USA Today:

Obese Americans—those who are 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight—cost the country an estimated $147 billion in weight-related medical bills in 2008, double what it was a decade ago, a new study shows. Overall, an obese patient has $4,871 in medical bills a year compared with $3,442 for a patient at a healthy weight.

137 replies on “Today In Intuitive Eating”

  2. Not really defending fat, but perhaps this should termed not being overweight but overfat? Sure, being heavy can tax the heart, even if you are 9% body fat at 250lbs, but it’s less likely you’d have health problems than someone who is >30% body fat who weighs the same.

  3. It must be all of those genetic conditions that have manifested themselves in the span of 10 years; surely not poor intake management and physiological neglect!!!

  4. making people pay their size would be a good way of paying for healthcare. i mean, alcohol and cigarettes are both taxed quite a bit, we should tax processed food and foods that have trans fats as well. or instead of using the money for healthcare, we could use it to subsidize fresh vegetables to make it easier for impoverished people to afford to eat healthy.

    OR we could just end subsidies to corn that makes corn syrup ubiquitous and meat so cheap

  5. Reduce your cost to the Fatherland by shedding those extra pounds, lest our agents chloroform and lipo you. To recoup your burden on the State, your former hips will be made into soap for distribution by our for-profit prison management partners.

  6. 5 — The healthy, happy, freedom-ringing ways of the American citizenry as it is now sure is a lot less depressing than the picture you paint, isn’t it.

  8. Given the definition of obese has nothing to do with actual fat, I debate the statistic. The people I know in their 20s and thirties who, say, play rubgy, rack up a lot more medical bills than the couch potatoes I know. And most of them, despite being in excellent aerobic shape and having little bodyfat, are categorized as overweight by the stupid BMI.

  11. 8 — you are deflecting and excusing your own pitiful BMI, aren’t you?

    You come up with ways to poke holes in the arguments which are excuses, the same excuses that make it OK for you to be this way and tax our system overall.

    It’s so obvio that it is pathetic.

  12. @5, that makes little to no sense. we’re also the country of the free market. let’s make the people who cost more pay more. by NOT making them pay what they cost to others, that would be socialist.

  13. Can someone please remind the readers of the origin of the expression “intuitive eating” and what that has to do with fat people?

  14. @12, methinks your sense of humor has a little duct tape residue on the flap of its pyloric valve. Wake me when we’ve quantified the productivity cost of tut-tutting.

  15. Another reason why the “fat acceptance” movement is misguided. Sure, there shouldn’t be hatred, or discrimination against obese people, (although, there are legitimate reasons to reject a person from a position of employment if their overweight status prevents them from doing a job properly.) but the whole idea of “I’m just naturally fat, and there’s nothing I can do about it.” needs to be rejected. Yes a teeny tiny minority of people have health issues that have lead to their obesity, but the vast majority need to put away the junk food and get off the sofa.

  16. I should point out there’s a correlation between age and being overweight, so drawing conclusions from medical statistics like this may lead you to incorrect conclusions.

    Lots of people die from the flu, but we don’t go around blaming China and Vietnam for having close living quarters adjacent to pigs and poultry for the flu …

  17. So we’re gonna sue the government for big corn and other agribusiness subsidies, right? Or should we cut out the middleman and just sue ourselves?

  18. How about we remove the idiotic tariff system we have making sugar in north america cost twice what what it does globally, and eliminate the cost benefits of jamming high fructose corn syrup into every bleeding thing we eat.

  19. Thank you for the link, it was interesting reading. I wouldn’t mind if SLOG took a break from this topic. I wanted to state that before, SWM came on to remind us ladies that spandex is a privileged.

  20. I’m sure living in Texas or being a football fan is as correlated (if not more correlated) with higher health care costs than being obese.

    It’s not the weight, it’s the meat. Eating meat causes obesity, but it also causes dozens of very expensive chronic conditions — including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, the three most common and most expensive chronic health conditions.

    After adjusting for weight, smoking, age, education, alcohol, vegetable intake, fruit intake, exercise, and many other factors, heavy red meat eaters have a 20-30% higher risk of overall mortality (death) than the bottom 20% of meat eaters (who still eat some meat). That means whatever your chance of dying is next year, if you eat a lot of meat, you have a 20-30% higher chance of dying next year because of the meat.

    That mortality increase includes a higher risk of cancer mortality (20% higher for women, 22% higher for men) and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease mortality (50% higher for women, 27% higher for men), all controlled for the factors above and many others. These conditions cause the higher health care costs, not the weight, which is controlled (BMI) in the study.

    http://www.foodpolitics.com/2009/03/is-m…

    See the links within for an excellent study from March in JAMA (the most respected medical journals in the world), and easy-to-understand scientific editorials.

  21. So, #15, except for a “teeny tiny minority”, people are overweight because they won’t put down the fork and get off the couch? And you know this how, exactly? And tell me again how the government’s plan of us all eating a kajillion servings of grain every day and getting some exercise has made any inroads in peoples’ weight and health? It’s easy and self-glorifying to make it a puritanical screed against gluttony/sloth and say “put down the fork” if you’re among the majority who don’t have a tendency to carry weight, but that’s not necessarily what’s going on.

  23. Fact: people who are living in poverty or are poor, are much more likely to be obese.

    Fact: people living in poverty or who are poor do not have access to regular health care and preventative medicine.

    So…..do they spend more on health per year because they are fat? Or, do they spend more on health care because they are poor (disease is farther progressed by the time they seek help, or they go to ERs which cost more)?

    Or both? Here is a website with data and sources for those of you who are about to demand proof;

    http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/correlati…

  25. GodDAMNit! I fight this over at dailykos and I’m fighting it here. Fatness doesn’t cause illness, metabolic syndrome does. Fat people can avoid getting metabolic syndrome by taking large doses of fish oil and Vitamin D. I’m fat and I’m as healthy as a horse.

  26. Homosexual Americans who engage in high-risk behavior and contract AIDS cost the country an estimated $37 billion in medical bills in 2008, quadruple what it was a decade ago, a new study shows.

  27. #22: Of course meat causes obesity. The link between meat-eating and obesity is stronger than between smoking and lung disease.

    http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v33/n6…
    http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/7027…

    #24: An “unbalanced” diet? Why do people who have zero meat in their diets have so many fewer chronic health problems and less than half the rate of obesity, then?

    I’ll trust the vast majority of medical science on the subject over someone with a geocities page about the “feminist anti-pornography movement,” thanks.

  28. Marena @25 — You are fat and delusional, not fat and healthy as a horse.

    If you believe that you are fat and healthy, you fully onset fat-facts denial disease.

    Sure, you may be healthy *enough*….healthy enough to be getting by, healthy enough to keep you out of the doctors office for now, but your body is still dealing with and carrying around pounds and pounds of matter that affect every system of your body.

    Don’t crusade that you are healthy, because you aren’t.

