Where's the government intervention on obesity?

DurkaDurka

Internet Lawyer
Mar 15, 2006
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Toronto
Things are as active today as they have ever been.

compared to when?

I know in the 90's, extra ciricular activities were stripped to a minimum.

So perhaps we have a generation of tubbies in between the 90's and now if you think everything is good?
 

eh huh

New Member
Dec 27, 2007
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I have a theory. Walk into any big government office and look at the physical characteristics of the employees and bureaucrats filling up the over sized chairs - especially the corner offices. I suspect the obesity problem at Health Canada is probably most severe.

But seriously, in this age of Orwellian doublespeak they don't want to fix anything, they want something they can tax - the fast food lobby is probably quite strong.
 

Kreskin

Doctor of Thinkology
Feb 23, 2006
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Did you see that show a couple of weeks ago on mega obese people? May have been A&E. That one guy weighed over 800 lbs, lost over 600 then regained it all back. One guy on the show was over 1000 lbs! It was unbelievable. I felt so sorry for them.

The show was theorizing a genetic eating problem where the stomach never feels full. People become addicted to excess food. One guy said he would eat 24 hotdogs. It was like a drug. If he ate 1 he'd eat a couple dozen. He made a quote, paraphrased " imagine if you were a heroin addict and you had to take just a little heroin everyday. Do you think you wouldn't over indulge? Think what food addicts must go through."
 

Walter

Hall of Fame Member
Jan 28, 2007
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compared to when?

I know in the 90's, extra ciricular activities were stripped to a minimum.

So perhaps we have a generation of tubbies in between the 90's and now if you think everything is good?
My local high schools brag about having more extra-curricular activities than ever before.
 

Unforgiven

Force majeure
May 28, 2007
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Did you see that show a couple of weeks ago on mega obese people? May have been A&E. That one guy weighed over 800 lbs, lost over 600 then regained it all back. One guy on the show was over 1000 lbs! It was unbelievable. I felt so sorry for them.

The show was theorizing a genetic eating problem where the stomach never feels full. People become addicted to excess food. One guy said he would eat 24 hotdogs. It was like a drug. If he ate 1 he'd eat a couple dozen. He made a quote, paraphrased " imagine if you were a heroin addict and you had to take just a little heroin everyday. Do you think you wouldn't over indulge? Think what food addicts must go through."

Now you are beginning to see the issue through the eyes of the addict. Imagine if you will, that it was legal for tobacco to advertise the same way as alcohol or fast food is. Do you think there would be an increase in smokers addicted to nicotine? Always tempting and diligently working on the weaknesses obese people have.

What's more is the commonality of the message that over weight means stupid and lazy and loser. It's just more predation on those who have some visible stigma making the superficial aspects we claim to value justified.

Ex-smokers know that little whiff if smoke you get from someones cigarette once in a while is very tempting. It brings back the joys remembered like that smoke after eating, the one after sex, the one that you have with a coffee. How difficult is it to quit smoking while everyone around you is smoking? Having no where to retreat to that is smoke free makes it almost impossible to quit for all but the most determined.

This is how it is for over weight people. It's easy to say that they just need to get some exercise but there are also any number of factors involved that can make exercise problematical. I for example have Asthma, so I can't just head out and go for a run. My lungs won't permit that sort of thing. As well I have a back injury and from the extra weight I carry, a bad knee. This doesn't exclude me from exercise at all, it just puts limits on what it is I can do. And the Catch 22 here is that what I can do, is expensive.

The health system in North America has something in common and that is it's not health care, it's sick care. If you drop from a heart attack, no matter which country or system you are in, you will receive help regardless of the cost to save your life. But you won't get one dime's worth of help up until then. If I want help, I can join some dieters club and eat their food and pay their fees. That's that.

When I was young, I was active. An avid cyclist, sprinter, played football all through high school. Once I quit smoking and started taking Asthma medication, I started gaining weight.

There are so many factors that have an influence on obesity, it's never going to be something that you can just point to and say do this to solve the problem. But it will take the help of everyone to solve it, and not just the fatso who has the visual part of the problem.
 

karrie

OogedyBoogedy
Jan 6, 2007
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This is how it is for over weight people. It's easy to say that they just need to get some exercise but there are also any number of factors involved that can make exercise problematical.... And the Catch 22 here is that what I can do, is expensive.

You've hit the nail on the head with so much of what you've said, but this really stands out for me. With fibromyalgia and arthritis on the rise... so many people who can't just jump up, energetic, and go for a brisk walk... why on earth isn't the gov seeing that 'get some exercise' is a futile statement if it costs you five dollars a day to got to the pool, or even more if you want to go to a gym and use an elliptical trainer.

