Is obesity becoming to normalised

[Martinezzz]

I used to smoke. Obese people would give me crap about that. I finally quit.

Now I've got this tubby girl at work who constantly makes fun of me because I drink a non-carb, zero cal Rockstar on all my shifts and I'm at a normal weight for my height.
But I can't say anything to these people about their food intake. Nothing at all! Not only am I not allowed to say anything, but I'm the one who changes my habits when people make fun of me for them.. These obese people just stay the way they are. It's a double slap in the face.

This is one reason I'm mostly fed up with people. They run away with urban legends and hear-say and made up bologna they read online and they run away hard with this stuff. I still hear people talking about how mountain dew shrinks your balls, you should be drinking a million glasses of water a day, eggs are bad for you, just the most stupid old wives tales that people still believe and it's all socially perpetuated.
On top of that, they're hypocrites. It's just mass ignorance.

Tell that tubby fat ass she should drink non-carb, zero cal Rockstar

[Beardless Man]

The Fat Acceptance movement is a terrible movement that bastardizes the message of loving yourself as a means to remain being at unhealthy weight sizes and refusing to change it. Being Overweight is becoming more prominent in american society. We got more and more people living unhealthy lives with less physical activity.

Often, the Fat Acceptance movement is used as an excuse for people to not better themselves. while it was originally done to stop the harsh shame they get for their size. But now we're getting fat women trying to advocate that they should be seen as attractive as a healthy slim woman. And the funny thing is, the fat acceptance movement is mostly about obese women, I've yet to see it in benefit for obese men, as I cannot find a primary example for that.

[McTroll]

I don't know about obesity, but education is becoming less and less normalized if I judge from the title of this thread.

[Belal]

Not true, rice, beans and flour are super cheap at Costco. Those things make up like 90% of meals in some cases when eating cheap. You want to eat great tasting food and still eat healthy. Well I want to eat non healthy food that tastes great and its expensive also.

You need to find the hamburger of healthy eating level lifestyle I think, then get back to us on how great healthy eating is.

I get that your basics will run at a norm. (the rice, beans, flour, etc.), I am talking about your meats and fresh veggies/fruits here. I have adapted to where I am in the US, the northeast, bell peppers cost up to $2.50 ea. during the non-growing seasons, so I grow my own. The rest of the time those peppers will run between $1.00 to $1.50 depending upon what color you are getting. That being said, spending $2.50 per pepper was really starting to count for a lot on the ol' grocery bill, and I love the fact that those peppers taste great and are a healthy alternative to adding copious amounts of sugar to a dish.

So, while it is true that bulk items like the ones you mentioned don't go up exponentially in price, the other stuff does. I am old enough to where I am not gonna just live off of beans and rice (I am not in college any longer so I don't think I need to scrimp that much). But having more fat in a blend costing less than one that doesn't have as much is kinda like the sellers don't care how much weight people put on, and are more than willing to rake it in from those that do want to eat healthier.

Just kind of a catch 22 that I wanted to chime in with.

[Echiyo]

No, because obesity is a personal choice and a matter to be discussed between an individual and their doctor. If people want to be fat, I say let them. It's their body and their life, so let them live how they want to live it. The whole 'it's unhealthy' crap is just an excuse to harass people solely because you think they are an eyesore. Everybody knows being overweight increases many risk factors like diabetes and heard disease. Do we shame people for eating fried foods? Do we shame people for sunbathing? Do we shame people for getting tattoos?

I can understand however the argument that widespread obesity contributes to rising medical costs. That is a fair argument. But I would counter-argue that a better approach would be to coerce the food industry into reducing portion sizes, cutting back on unhealthy foods like fried items and starchy non-grain foods, and *especially* lower sugar count, such as requiring all soda be diet. Sugary drinks is a massive contributor to weight problems.

Also, shaming somebody for being fat is inappropriate because weight doesn't always correlate to health concerns. Again, it is an issue between an individual and their doctor. Not all fats are equal - adipose fats by and large do not present risks to health, but fats that accumulate in places where it doesn't belong (such as the liver) do. This means if somebody has a high BMI but this is due to mostly subcutaneous fat while also maintaining healthy cholesterol and blood pressure can be perfectly healthy. In fact, subcutaneous fat promotes health. A fat person getting a liposuction for example is actually increasing their health risks.

http://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea.../scienceoffat/

(You can not be classified as obese but still have accumulated unhealthy levels of visceral fats)


So if you really are intent on helping people get healthier, you are honestly just better off criticizing life-style choices like diet and exercise, not appearance. And these life-style choices affect everyone, regardless of weight. A skinny person can just as easily have cholesterol or blood pressure problems due to bad diet for example.

