Obesity 'equal to terror threat'

[Tooj 17]

Doctors never tire of telling people how to live their lives. In my experience they tend to be the biggest fuck ups. I also find the British media's obsession with health issues quite depressing, the constant bleating on about smoking/drinking/drugs/fatties is corrosive.....no-one will change their habits so why crap on about it constantly? If the cost of healthcare is such an issue, just deny it to grossly fat people

 

3rd highest suicide rate isn't it???

Only on a Tuesday.

[Kitman 2204]

Doctors never tire of telling people how to live their lives. In my experience they tend to be the biggest fuck ups. I also find the British media's obsession with health issues quite depressing, the constant bleating on about smoking/drinking/drugs/fatties is corrosive.....no-one will change their habits so why crap on about it constantly? If the cost of healthcare is such an issue, just deny it to grossly fat people

 

 

I think you're a fatty

 

Nope, wide of the mark. But I smoked till my 30s and have always enjoyed a drink or three, and when I was in the UK found the constant hypocritical moralising in the media utterly depressing. Smoking, "binge drinking" and obesity - the holy trinity of media obsession with health. Where will it end? Let's ban chips, smoking and drinking and force people to eat Jamie Oliver's faux Italian cooking. I think I'd rather be a crack addict

[Fop 1]

Doctors never tire of telling people how to live their lives. In my experience they tend to be the biggest fuck ups. I also find the British media's obsession with health issues quite depressing, the constant bleating on about smoking/drinking/drugs/fatties is corrosive.....no-one will change their habits so why crap on about it constantly? If the cost of healthcare is such an issue, just deny it to grossly fat people

 

 

I think you're a fatty

 

Nope, wide of the mark. But I smoked till my 30s and have always enjoyed a drink or three, and when I was in the UK found the constant hypocritical moralising in the media utterly depressing. Smoking, "binge drinking" and obesity - the holy trinity of media obsession with health. Where will it end? Let's ban chips, smoking and drinking and force people to eat Jamie Oliver's faux Italian cooking. I think I'd rather be a crack addict

 

Another 20 years of Labour in the UK and they will have banned chips, crisps and alcohol (for anyone over 18 anyway) - well anywhere outside the houses of parliament where you'll still be free to consume them, of course.

 

Although knifing each other for fun will be legalised.

[Guest alex]

Doctors never tire of telling people how to live their lives. In my experience they tend to be the biggest fuck ups. I also find the British media's obsession with health issues quite depressing, the constant bleating on about smoking/drinking/drugs/fatties is corrosive.....no-one will change their habits so why crap on about it constantly? If the cost of healthcare is such an issue, just deny it to grossly fat people

 

 

I think you're a fatty

 

Nope, wide of the mark. But I smoked till my 30s and have always enjoyed a drink or three, and when I was in the UK found the constant hypocritical moralising in the media utterly depressing. Smoking, "binge drinking" and obesity - the holy trinity of media obsession with health. Where will it end? Let's ban chips, smoking and drinking and force people to eat Jamie Oliver's faux Italian cooking. I think I'd rather be a crack addict

 

Another 20 years of Labour in the UK and they will have banned chips, crisps and alcohol (for anyone over 18 anyway) - well anywhere outside the houses of parliament where you'll still be free to consume them, of course.

 

Although knifing each other for fun will be legalised.

I take back everything I said about your posts being agenda-driven.

[Fop 1]

Doctors never tire of telling people how to live their lives. In my experience they tend to be the biggest fuck ups. I also find the British media's obsession with health issues quite depressing, the constant bleating on about smoking/drinking/drugs/fatties is corrosive.....no-one will change their habits so why crap on about it constantly? If the cost of healthcare is such an issue, just deny it to grossly fat people

 

 

I think you're a fatty

 

Nope, wide of the mark. But I smoked till my 30s and have always enjoyed a drink or three, and when I was in the UK found the constant hypocritical moralising in the media utterly depressing. Smoking, "binge drinking" and obesity - the holy trinity of media obsession with health. Where will it end? Let's ban chips, smoking and drinking and force people to eat Jamie Oliver's faux Italian cooking. I think I'd rather be a crack addict

 

Another 20 years of Labour in the UK and they will have banned chips, crisps and alcohol (for anyone over 18 anyway) - well anywhere outside the houses of parliament where you'll still be free to consume them, of course.

 

Although knifing each other for fun will be legalised.

I take back everything I said about your posts being agenda-driven.

 

See my sig - and are you saying it wouldn't be?

[Happy Face 29]

To avoid derailing the other thread any more....

 

We hear a lot in the media these days about America’s obesity epidemic. A third of Americans, we are told, are “obese,” and two-thirds are “overweight.” Hundreds of thousands purportedly are dying each year from weighing too much, while countless others suffer from scores of “obesity related” diseases. Obesity has been blamed for everything from dragging down the economy to global warming. Most recently, we’ve heard that obesity is “contagious.”

 

The problem with these assertions is that they are based mostly on arbitrary definitions and fuzzy statistical conjectures. Although Americans have indeed grown heavier over the past three decades (the average American weighs about 8 to 12 pounds more than in 1980), it is not clear that this weight gain is putting them in any imminent danger. The primary reason so many Americans are “overweight” and “obese” is because these terms are defined at unjustifiably low levels of body mass. For example, under our current definitions, George Bush and Michael Jordan are overweight, while Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mel Gibson are obese. These standards were not based on any scientific evidence linking body mass to health, but were created by insurance actuaries and medical professionals with financial ties to the weight loss industry.

