Obesity Study Finds Startling Side-effect

[OldAgePensioner]

Namely that obesity is a serious health risk. WTF, millions spent to reach that conclusion and uhhh, is the study itself part of why health care costs so much.

Doctors lining their pockets with useless studies? This study has zero new info and no real recommendations, why bother.

In Australia, during the decade I lived there, everyone laughed at being called a third world country and most would say we are just like the US but 15 years behind. And same in Europe. They seem to be catching up with us.

Just as the world looks to the US for leadership, it looks to the US as a role model to follow. And follow they do according to this study.
Obesity Driving Rising U.S. Health Costs - Yahoo! News

We need to show some leadership. Put down the Twinkies and Twaddle's chocolate Quick.

I'm gonna have another pitcher of buddameouk to calm me down. Maybe a smoke. But it's not my fault, I'm a victim.

 

[dumpster56]

Nice arse up there!

 

[OldAgePensioner]

Glad you didn't use fanny.

 

[maddythebeagle]

YouTube - Study: Multiple Stab Wounds May Be Harmful To Monkeys

Not as good as this study...

 

[VaCollector]

Glad you didn't use fanny.

...she has a fanny too?? hmmmmm....guess I need to enlarge that pic.....maybe after I get a little more to eat....to keep my weight up, don't cha know!!??

 

[OldAgePensioner]

MTB
is there conclusive proof? Sounds like someone jumped to a conclusion based on a small data sample. Maybe a million monkey's should be stabbed and why did they deliberately use slender monkeys.

I'm shocked. Obese monkeys deserve better treatment.


------------------
VACollector,
I have an obese friend who says that he is gaining extra weight so that dieting will be easier, since he will see more dramatic results.

And as bizzare as the monkey stabbing video was, I am not joking.

The guy has a Masters in Computer Science from Notre Dame. He has a great role model though cause his 78 year old father drives a car with the steering wheel about 6 inches into his, errr, abs. When he backs the car up, he can only use mirrors so he blows the horn continuously while reversing.

-----------------
So I'm happy to see this study revealing this data for the first time. Who'd of thunk it.

Enjoy the pizzas.

 

[UncleHoney]

Sounds like health care premiums need be based weight. Just hop on the scale and they will send you the bill.

 

[haha]

i have mixed feelings about who is to blame for some obesity in US. I think no one; it is really a technological and institutional issue.

I think if the median person carries so much weight that his/her health is impaired the system that produces this is messed up, not the individual who is subject to that system. Actually, I would place my cut-off at least 1 SD above normal weight. If you are 1 SD above normal, it should still be compatible with reasonably good health.

Obesity in economic terms is an externality- an externality to the highway lobby, the home building industry, the auto industry, the oil producers and marketers, Wal*Mart -on and on.

Last night I went to a tango class. Essentially no one was overweight. But many of them came by bus or walked. And all of them lived in an area with dense enough population that things like dance classes are offered even for middle aged people.

Ha

 

[lets-retire]

This thread is a dangerous road. The last one like it was shut down.

 

[OldAgePensioner]

lets-retire,
I don't see this thread headed down that road unless you are trying to force it there.

Ha, makes a valid point in a very constructive way, active people are generally closer to healthy weights. The study agrees.

The study doesn't criticise obese people it simply points to some of the societal causes. Like the ready availability of unhealthy fast food.

As another poster pointed out on T-Al's Milk thread, Hitler was accepted as a minor problem and look what happened. When obesity is no longer considered unhealthy and is accepted as the norm. Who is to blame?

My answer would be anyone who facilitates obesity.

I've seen several episodes of Oprah dedicated to something she feels strongly about, helping obese people get healthier.

Not sure stating the study shows a correlation between obesity and health cost is at all a dangerous topic.

A more dangerous topic would be thought police and an all out assault on freedom of speech.

 

[lets-retire]

lets-retire,
I don't see this thread headed down that road unless you are trying to force it there.

Ha, makes a valid point in a very constructive way, active people are generally closer to healthy weights. The study agrees.

The study doesn't criticise obese people it simply points to some of the societal causes. Like the ready availability of unhealthy fast food.

As another poster pointed out on T-Al's Milk thread, Hitler was accepted as a minor problem and look what happened. When obesity is no longer considered unhealthy and is accepted as the norm. Who is to blame?

My answer would be anyone who facilitates obesity.

I've seen several episodes of Oprah dedicated to something she feels strongly about, helping obese people get healthier.