[Deleted]

Now I've got this tubby girl at work who constantly makes fun of me because I drink a non-carb, zero cal Rockstar on all my shifts

How does someone make fun of you because of a drink? Like... How would you even begin to construct an insult around this scenario? I'm genuinely curious.

Also, Yes, Obesity is a personal choice; but the choice has different consequences depending on where you choose to be obese. Here in the UK we have a National Health Service and no, I don't think if you choose to engage in a deliberately unhealthy course of action despite the myriad of programs and information to inform your decisions that your behaviour should be normalised or promoted.

[Powerogue]

She can't choose the fundamental laws of physics, but has to live with them. If energy in exceeds energy out, the excess must be staying somewhere.

That said, "shaming" in general is not a good way to get people to change behavior.

It depends a lot on the individual. What are some better ideas?

[Fencers]

I think so, yes. The desire to remove the social stigma of being overweight has caused ancillary consideration of being overweight as 'healthy' or 'fine'.

Both sentiments are grossly incorrect and factually false.

In the US the problem of obesity is dire, IMO.

[Player Twelve]

No, because obesity is a personal choice and a matter to be discussed between an individual and their doctor. If people want to be fat, I say let them. It's their body and their life, so let them live how they want to live it. The whole 'it's unhealthy' crap is just an excuse to harass people solely because you think they are an eyesore. Everybody knows being overweight increases many risk factors like diabetes and heard disease. Do we shame people for eating fried foods? Do we shame people for sunbathing? Do we shame people for getting tattoos?

They're pushing for it to be accepted as a beauty ideal though. They want to push their unhealthy habits as being healthy, beautiful and acceptable. It shouldn't ever be accepted nor is it healthy or beautiful.

[Echiyo]

They're pushing for it to be accepted as a beauty ideal though. They want to push their unhealthy habits as being healthy, beautiful and acceptable. It shouldn't ever be accepted nor is it healthy or beautiful.

Beauty is entirely subjective. Trying to argue that something should or should not be accepted on basis of beauty is entirely pointless and fallacious.

The problem is even if you are trying to help people get healthier fat shaming is only addressing the result and not the cause. Many overweight people try to get simple fixes like liposuction or weight loss pills, which can actually make their health worse as a result. Being fat is not the problem - poor diet, overeating, excessive sugar, and lack of exercise is the problem. This is a problem that affects both fat people and slim people by the way. Fat acceptance is not the same thing as unhealthy lifestyle acceptance.

And again (and you seemed to gloss over this), not all fats are equal. Subcutaneous fat does not present the health risks that visceral fat does. While it is uncommon, it is entirely possible to have a high amount of subcutaneous fat and little to no visceral fat (much more common for women than men or children). Judging a person's health and lifestyle just by appearance is inappropriate in most cases - this is what I mean by health being an issue between oneself and one's doctor.


This is ultimately my point. Shaming fat is not addressing the health issue - it is purely criticizing aesthetics and that is not helping people.

[Deleted]

Beauty is entirely subjective.

Upto the point where it's disgusting...

[Orlong]

I get that your basics will run at a norm. (the rice, beans, flour, etc.), I am talking about your meats and fresh veggies/fruits here. I have adapted to where I am in the US, the northeast, bell peppers cost up to $2.50 ea. during the non-growing seasons, so I grow my own. The rest of the time those peppers will run between $1.00 to $1.50 depending upon what color you are getting. That being said, spending $2.50 per pepper was really starting to count for a lot on the ol' grocery bill, and I love the fact that those peppers taste great and are a healthy alternative to adding copious amounts of sugar to a dish.

And those peppers that you pay $2.50 each for, you could likely get at a farmers market for 75 cents each. You dont need t go to a grocery store and get the most perfect organic peppers

[Rexosaurus]

I agree that it's a personal thing for the individual. If someone wants to be fat then I don't really care. But I also think that we should do everything that we can to encourage healthy lifestyles, especially in kids. There should honestly be mandatory nutrition and food prep courses throughout middle school and high school these days. Too many people don't know jack about portion control, nutritional value, or how to cook because they didn't really learn at home. It astounded me how many people I met while I was in the military that had no freaking clue how to feed themselves properly.

