(no subject)

[go_team]

Thought-provoking, at least to my fat self:

Consider this: from the perspective of a profit-maximising medical and pharmaceutical industry, the ideal disease would be one that never killed those who suffered from it, that could not be treated effectively, and that doctors and their patients would nevertheless insist on treating anyway. Luckily for it, the American health care industry has discovered (or rather invented) just such a disease. It is called "obesity".

I had an interesting conversation about this topic with boojum when she visited last weekend --- how being obese/overweight is correlated with a lot of other things that affect overall health at least as much as body weight/body fat, and in particular it's a "disease" of poverty. It's not polite to say "ewww, poor people" but it is considerably more acceptable to say "ewww, fat people". And no self-respecting United States Surgeon General would dare address "the poverty epidemic" as a public health crisis.... oops, that's my cynicism showing again.

Anyway, I'm really just reading Arts and Letters Daily to stall on cleaning out my office and working on my Sundance application, so I'll shut up now.

Comments

[j3h.livejournal.com]

Very tricky topic.

Based on my anecdotal evidence, most Americans should:

1. Eat better (lower on the food chain and less processed being my working definition of better)


2. Exercise more (be active in life).

Also, I feel so much healthier than I did when I weighed 100lbs more than I do now.

This is not to say that the propaganda on either side is correct, just that it's as dangerous to think of obesity as no problem at all as it is to label it a disease that makes AIDS "like a bad case of the flu."

[j3h.livejournal.com]

My point about the healthier habits was supposed to be that thinking about obesity may convince some Americans to think about changing their eating and activity level. I guess I failed to say that.

[amoken.livejournal.com]

That article was pretty good except that it, as the Americans it mocks, ignores any other definition of fat. I understand that that's not the direct point of the article, but they could at least acknowledge that there are a great many people out there who are fat in the wrong way. Fat is not the enemy, no, but unfit is. Sedentary fat is. Fat inside your muscles and other functional body bits is. Yes, having more fat on your frame may increase your bone density, but so will having more muscle (or any other weight) on your frame, and the way you got the muscle most likely included bone-helping exercises. Every single item they had on there that was a decreased risk for some obese people was also a decreased risk for people who exercise at least moderately and eat properly.

I do wish someone would make it less popular to have a weight loss goal. I hate hearing about people who want to lose 20 lbs and don't care how and want it off now. What the hell?! How could you possibly know that's a good weight for you, even if it once was? You've changed! Just eat better and move around more and what happens with your weight will happen. Grrrrrr....

Oh, and any idea why the article didn't mention asthma? I've heard it's a more common side effect of obesity than diabetes, obviously because something like asthma happens for everyone who doesn't exercise right. I hate it when the unfit fat people use it as a crutch too: "I can't exercise; it annoys my asthma." Not that anyone in my family is fat and has gotten asthma as a large unfit adult and refuses to exercise because of it.... :P