Not sure stating the study shows a correlation between obesity and health cost is at all a dangerous topic.

A more dangerous topic would be thought police and an all out assault on freedom of speech.

Can't argue with anything you posted. I'm definitely not attempting to force the thread in any direction, but many times it just naturally flows that way. Doesn't brining up Hitler kind of fall into that whole Nazi type losing battle?

 

[OldAgePensioner]

lets-retire,
I hope all this thread does is highlight the funny study industry. The YouTube and stabbing monkeys is a killer. That still has me thinking Academy Award material.

Oh, that Hitler thing is cause for the life of me I have read the Milk/Toxin/GM thing and finding a way to invoke Hitler was sheer genius.

I knew a guy who could work his PhD from Princeton into any conversation, bar none.

ME: Hey, Tarquin is it raining?
HIM: Yes, it reminds me of the rain during my Princeton PhD acceptance ceremony.

ME: Hey, Tarbaby, you tired?
HIM: Whew, haven't been this tired since the morning after celebrating my Princeton PhD award.

Not kidding.

 

[ERD50]

My answer would be anyone who facilitates obesity.

I've been thinking about this lately (partly because of that other thread). It seems very tricky, unless I'm missing something.

Sometimes rather than just focus on problems, I like to look at some successes. The U.S has had some success in reducing deaths due to tobacco. This was done partly through education, financial incentives (taxation, higher ins premiums), and social pressures (maybe same as education?), some outright bans in areas (you can still smoke in private). Anything else?

The tricky part is we all need food. And poor people need access to reasonably inexpensive food. So you can't tax it out of reach of overeating. And I do wish to retain the right to eat something luxurious occasionally - so how do you make it so I don't do that every day and become obese? Ration food? I know some people might say take all the 'empty calorie' food off the market, but again, some of that is OK on occasion. So what to do?

The only thing I come up with is education. That, and the probably controversial idea of some form of a 'fat & lazy tax'. If we are going to have universal health coverage, why not pay more into it if you are engaging in risky behavior? Just like car ins, etc. But, if it is the poor that are disproportionately going to be asked to pay higher rates, that isn't going to fly.

Another way to look at the success angle: there is so much studying of obese people, are there studies of healthy people which turn that around and say 'how did they stay healthy with all this food tempting them'? I wonder what the tends are there?

I'm a bit lazy myself - eat pretty well but really should work out more. So I don't have the answers either. I think it's very tough, we are fighting Mother Nature when we turn down food.

Oh, that reminds me - the Okinowans supposedly would follow the 80% rule when eating. You stop when you are 80% full. Man, I don't have that kind of will power. Maybe it comes from catching flies with chopsticks?

-ERD50

 

[twaddle]

Obesity is strongly correlated with all sorts of health issues, but we still don't know causation for most of them. I'd like to understand why (or even if) being fat makes people sick before we focus on making people skinny.

For example, there is some evidence that intermittent fasting, with no reduction in calories consumed, may trigger the body to repair some cell damage. So, maybe it's not an issue of skinny vs fat. Maybe it's putting the body in a constant state of some metabolic mode that causes harm....

Also, obesity is correlated with income, race, and education. If you're poor, black, and uneducated, you're much more likely to be obese than if you're rich, white, and college educated.

That tells me that there are probably cultural factors at play, and education programs and a "fat tax" might not help. (But I still like the idea of a fat tax!)

 

[lets-retire]

That tells me that there are probably cultural factors at play, and education programs and a "fat tax" might not help. (But I still like the idea of a fat tax!)

I don't know about the correlation with race, but wealth I have seen. Between this thread and the one started by ithrnckpa, I started thinking. Could the correlation have more to do with job expectations than wealth generation? As one goes higher in a company the ability to look the part comes into play for future promotions. Part of looking the part is not being grossly overweight.

 

[OldAgePensioner]

I stay away from even mention the R word, but I do agree that education and wealth have high correlative importance.

The group I worked in required at least a Master of Science in Engineering. Spacecraft engineers and some computer science types.

Just facts about my 110 coworkers:
1. We did not have a single obese worker. Maybe prejudicial hiring but I suspect not.
2. Our health records were pretty much public to the management because Australia has strict rules on foreign troops being a burden on their health system. And we had nearly zero absenteeism. Being absent meant your watch stander had to work 1/2 your shift and your relief had to come in 1/2 shift early. Funny but everyone managed to come to work. MIRACLE what peer pressure will do.

So it appeared to me that the combination of education and integrity was a great health elixir. Just saying.