  30. The elderly cost us nearly as much $137 billion a year *just* for formal long term care (not including family caregivers). http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/…
    So in a way the unhealthy obese are just saving us from caring for them later. Eat like crazy and die early or eat in moderation and live long enough to be a burden on society anyhow…what difference does it make?

  31. Gawd, how much are the elderly, the crazies, the homeless vets and the indigent babies costing us?

    But, yeah fat people bug me as much as all of those.

  32. Ahem, if I can state the obvious here. There is a correlation between obesity and health costs, but that does not necessarily mean that obesity is the cause. This is the logical fallacy of “post hoc ergo propter hoc.” As I mentioned, the cause could be poverty, and as others have mentioned, it could be age, what they eat (not how much) or a number of other factors.

    Or, it could be that obesity DOES cause health problems and poverty, age and diet do not. Which seems more likely, to me it is probably a combination of all those factors.

    Feel free to keep mindlessly posting for your favorite though, don’t let me stop you.

  33. fat people may be healthy as a horse in their 20’s and 30’s, but beyond that it starts to take a toll. how many healthy-horse morbidly obese 70 year olds do you know? not many, and it takes a lot of $ to keep them up and running.

    my mom was exhibit a – and died at 69.

  36. I really don’t want this to deteriorate into a veg vs. meat flame war, but I would like to contribute that once I cut meat out of my own diet, with the guidance of information and resources on how to recoup for the protein deficit (totally, totally easy…most Americans get way more protein than they need, which has been linked to aging and shortened-life span), I started “melting off the pounds”

    I know it is only anecdotal, but I would recommend it to anybody who finds it too hard to exercise and diet and shit. If you cut out the meat, your menu plan sorta easily falls into place and you can watch with amazement as your body transforms*

    (*if you avoid/after you overcome the carbo-loading phase)

    I also highly recommend the book called “Eat to Live” (link

  37. This topic pushes so many people’s buttons, but it’s so simple: 30 pounds overweight (most of the fat-apologists) is very different than 100+ pounds overweight.

    Sure there are some other differences like where one carries the weight, but imo the real problem comes when we (the 30 #ers) feel like the skinny people are calling us “morbidly obese”, which we clearly aren’t. Note: I haven’t cost the state anything in health care costs (I have no insurance and don’t go to doctors…problem solved there).

  38. Oh Dan, some day I will give you a big, fat hug, because you need one.

    For the record, the only medical expenses I have EVER cost the state were when my appendix burst and I sat with it for three months because the doctors wouldn’t schedule me for a CAT scan. Sure, you could argue that was weight related, but you could also argue that the sky is really orange.

    And @3: all of my living family is obese. My maternal grandfather was NOT obese, and had the highest recorded cholesterol in the Midwest in his 40’s and something like 10 heart attacks by the time he died at 76. My paternal grandfather was 350 lbs when they buried him at 56, and he committed suicide because his third wife (aged 28 at the time) left him.

    My husband and his family are all excessively thin, regardless of what they eat or how little they exercise, but my father- and sister-in-law both have extremely high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and both cost the state a pretty penny for the medications and treatments.

    I know not every fat person has genetics to blame, but you lot gleefully throw the baby out with the bathwater with this one. Yes, America is obese, and we do need to recognize and treat that as a society. However, some of us do have legitimate problems that are not entirely our own doing.

  39. Is it really reasonable to assume that the obesity epidemic has EVERYTHING to do with people being out-of-control gluttons and NOTHING to do with the food industry in this country being completely fucked-up, nutrition-wise? Really? Seriously?

    People eat FOOD in other countries, rather than chemical garbage. And the reason they eat it is because for the most part, that’s what’s available to buy. That’s what gets farmed and that’s what gets sold.

    Yes, we can play the blame game, and of course, it is possible for people to choose to eat organic and eat well and to fight to overcome these problems, but at some point, we need to seriously look at the fact that if this was a sane society, food-wise, we could more or less act and eat naturally and have more-or-less healthy weights without marathon efforts to counteract what’s out there. I don’t think people in other first-world countries are just that fundamentally more evolved than us, I think we have institutional problems with causes you can point to.

  40. #36, the study you linked looks to be about *a* protein in mice that acts as a hormone, not to general protein consumption in the diet. Unless I”m missing something.

    Speaking of anecdotal, I cut out sugar and simple carbs and lost a bunch of weight too, while my meat consumption went up. So, perhaps there are multiple paths. I do think that many people who are overweight can’t handle all the sugar and corn syrup and simple carbs and such in our diets – I know that personally when I eat/drink that stuff, I get overwhelming cravings for more, and when I don’t, the cravings are gone.

  41. @38 — Studies are done and reported on GROUPS not individuals. Same for insurance pools etc.

    Fat people as a group cost more. It is neutral information and not disputable.

    Fat that causes so many problems is largely avoidable through good nutrition and exercise. Again not disputable for GROUPS of people.

    I was fat all my life and lost 80 pounds. I know every excuse available to justify staying fat.

  42. Look, genetics analysis aside, the reality is that humans are preprogrammed with lots of genes that tell us to feast because there will be a famine. It’s only in the last few years that has usually not been the case, so expecting our genetics to adapt to a surfeit of food, and empty calories based on corn sweetener, in a short time is … interesting.

    But stupid.

  43. What’s frustrating about this is that most of the people on this site get so infuriated about the thought of the government being involved in our private lives when it comes to sex (and don’t STI’s cost some health care dollars here?), but if it’s because people are fat, then fuck ’em! Let the government regulate that, but anything else is taboo.

    It is not the government’s place to regulate this. C’mon! Insurance is already more expensive for fat people, just like it is for smokers. The actuaries have already taken that into account, and fat people already pay for it…encouraging the government to further stick their noses into our business is just giving them one more way to get their greedy hands into our pie.

  44. @18 for the win.

    Going vegetarian is also an option, but artificial price and tariff subsidies we can’t afford that make us unhealthy are always an EPIC FAIL.

  45. and for one of the best diets, when I travel in Europe I eat the same way they do, with the same portions and relaxed dining style (e.g. dessert and coffee OR dinner and wine), and get around the way they do (walking, tube/metro/train/monorail) and I lose weight every time.

    Mind you not much empty calories in typical diets there.

  46. #43, good point. Plus if government is wrong about what makes people fat, I don’t want to pay sin taxes or higher insurance rates if I’m healthy just because I’m not following the food pyramid.

  47. @ 39, you have a great point. Obesity in America is a social problem. Real changes in national health and food policies coupled with a cultural shift (not just guilt trips for the obese) are needed to really make a dent in obesity numbers and bring down health care costs.

  48. There’s no such thing as “healthy.” The word means something different to everyone who uses it. It’s what allows doctors to prescribe vitamins to my child who eats a balanced diet, is never sick, and has no symptoms of scurvy, pellagra, or any other deficiency or disease.

