Smoking and obesity.

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2582043#2582043

Interesting trend right there.

I read something a while back that said most doctors won't bring up weight issues with their patients unless the patient brings it up first -- especially with patients who are overweight.

I don't think that the case with smoking. Or with drinking. Or, if you have kids, with guns in the home.

The rates of childhood obesity are soaring yet walk into any school in America and you're sure to see soda and candy and chip vending machines. Why? Because the companies provide huge kick-backs to the schools.

So instead of giving the schools the money they need to operate we instead use the money on public health treating the problems associated with eating too much junk.

It's stupid.

I have a neice who is a nutritionist. She left a very good paying job with a group of doctors because she was so frustrated about people not following their diets. They didn't take it seriously. She now works for a group of oncologists and she loves her job. In her words -- "Tell someone they have cancer and they will do everything in their power to get better. Tell someone they need to loose weight for a wide variety of health reasons and they hit the buffet to make themselves feel better."

I think the same is true for smoking.

They're both health issues but for some reason it is okay to tsk-tsk one but not the other. I too find it strange.

But I'm guilty too. When Mo notices someone smoking I can say "Oh yuck. Smoking is yukky." but when he comments on someone being fat I say "Isn't it neat that everyone has a different body. It makes it easy to tell people apart blahblahblah."

I mean, really, what message am I sending him?

Builder,

Just wanted to say I share some of your un-PC views.

This is tricky ground to walk on, always, but here goes anyways.

I don't want smokers OR obese people having to pay walking into hospitals here. That's just me.

However, I don't think it is right or fair for someone to be able to collect welfare or unemployment because they are fat.
'Disability' is the claim.

It isn't fair to the rest of us. As are many things not fair. But I find it unethical.
If you can work, you SHOULD work. And most of these people can work! Maybe not in their chosen field, but the options for at home or computer jobs are limitless. There is lots they can do.

And I have noticed the change in sizes in some stores. Where I used to be a 'Small', I am now an 'Extra Small' or 'O'. What the hell is a zero anyways?
And I have some meat on my bones, a regular size.
So the really skinny must be OOO or something. haha.

Anyways, my main beef is with parents and obese kids. I don't know what to do about it, but I do know that what is happening in a lot of cases is pure and simple neglect and child abuse.
I'd like to see it be more openly acknowledged as such.

Here, cigs are well over 12 dollars a pack. Bars, restaurants, are all smoke-free. There is more pressure yet to make smoking in your car illegal, and to cut the number of public places where a person can smoke.
Parks where children may be, for example.

Even though I was a smoker for many years, and only stopped rather recently, I can see the value in all that. Though the BS that went with it, and to justify a lot of the moves (increasing the price of tobacco, again) was tiring and sickening.

In truth, I would like to see cigarettes pulled completed or else places left for people to enjoy their addiction, just like booze. We put up with alcoholics and drunk folk - pay up the butt for them and their costs to soceity - but cigarettes are simply the 'evil' target of the times.

Probably because we all know no one is going to give up boozing and gorging on food any time soon! But tobacco is managable.

What will be next, though, seriously? Targetting people who wear perfume? Lots of folks have allergies - It's a public health crisis!

Some interesting POVs. Thankyou.

On the comfort eating issue, do you think some parents let their kids eat what to they want simply to avoid conflict?

Without googling, I believe that children who are heading for obesity in their pre-teens, are also setting themselves up for a lifetime of struggle against weight fluctuation. Parents who allow or encourage that to occur are actually doing the worst they can for their kids, IMO.

That case I cited at the start of this thread about the boy who weighs in at 250 pounds is actually seven years old. I watched an interview with his mother yesterday, and she claimed that he only eats regular meals, no snacks, and he excercises regularly. The boy was shown sitting on the couch, tossing a ball into the air above his head and catching it. I'm thinking if that is what his mum thinks is excercise, she will be stuck with that boy until the day she dies. He will be unemployable.

I recall in my upbringing, if we hung around the house, we were given chores to do. Suffice to say, we didn't hang around the house at all.

I'm wondering if this obese child is an only child, and if he has a father.

A recent episode of South Park broached this subject, using Cartman and his mother as the example. It was rather a cruel episode, but confronting nonetheless. Say what you like about the creators of South Park, but I've been a fan of theirs since that ground-breaking stereotype-busting movie, Orgazmo.

flushd wrote:


Yes and yes. The neighbour I mentioned in my opening post suffers diabetes, a heart condition, back problems, on top of his obesity. He appears to eat very healthy food, but binges on beer and Jack Daniels.

On a brighter note, he has taken on a part-time job delivering tourist brochures across a wide region over two or three days. He has an assistant to actually load and unload for him, but it's good to see him doing something to get him out of the house.