Yet compared to surgeries and other hospital fees, that's a steal. And probably cheaper than the daily costs of drug and alcohol treatment programs too.
 

Nuggler

kind and gentle
Feb 27, 2006
11,596
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Backwater, Ontario.
["Quote, Praxius:
It's not the government's fault people are fat and lazy, it's the people themselves and the choices they make, just like myself. I was pretty overweight for a while (Well enough anyways) and I made the changes I needed to. If people can't do the same, that's their loss and I shouldn't have to have my tax dollars spent of people who are just too damn lazy to take care of themselves.

Then again, it can also fall under the category of addiction, much like tobacco or alcohol, so I guess more study is needed. Until then.... tell those lazy buggers to goto the gym.

Most doctors will tell you that you can eat all and anything you want, so long as you counter balance with proper exercise.[/quote]""

Fat = lazy. Clear thinking there, Praxius! Just not true, but if it helps you to believe the stereotype, rock on.

Poor = lazy ?

Disabled = doesn't want to work?

Obesity, although it does cost society some money, I would venture a guess not near as much as alcohol or drugs.

IMHO, what it is, is the newest media darling. Going to be studied to death, and not a whole lot done about it. But, it will gets its' fifteen minutes of fame in the medical journals, the popular magazines and newspapers, then fade away, like the war on drugs. So much positive was done about that, n'est pas?

:read2:
 

jimshort19

Electoral Member
Nov 24, 2007
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Some people like to eat all day. They eat until they are fat. Then they keep eating. My theory is that it has as much to do with the spoons and forks as the food, the eating is the thing.

Just stop eating (it's cheap). We need the government to make us stop eating too much. It will cost too much to hide the food. Rationing is the only way.

Please Sir, may I be rationed?
 

Zzarchov

House Member
Aug 28, 2006
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In the end, yes it is about eating.

Nothing anyone says can change that. Regardless of how hard it is to do excersize, that means you just eat less than you burn sitting there (which is a big number) and you'll slowly lose weight.

That being said, that isn't a good way to treat a problem. Its akin to saying "Hey you! Smoker, just stop smoking!" or "Hey you Alcoholic, just stop drinking!"

Yes some people have that kind of willpower. Some people don't, we can either berate people for not having the willpower (And pay for their expensive treatment) or do something to help and save ourselves money.

These chants of "They can just exercize". Well if you are going to be so cheap , think in reverse. They can be equally as cheap, why pay to go to a gym when they can just make you pay for the medical treatment.

Their is no good moral or economic reason not to help people lose weight and prevent people from being overweight.
 

jimshort19

Electoral Member
Nov 24, 2007
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Zzarchov, "Their is no good moral or economic reason not to help people lose weight and prevent people from being overweight."

You assume a good means of doing so. Are the children not aught how to eat? Education is ultimately the best, is it not? Is it not our system's backbone? If not education, law? If not law, both? If not either, what? Fat farms and therapy? Pills?

Pills will come, and fat farms and doctors and government, to milk the cows because they're gone, but the foremost cure goes to cause.
 

karrie

OogedyBoogedy
Jan 6, 2007
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You assume a good means of doing so. Are the children not aught how to eat? Education is ultimately the best, is it not?

Obesity wouldn't be the only issue we educate on, yet need other measure for those who develop a problem anyway. Children are also taught not to drink in excess... yet alcohol rehabs exist. They're taught not to do drugs, yet drug rehab exists. Our health care system recognizes that education falls short of the goal in many cases, and sets up programs for those who slip up.
 

Zzarchov

House Member
Aug 28, 2006
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Zzarchov, "Their is no good moral or economic reason not to help people lose weight and prevent people from being overweight."

You assume a good means of doing so. Are the children not aught how to eat? Education is ultimately the best, is it not? Is it not our system's backbone? If not education, law? If not law, both? If not either, what? Fat farms and therapy? Pills?

Pills will come, and fat farms and doctors and government, to milk the cows because they're gone, but the foremost cure goes to cause.

I agree education is key. At least when I went through school, there was no course in anything but the bare bones. Their is no class on how to cook, or eat right beyond the four food groups in the early years (but hey, Pizza has all 4), which isn't that valid or useful.

Most things people my age know are either from schooling or self taught. Its not in school and few people bother teaching themselves things until they need to know.

That being said, education isn't enough. If the fast food companies aren't going to try to sell to kids (even if it makes kids obese) when its perfectly legal to do so, then their CEO's should be brought up on charges as they are not acting in the best interests of the company.