    “Healthy” needs to be defined by those who use it so we all know what exactly are we referring to. Otherwise default to the definition: whatever I want it to mean to advance my argument.

  49. Hey maybe the word HEALTHY corresponds to what millions of years of evolution prescribe for your body???????????

    I know I am being completely inflamitory and rude to you, but how about optimum health within the bounds of what we are designed for, what we know about elongating our lifespans, what modern science prescirbes for optiumum health, and all of the tools we have at our disposal to augment and foster these *accepted medical knowledge*????

    Nawww, I guess it is easier for your fat ass to sit in and spill out of that chair you have been parked in all day to defend and make up stories about how you are somehow healthy.

    GMAFBADIAFA

    (give me a fucking break and die in a fire already)

    OOPS!

  52. to 51, anxiety, stress, sadness, discomfort, and a myriad of other emotions often lead to people eating for comfort.

    this is a psychological aspect of overeating and obesity which is “largely” ignored: self medication with food.

  53. I love how if anyone posts a comment about how they’re overweight but healthy, at least one troll has to crawl out of the woodwork and post the inevitable comment about how that person should pry their fat ass out of the chair they’re stuck in and blah blah blah what the fuck ever. Jesus. Get some new material, trolls.

  56. I’m sorry, 55: English my second language, much as healthfulness is the second-language to your excusing and defensive nature around eating.

    What i mean is, the fact is, refer to facts that you might be overwieght and healthy “today” but you are and will be plagued with all of the circumstances that you place yourself in by being fat/obese

    any questions?

  58. Also, you’re writing as if everyone who disagrees with you is the person who said they were fat and healthy. There’s more than two posters here, you know.

  59. @56, I’m not defensive at all about my eating. I’ve not commented in this thread about any of my personal habits at all, so I’m not sure why you’re trying to troll here. It’s adorable in its misguidedness.

    Also, you haven’t actually cited any facts, so… I guess my only question is why you’re trolling. But that’s a question that can be answered by its asking, I guess. Maybe you should be taking your own advice about getting your ass out of the chair. I’m busy working, like a grownup.

  60. In response to the meat = fat argument from Lizzie… eating meat itself does not cause obesity. Eating lean cuts of meat in moderation is healthy, as meat is far and away the best source for protein and associated nutrients.

    Eating large quantities of fatty meat, however, does cause obesity, because eating large quantities of fatty anything causes obesity.

  61. @20 and @27 Meat does not cause obesity. Perhaps (if these studies somehow magically equal the ultimate truth on the matter) red meat is associated with obesity, CVD, cancer. You need to think about the difference between association and causality. As others have pointed out concerning the article, perhaps poverty is the causative agent, not obesity in higher health care costs. Again, just because obesity and high health care costs (in one study) are associated is not the same thing as saying obesity causes them. Just as even those studies you link to are not saying meat causes disease, just that they found an association between red and processed meat and disease.

    I read the JAMA article. It was interesting that they also found low consumption of white meat was associated with increases in cancer deaths, and total mortality. So are you now going to say everyone should eat lots and lots of chicken. Another interesting connection, “There was an increased risk associated with death from injuries and sudden death with higher consumption of red meat in men” Maybe next you’ll say eating red meat makes you more clumsy too.

    “Why do people who have zero meat in their diets have so many fewer chronic health problems and less than half the rate of obesity, then? ” Even if it were a truth that only vegetarianism is the road to good health for all humans (never mind the Masai, or the Inuit) we do not know what component of the diet is beneficial. Is it increased anti-oxidant consumption, the right balance of fats? Nutrition is a complex science because of all the variables. And this study while accounting for some variables like you mentioned, didn’t account for say sugar or soda consumption as variables.

    If you want to promote being veggie, great, whatever, I was one for five years ( I was also 40 lbs heavier and sick all the time), there are lots of good reasons. Just stop with the all or nothing thinking about food and health. Different diets work for different people to promote health.

  63. Ahem, if I can state the obvious here. There is a correlation between obesity and health costs, but that does not necessarily mean that obesity is the cause.

    Obesity itself doesn’t cause anything in the sense of the condition being some sort of magic wand. It’s the strain obesity places on the body which produces the health problems that drives those people to the doctor, draining medical and insurance resources and driving up costs.

    It’s a chain reaction brought about by the condition, which itself is a chain reaction of a variety of habits and circumstances. Nothing directly causes anything. A group of circumstances together can cause a condition, and a condition can cause a variety of problems which lead to other problems.

    Vilifying and labeling this or that is too simplistic in a discussion involving health care or obesity for the scope of all factors involved.

  64. Indeed, g. Many have noted the positive effects on the weight of people who, say, simply cut out a couple sodas a day, or cut down on sugar… 10-15 pounds gone in a short while. And if such little changes can have such an effect, imagine the cumulative effect of overdoing it for any one food group or item.

  66. @65 – someone who’s a little overweight probably if anything knows *more* about this stuff, ad hominem attacks or no: if you’re naturally skinny, you can eat anything and *appear* healthy (nevermind metabolic syndrome, heart disease, etc.), whereas if you have a tendency to carry weight, you have to figure out which things make a difference.

  67. @65 Are you saying that someone who is (or appears to be) overweight can’t dissect an argument?

    Strange thing for you to assert.

    I fail to see how it has anything to do with the topic of obese people costing the system more.

  68. Ugh, G, there is simply no confronting your excuses of why or how you prescribe yourself to be fat and should therefor stay that way (thank you, lack of diet, and lack of exercise!! — I know more of the struggle than you who has been able to do healthfully for oneself!!!!!!!!!!!!)

    If you choose to be a fat, disgusting, standards-compromising shephard of “self-acceptance”, who are we to stop you?

    Every fat ass needs another fat ass to cling to.

    So, in a way, I thank you for mopping the floor of trolls who would otherwise think themselves good enough to catch the attention of those of us who care for ourselves and our sexuality.

    good luck with that.

  70. #60/#61: Meat causes obesity and chronic disease from a public health standpoint. No, not everyone who eats meat is obese — look at that Japanese hot dog eater. Not everyone who smokes cigarettes gets lung disease, either — that does not mean smoking does not cause lung disease.

    I know what you’re saying, and I agree with you from a philosophical standpoint, so to be clear what I mean: higher meat consumption is very strongly associated with higher rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and overall mortality when almost any every variable is controlled for. In pragmatic terms, that means meat causes those things. The same goes for smoking. Higher cigarette consumption is very strongly associated with higher rates of lung disease — in pragmatic terms, cigarettes cause lung disease.

    Yes, white meat (birds or fish) is much less unhealthy than red meat (beef or pork — which is not a white meat despite advertising claims). I don’t eat chicken or fish for environmental, public health, ethical, and general gross-out reasons, but if you’re only concerned about getting fat or getting a heart attack and dying, chicken and fish shouldn’t be your main concerns. Even though I don’t eat it, most fish is very healthy, which is probably why that study found a cancer-protective effect for white meat only.