 

Similarly, the idea that obesity is itself a disease or causes disease is based largely on correlations in large epidemiological studies, not on any clear causal link between excess weight and disease. With the exception of a few minor conditions (like osteoarthritis), we don’t have any good evidence that adiposity causes any physical harm. By the same statistical criteria used to call obesity a disease, one could also claim that being male, being overly tall, or even being black is a disease (i.e., all correlate with early mortality and morbidity). The fact that we choose to demonize fatness rather than these other traits illustrates how concerns about obesity are rooted far more in political and cultural standards than scientific ones.

 

In short, the biggest problem with all the hype about the obesity epidemic is that it assumes that:

 

A) weight is a good barometer of health (it isn’t);

being thin is the same as being healthy (it’s not);

C) anyone can be thin if they want to (which is not true).

 

In the absence of any safe or effective weight-loss mechanisms, telling Americans they need to be thinner only encourages them to embrace unhealthy and unworkable diet plans. Arguably, prejudice and discrimination against fatness cause far more adverse health outcomes than the fat itself. Rather than worry about how fat our country is, we should be asking ourselves why we are so judgmental about how much other people weigh.

 

J. Eric Oliver, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago and author of Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America’s Obesity Epidemic

 

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007...esity-epidemic/

[Park Life 71]

What does it mean all this?

[Renton 21404]

Similarly, the idea that obesity is itself a disease or causes disease is based largely on correlations in large epidemiological studies, not on any clear causal link between excess weight and disease.

 

Picking up on this point, only properly controlled studies can categorically prove causality. How on earth does this professor think we can design an ethical randomized controlled trial to test the hypothesis that weight gain causes disease?

 

Obesity is not a disease, it's just a term for how fat you are. There is literally mountains of observational evidence that show beyond reasonable doubt (and common sense) that it is a risk factor in a host of diseases. For instance, it raise blood pressure and cholesterol levels, the two main risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

 

Interesting fact as well that Americans die younger than most Europeans despite spending twice as much on healthcare. Perhaps weight is a factor.

 

Plus, it makes you look shit. What a stupid article.

[Park Life 71]

Similarly, the idea that obesity is itself a disease or causes disease is based largely on correlations in large epidemiological studies, not on any clear causal link between excess weight and disease.

 

Picking up on this point, only properly controlled studies can categorically prove causality. How on earth does this professor think we can design an ethical randomized controlled trial to test the hypothesis that weight gain causes disease?

 

Obesity is not a disease, it's just a term for how fat you are. There is literally mountains of observational evidence that show beyond reasonable doubt (and common sense) that it is a risk factor in a host of diseases. For instance, it raise blood pressure and cholesterol levels, the two main risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

 

Interesting fact as well that Americans die younger than most Europeans despite spending twice as much on healthcare. Perhaps weight is a factor.

 

Plus, it makes you look shit. What a stupid article.

 

American food is crap basically and carries less nutrients than our food. Intensive farming etc....

[Renton 21404]

Similarly, the idea that obesity is itself a disease or causes disease is based largely on correlations in large epidemiological studies, not on any clear causal link between excess weight and disease.

 

Picking up on this point, only properly controlled studies can categorically prove causality. How on earth does this professor think we can design an ethical randomized controlled trial to test the hypothesis that weight gain causes disease?

 

Obesity is not a disease, it's just a term for how fat you are. There is literally mountains of observational evidence that show beyond reasonable doubt (and common sense) that it is a risk factor in a host of diseases. For instance, it raise blood pressure and cholesterol levels, the two main risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

 

Interesting fact as well that Americans die younger than most Europeans despite spending twice as much on healthcare. Perhaps weight is a factor.

 

Plus, it makes you look shit. What a stupid article.

 

American food is crap basically and carries less nutrients than our food. Intensive farming etc....

 

That and they eat too much of it, the fat bastards.

[Park Life 71]

Similarly, the idea that obesity is itself a disease or causes disease is based largely on correlations in large epidemiological studies, not on any clear causal link between excess weight and disease.

 

Picking up on this point, only properly controlled studies can categorically prove causality. How on earth does this professor think we can design an ethical randomized controlled trial to test the hypothesis that weight gain causes disease?

 

Obesity is not a disease, it's just a term for how fat you are. There is literally mountains of observational evidence that show beyond reasonable doubt (and common sense) that it is a risk factor in a host of diseases. For instance, it raise blood pressure and cholesterol levels, the two main risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

 

Interesting fact as well that Americans die younger than most Europeans despite spending twice as much on healthcare. Perhaps weight is a factor.

 

Plus, it makes you look shit. What a stupid article.

 

American food is crap basically and carries less nutrients than our food. Intensive farming etc....

 

That and they eat too much of it, the fat bastards.

 

Yup.

[Happy Face 29]

Supernanny was on telly the other day telling parents their kids were too fat.

 

Cheeky bitch.

[Guest alex]

Supernanny was on telly the other day telling parents their kids were too fat.

 

Cheeky bitch.

I saw that and thought the same thing, funnily enough.