And thats not a swipe at corporations, they were created to generate wealth using the laws of the land. Its not their job to police themselves, thats why we HAVE A legislature.

We legislate lots of things you shouldn't need to, we have to pass laws to tell people not to pee in public places even though you should be able to trust people to just not do those kinds of things (and thats before you add in a financial reward to do something).
 

Lester

Council Member
Sep 28, 2007
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Ardrossan, Alberta
Some people have a slow metabolizm - some others may have a genetic reason they are over weight. I have always been overweight ,I was a construction worker for most of my life, worked ten hours a day doing physical labor and still never got to my Ideal weight -
I would go on diets and lose thirty pounds but after I quit the diet my body would go into starvation mode and immediatly store everything as fat and I would gain forty pounds back: I have suffered a series of work related injuries over the years that has reduced my ability to exercise considerably. Although I still try to get exercise by going to West Edmonton Mall once in a while and do a walk about, it's not as much as I would like. I live in the country and popping out to the Gym is'nt really feasible - so now I eat healthy foods- but I don't skimp on the calories I just Maintain the weight at the present level about 260 - I am not going to spend my life on a diet. yoyo dieting will kill you faster than obesity will.
 

Zzarchov

House Member
Aug 28, 2006
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Yes, yo-yo dieting will kill you.

Just being on a diet will not.

3500 calories (about) is a pound of fat. Your body burns a certain amount (based on metabolism) just sitting there.

Some people burn more, some people burn less. That doesn't change the fact of the matter.

You gain weight by eating more calories than you burn, and lose weight when you burn more than you eat.

With a slow metabolism you just can't eat much food without gaining weight. For many that is a blessing, it means you can live on less food.

However, our culture has eating as a fun passtime. Its something you do when your bored, unhappy, have company over or want to meet up with company.

If you eat as a passtime, then yes, having a slow metabolism will suck. But thats just nature and nature is unfair. Hopefully nature balanced it out in some other way (like brains, or looks or long life).
 

gerryh

Time Out
Nov 21, 2004
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Yes, yo-yo dieting will kill you.

Just being on a diet will not.

3500 calories (about) is a pound of fat. Your body burns a certain amount (based on metabolism) just sitting there.

Some people burn more, some people burn less. That doesn't change the fact of the matter.

You gain weight by eating more calories than you burn, and lose weight when you burn more than you eat.

With a slow metabolism you just can't eat much food without gaining weight. For many that is a blessing, it means you can live on less food.

However, our culture has eating as a fun passtime. Its something you do when your bored, unhappy, have company over or want to meet up with company.

If you eat as a passtime, then yes, having a slow metabolism will suck. But thats just nature and nature is unfair. Hopefully nature balanced it out in some other way (like brains, or looks or long life).


You really don't have a clue....do you.
 

Zzarchov

House Member
Aug 28, 2006
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You really don't have a clue....do you.

Yes, I do. You cannot gain weight without eating more than you need to.

No one will die if they don't eat enough to gain weight. The problem is eating is a social and recreational activity in western culture.

You can gain other health issues from how you eat, but gaining weight is in and of itself caused by eating more than you need to.
 

gerryh

Time Out
Nov 21, 2004
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Yes, I do. You cannot gain weight without eating more than you need to.

No one will die if they don't eat enough to gain weight. The problem is eating is a social and recreational activity in western culture.

You can gain other health issues from how you eat, but gaining weight is in and of itself caused by eating more than you need to.


of course, and all obese( fat ) people are like that because they are basically lazy pigs. Sitting around on their fat asses stuffing their faces all day long.
 

jimshort19

Electoral Member
Nov 24, 2007
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Zzarchov, "At least when I went through school, there was no course in anything but the bare bones...That being said, education isn't enough. ...CEO's should be brought up on charges... thats why we HAVE A legislature. We legislate lots of things you shouldn't need to..."

Agreed that this thread has merit. The number of heart disease casualties that we accept as normal is staggering. The first resort to an alcoholism epidemic should not be to build new dry-out centres, or prohibition. Not pills and government treatment programs. The educational system was the same for me as you. It is not being effectively utilized.

The public must be mobilized to co-operate in any voluntary initiative. If and when that initiative should fail to reach objective targets, legislative aid would be in order. Revised food labelling, outlaw trans fats, lower saturated fats (fat trading al carbon credits?), and tighter regulation of restaraunts, that sort of thing may prove neccessary. We need targets and we need to meet them. I suggest that death by obesity simply be taken as the one or two most common causes of death, such as heart disease and whatever comes second - and they should be cut in half over 20 years.

What's for lunch?