  71. If you haven’t read “Health at Every Size” by Linda Bacon, PhD, I dare you to. If not, look at all the studies and research she cites. Don’t look at media, corporate funded research, or anything else, just what scientists and doctors have studied and how many poplar ideas are debunked with research done.

  72. @68, I never said I was fat and “should stay that way” or mentioned anything about “self-acceptance”, I said (implied, actually) that I tend towards a little overweight and have to therefore watch myself more than someone who is naturally thin and can eat anything and not put on weight. Big deal. And what’s with the sexuality stuff? I do fine, thanks. And I’m sure you’ve almost gotten laid bunches of times, until you opened your mouth.

  74. 68 —

    There is no dichotomy more ripe than that of the individual who would rather compromise his or her standards against what he or she deserves.

    If you don’t get this, you’ve never been blown by a fat chick.

  76. haven’t health care costs increased by 90% in the past decade? that would explain nearly all of the doubling of cost mentioned in the article. unless i’m missing something.

  77. I wonder how all the chubs at the Stranger feel about Dan’s incessant fat-bashing. People like Jonah, Paul, David, Megan and Lindy. It must be fun to work at a place where your boss posts mean shit all day about people who share your body type.

  79. Nice use of multiple exclamation points, Parker Todd. That’s the hallmark of rational argument and excellent discourse.

  80. If such little changes can have such an effect, imagine the cumulative effect of overdoing it for any one food group or item.

  84. Hmm, copying the witticisms of others (unless you also troll anonymously)… are things that bad, Parker? Maybe YOU need to get your dick sucked. Try to get consent from someone of legal age this time, okay?

  85. I’m obese and haven’t seen a doctor in over 3 years. I have not accessed the health care system at all – no medications, no physical or other therapies. Someone owes me $4871 or at least $1429.

    oh, and here’s a good read for those who love these sorts of stats and studies and stories:

    Big Fat Liars: How Politicians, Corporations, and the Media use Science and Statistics To Manipulate the Public by M. Chafetz

  86. Matt in Denver, I’m done fucking your mom and she said you can come out of your room now. She also says no more computer time tonight, and for the last time today, put your dolls away up on the shelf like she showed you.

  87. Maybe our healthcare costs are more because by the time the fucking doctors stop blaming the fat and actually try running a few tests or doing an ultrasound or whatever the hell it is they would do if the person was of whatever magic scale number they’ve decided is best this week (because much like what food or foods is good/bad for you, it changes every goddamn week and often you can’t find two people who will give you the same answer) we’re suffering from major complications?

    Example… last year I had strep throat. By the time the idiot doctors got around to doing a fucking $10 throat swab I’d had to listen to them telling me my sore throat was caused simply because I was breathing too hard from carrying my excessive weight. Once I got a doctor who was actually willing to do a damn throat culture, oh oops it was strep throat which is not caused or aggravated or at all in any way related to being fat. It had also moved into my ear canals and sinuses resulting in a sinus infection that I am *still* suffering with today and an ear infection so bad one of my ear drums had to be punctured in a controlled manner before it burst, and I lost some hearing on that side as a result.

    Yes, I’m pissed about that. I’m even more pissed because it was a completely pointless situation that could have been ENTIRELY AVOIDED with a $10 throat culture that takes 5 minutes and a couple weeks of damn antibiotics. And I’m not allergic to ‘cillins, so I can even take the cheap $4 ones.

    And while anecdotes are not data… if you string enough of them together, they surely point to a trend at the very least. I’m not the only person I know who has suffered medical complications as a result of something going untreated for longer than necessary simply because some quack with a piece of paper saying he’s a doctor happens to think like Dan that all health problems in all fat people are caused by the fat. There is even at least one blog I’ve stumbled across before where the site owner does nothing but collect autobiographical stories of that nature… if there are enough incidents to make a blog about, and get posts at least 2-3 times a week, I hate to imagine how often it’s happened and they just don’t bother to tell anyone because whats the point anyway? Or worse, they died as a result of it… and I have NO doubts that has happened.

    You can hate us as much as you want, but if you expect to be treated as a person instead of a sexuality maybe you should try treating others as people instead of numbers on a scale first.

  89. Someone mentioned cutting meat out of one’s diet to lose weight / gain overall better health, I suggest replacing soft drinks with water (or milk or juice for kids).
    Pop is a major source of high fructose corn syrup in the American diet, whereas it is made with pure sugar in other countries and people in other countries, or at least European countries, drink it much more sparingly because it is viewed as a treat not as a staple source of hydration. And it isn’t; it ends up dehydrating you.
    When I was about 12, my dentist told me pop was probably the reason I kept getting cavities (and he mortifiyingly pointed out that it might make my teeth less discolored – this was before Crest invented white-strips).
    Other than some ginger ale when I’m sick, I stopped drinking pop about 15 years ago. Maybe I’m a little reactionary against it now, but if you ever REALLY thought about the ingredients of something like Coke (which doesn’t even have real cocaine to help you burn off the calories from the rest of it anymore), not to mention Dr Pepper or Mountain Dew, I’ll bet you’d be pretty disgusted.
    A diet without soda should help you lose weight, protect your precious, precious teeth, and prevent kidney stones, not to mention keep your body free of all the chemicals in diet soft drinks.

  90. Oh wook mommy I am a BIG boy now. I have a wegistohd name on Swog, it is Matt in Denvoh. And I put my kindohgaten pictshoh as my avataw.

  91. I’m surprised Parker Todd got on the ‘Gomez is Fat’ bandwagon in this thread. Not that I’m surprised he’s on it at all (it fits his M.O. perfectly)… just that I’d have expected him to get on a long time ago if he was going to bother.

    I’ve been over the photo phenomenon: For some reason I am the single most unphotogenic person alive, and the camera adds weight thanks to angle shots almost every time a pic’s taken. I’d care about being “outed” if any of these trolls knew me IRL and could verify my alleged fatness, except they don’t and they can’t. I’m no athlete or anything, but I’m in better shape/health than I’ve been in years, probably leaner too, and certainly in better shape than most Americans.

    And point taken in #70, Lizzie. Thanks.

  92. J-Haxx @23 and @32 is the only one thinking in this thread.

    Correlation does not equal causation, people. Get out your statistics books.

    Poverty, for example, could both correlate with obesity as well as cause an increase in the cost of medical bills (due to waiting to seek care until things are dire, then going to the ER rather than a primary care physician).

  93. @28 I am 43 and healthy as a horse. All of my bloodwork is perfect. I am extremely overweight and have been for a while. Obese people can be healthy people if they get enough omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamin D. I am no drain on the system whatsoever–I take no medications, see the doctor only for my physical and scheduled screenings. I am healthy.

