The world's BIGGEST health problem
The WHO reports that the number of seriously-overweight people in the world has reached 1.6 billion. This is twice as many as the number of people who suffer from malnourishment.
That's right -- with a world population at least fifteen times as large as the largest it ever got before the year 1500, our biggest food- related health problem is now overeating. (So much for Malthus.) It's going to get worse, too. The same report anticipates 2.3 billion seriously-overweight people by 2015, just seven years from now. And as I've noted before, it's a problem which Americans (a nation "hugely" over-represented among the fattest of the fat) are weirdly reluctant to acknowledge.
At just under six feet and 215 pounds, I'm far from being in good shape, but this is due to many months of enforced lack of exercise due to a collapsed hip joint. Now that I can walk normally again, I don't intend to stay that way. Far too many of us eagerly, even truculently, spurn health and embrace the flab. There is even a "fat acceptance" movement (can you imagine a "smoking acceptance" movement or an "alcoholism acceptance" movement?). But those who waddle after this (gasping and wheezing) pied piper will find, to their cost, that the hard facts of biological reality and health pay no heed to what we "accept" or deem politically correct.
Bloat, bloat, wherever you may be,
For I am the Lard of the Dunce, said he,
And I feed you all, calorie by calorie,
And I feed you all to obesity.
That's right -- with a world population at least fifteen times as large as the largest it ever got before the year 1500, our biggest food- related health problem is now overeating. (So much for Malthus.) It's going to get worse, too. The same report anticipates 2.3 billion seriously-overweight people by 2015, just seven years from now. And as I've noted before, it's a problem which Americans (a nation "hugely" over-represented among the fattest of the fat) are weirdly reluctant to acknowledge.
At just under six feet and 215 pounds, I'm far from being in good shape, but this is due to many months of enforced lack of exercise due to a collapsed hip joint. Now that I can walk normally again, I don't intend to stay that way. Far too many of us eagerly, even truculently, spurn health and embrace the flab. There is even a "fat acceptance" movement (can you imagine a "smoking acceptance" movement or an "alcoholism acceptance" movement?). But those who waddle after this (gasping and wheezing) pied piper will find, to their cost, that the hard facts of biological reality and health pay no heed to what we "accept" or deem politically correct.
Bloat, bloat, wherever you may be,
For I am the Lard of the Dunce, said he,
And I feed you all, calorie by calorie,
And I feed you all to obesity.
posted by Infidel753 at 5:07 AM
3 Comments:
Good point. I started gaining weight around early 30's,before that..nothing much..as far as getting a gut or anything.What seemed so suprising to me(and I live in one of America's fattest cities,Dallas)was the overweight young people...teen's and younger. I have a neighbor for instance who I drove to school one day,he was 16 years old...this guy is big too,I mean about 6ft. broad shoulder's etc...but he must be around 300/325 or so..one of them "gangsta" type dudes..lot's of his homies are that fat too. I see little kid's around me who gain weight like I have never seen in my life...at such a young age. I can only guess that this may be due to the lack of physical activity? And our eating habit's? I really dont know,but it seem's like when I was a kid in the 60's...it was rare to see this.I notice alot of young people spend much time on these computers as well...I mean..when I was a kid,cool and nifty toy's/games were slim...we had alot of outdoor activities and sport type play/games. I loved football,hockey the most as far as thing's to play. I also notice...we tend to snack alot on..well thing's that are not very nutritional in value. And Dallas is known for it's restarauntes especially buffet's..we are saturated with them like Vegas. I couldnt help to notice when visiting your city PDX...I didnt see any buffet's,even in the Asian area's which was unusual to me.And I wonder if any of us actually work anymore? When we were kid's,well,we worked..and pushed manual lawnmower's,changed our own oil on our car's etc. There seems to be less and less physical activity. I also wonder when I see some of these kid's...what kind of shape will they be in when their in their 50's or so? Cause the kid's I am talking about here...are NOT just with a pot belly or a few pound's overweight, many of these kid's are really heavy as hell. I dont know all the answer's or problem's...but obviously we are going to have some real problem's in the future.
Thank you.
Thank you, thank you.
I got a nasty comment when I dared to write a post about how gastric bypass cured 3/4 of Type II diabetics.
I said it had to be MOSTLY input vs. output, and that people are kidding themselves.
I even UNDER shot it and said, then, that probably 75 % of people are kidding themselves.
Damn.
A fatty came after me!
I got pissed and said I was probably being kind in my 75% estimate and to fuck off.
Jesus, at least people should own their eating behaviors.
"There is even a "fat acceptance" movement (can you imagine a "smoking acceptance" movement or an "alcoholism acceptance" movement?). But those who waddle after this (gasping and wheezing) pied piper will find, to their cost, that the hard facts of biological reality and health pay no heed to what we "accept" or deem politically correct."
Thanks for seconding what we have been saying over at the Unfatblog.com for a long time.
The notion of Fat Acceptance would be comical if it weren't for the fact that there are oodles of blogs promoting this silly idea!
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