity is more of a personal attack. You're pointing out their physical flaws which will make the person insecure/feel bad...smoking is just a nasty habit that's not directly related to how a person looks.

Bella Dea wrote:

I guess this means that either no one has an opinion about this or else everyone is so emotional over it they can't answer.

What was wrong with this? When you call a fat person out on their diet, you're obviously singling them out because they're overweight, which is attacking their looks/image/physical traits. That's going to be offensive to them. When you call out a smoker, you're just attacking a habit, which isn't going to offend them as much, or at all.

Slappy Doo Hoo wrote:

Calling someone out on their eating habits related to their obesity is more of a personal attack. You're pointing out their physical flaws which will make the person insecure/feel bad...smoking is just a nasty habit that's not directly related to how a person looks.

As a fat boy who smokes, i just wanted to say how much this thread cheers me.

I don't, i was laughing . . .

Slappy, you bring up a good point. He is trying to lose the weight but can't because he is uneducated. Whose fault? Partly his because he didn't do any homework on his diet.
Partly...who else?