  94. Oh Lizzy, the Loveschild of the vegan issues, your use of biased, and misleading misinformation in your posts doesn’t fool or convince anyone to join your cause. It’s not meat that is causing the increase in obesity over the last 20-30 years in the US. We’ve always eaten meat.

    American’s habits are changing. They sit around much more than decades ago, and eat a lot more fatty, sugary junk food. Folks go to the movies, and instead of the sensible box of popcorn, and a 12 ounce drink, they get a giant KFC size bucket of popcorn doused in fake butter oil, and a kiddie pool of liquid sugar. Little chocolate donuts have become a daily breakfast food. etc. What once was a satirical joke 30 years ago:
    http://www.motleycollegefootball.com/Ima…
    is now a sad reality.

    Instead of going out to a field to play sports, people sit on the sofa and play them moving nothing more than their fingers. They watch hours and hours of TV a night. They chat on the internet instead of moving to go out and meet folks in person.

    You can keep writing your disingenuous posts to push your radical agenda, but honestly, you make people want to eat more meat, not less.

  95. 93, Your organs are working harder to maintain your bodily systems. The heart works much harder to pump blood through your additional body mass to oxygenate all the excess tissue. Your kidneys must do more work to filter your blood. In order to regulate your blood sugar levels, your pancreas must produce much more insulin. Your joints, especially your knees and hips are bearing a load much greater than what they meant to take.

    While now your body is able to cope with the added strain, your systems will start to deteriorate as you get older, much more so than someone of a healthy weight. While your blood work may be okay now, extra insulin needed to keep your sugar levels in a normal range now can cause your body over time to ignore insulin’s hormonal signal to absorb the sugar from your blood.

    Sugar is crystalline in structure. Crystals tend to have sharp edges. Some of your blood vessels, especially in your heart, fingers, toes, eyes, various vital organs, etc, are very, very tiny, only letting a single file of blood cells though. Excess sugar going through those little vessels is like razor blades. The vessels become cut and scarred, then occluded, causing the tissues fed by those tiny vessels to die. That is when doctors have to start cutting off parts of your body to keep the rotting tissue from spreading. Vital organs start to fail. It’s not pretty.

    But your fine now!, right?

  96. According to a recent study conducted by a Cornell/Johns Hopkins/Harvard/Boston University research team the cost of lifetime AIDS treatment is $618,900.

    According to the CDC Homosexual men account for 53% of new AIDS cases in America

    A subculture of homosexual men desire and actively pursue HIV infection by seeking partners who are HIV-positive and voluntarily having unprotected intercourse with them. In slang terms, those who seek infection are called bugchasers and those who infect them are called giftgivers. This phenomenon should be distinguished from barebacking, which is the preference for unprotected intercourse without the active desire for HIV infection.

    The exact extent of practice remains largely unknown. Not all those who self-identify as part of this subculture are actually intent on spreading HIV. Some bugchasers try to connect with giftgivers via the Internet. Other bugchasers organize and participate in “bug parties” or “conversion parties,” sex parties where HIV positive and negative men engage in unprotected sex, in hopes of acquiring HIV (“getting the gift”).

  97. @70 Just a clarification about the point of my comment about the JAMA study finding low consumption of chicken and higher cancer rates and death rates. Viewed through your interpretation of this study and the pubic health recommendations that should follow concerning red meat, you should be encouraging the all those low consumers of white meat to eat lots of chicken to not get cancer, and also assume that something in the chemical make-up of chicken has a protective quality against cancer. That this is unlikely,(though not impossible) merely underlines my insistence that this study perhaps missed some other part of the participants diets, and that should be investigated and other repeat studies should be done before it is used as part of a public health message such as you are suggesting about red meat being the root of health issues.

    One other point to perhaps help dissuade you that red meat consumption is a public health concern for obesity is that according to the NHANES studies red meat consumption has been declining since the obesity epidemic has begun. ” Each American consumed an average of 18 pounds less red meat (mostly beef) than in 1970, 37 pounds more poultry and 4 pounds more fish.”
    http://www.americanheart.org/downloadabl…

    It actually does disservice to support of your cause to make pronouncements like “meat causes obesity”. I would suggest sticking to the ethical and environmental concerns, as they are a much more compelling argument.

  98. The number of HIV/AIDS cases among men who have sex with men (MSM) is increasing. The number of HIV/AIDS cases decreased among injection drug users (IDUs), MSM who were also IDUs, heterosexual adults and adolescents, and among children. MSM (47%) accounts for more than half of all HIV/AIDS cases (although gay men are only 2% of the population). Additionally, many persons exposed through heterosexual contact contract the disease from a partner who contracted it from MSM contact.
    Demographically Homosexual should make up 10,000 of the nations 500,000 AIDS/HIV cases but in fact are more than half. At $600,000 per case that represents a disproportinate $144 Billion in health care costs to the nation.

  99. Geneva, I know what you mean about “well, you’re only sick/injured because you’re fat.” I’m so lucky to have found doctors now who understand that your physical well-being is a result of a broad range of physiological circumstances, long-term and short-term, genetic and random and environmental. I suggest you keep looking for a doctor who takes a more holistic approach, but isn’t afraid of medications. I personally have a DO who is great for that, but had seen many DO’s before who were generally hostile to medication (and would be more likely to say that an illness was caused by something ridiculous or that it will go away on its own). My personal story is that I started having ankle pains during the point when I was at my peak weight, and a number of doctors told me that it was simply too much stress on my joint from the weight. But I kept looking and found a great doctor who ACCURATELY diagnosed me with tendinitis brought on my YEARS of high-impact exercise and skyscraper heels. Unfortunately for me it was also too late, and I’m now looking at reconstructive surgery pretty shortly here. Don’t expect the right doctor not to take you to task for being overweight, but expect them to do it in a supportive and effective way (not just “you need to lose weight…boogy, boogy, scary stuff you’ll DIE,” but really analyzing your diet and focusing on a number of goals such as increasing energy and stamina).

    Back on the topic, the explosion of obesity has roughly correlated to a MASSIVE increase in intake of refined carbohydrates. As always, my argument is that each person has an optimum nutrition plan and that nutrition plan can vary from high-carb to high-protein and everything in between, and even with that optimum nutrition plan, SOME people are still going to be overweight (but >20% of Americans are NOT going to be obese). But almost no one can live on a diet of what amounts to sugar in sheep’s clothing. White (and most wheat) bread, white pasta (and “healthy white pasta…now with ARTIFICIAL FIBER!!!”), minute rice, quick oats, and a whole plethora of other foods with high quantities of sugar/HFCS/other sweeteners added unnecessarily were totally unheard of a few decades ago. Unfortunately, I believe my dietitian when she says that these items and everything else super-sweet (coke, treats, etc.) are as addictive as crack to a lot of people. According to her, it takes 2-4 weeks to break the sugar cravings, and most people just won’t make it through the “withdrawal.”

