Big jeeps and fat people in USA

[ARB87U]

OK, so what makes 'slim' healthy? you can be 'slim' and very, very unhealthy. I know someone that is super slim, lives on cheese pizza, hot chips and coke and he might as well camp at the doctors office he is there so often...

Stop making assumptions, go live your lives......

[humdingerslammer]

Obesity, like cigarette smoking, is an issue that needs 2B politicised. It is very noble to allow people to live as they want but even JS Mills, the great Libertarian, would not agree with this given the damage it causes to individuals and to society generally. The individual is actually not free to live as they want in our society or, for that matter in any society.

Early death is very real for obese people, as I see daily in my work in the health system. Unfortunately, like poorly controlled diabetes, the bad effects of obesity often don't show up until way down the track and when damage cannot be reversed. It is only a matter of time before blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnoea, brain damage; heart disease etc all start to show.

Yes, its true that being skinny doesn't provide an automatic exemption from these problems but, what we do know is that being obese will almost certainly guarantee these problems and more as time progresses.

What is disturbing is to recognise obesity as a pandemic in the US that effects all genders and age groups. It was in my face. Yep, Australia has its problems as well and with a little more time we will catch up or surpass other countries. Being complacent isn't an option.Neither is being in denial

It took more than 100 yrs and a struggling public purse before we started to make political and cultural inroads into tobacco smoking. Will it take this long re obesity?

In general we simply should not, as adults, weigh more than a maximum of about 85-90kgs. To avoid this we should keep our mouths shut and empty more often, and actually move.

Sorry if I offend you... it is not my intention, but, gee whiz!

[wes]

I just checked mortality rates.
100% of skinny people will die
100% of fat people will die.

[humdingerslammer]

Yep... we have a fatalist amongst us. I just might lie down and die!!
No point in anything else.

[eksjay]

The problem is the sedentary life which we are living, and worse, our kids are seeing as normal. They are becoming accustomed to uninterrupted interactions with a screen of some kind.

The end result is that the movie Wall-e becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

[bjm]

The health funds are like vehicle insurers the healthy subsidise the unhealthy ,somewhere around 40% of hospital beds taken up with smoking/drinking related diseases so in the end we all pay .My doctor has 9 kids under 10 years old who are borderline diabetics.The families of theses kids think nothing of driving 40 kms to the nearest Macs twice a week.!Doesnt sink in .

[humdingerslammer]

One thing is that as obese people get sicker with age (and often very young ages) and as is the case for others with chronic illness, the family begins to pay the price, if they r not already because of, for example, lack of money to feed, clothe, educate and entertain a stay at home mum (out of necessity) with three school age kids. In this regard, kids become unacknowledged victims of the problem of their parent/parent.

I frequently see young men coming in with heart attacks at 40-45 yrs of age. These men smoke anything up to 2 packs of cigs per pay and a slab of beer per week and have done so since their late teens/early twenties. They usually have low paying jobs and a wife who stays @ home to look after 3 kids who, when they visit, look like urchins out of a Charles Dickens novel. They have no interest or preparedness to develop insight into why their life habits have contributed to their heart attack at such a young age and even less insight into the effects that their behaviours have on their immediate and extended family. The first thing they want is a cigarette and a beer. Go figure.

The above scenario is also true of an increasing number of young (again, early forties) obesity people now presenting with heart attacks directly or (mildly) indirectly because of their obesity and diet and lack of exercise etc. The first thing they want is to be fed!! I assure them that they will not fade away if they don't eat for a day.

This lack of insight about the future is a problem in itself and has to be addressed as part of the problem. So too is unrecognised and long standing depression made worse by a belief in the hopelessness of the situation and a belief that nothing can change.

Over time, family become complicit in the problem: they stop asking Mum or Dad not to smoke and go get the cigs from the shop for them. Wife or kids buy the pizza because it is easier to do so than to argue the need to stop smoking or lose weight etc etc etc.

It is not an easy solution but something needs 2B done, and in a big way.

I did not intend to write an essay on the issue of fat people but, if it helps just one person.....