[Belal]

And those peppers that you pay $2.50 each for, you could likely get at a farmers market for 765 cents each. You dont need t go to a grocery store and get the most perfect organic peppers

Not gonna discredit you on that. Farmer's Markets are great for getting fresh produce at a significant savings from a grocery store or mega mart. Sadly, in my area there aren't any, I would have to drive for an hour or so to get to one, so unless I am gonna cook up a huge dinner for multiple people I'd go there, but normally it is just my fiance and I, so the cost of gas to get there and back plus how quickly produce turns isn't much of a savings to me.

- - - Updated - - -

I agree that it's a personal thing for the individual. If someone wants to be fat then I don't really care. But I also think that we should do everything that we can to encourage healthy lifestyles, especially in kids. There should honestly be mandatory nutrition and food prep courses throughout middle school and high school these days. Too many people don't know jack about portion control, nutritional value, or how to cook because they didn't really learn at home. It astounded me how many people I met while I was in the military that had no freaking clue how to feed themselves properly.

Yeah, out of the 17 years I was in the Army... a lot of people would always get fast food. Granted, there are times where you have to make the choice to either lose a little sleep to cook yourself something healthy or go hit up a drive-thru to get the extra sleep, but those should not be an everyday occurrence. Sadly, most Soldiers went for the extra rack time and then had to suffer through extra physical training for their choices.

[belfpala]

It astounded me how many people I met while I was in the military that had no freaking clue how to feed themselves properly.

It should astound you that the general population is even worse than (mostly) 18-22 year olds in the military.

[Kelxin]

If they want to be over weight, let them. They will die faster, and eventually remove their genes from the pool and life will be better on earth in the long run. I will not stop you from eating that hamburger, the same as I will not stop anyone from driving off a cliff, drinking insane amounts of alcohol (as long as its not affecting anyone else), over dosing on drugs, smoking, or anything else. It's their FREE choice to make or not to make. If they want to die, let them. Doesn't matter if it's food, drugs, a gun or anything else. If it's a psychological disorder, then it needs to be removed from earths genetics anyways.

[belfpala]

If they want to be over weight, let them. They will die faster, and eventually remove their genes from the pool and life will be better on earth in the long run. I will not stop you from eating that hamburger, the same as I will not stop anyone from driving off a cliff, drinking insane amounts of alcohol (as long as its not affecting anyone else), over dosing on drugs, smoking, or anything else. It's their FREE choice to make or not to make. If they want to die, let them. Doesn't matter if it's food, drugs, a gun or anything else. If it's a psychological disorder, then it needs to be removed from earths genetics anyways.

It's not free, as their conditions will be treated. Either through private healthcare (increasing premiums for everyone else), or through public healthcare (increasing taxes for everyone else); lacking either, through the ER, which will not turn down a patient in critical condition.

[Kelxin]

It's not free, as their conditions will be treated. Either through private healthcare (increasing premiums for everyone else), or through public healthcare (increasing taxes for everyone else); lacking either, through the ER, which will not turn down a patient in critical condition.

In the US, sure ... In the UK? Not for long: http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/31/health...-uk/index.html

[belfpala]

In the US, sure ... In the UK? Not for long: http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/31/health...-uk/index.html

it plans to ban access to routine, or non-urgent, surgery

See my mention of the ER, above. Not sure how they work in the UK, but if a patient presents here with an urgent issue, the ER cannot refuse them. The best a "ban" would do is push patients into becoming urgent cases, which typically are more expensive than earlier preventative treatments.

[Shiny212]

It reads like a blog post.

People should be discouraged from being overweight. But not insulted for it.

The author of the article doesn't seem to make the distinction. Very few mentions of direct insults, it's mainly an admitted obese person lamenting the behaviors and attitudes of everyone that isn't fat, even going as far as calling doctors discriminatory, (the most ludicrous assertion this type of obesity apologist makes). The lengthy section on how what other people might say while not wanting to be fat and working hard on diets "hurts the feelings" of fat people was hard to take seriously.