    There’s another side to this story, too. The comparison between healthy and unhealthy versions of stuff is totally ridiculous, price wise. Okay, I live in DC, it’s expensive here, so these numbers might sound out of whack to a lot of you, but I promise they are honest. If you don’t believe me, go to Safeway.com and look @ their prices for zip 20002.

    White bread: $1.19/loaf
    Whole-grain bread: $2.50-4/loaf ($2.50 would be on sale, and we all know how well bread keeps…no bulk shopping there)

    White “long-grain” rice: $1.05/lb.
    Brown long-grain rice: $1.38/lb.

    White pasta: $1.00/lb.
    Whole-grain pasta: $2.08/lb.

    If you’ve only got a few dollars a day to feed your family, you know which of these options you’re going to choose. Fruits and veggies are even more expensive. I know these prices off the top of my head: $1.99/lb. for lettuce, $1.69/lb. for peppers, $1.25/each for cucumbers, $2.99/lb. for tomatoes, $3.99/lb. for asparagus. Even frozen veggies are around $2 a pound for your generic “mixed veggies.” Ground beef is frequently on sale for $1 a pound, ground turkey is $4.50/20oz ($3.60/lb., $2.50/lb. on sale). Chicken legs and thighs (and leg quarters) can be had for as little as $.59/lb (regularly $.99/lb), while BLSL chicken breast is usually over $4/lb. Fresh or even frozen fish is usually $4-5/lb. on sale, even canned tuna is almost $1 a can for the love of Jebus! Oh, I almost forgot, a box of mac and cheese is $.47.

    “Poor-people foods” are also a problem. I happen to love lentils and beans, which even just a few years ago, were cheap as all get-out. Now, a 1 lb. bag of lentils is approaching $1.50 (used to be $.69), and beans are running me almost $2 a lb. (used to be around $.75/lb.). Beyond the rapid price increases of these healthy staples, there’s a stigma against eating them because they are traditional “poor-people foods” and they also take time to cook, which many working poor don’t have anymore. I can tell you even in my middle-class family, my grandmother lived through the Depression, and can’t believe I eat this stuff that they “used to subsist on” back in the 30’s.

    So we have pricing problems, perception problems, and then access problems. The Safeway I shop at is one of the few that is located in a “poorer” neighborhood, but the neighborhood has transitioned rapidly to very high-class and is now the borderline between gentrification and not. I just moved there a few years ago, after development started, but I asked one of my friends who lived there many years ago what it used to be like and he said “it was the ghetto Safeway…the produce section was even smaller than it is now, and the ‘fresh foods’ (pre-made foods) department was full of chicken wings and mac and cheese. The store stank and was one of the few that wasn’t remodeled.” In many even poorer neighborhoods, the only options they have are a CVS or corner store or REALLY crappy grocery store (they always advertise fresh produce cheap, so I thought I’d check the closest one out…if you like your produce half-rotted, it’s a great deal!).

    Unfortunately, fixing pricing, perception, and access won’t even fix the problem now. Stores will sell what people want and we can’t make them want lentils and beans and whole grain bread and unbleached, not par-cooked, steel-cut oats, even if we make them cheap and force the stores to carry them. The stores will still carry Doritos and boxed mac and cheese and people will keep buying them. It’s a really tough nut to crack because even if we teach kids good nutrition and feed them well in school, they will still have to go home to parents who already have the taste (literally and in a perception sense) for sugar-laden crap. There are lots of non-profits here in DC that do things like teach kids to cook healthy, fun meals. Maybe that will help, but I know we’ve got a lot more work to do… This is NOT going to be easy.

  100. Taking you at your word, Marrena, I commend your efforts to remain healthy… but among the overweight population, there’s a handful of cases like yours where you’re fat but fine, and a mountain of cases where others are fat and not fine.

  101. @47 – Thanks. The other factor we don’t think about much is just how work-obsessed Americans are. With every passing year, the amount of work a person is expected to do to earn a living is increasing, and for the most part, we have jobs that keep us sitting stationary, wolfing down unhealthy food during 15 minute lunch breaks, then going home at night feeling mentally exhausted and wanting to be sedentary/eat as a sort of balm. Convenience “food” is such a reaction to the situation of American workers and, I think, the massive unhappiness of people who are increasingly discovering that their lives hold nothing more than wage slavery and more wage slavery.

    Also, no one could possibly be doing more to exacerbate the obesity problem in this country than…the weight loss industry itself. That whole sector is an enormous lie, and naturally, they’re going to do everything they can to keep people fat and believing they’ll always be fat…until the next new “miracle cure” comes out.

    I wish Dan would think for one second, however, about how tossing out constant guilt trips is about 10 miles east of helpful or original and is, in fact, a great way to increase the shame that contributes to the problem.

    Oh, and before anyone responds with insults about the size of my ass, I’m actually a relatively average-sized person and within my healthy target weight range. I used to be a skinny person, but in the two years since I graduated from college, I’ve been poor and just can’t afford to eat as well. It DOES make a big difference.

  102. “Demographically Homosexual should make up 10,000 of the nations 500,000 AIDS/HIV cases but in fact are more than half. At $600,000 per case that represents a disproportinate $144 Billion in health care costs to the nation.”

    Hmmm, so we have to watch what we put in our mouths and up our backsides? That doesn’t leave many more holes to have fun with.

  103. Dear god, what is it about dietary issues that brings out the crazies? Militant vegans/carnivores, HFCS/preservative conspiracy theorists, etc… moderation and exercise is the obvious solution so why does anybody still argue about this?

  104. @ 19: You said it, sister. If anything different was being contributed to the dialogue it’d be one thing..+ LOL RE: spandex.

    @ 103: That’s the main issue: what I like to call the, shut your fat mouth & move your fat ass, diet. But: food in this country is a larger (pun intended) societal problem. Most of us eat processed crap because it’s easy. The time it would take to go to a local food source, process the food ourselves (cleaning/washing/chopping & slicing/etc) is precious must-see TV time, after all. Much simpler to pick up ready-to-eat or frozen/pre-processed foods.

    I’m gonna be 40 soon, & am amazed at how many people my age & younger have no idea how to cook really basic foods. Can’t pronounce the ingredients? Maybe you shouldn’t eat it.

    There. That typing must burned a calorie at least.

  105. http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/28/news/eco…

    I thought this was an interesting article to come out on the same day. Regardless of whether or not the proposal to tax “unhealthy” or “fattening” foods has been tabled, for now, this seems like the wrong approach, to me. After all…what IS fattening? The answer to that question is going to be different for each person. Like I said, some people do well on whole grains and others do well on proteins.

    End the subsidies. That’d save us a lot of money. Farmers will adapt. There are still many high-profit crops out there (I hear that vegetables like lettuce and tomatoes and cucumbers and asparagus are becoming more popular? or something?)

  106. Actually the US is wayyy ahead of the curve, we just don’t know it yet.

    Experts are working on transforming fat into clean burning energy for cars and homes. It’s just a matter of time before you get your own Hefty guy/gal to power your new and improved fat way of life.

    Take that Oil Arabs, and Nuke-heads!

  107. If you say, “I’ll be able to lose weight once the food conglomerates change their practices!”, or “If the government taxes fattening foods, and ends corn subsidies, I could stop eating junk!” You’re going to die fat.

  108. @ 107, if there was less food around, we WOULD all eat less. Studies show that people will eat well beyond their need, regardless of background and upbringing, if the food is placed before them. And it IS all tied to corn subsidies, which is really quite weird but true. I don’t have time to get into it, but it’s well documented now. I started with The Omnivore’s Dilemma and that’s good for showing how the abundance of corn and the need to do something with all of it has led to the absolutely huge portions of food we now consider to be “normal.” (Do you remember when a quarter pounder with cheese was thought to be big, while a Big Mac was outright decadent? Believe it or not, that used to be the case.)

  109. 108, I’m not a child. I control what I eat, and my portions, not anyone else. It’s nobody’s responsibility but my own.

  110. That’s great. You must have had a good upbringing. But it’s not “childish” to overeat, it’s natural. I’ll get some links when I find them, though I really recommend reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma if you have not already. That goes a lot further toward explaining why we’re getting so fat than anything else I’ve read.

    Anyway, I was speaking of restaurant portions, not what you do at home. Also things like snacks – I don’t know if you ever eat Doritos or the like, but the “individual” sized bag is a lot bigger than it used to be. You may have the discipline not to eat a whole one of those bags, but most people do not. It’s a learned behavior to control that, not a natural one.

  111. In a restaurant, I still control what I eat from the menu, and the portion that I eat. If they give me more food than I want to eat at that time, I get the remainder to go. It’s not the restaurant’s responsibility to watch what I eat. It’s mine.

    I don’t usually eat Doritos, (I’ll have an occasional few chips) but I do like pretzels, and baked chips. (Baked doesn’t mean I get to increase my portion size.) Yes the bags are larger, but I don’t have to eat the entire bag. I eat some, and fold the bag closed for later. It’s not Frito Lay’s responsibility to monitor how much I eat. It’s mine.

    It’s not Frito Lay’s fault if a person cannot control themselves. That is like saying that there shouldn’t be party size bags of chips because some people will sit and eat the entire bag in one sitting. It’s not the chip makers responsibility if a person does that. They make the serving sizes clear. Some people actually have parties, and they like to buy a big bag rather than 20 single serving bags.

  112. Actually I wasn’t saying that at all…

    The article states that Congress has considered taxing “fattening” foods as a way to pay for healthcare reform. I think that is the wrong approach for several reasons.

    First, as stated above, different foods will be fattening for different people. Sure, there’s probably a set of foods we can all agree are crap, but then we get into dangerous territory and there’s lots of room for lobbying interests. Here’s a great example. Ice cream is fattening. So we tax ice cream. Do we also tax non-fat frozen yogurt? It doesn’t have any fat. Lobbyists for the industry will be all over it. This creates a two-fold problem. First, it would actually be less fattening for someone like me to eat the full-fat ice cream versus the non-fat frozen yogurt. Remember, I am very sensitive to the amount of sugar in things, and non-fat versions of treats tend to have MORE sugar than their fatty counterparts, without the benefit of the fat slowing down your absorption of the sugar at least slightly.

    The second issue this creates is a problem actually outlined in the article. When certain “fattening” foods are taxed and others aren’t, people just switch to the stuff that isn’t taxed. So, depending on how we define “fattening,” and what foods lobbyists are able to get off that list, people will just switch their eating habits to the equally bad or only slightly less bad stuff that isn’t taxed. This also creates free marketing for the products that, while still bad for you, aren’t fat taxed. “Look! We’re healthy! There’s no fat tax on our products! Eat Baked Lays all day!”

    I actually don’t mind bureaucrats so much. Depending on who’s calling the shots, they can do a great job of regulating public risks. In this case, though, I think there are too many pitfalls.

    On the other hand, if we cut subsidies for sugar and corn, we wouldn’t have such a glut of them, and maybe, MAYBE farmers would grow something a little healthier and healthier food would be within the reach of more people, financially. Also, it would save the government that subsidy money, thereby providing a benefit probably much larger than taxing “fattening” foods.

  113. Damn…I should have also said that, while the fat tax was floated as an idea to pay for healthcare reform, it was also pushed by certain groups as a way to get people to eat less crap. Carry on…

  114. Maybe we should to a body fat test, and people who can’t control what they eat should pay a tax? Why make responsible eaters pay more?

  115. Responsible eaters already do pay more. A pound of tomatoes is a whole lot more expensive than a pound of sugar-laden crap. The point is to make good foods AFFORDABLE for lower-income people, who also happen to make up a disproportionately large percentage of the obese in this country. If we cut subsidies, it’s much more likely that growing tendencies will shift, prices will shift, and no one gets the big shaft in the long run except for big agribusiness getting fat off of OUR tax dollars, which are not based on whether or not we consume their food. We could also redistribute that subsidy money into things that are actually good for people to eat, but that’s a whole other political can of worms. If we went the other route and taxed junk food responsible eaters would also NOT pay more, but their tax dollars would continue to go to subsidize low-nutritional-value foods, while the poor end up shouldering the burden of this tax without any real benefit (like lower prices for good food…actually prices for good food would probably go up even more as demand for them grew, pushing the poorest people to further eat crap because it’s all they can afford).

    There was no discussion of the rich and gluttonous. People with the means to do so will continue to buy the crap either way, whether it is made more expensive by cutting subsidies or taxing it.

  116. 114, Why should I pay more for corn chips? I eat them in moderation, and don’t gorge myself on them. Again, it would be more fair to tax the people who overeat rather than the people who control themselves.

  118. @36, 40-

    Paying attention to your diet will make you lose weight.

    Oreos and Pepsi is a plant-based diet, but it’ll kill you. Nothing but bacon is a protein rich diet, it’ll kill you. Last night I ate an entire tub of hummus and a pound of carrots even though I already felt full from my very healthy homemade veggie burrito dinner. Stuff like that probably explains why I’ve got a beer belly.

  120. Oh. my. FUCK. Logic FAIL. This is not rocket science. Ending subsidies on corn will make corn chips more expensive, while at the same time most likely make other (healthier) foods cheaper. If you eat mostly healthy foods, you’ll probably come out even in the wash. Also, your tax dollars won’t be spent on subsidies for terrible food and could be (a) given back to you as a tax cut; (b) used to subsidize healthier foods which has the same price-lowering effect described above only lower; or (c) used to provide other services you do benefit from. How is this so incredibly hard to understand?

    I’m talking about ending STRUCTURAL obesity by providing that the foods people NEED to eat are actually AFFORDABLE to them, and you’re whining about your corn chips costing $.02 more. This is why Republican suck at life.

  121. Oh. my. FUCK. Logic FAIL. This is not rocket science. Ending subsidies on corn will make corn chips more expensive, while at the same time most likely make other (healthier) foods cheaper. If you eat mostly healthy foods, you’ll probably come out even in the wash. Also, your tax dollars won’t be spent on subsidies for terrible food and could be (a) given back to you as a tax cut; (b) used to subsidize healthier foods which has the same price-lowering effect described above only lower; or (c) used to provide other services you do benefit from. How is this so incredibly hard to understand?

    I’m talking about ending STRUCTURAL obesity by providing that the foods people NEED to eat are actually AFFORDABLE to them, and you’re whining about your corn chips costing $.02 more. This is why Republicans suck at life.

  122. I won’t have hate or animosity toward anyone or any group in life, but damned if I am not tired of looking at, avoiding, and moving aside for fatties. There’s a lot of variation in body types and sizes, but I think we all know it’s utter horseshit to blame serious overweight and obese sizes on ‘genetics’. Did the genome suddenly change in two generations? I’m trim and healthy, and blaming genetics is a fucking cop out. I exercise and eat right, do you think this comes naturally after eating like a linebacker and sitting around watching 20 hours of TV a week? For a fatty to tell me that “I’m so lucky” is a slap in the face to us normal sized people.

    Lardasses: You only get one life, respect yourself! Seriously!

    Regarding meat eating, um, plenty of non-fatass nations use animals as part of their omnivorous diet. Attempting to make the obesity issue fit your worldview just makes you sound dumb.

    The idea of regulations or laws restricting food choices is sick and wrong. Instead of doling out subsidies to agribusiness which feeds us like cattle, take out the market-distorting tax breaks and corporate/farmer welfare, and let the dust settle! Meanwhile, spend money on health education and wonderful food in public schools. Build a healthy culture and let everything else sort it out.

    There will always be badly raised or undisciplined people who can not eat well, but we should not codify anything in to law to prevent this.

  124. Breathing and eating: the two most basic things we need to do to live. Telling people they are not responsible for the second most basic act needed to exist is basically telling them they are not even life-forms. Might as well tell them they are amoeba.

    And fat chicks: Spandex is a privilege, not a right.

  125. Well, SWM, thank you for checking in & having someting new to say *eyeroll* – @ 19 had your number. Of course, you said you saw spandex on women AT THE GYM, so clearly they’re trying to get in better shape, rendering your reminding all of us what a gift it is to wear spandex stupid as well as mean. I’ve never heard you complain about spandex on overweight men: I assure you, it’s just as visually offensive. Drop your misogyny & leave the poor, sweaty workout women alone.

    I’d rather be a fat chick than have your fat head.

    Dan: what a useless, pointless, achieving-nothing topic. This could have been any of the three threads thus far on fat folks. Easy controversy, I guess.

  126. “drop your misogyny & leave the poor, sweaty workout women alone.”

    Oh, I love attractive women, don’t get me wrong. I’m just entertained by fat chicks pretending they can squeeze into skinny girls clothes. It’s a uniquely American disease.

    “overweight men”

    Well, overweight men can at least make up for it with 1. a good personality or 2. money. A fat chick is always a fat chick.

  127. 126: See, & there’s the misogyny again. Overweight men can compensate for being fat, but overweight women are simply doomed to live their sad little fat lives. Oh boo hoo, crushed, I am, by your incredibly pithy summation of a lonely fat girl’s life.

    I seriously hope you’re gay, ’cause that’s some sexist bullshit. Not that it would make your sexism any better, but it would at least ensure that no women have to suffer your crappy attitude on a personal level.

    & what will I *ever* do without the privilege of spandex..? Oh la, good sir, I believe I shall faint forthwith. Or have the vapours, or something.

  128. Ms. D, I am not a republican. I just think people need to take responsibility for their eating and exercise habits. If someone is waiting for the government, or the food companies to change something, that person is going to die fat. I’m guessing that none of the overweight people posting on slog are so poor they can’t afford to eat properly. Even when I was waiting on tables in college, while paying for my schooling, rent, etc myself, I managed to keep a proper diet, and to get off the sofa.

  129. @ 128, if people were that responsible we wouldn’t be in this mess that’s getting worse all the time. (I guarantee the next time they compile the stats that my home state will no longer be the only one with a less than 20% obesity rate.)

    It’s time to be realistic about the causes of obesity. Scolding doesn’t work.

  130. 129, When has telling people that they’re not responsible for their own actions, and that they should just let outside forces control their habits ever been a good idea?

  131. @ 130, who says ending corn subsidies means that?

    Get educated on this. It’s MUCH more complicated than people being piggy, which is all you seem to think the obesity epidemic is.

  132. 131, Okay, everyone who is overweight here on slog, wait until corn subsidies are ended, then you’ll finally be able to lose weight. I’m sure it’s going to happen any day now…aaannny daaay now. Meanwhile, you can just eat whatever you want, and blame it on the corn subsidies. Funny, but even with the corn subsidies, I’m not fat. I better get with the program, huh?

  133. I find it odd that many people on here who are of average weight think that they’re so because of their actions and superior nature. They assume that someone who’s heavier just didn’t resist that treat that they were tempted by and refused, or stayed on the couch when they mustered up their superior character and got outside. And that thinking this makes them feel justified to call people “fatties” and feel/express disgust for fellow humans. Do you really have so little else to be proud of that segregating society into “fatties” and you, the superior human, is the best you can do? You’re proud of being average and being un-fat, like that’s some big accomplishment? If you’ve never put on more than a few pounds, then you haven’t accomplished anything regarding your weight, you’re just genetically programmed to do okay on the diet that the majority of society eats. That’s it. Yay for you.

  135. Absolutely, #134. And for many people, especially those prone to carry weight and develop metabolic syndrome, etc., lay way off the sugar and potatoes and such. Things which many thin people don’t have to ever think about in terms of their weight, not in the same way.

  136. A visit to a nutritionist was very enlightening for me, also. I have to recommend that, plus the more veggies & more exercise. Laying off the chips & soda should be obvious.

    The deal is, both causes of American obesity are true. Each individual is responsible for what he or she puts in their mouth, & for trying to make time for exercise; BUT ALSO the structure of our food growing & food distribution system is governed by what is easy & tidy for powerful agribusinesses. Food distribution is neither logical nor done in a way that ultimately benefits consumers.

  137. Fat people do NOT dramatically add to healthcare costs.

    “The fact is, fat people aren’t breaking the bank at all—they’re saving us money. While it’s true that someone who’s grossly overweight might rack up bills for obesity-related ailments like diabetes and hypertension, those added costs would be more than offset by his shorter lifespan. The rest of us tend to suck more resources over the duration of our slim and fruitful lives on account of all the expensive degenerative diseases we develop in our bonus years.”

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/browbea…

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